Director Emma Seligman and stars Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edibiri grill each other on their upcoming film Bottoms. The cast and director share their stunt training experience, describe what it was like working with Marshawn Lynch, spill some cast secrets, and more. The sharp coming-of-age comedy — which is already Certified Fresh, by the way — centers on a pair of high school seniors who decide to start a fight club in order to stay out of trouble, help some classmates learn how to defend themselves, and maybe even get closer to their crushes. Sennott, Seligman, and Edibiri sat down with us and asked each other questions about the experience of making the film.
Rachel Sennott: There’s a scene in the movie where Josie (Edibiri’s character) punches PJ (Sennott’s character) in the face. What will you remember most from making that scene?
Emma Seligman: How hard it was for to nail the placement on where her fist went on your face. You know what I mean? Selling the punch.
Sennott: Yeah, the trust fall of it. I remember, honestly, the rehearsal of the punch, to get up to making that scene, and when we first started punching each other in the face. Because it’s sort of like they show you, and you do it slow, but then you just kind of start doing it. And it’s like, “OK, punch me.”
Ayo Edibiri: I think I’ll remember Rachel falling, because Rachel’s a very flat faller.
Sennott: I struggle with falls. I struggle with stunts.
Edibiri: But it’s deeply funny.
Sennott: It works.
Edibiri: It works for the character, yeah.
Seligman: What’s your favorite memory of the fight training for this movie?
Edibiri: You start.
Seligman: When we were all in a circle, like the first day. I wasn’t part of the training, obviously, in an intense way at all. But I feel like the first day when we had Deven MacNair, our stunt coordinator, and she just took a moment to be like, “It’s so beautiful that I’m working with so many women.”
Edibiri: Oh yeah, that was nice.
Seligman: And she almost started crying, and then she sucked it back up and was like, “All right, time to toughen up! Never mind! No tears allowed!” That was a fun moment.
Watch the video for the full interview with Sennott, Edibiri, and Seligman.
Bottoms
(2023)
is in theaters on August 25, 2023.
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