Max Minghella And Jaime Bell Discuss Teen Spirit
On the morning of my 21st birthday, March 13th in the middle of SXSW, I had the pleasure of interviewing writer-director Max Minghella and executive producer Jamie Bell on their new film, Teen Spirit which releases this weekend in NYC/LA and opens nationwide the following week.
The film tells the story of Violet, a shy teenager who dreams of escaping her small town and pursuing her passion to sing. With the help of an unlikely mentor, she enters a local singing competition that will test her integrity, talent and ambition. Driven by a pop-fueled soundtrack, Teen Spirit is a visceral and stylish spin on the Cinderella story.
Why did you want to make this movie?
Max: We, um, came from a lot of different, like... shared interests I think, in creating something that was like, a sort of-- a big cinematic experience. Hopefully it was like, a celebration of music and inspiring and, you know, all of the fun things we go to the movies for. But also, it hopefully lingers and stays with you afterwards and gives you some stuff to think about, and the characters that you remember and miss and care about.
So, when it came to the screenplay, what kind of approach did you want to take to share Violet’s story and make sure it was relatable for everybody to witness?
Max: It was to make her as human and authentic as possible. There's another movie that's out right now - and I've seen a lot of reviews of the film, especially from the male critics specifically where they are like, “Oh, she doesn't smile enough in this movie,” or she's not, you know… whatever it is. It was very important to us that Violet was an authentic character, that she was an honest character, which means that she's a flawed person. She's not always going to be perfect. She's not always going to be cheerful. She's not always going to be funny. She's not [always] going to have makeup on, you know… she's a very, very dimensional person and I had absolute confidence that that would create a character that the audience could see themselves in, ‘cause there'll be truth to it.
When it came to the music - which is like a huge, intricate part of her personality and her story - uh, why did you choose these specific songs for her to sing? Like, do they have a connection for you?
Max: That's something that I liked. It started with "Dancing On My Own" and that was the first sequence we wrote for the film. The movie has a very specific kind of storytelling language to it. Um, it sort of plays with chronology. It plays with that character development and how we're receiving the story exposition. So, I got quite locked into that sequence as we were excited about what it could be. And that determined everything I say around the rest of the movie. It determines the tonality of the film, the way it looks, the way it feels, the characters… um, and certainly the rest of the soundtrack, which, you know, is to be cohesive to that song. I didn't want it to feel like a jukebox with a bad DJ. You want the playlist to feel organic and like another piece [of the film]. And I do think we found, you know, a selection of music that does feel like it all comes from the same well.
Jamie, how did you get attached? As an executive producer?
Jamie: I think Max was considering things to make and he had like four or five scripts that he'd already written. There was a bridge, basically, in our relationship where it was like, "what do you like to work on?" And there's like, an anxiousness about kind of opening that door. But once it opened, he came with, you know, four or five things that were already kind of done - already complete ideas. Um, so I read all of those and they're all well done. But this one, for me, really floated to the top. I think the relationship between Vlad and Violet, something that is just… I love a mentor who is kind of broken and characters that need to be fixed and they could find their catharsis within their relationships and in the pursuit of dreams and escaping your circumstance. So it really spoke to me and I think it spoke to me more than him initially, you know, even though he had written it. I just saw-- I could see the connection between his fascination with music and popular culture and the way he likes to capture things. And the script was written so economically and um, it just seemed to be his signature for who we was. So I said, “you might want to consider this, I'll take this one more seriously.” Um, and then we developed the script and changed bits and pieces and it worked. And, um, eventually he had-- we wrote something else that we went to Fred Berger with - who would produce this - so we kinda have a relationship with him already. Um, he just made a little film called La La Land.
Small movie.
Jamie: Little movie yeah. He kind of helped us put it together, but it was-- it's a pursuit, right? You working with your friend is like the best part of all this to me. You know, it's not about the credit and it's not about even the results of the film. It's an endeavor that you set off on a journey with your friend. It’s literally about that, too.
Max: I often felt like the process of making the movie was mirroring the film itself. It's a movie about patience and loyalty, regrets, ambition. And they're like, all of these things... like, actually what it was like to make a movie because you can't do anything alone.
When it comes to the framework, some of my favorite scenes were Violet in the reality competition. But then you see like, the different oners just panning around the stages, as you just see the intensity going on. How did you choose those types of shots to give that layer?
Max: I'm really obsessive about filming. That's like, my favorite part of making movies for sure. So, it all kind of worked backwards from there. We didn't have any money to make this movie. We didn't have any time to make this movie. The good thing and the bad thing about that is that you just have to be so precise and decisive. You can't go to work and go like, “I'm going to shoot coverage from everybody and then decide later how we are going to put it together.” And you just kind of have to know if you want the movie to have this kind of scope and ambition to it and not just be like, the kitchen sink version of Teen Spirit and actually feel like a movie. Then, you have to just go in with a clear idea and hope it's going to be the right idea. And, um, I don't think there was a single scene we shot where I wasn’t at least 90% sure of how I might assemble it.
