‘Bottoms’ and the Tricky Tone of a Horror-Indie-Drama-Action-Teen-Sex Comedy

In “Bottoms,” a pair of youngsters begin a combat membership of their highschool gymnasium. The twist: The pugilists are lesbians, and they’re wailing on one another — within the guise of self-defense — as a option to appeal to the most well liked cheerleaders. (It’s a satire on many ranges.)

The writer-director Emma Seligman had the concept and bought the script — to Elizabeth Banks’s manufacturing firm — even earlier than her function debut, “Shiva Baby,” put her on the indie filmmaker map in 2021.

“I really love teen adventure movies,” Seligman mentioned in a telephone interview, “and giving queer kids the chance to be in that story.”

Seligman, 28, grew up in Toronto in a household of movie buffs. “Everyone here is always just talking about movies,” she mentioned. By 10, she was a choose at a youngsters’s movie pageant; later she obtained concerned with the Toronto International Film Festival. She studied the topic at New York University, the place she met the 2 stars of “Bottoms” — Rachel Sennott (who co-wrote the movie) and Ayo Edebiri, a breakout actress from “The Bear.” (Seligman has an eye fixed for expertise: “Bottoms” additionally options Nicholas Galitzine, of “Red, White & Royal Blue,” as a quarterback boyfriend; and the previous N.F.L. participant Marshawn Lynch as a trainer with questionable strategies.)

“Shiva Baby,” a couple of younger lady who encounters her sugar daddy at a shiva, was primarily based on Seligman’s expertise of Jewish life and on her faculty milieu. “I went on one sugar date,” she mentioned. “Not everyone was doing it, but so many people were doing it to the point where it was so normal.” (It wasn’t finally her factor.) “Bottoms,” although it exists in a heightened world, can be private. “It’s just wanting to see yourself,” mentioned Seligman, who’s homosexual. As she recalled Banks telling her: “You can’t underestimate how much young people want to see themselves onscreen.”

These are edited excerpts from the dialog.

“Shiva Baby” had a small forged and basically one set. “Bottoms” has an ensemble and a number of areas. How did you put together to scale up?

The leap was fairly difficult. I knew there have been going to be one million and one classes I used to be going to need to study, however I simply didn’t know what they have been going to be. It’s like figuring out you’re about to get hazed however not figuring out how.

I attempted to have conversations with as many administrators as I might to get their recommendation — Adam McKay, Greg Berlanti, who directed “Love, Simon,” and Atom Egoyan. It was useful, however most of them have been like, “You’re not going to know until you’re just doing it.” I went to [Elizabeth Banks’s] home earlier than we shot, and we talked about costume and hair and improv — it wasn’t her giving didactic recommendation. It was me asking: “As a director, how do you prepare to do this?” And everybody was like, cease asking questions. Stop getting in your head.

Rachel Sennott has starred in each your movies. What clicked with you two?

Neither of us have been within the business or got here from business households. Her stage of ambition and group and her intense work ethic was actually inspiring. It’s a wild factor to be like, “I’m going to devote all this time to writing two screenplays, when there’s nothing in the world telling me that this will work out.” Her vitality was: “It’s not crazy, we will do it, and we will make a living.” It’s uncommon for somebody to need to see you succeed as a lot as they need themselves to succeed.

How did you envision Ayo Edebiri on this position?

I met Ayo at a celebration earlier than I met Rachel. I had a imprecise concept of “Bottoms” in my head. And I used to be like, “Oh, if I ever made that high school movie, that girl would be so funny in it.” It’s been actually unimaginable to look at her develop into the success that she’s grow to be. It’s not a shock in any respect to me, however I really feel a little bit bit like I’ve road cred as a result of I’m like, “Yeah, I knew.” She’s simply so humorous. We completed “Bottoms,” and “The Bear” got here out a month later and her world modified.

Where did you need to focus your satire?

The approach queer teen characters are all the time so harmless in teen motion pictures. Whether they’re being traumatized or discovering love, they’re so candy and infrequently don’t have any sexual ideas in any respect — or in the event that they do, they’re not expressing it, or they’re not speaking in a vulgar approach. And we additionally needed to satirize the best way feminine friendship is commonly shoved down our throats onscreen with teen ladies — characters which can be like, “I love you, queen! You’re the best thing ever!” We needed to make enjoyable of that.

“Bottoms” builds on a whole lot of the teenager film canon, beginning with “Heathers.” What else did you employ as a reference?

We pulled from that period of the ’90s — I assume “Heathers” is the ’80s — however that type of feminine, campy, pushed, highschool and homicide [comedy].

“Bring It On” was a giant reference. That film strikes such a wonderful tone of campiness whereas caring deeply concerning the characters — it’s proper on the sting. “Pen15,” positively — trying on the present about this stunning feminine friendship, that was so ridiculous and silly on the similar time, and so relatable. That got here out proper round once we began writing. “Wet Hot American Summer” was a giant one. There’s not homicide in that. But they do get hooked on heroin for the day. And Liz is in it, which can be nice.

How did you discover the suitable tone?

It took a very long time to determine that out. I don’t suppose Rachel and I initially supposed to have the viewers care concerning the characters that a lot. We really felt like in feminine comedy, there’s an excessive amount of stress on, “Care about these girls” and “Care about the friendship.” We needed to provide the feminine characters an opportunity to be so [terrible] that you simply’re not alleged to care about them in any respect. But I feel through the years, as we might get notes from our producers or the studio, we let up a little bit bit.

I actually suppose tone is all the time the trickiest factor to grasp. And I’d love in the future to do a film that’s only one style, to see if it’s any simpler than a horror-indie-dramedy-action-teen-sex-comedy, or no matter we did.