Amanda Peet reflected on her breakout role in The Whole Nine Yards and her connection to Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry
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Peet shared she felt sentimental about the film despite wishing some aspects of it had been different
"Now that they're kind of gone, I feel very sentimental about that," she shared
Amanda Peet looks back onThe Whole Nine Yardswith "fondness."
Following a screening of Peet's latest movie,Fantasy Life,at the Angelika in New York City on March 26, there was a Q&A with Peet, writer and director Matthew Shear and actress Andrea Martin. When asked what project she's most nostalgic about, Peet replied, "I just weirdly was just thinking aboutBruce Willis."
TheYour Friends and Neighborsactress, 54, said that Willis, 71, "did pick me kind of just out of nowhere" for her role as Jill St. Claire, a dental assistant with aspirations to be a hitwoman, in the 2000 crime comedy.
"I was just doing, like,Law and Orderepisodes and stuff. There were 20 women in the hallway lined up to read with him who had gotten the final callback forThe Whole Nine Yards," she reflected at the event hosted by Greenwich Entertainment and The Cinema Society.
The Whole Nine Yardswas directed by Jonathan Lynn and starredMatthew Perryas a mild-mannered dentist and Willis as a contract killer and Perry's new neighbor. In addition to Peet, Willis and Perry, the movie also starred Rosanna Arquette, Michael Clarke Duncan and Natasha Henstridge.
Even though there were things she "didn't like" about the movie and admittedly wishes "a lot of things had been different about it," she still looks back on those times fondly.
"But it was a big thing and I feel sentimental about him [Willis] and Jonathan Lynn and the whole experience," Peet emphasized.
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Willisretired from actingin 2022 after he wasdiagnosed with aphasiathat has sinceprogressed to frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
She also shared that she was "very close" with Perry, whodied on Oct. 28, 2023,at the age of 54.
"Now that they're kind of gone, I feel very sentimental about that," she said.
"I was really young and I thought I was doing Molière, the way I treated going to work," she joked. "They would be like drinking in the lobby and partying, and I'd be like, 'I have to learn my lines.' I was so serious."
Ultimately, Peet shared, "I look back on it with fondness now."
Fantasy Lifeis in movie theaters now.
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