Sarah Silverman delves into serious drama with bleak addiction film ‘I Smile Back’

TORONTO – Comedian Sarah Silverman didn’t expect that playing a clinically depressed suburban mom would take such an emotional toll.

But on the set of the hard-hitting drama “I Smile Back,” she said it became startlingly clear that exploring the depths of addiction was leaving an impact on her own mind.

“I’d sometimes lose (it) over nothing and then go off on an apology toward everybody,” Silverman said in a recent interview.

“I realized it was just because I didn’t know what to do with all these feelings.”

Many of them are shamelessly on display in the new film, which tells the story of Laney, a woman crumbling under the weight of her familial responsibilities, problems with hard drugs and other troubling choices.

It’s miles away from the playful persona she created through viral comedy clips and her Comedy Central series “The Sarah Silverman Program,” but it’s not entirely uncharted territory in her career.

Silverman has dabbled in drama for years, with supporting roles in Sarah Polley’s “Take This Waltz” and more recently on the cable series “Masters of Sex,” in which she plays one half of a lesbian couple trying to conceive.

Those projects seem like a walk in the park when held up to the bleak “I Smile Back.”

“It’s relentless, there’s no relief,” Silverman conceded. “Even ‘Precious’ had moments of relief.”

Throughout the film she falls victim to her own demons as she sneaks lines of cocaine in the family washroom, strays into dangerous encounters with strangers and — in one of the film’s most disturbing moments — becomes intimate with her daughter’s stuffed animal before being caught by her husband.

When the film — based on Amy Koppelman’s 2008 book — went into production, Silverman realized just how difficult it would be to portray serious depression with legitimacy.

Silverman got some help from director Adam Salky and the writers, who encouraged her to downplay her most recognizable traits, like her trademark sly smirk and goofy body movement.

“(They) were very good at making me aware of any time I delved subconsciously into my bag of tricks,” she said.

“I think all comics, and a lot of actors, have a bag of tricks that they reach into as a crutch, without even realizing it. So that was really helpful, that kind of restraint.”

Reflecting on the role, Silverman admits it was a draining experience.

“I just thought it would be fun, that it would just be heavy between ‘Action!’ and ‘Cut!” — and it wasn’t,” she said.

“All of your emotions are on the surface, and you’re just kind of holding them while they’re setting up the next shot.”

“I Smile Back” opens Friday in Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox and will be available simultaneously across Canada through video-on-demand services and iTunes.

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