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Rashida Jones and 'Saturday Night Live''s Andy Samberg are set to star in the upcoming romantic dramedy 'Celeste and Jesse Forever,' which was written by Jones and actor-writer Will McCormack.
With Lee Toland Krieger directing the film, the story is about a couple that's getting divorced but wants to remain friends -- a kind of inversion, perhaps, of the just-hooking-up subgenre of 'Friends With Benefits' and 'No Strings Attached,' stated the L.A. Times.
"Our movie is about two people who love each other a ton but they don't know what to do with that love, and how do you let that person go," Jones said. "It's very different from: 'I like having sex with this person because I'm so modern but then, ooh, maybe I like them.' I'm less interested in that story." She added, "It's the version of 'When Harry Met Sally' 20 years later, or 'Blue Valentine.' It's really about how you break up with someone."
Jones is one of the few black actresses being offered colorless roles in films these days.
The Los Angeles native was featured as a lawyer in the Oscar-nominated film 'The Social Network' and is a co-star of NBC's 'Parks and Recreation.' She is currently gracing the screen in the independent film opposite Chris Messina in 'Monogamy.'
In a recent interview, the daughter of music producer Quincy Jones talked about her encounters as a woman of color.
"It's such a complicated issue. I'm so proud of all of my heritages, and I've got lots, and I'm so happy to be a part of the history or people of color in film in any way that I can be. It definitely bums me out that it's not more represented, but I also feel like at a certain point everybody's going to kind of look like me and we're not going to be able to judge each other based on the way that we look."
Coincidentally, Jones and Samberg were featured together in another romantic comedy, 'I Love You, Man,' where Jones played the fiancée to Paul Rudd's character.
"Whatever discrimination people have faced, or I've even faced -- "You're not white enough"; "you're not black enough" -- everybody's going to get over it. I'm proud to be black, I'm proud to be Jewish, I'm proud to be all these things, but I don't ever want people to feel like they can take ownership of me and use it as a fight against the other side. I just feel like we're kind of past that. I feel like it's not postmodern to think that way."
Jones will next be seen in 'The Muppets,' with Jason Segel, 'The Big Year,' with Owen Wilson and Steve Martin, and 'My Idiot Brother,' with Rudd again.