Bottoms creator Emma Seligman: ‘I want to see more flawed queer teens on-screen’
Exclusive: “Until we’ve achieved what straight male characters have achieved on-screen, I won’t be satisfied”
Bottoms creator Emma Seligman has said there “still isn’t enough” interpretations of flawed, queer characters on-screen.
The raunchy queer high-school comedy – which lands in UK cinemas today (3 November) – focuses on two queer teens, PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri).
The pair are desperate for a bit of romance in their lives, so start quite an extreme plan of action to try and lose their virginities – setting up a fight club.
Much to their surprise, it gains quite a lot of traction and soon even the most popular girls in school are wanting in.
“There still isn’t enough, I am here for any interpretations of flawed queer, and/or female, characters” – Emma Seligman
But of course, PJ and Josie’s attempts to seal the deal with their love interests aren’t all smooth-sailing, with high-school drama often getting in the way.
Creator and director Seligman has shared that she hopes the film will inspire more “flawed queer teens” landing on our screens.
Speaking to Attitude, she began by saying: “I feel lucky that we grew up in a teen movie boom era, the golden age of teen movies int he late 90s and early 2000s
“I miss those movies so much and I think we wanted to order the absurd ones, One Hot American Summer, movies that just didn’t care and went there, had the money to do whatever they wanted.”
“Until we’ve achieved what straight male characters have achieved on-screen I won’t be satisfied”
Seligman points to other movies to provide inspiration with their “flawed female characters”, which include Mean Girls, Sugar and Spice and Dick.
“We’ve also missed seeing flawed female characters on screen in a way where they felt normal and human and insecure,” she adds.
She explained wanting to try and make the film feel “as timeless as possible”, when probed about exactly what time period the movie is set in.
“I didn’t want technology in the movie,” she admits. “But when we had to pick the parts of it that would drop us in a time period, I felt it was appropriate to use things from the late 90s, and early 2000s.
“That was the time period of the teen movies that most emotionally inspired me.”
We see PJ and Josie regularly screw up throughout the film, as they navigate the newfound responsibility the insane fight club action brings.
And Seligman notes the importance of this, continuing: “I want to see more flawed queer teens on screen and more flawed women of all ages and all sexualities on screen.
“There still isn’t enough, I am here for any interpretations of flawed queer, and/or female, characters.
“I just think the more flawed the better. The more human, the more range we are given to them as humans on-screen, so they get more opportunities to be all kind of crazy and rude and flawed and selfish!”
She concludes: “Until we’ve achieved what straight male characters have achieved on-screen I won’t be satisfied.”
Bottoms is out in UK cinemas now