Play it again, Sam

Samara Weaving talks daughters, dudes and Hollywood dreams.

When did you first become aware of the Bill & Ted films?

The day I got the email for the audition! I grew up in Australia. I wasn’t in the world yet [in

1989]! But [when I watched the films]I absolutely fell in love with these characters. And then once the cast was announced, there was an enormous amount of pressure that I put on myself, thinking, “Oh my gosh, I have to really deliver, because people have been waiting years for this!” But Keanu and Alex are such welcoming human beings that all that anxiety sort of melted away.

How do Billie and Thea fit into Bill and Ted’s adventure?

They are definitely the spawn of Bill and Ted – however, if you gave a Rubik’s Cube to Bill and Ted and to Billie and Thea, Billie and Thea might be able to do it a little bit faster! They’ve just been obsessed with music since birth and they are their dads’ biggest fans. And it passes the Bechdel Test – there’s not a single scene where they talk about romance or men or love. It’s all about their obsession with music and their fathers and their family and trying to help bring everyone together. Which is, you know, maybe something the world needs right now.

We could all use that in the middle of this mess we’re in...

I hope that it brings hope and inspires people to be open-minded and willing to adapt and change. It’s definitely not a very cerebral, intellectual film. But it’s a lot of fun, and it has a lot of heart. We made it well before the world started to decay so don’t think anyone had that intention [to be deeper], other than to literally have fun, and be excellent to each other, and to party on. And I hope that the fun we had on set comes across on-screen.

If you could travel back in time in a phone booth, what advice would you give yourself?

I constantly have to remind myself to high-five my seven-year-old self who was gazing up at movies in awe, and dreaming: ‘Maybe one day I’ll be in Hollywood with those people, and maybe I’ll be able to play make-believe as a grown-up.’ If I could teleport back and say, “One day, you’ll be going to the Oscars, and you’ll be tripping over Meryl Streep’s dress and apologising profusely…” [laughs] I think I’d be so inspired.