Q&A: McCarthy and Grant on New York, forgery and friendship

"Can You Ever Forgive Me?" is a film about Lee Israel, a biographer who started a side hustle writing fake letters as Noel Coward, Louise Brooks, Dorothy Parker and other deceased luminaries and selling them to collectors. Part cautionary tale, part celebration of this unapologetic literary rebel who was so good that her forgeries even appeared in a Coward biography, it's also the year's unlikeliest mediation on friendship between two people who've been tossed out by polite society.

Melissa McCarthy plays Israel and Richard E. Grant co-stars as Jack Hock, a charismatic grifter who ends up helping Lee. The two actors became fast friends off screen as well, and on a recent afternoon in Los Angeles excitedly discussed the hamburgers that McCarthy's husband would be making for them that evening.

McCarthy and Grant spoke to The Associated Press about the film, out Friday.

This image released by Fox Searchlight Pictures shows Richard E. Grant, left, and Melissa McCarthy in a scene from "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" (Mary CybulskiFox Searchlight Pictures via AP)

Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: Were you able to talk to anyone who knew Lee or Jack to prepare?

GRANT: All his friends are dead. And he died at 47. And Lee, the true, selfish authentic person she was, wrote very, very little about him at all! She wrote everything about herself. It's a testament to the screenwriters that between them they have made this friendship into a three-dimensional, A to zed story. I thought it would be like Wikipedia, like it's a real life person, I can find photographs...

This image released by Fox Searchlight Pictures shows Melissa McCarthy, left, and Richard E. Grant in a scene from "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" (Mary CybulskiFox Searchlight Pictures via AP)

MCCARTHY: Even Lee. There's no video. I found three photos that were basically the same. I was never trying to mimic because there's nothing to mimic. But I think we were lucky enough for Lee that two of our producers knew her quite well.

GRANT: But her voice is so strong and clear in the book of someone who is so smart.

MCCARTHY: And so witty.

Actors Richard E. Grant, left, and Melissa McCarthy participate in the BUILD Speaker Series to discuss the film "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" at AOL Studios on Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, in New York. (Photo by Evan AgostiniInvisionAP)

GRANT: And that's why they got a very stupid actress to play the part. (LAUGHTER)

AP: What did the producers tell you about her?

MCCARTHY: (That) everything was difficult: There was going to be a fight about a project and a fight about not doing a project. When we were shooting at Julius' (bar) there was an older guy who was just kind of lingering. We were on a break and I walked by and introduced myself and I said "who are you here with" and he said "it's hard not for me to come and join you." I didn't exactly know what that meant. And he goes, "I sat to her left. That was my job. Lee was my friend for many years." And it really did take the air out of me. I said "Would Lee be happy with this?" And he goes, "happy wasn't really Lee's thing." But he said she'd love the attention on her work.

Actor Melissa McCarthy participates in the BUILD Speaker Series to discuss the film "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" at AOL Studios on Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, in New York. (Photo by Evan AgostiniInvisionAP)

AP: What did you find compelling about these characters?

GRANT: Hock is like a Labrador and she literally is a porcupine. So you go a porcupine and a Labrador, it's the most unlikely friendship but they end up like that "Incredible Journey" movie where the most unlikely animals end up looking out for one another. He's someone who, living on his wits, is going to spend whatever money he has trying to make himself look as glamorous as he can. He would take the false teeth out of his grandmother's face, polish them up and resell them to her at a discount and make her feel like she got a bargain.

MCCARTHY: They're perfect opposites. Lee doesn't want to put on airs. Their balance somehow meets in the middle. They've both been so good at something and they're meeting at a time when they've both been told they're obsolete. And it's like, well then what? You would go to measures that on a rational day you wouldn't admit to.

Actor Melissa McCarthy poses backstage before the BUILD Speaker Series to discuss the film "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" at AOL Studios on Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, in New York. (Photo by Evan AgostiniInvisionAP)

AP: Aside from the literal theft, her forgery is kind of an art.

MCCARTHY: I love that her letters went into that biography until the second printing of it. I always think that those authors would get a kick out of it. I think Dorothy Parker would be like, maybe don't grift off me anymore, but still the audacity to do something like that? Wouldn't Dorothy Parker applaud that?

AP: Director Marielle Heller recreates the New York City of the early 90s so precisely, it's almost uncanny. Does that time and place hold any significance to you?

MCCARTHY: I moved to New York in 1990. From 20 to like 27, that was my period in New York City. I literally thought, every single day of my life "I can't believe I live here." We were all working three jobs and trying to do something because we wanted to do it and thought we could do it. You could still live in Manhattan. We lived like animals, two and three in a studio, but, my god, my address was New York City. I got really choked up one night, it was just like a street scene and I said, "You gave me back one of the times of my life that I think formed me as a person. You handed back this golden moment to me."

AP: It's surprising that you two met only days before shooting.

GRANT: I begged the director, I said, "I know Miss McCarthy is on many other projects, but please can we just have 15, a half an hour, lunch maybe."

MCCARTHY: Can you imagine meeting on set?

GRANT: I wasn't going to sleep for 72 hours unless we met. And we did. And we didn't get on.

MCCARTHY: And still don't.

Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.

Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).

Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.

That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.

In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.

Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.

In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.

“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.

Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.

It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.

“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.

It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.

While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.

“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.

Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.

Jill Lawless contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)