Weird Things About Dave Franco And Alison Brie's Marriage

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Alison Brie and Dave Franco's relationship is as unconventional as it is romantic. For instance, their love story didn't begin with the usual Hollywood meet-cute and instead took off on an unexpectedly wild note — complete with sex, booze, and a little bit of Molly. The story goes that the A-list couple met while out partying with friends in New Orleans in 2011, which Brie recalled during a 2020 appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon." "It starts off in New Orleans at Mardi Gras, where all great love stories begin. ... It was some incredible matchmaking done by my friend Jules, who we ran into Dave at the airport," she said. "The two of them are friends and she invited him out to dinner with us."

Right off the bat, Brie was smitten and wanted to make a move on the "21 Jump Street" actor (who, BTW, is the younger sibling of controversial star James Franco). Her pal also wanted the love connection to happen, as Brie learned when the three of them were seated together at dinner. "My friend texted me ... 'You should hook up with Dave,' and I responded, 'Yes, please, [followed by a lot of thumbs up emoji],'" she laughingly recalled. Fortunately, Franco was equally enthusiastic, and they ended up spending the next two days getting high and sleeping together. "It was 48 hours of drugs and sex, a lot of making out," Brie admitted to Fallon.

But their spicy first encounter is far from the only strange aspect of Brie and Franco's otherwise perfect marriage. From their engagement story to their working relationship, there's a lot that sets these two apart from other couples.

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Alison Brie and Dave Franco had been dating for over three years when they got engaged back in August 2015 during a trip to Big Sur, California. Appearing on "The Late Late Show with James Corden" to promote his show "The Afterparty," Franco recalled the strange way he proposed to Brie using a $10 vintage ring and a Mardi Gras mask she had worn during their first meeting. "Basically, over the weekend, she was wearing this silver Mardi Gras mask on her head, and I would try to take it from her and she wouldn't let me take it. It was this playful back and forth," Franco explained. Unbeknownst to Brie, he had held onto the mask as a keepsake and planned to use it as part of his surprise proposal.

Leading up to their trip, Franco decided at the last minute to buy a placeholder ring, knowing Brie would want to choose her own engagement ring. But as he finally got down on one knee, things didn't go as smoothly as he'd hoped. "So ... I'm on one knee, I'm wearing the mask, holding up the ring. And because it had been five years, she couldn't place the mask. She didn't know what it was!" Franco exclaimed. Rather than being touched, the proposal left Brie completely baffled. She recounted her shock in a sit-down interview on "Larry King Now" in 2017. "I actually burst out laughing, and I asked him a number of times if he was being serious before saying yes," the "Community" alum said. 

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Two years after their engagement, Alison Brie and Dave Franco tied the knot in March 2017 in a top-secret ceremony, surrounded by their family and closest friends. "It was great, it was really special," Franco gushed in an interview with ET. "It was intimate, and it was really fun." Speaking to Yahoo! Life about their wedding plans in 2016, Brie got candid about her views on marriage and revealed that she hadn't seriously considered settling down until she met and fell in love with Franco. "Marriage never really interested me," she shared. But with Franco, there wasn't even a moment's hesitation. "I just met that person that I was like, 'Well, I'm really in love with you and would like to grow old with you,'" Brie said of her then-fiance.

The California native credits her upbringing for her initial reluctance toward marriage, noting on the "Not Skinny But Not Fat" podcast that she was only 5 years old when her parents split. In her 2012 interview with Elle Canada, Brie also admitted that her focus had always been on acting rather than getting married and having kids. "I've never been the girl who's planning my dream wedding — I was always practicing my speech for the Oscars," she confessed. "That was my dream, which is kind of sad but kind of great."

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Shooting a love scene with other actors is strange enough as it is for most acting couples, but shooting a love scene when your spouse is watching? That's a whole new level of awkward. For Alison Brie and Dave Franco, this was their reality when they joined forces for the romance comedy "Somebody I Used to Know," which Brie starred in and co-wrote with Franco (who also served as the project's director). In an interview with Jezebel to promote the film, Brie opened up about her experience of having her real-life husband direct her intimate scenes with her leading man, Jay Ellis. Asked whether Franco had any concerns during filming, Brie said, "If there was, he didn't say anything to me about it, so I'm glad."

Brie then elaborated on their working relationship, saying that they have no problem shooting intimate scenes with other people after having collaborated for so long. In fact, on their second project together — Jeff Baena's "The Little Hours" in 2017 — Franco had to film make-out scenes with two other actors aside from Brie, which she found surprisingly hot, according to Los Angeles Daily News. As actors, both Brie and Franco understand that it's part of their jobs. "It's actually not that weird," Brie stressed to Jezebel. "And with something like this, because it's our baby that we made together, I think our first priority is always just the movie," she added, referring to their 2023 rom-com film.

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As actors, Alison Brie and Dave Franco have been known to experiment with unconventional methods to prepare for a movie project, including once doing drugs together for their 2020 horror flick, "The Rental," which marked their third film collaboration. Reflecting on their approach in a chat with news.au.com, Brie shared, "We went about it in the nerdiest of ways. We booked a hotel in Ojai [California] and ... we went there with this in mind [that] we were going [to] film ourselves" (via The New Zealand Herald). It was, as Brie pointed out, strictly for research only, designed to mirror a pivotal scene in which her character, Michelle, gets high on Molly. "The Rental" also marked Franco's directorial debut and starred Brie alongside Jeremy Allen White, Sheila Vand, and Dan Stevens.

As part of their experiment, Franco captured clips of Brie dancing around their hotel room all night while under the influence of drugs. "It was pretty informative," he said in a sit-down chat with Brie for Interview magazine. They considered showing the footage to other cast members of "The Rental" to help inform their own performances, but it turned out that all of them had tried using Molly (otherwise known as MDMA) before. It was a strange but overall fun experience for the celebrity pair. "If anything it reminded her of how happy she is on Molly. And how much she loves to dance, which we incorporated in the film," Franco also told Business Insider while promoting their movie.

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Notably, Alison Brie and Dave Franco are among the famous stars in Hollywood who have chosen not to have kids. Instead, the happy couple are proud fur parents to three cats named Arturo, Maxine, and Otis. They also had another pet cat named Harry, who sadly passed away in June 2020. In an interview with USA Today to plug their film "Somebody I Used to Know," Franco shared that he had originally adopted Harry and Arturo prior to entering a relationship with Brie. "For many years, I was the single guy with two 18-pound cats. As you can imagine, it weeded out a lot of my potential significant others," the "Now You See Me" star quipped. Brie, though, happened to be a huge cat person herself. She fell in love right away and was more than willing to welcome his cats into her home. "To the point where we actually moved my cats into her place before I officially moved into her place," Franco then noted.

As devoted fur parents, Brie and Franco have grown to love their pets just like their own family. In fact, during a 2018 chat with AD, Brie revealed that they have a designated room for their cats at home, where they keep their collection of cat paintings and other pet-related items. "We are like crazy cat ladies and we're obsessed with it," the "Spin Me Round" star admitted. She also spoke of their deep bond with their cats during her interview with The Times regarding her decision not to have kids. "They're our children," Brie said affectionately of their beloved felines.