DARREN STEIN

Tim Baros took a moment to sit down with director Darren Stein to get all the goss on the making of G.B.F.:

You have a great cast. They all seemed on screen to be having a great time with each other. How were they when they were not in front of the cameras?

We were like a big family behind-the-scenes. On these sorts of indie films, everyone hangs together in a green room between scenes. There are no trailers to escape to. So everyone became close. A couple of us still meet up for brunch almost every weekend. It’s nice.

How were you able to get Megan Mullally?

Megan had played Paul Iacono’s mom in the Fame remake that came out a couple years back. He offered to reach out to her and she liked the character. We definitely had an “in” which is helpful.

What was your secret in getting the high school culture and vibe spot on?

Maybe I’m just a perpetual teenager? I’ve always been into youth culture and I find it easy to slip into that world. I’m fascinated by adolescence, the emergence of slang, sexuality, identity, belonging – all these issues that are in full bloom in high school.

In terms of Tanner’s “coming out” we can both agree that it is much easier now than what it was, say 20 years ago. Why choose Tanner to come out when it was Brent who was more obviously gay?

Brent was the one who wanted to make a big splash about coming out but it’s Tanner who gets outed against his will. It’s the story of a person who becomes estranged from his true friends, sucked into the popular world of the Queen Bees. But ultimately he realises his old friends were his real friends all along. It’s very Mean Girls but from a gay male perspective.

G.B.F. is similar, in a way, to your 1999 film Jawbreaker, in that it also included a trio of most popular girls. Were you part of that crowd (or secretly wanted to be) in high school?

Since I went to an all boys’ school, I didn’t have the power that girls can give the gays. So when I first saw Heathers I was fascinated by these cruel iconic girls who ruled over the domain so easily. Maybe it was my fantasy to have them take me under their wing. It really was a coincidence that Jawbreaker had a trio and G.B.F. did as well. I didn’t write G.B.F. but Jawbreaker was one of the films that influenced the screenwriter George Northy along with Easy A, Clueless, Mean Girls and the John Hughes films.

What would you tell your 17-year old self?

When you grow up you’re going to be thankful to have been an outsider.