When it came to casting, how did you get Elle for this role?
Max: We're really lucky that we found her as there are, you know, just so many requirements for this part. The language requirements alone are complicated.
Jamie: The singing and the energy--
Max: The dancing, finding someone who can play the age and Polish and all this stuff. It's a lot. Um, and we really struggled man. Honestly, we just couldn't find anybody. We were originally looking for a Polish actor and met amazing people and it was just hard. Like, a lot of people were great, but looked maybe a little too old, a little too young or couldn't really sing or couldn't really speak English as well as we need them to or whatever it was. And we just couldn't find somebody and we… we announced the movie without a cast listing. It was going to be all over for us... Elle's team reached out so, they wanted to talk about it. It led to a kind of evolution of the script and the story. Honestly, like, it wasn't the same movie anymore. And a lot of Elle was in this character and this story.
How long did it take for you guys to shoot the film?
Max: We shot over the summer, um, and it was maybe five weeks. Six weeks.
Since this is a character who's passionate about singing and, you know, the distinctive songs that she loves, I wonder [about] what songs you guys listen to on your downtime. What songs are like, a huge connection for you?
Max: I listen to a lot of pop music.
Jamie: Here's the thing about pop music, right? I'll be in the car with my wife and something would come on and I'd be singing to her or whatever and she'd be like, "how do you know all of these words?" And now I realize that usually there's about 12 songs in rotation in pop music. There's like 12 songs that everyone loves and they just keep playing that stuff over and over. But there is something about it... there's something that, um... it’s just tonality and pop music. It's undeniable. Like, we were listening to songs in the car after the screening the other day and we all went like, “ugh,” but we were all like, doing this:
Jamie: And we all knew it and we all knew the tune. We only know it ‘cause it permeates and it's an art form. It is. I mean, I think it's an often-rejected art form and pushed as something that is less meaningful than other art forms - other kinds or genres of music. Um, I listened to a lot different stuff. Like, I love soundtracks. I love it with all the orchestral thematic music. Um, I drive around, listen to that all the time. I do enjoy pop music and I love that stuff. I'm amazed at how much I actually know. Like, I know a lot of Ariana Grande songs.
Same here!
Jamie: But I would never put her on. I never like, sit down and go like, “oh, I’ll listen to it.” But in the car I like “God is a Woman”.
Jamie: Yeah. Yeah. “7 Rings” is like, my jam. Like, they brought it back to us, you know what mean? They're like, you can't escape. It holds you.
I totally understand it. Like, I literally bought tickets to go see her with my best friend, um, in June back home. So, just excited for that.
Jamie: She has some fucking bangers.
She really does.
Jamie: She is a whirlwind.
When it came to the location of Poland, were you aware of the setting-- how to navigate around like, different areas of the country?
Max: Oh, no, it wasn't set in Poland so we didn't have to worry about that. Thank God. I would have been really lost in Poland. The Isle of Wight, which is off the coast of England, um... [the film] is set there because it's an island and it's a fairy tale and I wanted to have this sort of sense of being isolated like, geographically from her dream-- like, physically excluded from what she wanted.
And with the nonlinear format when it comes to like, her singing sequences… What was the inspiration from? That style-- it’s like a music video.
Max: It started with that dancing around sequence. I just... you know, I think we all do this, right? When you're listening to Ariana Grande's “7 Rings” or whatever over and over in your headphones, you probably start to see images a little bit or you start to imagine things are your, you know-- your subconscious goes somewhere. And I just kept seeing certain images when I heard this song. Um, I don't know. It started as like, “what if we did this?” What if we told a story using this very nonlinear plane chronology? Playing with how we're receiving the story, um... can we get away with it? That was the first ambition, and then making a movie around that which could justify it.
Rendy: So, what do you guys want your audience to take away from this movie? ‘Cause it has a great demographic with everybody who aspires to follow their dreams and pursue their career.
Jamie: This... I mean, here's the thing. I really, genuinely believe there's no higher stakes than someone with a dream. I just think that it's like... that’s very high stakes to me. Um, I think that the film talks about broken people. It talks about catharsis of relationships-- forgiving people. I mean, I think Vlad as a character is framed initially as threat, as someone you should be scared of, you know, and essentially it's someone that saves her. So like, let her break free. That's not an Ariana Grande reference.
That is the overwhelming feeling. There's something so satisfying to me about that. Um, but there is that giveaway of the ending in before it even happened. Like Rebecca Hall's character says, "you've already won." So what's-- where's the issue? How do we solve this problem? It is about kind of where you seek your help from, who your mentors are and how they help you and being comfortable with your own identity and your acceptance. And she's an immigrant and she clearly has an issue with like, reaching people... like, connecting with people. And I liked that she finds that main connection with this unlikely person and how much we need those people. You know, I suddenly had that person in my life and, uh... and still have that. And, you know, I think people will hopefully identify. Yeah. And it's fun. Yeah. It's fun. It's a fun movie.