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If this were the mid- to late-1990s, a movie aboutKatie Silbermanwould star Meg Ryan.
She punctuates sentences with phrases like holy smokes.
Shes the kind of person you want to be your best friendright now, immediately and forever.
She worked with Olivia Wilde to craft the movie in the style ofMean GirlsandFast Times at Ridgemont HighandClueless.
(I really am just a full Amy Heckerling GeoCities account, she tells me.)
There arent very many for the platonic relationships.
In high school, your best friend is like your soul mate.
Shes your first real love … Having to change is so heartbreaking in a way.
Lets start very generally: How didBooksmartcome together?This script had actually been around since 2009.
It was first written by two really talented writers, Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins.
When you get an email like that, youre like,This is a trap.
Im going to show up and someone will take my kidney, because its too good to be true.
What is the process of coming onboard and taking a pass at someone elses script?It totally varies.
Other times, its building from the ground up.
We really got to kind of adapt all of the characters to those actors.
The chemical equation of the set and the weather and what they were wearing and watching them interact.
If its changing this much does anyone have any idea what it is at the core?
She so clearly did, and it made us all feel so safe in knowing what it was.
What did you see in those first meetings with Olivia?
What did you trust about her vision?When she [describedBooksmartas] Training Dayfor high-school girls.
It was in this context of thinking of high school as war.
She said this, and I think shes so right.
That its easy for adults to accidentally condescend and patronize how intensely young people feel things.
I actually thought a lot about Molly onInsecure.
She had work drama at her law firm, but her character wasnt, like, the smart one.
Shes just a member of their friend group, and she just happened to have this great job.
Watching that, I was like, thats what my friend groups are like!
Their brilliance isnt always their defining quality, or their only quality.
We like to say it like astrology: Im Molly under an Amy moon, with a Jared rising.
Thats who I was in high school.
Who did you think you were, when you watched it?
I was totally Molly.I also think peoplewantto be Molly.
Maybe Im a Molly in some ways, but I have so many Amy qualities too.
Sometimes Id rather hang back and be more passive.I can be a total Jared.
I can really go overboard in terms of gift-giving, but also just being like, Is everybody happy?
Are we all good?
I need someone to tell me to calm down sometimes.
Tell me more about 17-year-old Katie Silberman.
and then drive home.
He really is nice to everybody.
How can we reveal something more about them by the end?
How can they all be something more than that by the time the story is over?
He has that really long hair braided into two braids, and he quickly pulls his hair down.
How did that come together?We saw Eduardos braids when we got on set for that party.
I dont know if he had done it or if our really brilliant hairstylist Aubrey Marie had done it.
Hes like Samson and Delilah.
And now its become a true romantic moment.
But that was the kind of fun stuff we were coming up with as the party was happening.
The way he performs it is so intentional, its great.
Can you tell me more about writing the Triple A character?
[You know this is why people say I gave guys roadside assistance, right?
Okay, thats not true; I blew them.
We hooked up in their car.
It makes sense to hook up in a car.
Also, I want to enjoy it.
Fucking sue me.]
That whole conversation seems really tricky to pull off.That was my favorite scene to write.
I felt like that was the answer Id always wanted for those characters.
I wanted to hear, in their own words, their defense of themselves.
First of all, I think Triple A is a good arguer.
Shes right, and she is not ashamed of [her sexuality] in any way.
Like, the only thing that bums her out is that the girls see her as this cliche.
The line You think Im gonna suck a dick in myown home?
is the funniest thing Ive heard in my whole life.When myfathercould walk in at any moment?
But then shes like, Okay, but I will though.
Thats my favorite kind of bit.
Like, how she physically got from place to place.
It would be likeFast & Furious:Hobbs & Shaw, just Gigi going from party to party.
I understood characters just as much as if there had been four seasons of television about them.
Shes like, Anyway his son killed himself.
My moms here, bye!
I would watch a whole movie about her!
It feels like its already legendary.
That becomes the narrative of the night: Andwe got Molly Davidson to come.
which is what shes wanted to prove the whole time.
[As a kind of pickup line, Nick tells Molly that shes probablyhalf-Slytherin, half-Ravenclaw.]
Did you readHarry Potter?
Do you know what your house would be?Thank you so much for asking.
I really like that nowadays people do half-houses, which obviously cant happen in real life, meaning Hogwarts.
I think Im probably a half-Gryffindor, half-Ravenclaw.
you’re free to go.
Okay, so not to return toLady Birdagain but yo.
I am the@LadyBirdBot.
We always knew we were going toward the airport scene.
With your best friends, you cant just say good-bye or I love you.
It was never gonna be a true good-bye.
They both realize that their relationship as theyd known it up to that point was over.
Its hard to grow up and not grow apart.
