There's a reason Beanie Feldstein's scenes are often featured in movie trailers. Since her earliest roles, Feldstein has been a scene-stealer, willing to go the extra comedic mile.
Her seemingly effortless hilarity shone in high school comedy “Booksmart" (2019), and the less raunchy, but still funny, Oscar-nominated coming-of-age comedy “Lady Bird” in 2017.
Feldstein, now 30, has left the hallways but keeps the screwball spirit alive in her latest movie “Drive Away Dolls,” which she describes as “a celebration of strong women.”
Directed by Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke, “Drive-Away Dolls” follows two road-tripping lesbians, Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan), who find themselves unexpectedly entangled in a criminal conspiracy.
Feldstein plays Jamie’s heartbroken and obsessive ex-girlfriend, police officer Sukie Schenkleman, a role Feldstein says was “unbelievably fun” to play.
In one hilariously rowdy scene, Feldstein brutally beats up a criminal goon with pepper spray, a baton, and a mean right hook (and foot).
Feldstein experienced a few mishaps preparing for the role, including an unexpectedly challenging scene with a canine co-star.
“I’m supposed to be this like, really cool, suave cop, and Ethan and Trish wanted me to lift the dog up onto the counter,” she tells TODAY.com. “But I’m really short, and the counter was really high.”
Her first attempt didn’t pass muster with her directors.
“They were like, that does not look like someone who can like hurt you,” Feldstein jokes.
Feldstein is hardly confined to comedies — she’s stared on Broadway and even tried her hand at true crime. What's still on her bucket list?
“For me, it’s just about the right people,” Feldstein says. “Working with good people and telling a great story. I don’t care what medium it is, or genre it is.”
She does have a few ideas for her next project, though.
“I loved being in “Drive-Away Dolls” because it’s such a queer movie,” Feldstein says. “I really would love to do a queer rom-com.”
“I’ve never gotten to do a true rom-com — I’ve had elements of it, like the end of ‘Booksmart’ — but I would love to do a rom-com and have it be between two girls,” she says.
Feldstein got to live out her own rom-com when she married her wife, producer Bonnie-Chance Roberts, in a summer camp-themed ceremony in May 2023.
Since then, she's been enjoying the perks of married life.
“The only thing that changes is like, when you’re out in the world, people take you more seriously when you say ‘my wife,’” Feldstein says. “There’s just an authority and maturity to that. As a very young looking person, it feels good for me to be like, ‘This is my wife.’ It makes me feel powerful.”
The pair met when Feldstein auditioned for the 2019 film “How To Build A Girl," which she ended up starring in.
“When my wife read her vows, that was like, the best moment of my whole life," Feldstein says.
Their ceremony, attended by famous friends like Ben Platt and Sarah Paulson, took place at Cedar Lakes Estate, a former summer camp in the Hudson Valley that was transformed into a wedding venue.
“It was a beautiful day. It was truly the most loving, beautiful, wonderful day,” Feldstein says.
According to Feldstein, their unique venue choice was inspired by generations of love: Feldstein’s parents and both sets of grandparents met each other at summer camp.
"My parents actually went to see (the venue) first. And when they called us, they were so happy — it was like they were kids again," she says. "We were like, this has to be where we do it. It had the best energy."
Beyond her wedding, Feldstein has many reasons to cherish summer camp.
She is extensively involved with Experience Camps, a nonprofit organization that provides free summer camp programs for grieving children.
"They put on free, one-week camps where kids who have lost a parent or a sibling or a primary caregiver can come to camp and splash on the lake and make friendship bracelets and have dance parties and s'mores," she says.
Feldstein connected with the organization through her own experience with grief after her oldest brother, Jordan, died in 2017. Feldstein's other brother is actor Jonah Hill.
"When I discovered the organization, I just was immediately drawn to it," she says. "I lost my brother six years ago, unexpectedly. And I also was such a camp person growing up with summer camp for 10 years. So the combination of my history and my childhood with what happened in our family, it was just a no brainer."
In August 2023, Feldstein volunteered as a camp counselor at an Experience Camps program in Maine.
"I had the single most profound week of my whole life," she says. "I could not stop thinking about the magic that is happening at these camps."
Feldstein wrote about her time at Experience Camps in an Instagram tribute to her brother in December.
"I saw my brother in every story, every camper, every campfire," she wrote in the caption.
"I feel proud to continue that connection in his honor every year and help grieving children across the country find a safe place to grieve," she continues.
In January, Feldstein joined the Experience Camps board of directors.
"They get to be around other kids that understand what they’re going through, and connect with kids that have also lost somebody and not feel so isolated or different, and show them that they’re not alone in that experience.”
