MM: Do you have your own production company?
OW: Starting one right now.
MM: You’ve known for quite a while that you’ve wanted to direct a feature and had been leading up to that by cutting your teeth directing music videos and shorts, right?
OW: Yes, absolutely.
MM: And I’m sure you’ve had a lot of scripts come to you to direct. This one changed so much, as you’ve said, but what was that nugget of gold that made you want do it?
OW: So what I learned doing music videos was something very helpful. I directed an Edward Sharpe video that Reed shot with me. We did it on iPhones and it was an interesting kind of technological challenge that I loved. Then I did this Red Hot Chili Peppers video starring young female skaters and that’s when I realized that working with young women was really fascinating to me. I loved their interactions, and I remember the whole time in the edit thinking I wished I could make a whole movie about these girls and the way they interact and the bonds between them that had nothing to do with men. But what I realized after that video, when I was offered other videos for bands with music that didn’t resonate with me, was that I would not be able to direct something unless I loved it. And I realized when I finally get to direct features that I’m not gonna be able to do that without loving the material completely. I had spent many years in network television where directors were seen as traffic cops. They’d come in and have no creative control.
MM: Because there’s often a new one every week.
OW: Right, and I knew I couldn’t do that. That wouldn’t work for me. So I was cautious about what to take on as a directorial debut. I knew that if I went too deep into something I didn’t love I’d be stuck, I’d be uninspired, and I wouldn’t find the energy I’d need.
MM: So your antenna was up.
OW: My antenna was up and I knew, based on my experience making Joe Swanberg’s Drinking Buddies, that I wanted to create an atmosphere that felt as collaborative and fruitful as the Swanberg experience was for me. So I had high standards.
Drinking it in: While working on Drinking Buddies with co-star Jake Johnson (R) and writer-director Joe Swanberg, Wilde (L) learned what kind of on-set experience she wanted to emulate as a director. Image courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
MM: You’re talking about the spontaneity of the way he works, the improvisational elements…
OW: Yes, but also the sense of ownership that everyone on all those films has because of the process. I knew as a director I always want to create that kind of experience for others. I basically want to create my dream environment and scenario. I knew the right project would come to me, I knew something would suddenly sound just right. And then Jessica Elbaum, who runs Gloria Sanchez (the sister label to Will Ferrell’s Gary Sanchez Productions) and I were driving around pitching a comedy series that we were producing for a friend of ours. I was asking all these questions and she said, “God, you should direct a comedy.” I thought, “Well that would be really hard. But I’d love it.” And she said, “There’s this script that’s been floating around for years. Maybe you should take a look at it, see what you can do. And Booksmart was different from everything else that I’d read, even in that early incarnation. This was a story about two women who were smart and not struggling to assimilate. Their journey wasn’t “to be accepted.” They were smart in kind of a gangster way. They were really proud of being smart. That was the kernel of it. And that’s what I loved. So I pitched on it, but I needed a writer to work with me to kind of re-invent it. So we hired Katie Silberman.
MM: Who owned the project?
OW: Annapurna. I pitched to Annapurna. Yes. Crucial detail. So Jessica brought me in to pitch to Annapurna. I got the job, to my shock. And then we spent many months rewriting and developing.
MM: Did you choose this type of film because you knew what kind of atmosphere you wanted to create on set? It would seem easier to facilitate what you wanted on a movie like this than… on a movie like Meadowland, for instance.
OW: Right [laughs]. What I learned from Reed was that the close relationship between the director and her crew creates a very different environment on the set. I’ve been thinking a lot about what I learned from each set. And with Reed that was the first time I had seen a camera department work alongside the director like that. There was this intense respect, and I thought, “Hmm… that’s cool. She’s really connected to everybody.” We all felt like we would do anything for her. That was an extraordinary feeling.
MM: You know Beanie [Booksmart star Beanie Feldstein] said that about you, right?
