Leslie Mann: I hope 'Blithe Spirit' cheers people up (exclusive)

Watch: Leslie Mann talks to Yahoo about Blithe Spirit

Leslie Mann has shared her hope that her new comedy Blithe Spirit will help during the current pandemic, and talked about she and her family are trying to play their part.

Noël Coward’s original play was written in 1940 as a diversion from the world situation at the time, and the Knocked Up and Blockers star tells Yahoo Movies UK that she believes it’s just as relevant today.

“It’s very relevant. We really need a distraction to what’s going on in the world right now,” Mann tells Yahoo.

“And I feel a responsibility as an artist to put things out in the world that are positive. I can do my part by putting some light out into the world.”

Married to legendary comedy producer Judd Apatow, she describes their home with daughters Maude and Iris, as being “a household with funny bones, a very creative and emotional one.” She also explained how the family is trying to lift spirits during the current pandemic.

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“Judd’s working on a fun comedy at the moment. We want to help out in the only way that we can and hope that this time passes. It’s a weird time, for sure.”

In this latest version of Blithe Spirit, Mann stars as the ghostly late wife of writer Charles Condomine (Dan Stevens), brought back into his life because of the bumbling efforts of medium Madame Arcati (Judi Dench). In a story about both love and death, she finds she’s invisible to everybody but her ex-husband, creating a comic triangle with his current wife Ruth (Isla Fisher).

Mann has concentrated on comedy since her breakout role in The Cable Guy, where she met Apatow. Roles in The 40 Year Old Virgin and Funny People followed and, while she’s branched out into more dramatic roles in Welcome To Marwen and Motherless Brooklyn, making people laugh is still her first love.

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“I feel like I don’t do dramatic roles well. But I feel that I’m coming from a dramatic place in my comedy roles and have found a way to mix it all up together.”

Blithe Spirit, a Sky Original film, is only on Sky Cinema from 15 January, 2021. Watch a clip below.