We made the short in 2017 because I was jobless. I grew up loving mockumentaries, but I mostly grew up loving documentaries, like vérité documentaries. One of my favorite movies iswhich is about the Clinton presidency. I’ve just always wanted to make a beautiful, cinematic comedy mockumentary that doesn’t use talking heads, but is shot more like a fly-on-the-wall documentary, because I think docs let you get closer to your subjects.
We found that in the short, and then we were trying to expand it into something for six years, and no one wanted to do it. Everyone’s like, “Why did it take so long?” It’s like, we tried. It was just really hard, especially because it’s a mostly improvised movie with kids in a market where no one sees comedies. But I do think we’re in a time where people are craving original, different, and weird films. Never give up on what you want to make.
It was fun to see you play a quirkier character like Rebecca, because you’ve played a lot of cool girls—like inI want to play crazy character roles. Also, Rebecca’s closer to me. All I do is make up insane songs and say insane things. It also went with [the fact that] I’m directing a movie in 19 days; I’m going to have crazy, frizzy hair and be kind of mentally ill. This works for this character. Let’s lean into that.