No./5 Putting council-estate clichés on the scrapheap
Scrapper writer-director Charlotte Regan on taking the kitchen-sink genre and filling it with talking spiders
“I WANTED IT to feel like the kids were telling the story,” Charlotte Regan says of Scrapper, her council-estate-set story about a 12-year-old girl seemingly orphaned by the death of her mother. Think that premise is a recipe for bleakness? Think again. “The kids would tell it in a fun way! They’d have a packet of sweets and then the energy would be mad, and then they’d have a crash,” she laughs. Hence a British social-realism drama unlike any other: one full of laughout-loud comedy and the occasional speaking arachnid. “It’s the kids that gave us the excuse to have a wild style. If an adult was the centrepiece of our film and I did that, people would be like, ‘What the fuck have you made here?!’”
The film — Regan’s debut feature, and the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance — is Shane Meadows by way of Taika Waititi. “I love how Boy and Hunt For The Wilderpeople aren’t afraid to mess with genre,” says Regan. With a splash of action blockbuster thrown in for good measure, obviously. “There’s a scene where they’re running from the police where the reference point was The Bourne Ultimatum,” reveals the director, who, in contrast to the typical downbeat nature of movies made about council estates, wanted the movie to “reflect my experience of growing up: laughter, joy, people looking out for one another.”
Key to the bright new bounce it lends the subject matter is Lola Campbell as lead character Georgie. “She sent in an audition tape to us where all she spoke about was [discount chain] Home Bargains,” says Regan. “She didn’t answer any of the questions I asked her to answer, but she did it so charismatically, I got obsessed.” The film doesn’t abandon its genre entirely — “There’s hardship and pain in there”, the filmmaker tells Empire. But there’s magic, too, as Georgie finds imaginative ways to cope with the loss of her mum, and re-emergence of her estranged father (Harris Dickinson). “I want working-class kids to see it and be able to see themselves,” adds Regan. “It’s about time.”
SCRAPPER IS IN CINEMAS FROM 25 AUGUST