Olivia Wilde has been acting in film and television for over two decades. Each role she embraces, she does so with the dexterity of somebody with experience years beyond what her filmography suggests on paper. And her passion and artistry extend further than acting. Aside from her well-known activism work, Wilde is an acclaimed producer of both topical documentaries (“Fear Us Women“) and indie features (“Meadowland“).
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Wilde can now add feature film director to her growing list of accomplishments. The renaissance woman’s debut, “Booksmart,” is an unprecedentedly authentic look at young female friendship and a singular reimagining of the age-old coming-of-age genre, drawing inspiration from the director’s past, magical realism, and other similar genre films, while opportunely utilizing her music video-helming background.
Recently, at the San Francisco International Film Festival, I sat down with Wilde, “Booksmart” screenwriter Katie Silberman (“Isn’t It Romantic“), as well as actors Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, Mason Gooding, and Nico Hiraga. Immediately, upon walking into the room, one could feel the palpable camaraderie among the filmmakers and cast, one of the key ingredients to making this particular feature film work.
During the interview, in between the exceedingly enjoyable back-and-forth banter that parallels the film, we discussed Silberman’s auspicious adaption of Wilde’s story, the aforementioned chemistry that carried the film, coming-of-age inspiration, that amazing dance sequence, shooting on a 25-day schedule, a possible sequel, and more.
Is it true you shot the film in only 25 days?
Wilde: Officially, 25. With any other cast, it would’ve been almost impossible to make this film in that short amount of time. But because of the incredible professionalism of the cast, we were able to pull it off. The one thing that I asked of them was for everyone to be off book. And I stole this concept from working for Martin Scorsese [on “Vinyl“].
I knew we’d have about three takes for everything, and I knew I’d know something was great when I saw it. And I knew they would deliver time and time again, but I needed them to be prepared. And because they were not only prepared, but so creative in the moment, we got this embarrassment of riches of material.
Were you able to squeeze in any improvisation during filming at all?
Wilde: Some people did more than others, and it was fun to see. We left it open.
Hiraga: We killed that improv [laughter].
Dever: And also alts. We had Katie Silberman, this wonderful creature, just alt, after alt, after alt, after alt.
Wilde: She somehow knew every character’s specific voice. A lot of writers give the same kind of alt for everyone. She gave alts in the tone of the characters, which was really fun.
Silberman: It’s very easy when everyone is so brilliant. The voices were there on day one, which is really unusual and made alts such a playground. Because they were so brilliant all the time, it was like cherries on top of many, many, many cakes [laugher].
As well as drawing from personal experiences, Katie and Olivia, did you take any inspiration from other coming-of-age films to use as a soundboard?
Wilde: The whole reason I wanted to make it is because of “The Breakfast Club,” “Dazed and Confused,” “Say Anything,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and “Clueless.” These are movies that shaped me. They shaped my taste in music, my taste in people, my own adolescence. And my evolution was largely shaped by movies. I watched them all the time, and they guided me. They contextualized the whole experience of growing up.
We talked about all of our favorite moments in each one and what inspired us, as well as what we thought we could update in fun ways. Also, non-traditional high school movies that served as inspiration. I pitched the movie as “Training Day” for high school because of the high stakes. I wanted the high stakes. But also, “The Big Lebowski” was a huge inspiration to me for this movie, and the kind of weird tonal risks we took were largely inspired by the Coen Brothers. We wanted to make a generational anthem that was worthy of this generation.
Gooding: At the beginning of filming, Olivia would mention wanting to have that film to speak for the generation as much as films like “The Big Lebowski” or “Fast Times“–
Wilde: “Fast Times,” which we all watched right before we shot, which was amazing.
Gooding: And I got to see the film a couple of days ago with my family, and I saw it with my little sister, who’s 13. The second the film finished, I turned over to Piper, and I was like, “What did you think [laughter]?” She’s like, “Well, I’m Molly.”
Wilde: That’s awesome.
Gooding: It made me realize, at that moment, that as amazing as you did in your performance, [Beanie]. As amazing as you did as a director, [Olivia], the film itself speaks for that generation and that age group, as well as all age groups, in such a way that they feel seen and heard. And I don’t know if that could be forced into a film, but it just found its way into this one. And that really was something special.
Silberman: One thing that we clicked into when we were talking about all those favorite kind of generational classics, too, is that they are all very specific. They’re very timely. When you think of them, you think of the decade they’re from. You think of “Fast Times” in the ’70s, and “Dazed and Confused” in the ’80s and, and “Clueless” in the ’90s. How well they represent that generation of teenagers. But they’re also incredibly timeless in the story that they’re telling. The humanity on display. That was a fun bar to set for us, which is that we wanted to make a movie that showed what it was like to be a teenager right now in 2019 and what this generation is like, but to tell a story that we felt was universal so someone like Piper, or your mom, or whoever could see it and feel the same way about it. That’s what makes those such generational anthems.
Based on your tight shooting schedule, what was your biggest challenge on set and how did you overcome it?
Wilde: We [only] had four weeks of night shoots in the summer. And it was a challenge to make sure we got the work done, of course. It also involved about 120 extras. So, it was a bit of choreography in terms of making sure we made a party scene that felt lively but didn’t overwhelm or eclipse the main story. That’s a hard thing to do when shooting party scenes. Sometimes they feel very empty and kind of lifeless. And sometimes they feel overly chaotic, and then you’ve lost your story.
It was about creating a party that felt like “The Wizard of Oz.” That they finally reached this place, and then it would feel warm and colorful and kind of swallow them up. And then it’s this alternate reality that then changes completely once their emotional states change. It seems to shift in color and tone. But figuring out how to create that in the little time that we had – there was this challenge of Nick’s party. We thought it would be the hardest part, but like a lot of things with this film, the challenges ended up being the most fun parts.
Dever: Even Beanie and I, we’d prepare our scenes for each day a week out because we had a lot of dialogue and our rehearsal role is pretty clear and serious. And we were nervous about that. And we had also never led a film before. We got to do it together. So, everything we thought would be scary ended up being super seamless and easy. And our fight scene, we didn’t talk the entire day before that.
Feldstein: It’s the only scene we didn’t rehearse together.
Dever: We wanted to try to achieve it in one take, and we weren’t sure if it was gonna happen. And then it happened.
Feldstein: There are also many things I had to learn for this film. Like Mandarin [laughter]. Just a little bit of Mandarin talking about criminal homicide [laughter]. And Mason and I did this whole dance sequence. It was so great because I feel like I became smarter and more evolved through filming this movie about [being] smart.
Wilde: Handing actors a phone and saying, “I need you to create compelling, hilarious, energetic, real material that we’re gonna sprinkle throughout the film. Just take it and run with it.” And I know as an actor, I love when a director trusts me to play, so I was excited to do that for them, but they over-delivered. I have hours of the funniest [footage]; it’ll all be on the DVD extras.