OW: She did? Well, that’s amazing.
Wilde (R) chats with breakout star Beanie Feldstein (L) who also starred in Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut Ladybird.
MM: Can you talk about that—how one learns to “lead” on set? Obviously you have to pick the right people.
OW: Picking the right people is everything.
MM: I love your “no assholes” policy.
OW: Yeah. Strict. No assholes. There are so many life lessons that should be applied to creating the movies that are not—lessons that we know from our life experience. But for some reason we take for granted that movie sets must be inherently sad, exhausting, stressful, cold, long…Why have we accepted that paradigm? Can’t we just reinvent it? It’s so cool that we get to tell stories. Let’s make it feel more like it does in theater—a creative, collective experience with everybody involved.
MM: And music and snacks, right?
OW: And music and snacks. It’s everything. If you’re doing four weeks of night shoots you’d better have both.
MM: I wanted to talk to you about how you chose crewmembers. I know you wanted it to be diverse, and it was, obviously. But I’m curious about how you qualified potential crew who might not have had as deep resumés as others might have had.
OW: Well it’s clear to me that that’s how we’re going to create actual structural change in Hollywood. I don’t need to know someone was hired by some fancy director or that they worked on a movie that made money to know they have value. We have to get away from that. I give Annapurna a lot of credit because I got to hire whoever I wanted.
MM: Is that Megan [Annapurna founder Megan Ellison] who gave you that power?
OW: Yeah, that’s Megan’s edict. She allows you to make the case for the crew you want to hire.
MM: Did the distribution plan change after the great reception at SXSW?
OW: No, because we were already planning to go wide. When they say, “2,500 screens, with an option to go to 3,000 based on reception,” to me, that’s insane. It’s sort of terrifying for me to even think about that. But I’m excited that so many young people will have access to it.
MM: Were you ever tempted to put yourself in it?
OW: No, not at all. I never even considered it. I loved being able to use my acting instincts to communicate with the actors, I loved being there for my crew, I loved wearing comfortable shoes. It was a dream come true to be on the other side of it. I admire actors who want to do both, and I think that’s courageous, but no… Right now it feels like my home is behind the camera.
MM: So, going forward you’ll do more directing. What is that acting/directing ratio going to look like?
OW: In my dream scenario? As if I can control these things? I think I’d like to direct a movie every two years, and produce a couple of movies a year. Just keep producing documentaries and features. And maybe act once a year. Wouldn’t that be nice?
MM: A lot of actors try directing once and never do it again. It’s difficult, takes way more time, isn’t as lucrative.
OW: It’s true. I always say that acting is like dating and directing is like marriage [laughs]. In many ways it’s more gratifying, but also more challenging. I spent 17 years watching other directors. If I didn’t have an idea of how to direct after that it would mean that I wasn’t paying attention. People kept saying to me, which I admit I was very proud of: “This does not seem like your first time directing a feature.”
MM: Did you feel like there were many areas you needed to “brush up” on or learn for the first time?
OW: I never went to film school, so I had to give myself an intensive sort of film school crash course on several elements of it, which was fun to do. It was fun to be like, “OK… lenses.” That’s not something actors always spend a lot of time thinking about.
MM: Did you work with your editors the whole time?
OW: Oh yeah, I was there 12 hours a day. What’s amazing is the reinvention that can happen in the edit, and how you’re writing the film again. I don’t understand why every time an actor wins an acting award, they don’t first thank their editor. I started thinking how you could really destroy someone—fuck up someone’s beautifully calibrated performance—by using the wrong take. It’s such an intense power.
MM: Did you guys know that you wanted to make the film have such fast-paced editing?
OW: The way I pitched it to Annapurna was that it’s the “Training Day of high school movies.” Let’s make it all about the high stakes of action films and apply that to high school scenarios. Because that’s what it feels like to be an adolescent. Everything is so high stakes. Missing a party feels like a life or death situation.
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