Virginia Film Festival selects Rachael Harris

For Rachael Harris, starring in “Natural Selection” was a matter of survival of the fittest for the role. Before her mousy main character could evolve emotionally on screen, the woman who plays her had to prove that behind the accomplished comedienne stood a bold dramatic actress.

As audience members can see in Saturday’s Virginia Film Festival screening, Harris brings a tender balance of sweetness and strength to a woman trapped in a suffocating, childless marriage who steps out in faith during a family tragedy and launches a wild set of unintended consequences into motion. But when director Robbie Pickering began searching for an actress to bring just the right combination of vulnerability and inner strength to the role of Linda White, he looked right past Harris.

Harris said she fell in love with her character on the page, but she initially assumed that a part so meaty would be reserved for a household name.

“I had read the script, and at first blush I thought, ‘There’s no way I’m going to get to do this,’ ’’ Harris said. “Unbeknownst to me, Robbie had said, ‘I don’t want to meet Rachael Harris. She’s not right for this film.’

“I knew I was right for it, but other people had only seen me do comedy.”

Harris, after all, is known for her comedy. A veteran of the Los Angeles-based Groundlings troupe, she’d played Greg the wimpy kid’s mother in “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and Ed Helms’ anything-but-wimpy girlfriend in “The Hangover.” Her other comedy films include “Best in Show,” “A Mighty Wind” and “Daddy Day Care,” and television fans have seen her play a correspondent on “The Daily Show” with Helms.

Film fans can see how well the choice turned out at 6 p.m. Saturday at Culbreth Theatre. After the screening, Harris and Pickering will take part in a discussion of “Natural Selection” and the harrowing journey its heroine takes to find her backbone.

Linda’s stifling, small-town life revolves around her church and her husband, Abe, who reinforces their congregation’s strict moral code at home at the expense of their love life. While Abe is clinging to life in a hospital after a stroke, Linda is shocked to find out that he’d been a longtime sperm donor and had fathered at least one child.

When the trusting, innocent Linda drives off to Florida in search of Abe’s offspring and meets the scrappy 20-something Raymond, played by Matt O’Leary, everything she thought she knew about the way the world works gets tested.

“It’s interesting, because I think Linda is closer to me than most of the characters I’ve played on screen,” Harris said. “In your twenties, you’re not the same person you are in your forties. It’s a coming of-age story for someone in her forties.

“Her whole world was her church, and she’d never been out of Texas. She’d never met anyone like Raymond before.

“I just loved her. When I read the script, I loved her. I wanted to protect her.”

Harris’ heart went out to the woman in the script. Her small-town Ohio upbringing helped her grasp the conditions that had hemmed Linda in so severely that she barely could turn around in her own life. She could sense the perfectionism, the overachiever’s guilt and the aching loneliness that eventually fueled Linda’s quest.

“I didn’t have to go too far outside myself to see what made her tick,” Harris said of Linda. “I think I have that belief that people are good and bad things just happen to them.”

Harris said she was thrilled to meet co-star O’Leary and discover that they had the kind of on-screen chemistry that could make the unlikely pair believable.

“We were so happy that we liked each other so much, and we trusted each other,” she said. “I didn’t realize how funny Matt was. He’s a great guy.”

She, O’Leary and Pickering worked closely together to reveal layers of fine storytelling details in the film, which was close to Pickering’s heart. Harris said that by testing Linda’s fear of being alone, the director was exploring some of his own worries for his beloved mother after she was widowed.

Sharing “Natural Selection” with festival audiences is only one reason why Harris is happy to be coming to town this weekend.

“I love Charlottesville,” she said. “My aunt and my cousin live there.”

And she’s certainly not a fish out of water here the way her character felt in Florida. While filming “Evan Almighty,” “I was there for maybe six weeks,” Harris said. “I loved it. We stayed at the Omni.”