Actors and sobriety on the spot at 'You Kill Me' premiere

By Joel Stratte-McClure
06/14/2007

Sir Ben Kingsley, Luke Wilson and Tea Leoni hit a lot of AA meetings in "You Kill Me." And the trio takes the cinematic tribute to sobriety, which enables a wobbly hit man to gradually regain his steady aim once he puts down the bottle, very seriously.

"I've been around people in AA throughout my life, and many of them definitely have a certain way about them," said Wilson, who portrays Kingsley's AA sponsor, at the premiere at the ArcLight in Hollywood on Monday night. "The program's helped so many people get their lives back on track that I really worked to have my character convey the calm and centeredness I've seen in many recovering alcoholics."

Leoni, who had good buddy Garry ("I don't charge that much to go out with her!") Shandling stand in for husband David Duchovny at the premiere, hadn't been to an AA meeting before attending one on the set of "You Kill Me," which opens Friday.

"I wanted it be my first-ever meeting so that my inexperience would enable me to register the proper emotion at whatever I heard," Leoni explained.

"The writers warned me that people can say anything in AA, and that's certainly the case."

Not that the film spawned an abstemious evening. The after party at the new Ritual restaurant/club on Cahuenga, where Laura Prepon and Natasha Henstridge showed up to groove to '80s tunes, featured enough tequila and white grape martinis to quench everyone's thirst.

And where was Sir Ben? Any truth to those rumors?

"No, he's not in rehab," said director John Dahl. "He's in Vancouver shooting a day at a time."

Thanks to LA Daily News!