When you’re really smart, you can talk yourself into the idea that you know everything. - Kelly Fremon Craig, writer/director The Edge of Seventeen
Whether you’re sill going through your teenage years, or you’re well past them, you can recognize the unique plight of modern teenagers. They have more tools to connect with each other than ever before, thanks to cell phones and social media, yet the basic alienation remains universal.
The Edge of Seventeenis a teen movie for teenagers trying to figure it out, and for grown-ups looking back on that time in their lives. Hailee Steinfeld plays Nadine, a 17-year-old with a brother (Blake Jenner) and single mother (Kyra Sedgwick) after her father died. Nadine and her friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson) drink and talk about sex, and Nadine blunders her way through some naughty texts with the guys she has crushes on.
Kelly Fremon Craig wrote and directed The Edge of Seventeen, her second film after Post Grad which she wrote. We spoke with Craig about growing up and looking back, and putting it all on film. The Edge of Seventeen opens Friday, November 18.
SuicideGirls: Do you have a sense that teens talking about sex doesn’t have to be vulgar? That teens can be sexual but they’re not obscene about it?
Kelly Fremon Craig: Yeah, I think that’s the truth of it. I think the truth is I think you’re curious about it. I think you’re scared about it. I think you have a sense of everything that can be, that it could be a place of great emotional connection and it could also be just a giant disaster. So I think it’s all those things.
SG: They’re also funny about it. Saying “imagine mom’s titties” is funny. A blow job in the stockroom is funny.
KFC: Yes, well, yeah. I think that’s true too. It’s absurd. It’s ridiculous. I think it’s all those things. She’s crass about it but at the same time part of her writing that text is what she’s saying underneath is, “Please, please, please somebody connect with me. I want some type of connection with somebody.” I’m just searching in totally the wrong places but I feel like maybe this’ll be the thing that makes me feel not alone.
SG: Was it a balance how much social media to include in the movie?
KFC: No, it really wasn’t. It was always just about telling the story. Wherever it was needed, it was used and where it wasn’t, it wasn’t. It was never a conscious “well, kids use social media 80% of their day” or whatever. It was never that. It was just serving the story.
SG: Well, some movies now fill the screen with texts and tweets. Would using it too much make this movie as dated as if social media weren’t in it enough?
KFC: Yeah. Maybe. I never really thought about it in terms of anything dating it. I was really just trying to capture this person in an honest way, and the story in an honest way, whatever that meant. Whatever that meant in terms of using it or not.
SG: Is it a good lesson to learn not to type drafts of texts live in the app? Write in the notepad and then you can copy and paste it.
KFC: Oh my God, I will never ever ever write anybody an e-mail where I actually put their e-mail address there until I’m done and I’ve proofed it. I’ve made that mistake too many times.
SG: Do teenagers still talk on the phone? Even in my generation I feel like we all text now.
KFC: I think less so. Less so definitely. But what I found, when doing a lot of research and talking to teenagers is how grateful they were when they could just have a conversation. How grateful they were to have somebody asking them questions and be able to have a face to face communication. I think it’s amazing actually how little of that is going on.
SG: All generations are learning how much work social media is. It’s an actual job you probably shouldn’t be doing unless you’re getting paid for it.
KFC: It’s interesting. That’s something I constantly ask myself is how much of my life have I lost because I’m doing this thing? It weirds me out. I’m constantly thinking, “Be here. There’s life in front of you and you’re looking at a little rectangular box.”
SG: Filmmakers have left because it’s too time consuming.
KFC: Absolutely. I’m on a couple of them but I don’t really update them enough. I’m definitely guilty of, if I’m waiting for somebody, flipping through Facebook. I try not to.
SG: Is it also important that discovering drinking is healthy too, as long as you’re at home and safe about it?
KFC: I don’t know if binge drinking is maybe ever healthy, but I think in a way discovering your limits at that age is a thing that people do. You’re pushing yourself to extremes at that age and you want to feel alive. You want to feel drunk. You want to feel high. You want to have a good time. I think it’s all about that. Just self-discovery at that age.
SG: At least they’re not driving anywhere.
KFC: That’s true.
SG: Which wedding did Krista spoil? Was it the red wedding? I couldn’t figure out what show they were talking about.
KFC: Oh, it was a totally fictional thing. I wish I could tell you.
SG: What do you think 18 will be like for Nadine?
KFC: Ooh. Maybe this is because I’m a realist. I think life is such that you take a little step and you become new in some ways, and then right behind it is a new lesson. Right behind it is: okay, what do I have to figure out next? Maybe it’s her figuring out what do I do with my life? Where do I go? What am I good at? Making all those decisions.
SG: Does she reinvent herself in college?
KFC: I think she’s probably deeply her forever and ever. I think on some level, those things, those voices and just who you are, I think about this a lot because I have a three-year-old son. I’m starting to see the things that are just distinctly him that’ll probably be there forever. I think on some level, you just are who you are forever. So I think the DNA will never change.
SG: Post Grad was about figuring out that time after you graduate college. Were you consciously looking backwards through life?
KFC: No, it wasn’t a conscious decision. It was more really wanting to explore a particular theme, which was just that idea how you can feel like everybody has life figured out except you. It’s just wanting to explore that, the loneliness of that, feeling like you’re the only one who feels this fucked up. Which I think is a thing, having spent a lot of time with a lot of different teenagers, everybody on some level had gone through a period of feeling exactly that. Just desperate for a connection with somebody somewhere.
SG: What do you think is the difference between those people who think they’re the only ones who don’t have it figured out, and those people who feel they do have everything figured out?
KFC: It’s interesting, I actually think on some level Nadine is both. When you’re really smart, you can talk yourself into the idea that you know everything about everything and that is so scary because she can actually logically talk herself into “You are the only one who is fucked up. You have it figured out.” She can really convince herself of that because she thinks she knows everything.
SG: Can you imagine teens watching The Edge of Seventeen over and over again like a John Hughes movie?
KFC: I hope so. I hope that they watch it and feel like, “Oh man, that’s me. They got it right.” That’s the most exciting thing is seeing that response, seeing people especially this age saying that has been really cool.
SG: Was anything autobiographical?
KFC: No, it really wasn’t. Beyond just the theme and the feeling. I’ve felt this way for sure at that age. Other than that, no.
SG: What do you want to do next?
KFC: There are a bunch of different things coming my way and I’m just trying to figure out which is the thing that just gets in there and won’t leave. Making a film, you kind of have to take a vacation from your life. There’s a lot of sacrifices so you want it to be something that you really feel is worth saying.
SG: Do you think you’ll keep making films about young people?
KFC: Maybe, if it’s the right thing, yeah.