Three Times Seventeen: a chat with ‘The Edge of Seventeen’ actors Blake Jenner, Haley Lu Richardson, and Hayden Szeto

by Andrew Parker

Before our interview, actress Haley Lu Richardson has a great idea.

“I think we should all start singing before we do this,” Richardson says, flanked by her The Edge of Seventeen co-stars Blake Jenner and Hayden Szeto on the afternoon of their film’s world premiere as the Closing Night Gala of the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. “I think it will bring all of us together right now.”

What ensues is a chuckle and giggled filled rendition of journalists, actors, and a couple of publicists belting out “True Colors” at the top of their lungs, probably to the chagrin of everyone in neighbouring rooms (but honestly, we weren’t that bad, seriously).

The three actors get along famously and are more than happy to promote The Edge of Seventeen (in theatres everywhere on Friday, November 18), a film where they each play a various friend of figure in the life of teenager Nadine, played by Hailee Steinfeld. Socially awkward, standoffish, and a bit of an outsider (on purpose), Nadine has never fully gotten over the death of her father several years earlier and slowly believes that her life is spiralling out of control. Mom (Kyra Sedgwck) seems aloof once she starts dating again. Nadine feels betrayed after her best friend, Krista (Richardson), starts dating her brainy, jock older brother, Darian (Jenner). Nadine has a crush on her high school’s resident bad boy (Alexander Clavert), but finds a new friend and potentially better love interest in the kind, only slightly nerdy animator Erwin (Szeto).

For Richardson and Jenner, their participation in the film – helmed by first time director Kelly Fremon Craig and produced by award winning veteran filmmaker James L. Brooks – allows the already experienced young actors a chance at playing characters that are normally thinly drawn stereotypes in lesser, more clichéd teen movies. For Vancouver native Szeto, it represents a major break in the actor’s career by gaining some much coveted experience on a major studio film.

We chatted with the three before their premiere about what sets The Edge of Seventeen apart from other teen movies, what their on-set dynamic was like, and working with Craig and Brooks behind the scenes.

Blake and Haley, you spend a lot of the film with each other’s characters, so what did you get to know about each other as performers?

Blake Jenner: It’s great working with someone like Haley’s who’s always on all the time, and she’s always trying to find new ways to keep things fresh, which is great when you have to spend so much of your time in a film opposite just one or two other characters for most of it. She’s just so warm and energetic, and that’s a gift that she just gives back to whomever she’s in a scene with.

Haley Lu Richardson: And Blake and I had so many scenes together, and he’s not guarded at all. He’s completely open and doesn’t hold anything back, and I think that’s such an important thing to try and keep as an actor. It’s so easy to close yourself off in some sort of effort to protect yourself, but Blake is just about one of the most open and honest performers I’ve ever worked with. He also does really great impressions of Ryan Reynolds and Sammy Davis Jr. (laughs)

I was actually bummed that I didn’t get to work too much with Hayden, but we saw each other around set a bit, and he was always so nice, and something that I learned from him was that he brought it all the time. He brought his A-game even to the table read, and I suck at those things. Whenever there’s a table read, I just become so closed off for some reason. I never really worry about things like that until I get to the set, but Hayden was always giving his best no matter if the cameras were on or off.

Haley Lu Richardson and Blake Jenner in The Edge of Seventeen.

Haley Lu Richardson and Blake Jenner in The Edge of Seventeen.

What was it like working with a first time director like Kelly Fremon Craig and a veteran producer like James L. Brooks on a film like this?

Blake Jenner: It always felt like an awesome experience every day, but you got to see how Kelly and James made for this awesome tag team. Kelly really drove the ship from her script every single day, but James was always there supporting her vision of what she wanted this film to be. They were both taking great care of us.

Haley Lu Richardson: It also never felt like a first time director because Kelly has some film experience already. It was never like you were watching someone new trying to learn the craft from an old hand. Kelly was very confident and very specific. She always had everything in her head worked out already. She’s always positive, energetic, and knew what she was doing.

Blake Jenner: It always felt like no matter what was going on that you could talk to her.

Hayden Szeto: Both of them also really know how to talk to actors. That was really important because there were times when I KNEW I was sucking. (laughs) I could just feel it, but they always knew a nice way of saying it. It’s easy to say, “Okay, suck less,” but it’s really in how they say it. (laughs) They really got the best work out of me.

Hayden Szeto in The Edge of Seventeen

Hayden Szeto in The Edge of Seventeen

This is a film that kind of flips the teen movie dynamic on its head because at times it can be really hard to like or support Hailee’s character, but you three are all playing very likable and sympathetic characters. It’s not the typical best friend, jock, and nerd characters that actors usually get to portray in these kinds of films. What’s it like to get a chance to play characters that are kind of the opposite of the archetypes most viewers are used to?

Blake Jenner. You’re absolutely right because each of these parts could have ended up as stereotypes. I think for us, part of the fun was taking these roles that practically have their own brands attached to them and then stripping that all away, so we could give our all in creating original human characters. We had to give them the soul that a character needs to feel like a fleshed out human being.

Haley Lu Richardson: I was actually just saying to someone else today that you have your own set of challenges playing a supporting role because if anyone could phone in a performance and just be something everyone has done before, it would be a supporting character in a teen movie. We all have the stereotypes of these characters in our minds from having seen these kinds of films, but those aren’t how real human beings are or act. I mean, we don’t have as much weight on our shoulders as the lead of the film does, but you have this other pressure to create this unseen journey that this character has been on prior to when the audience starts watching them. We have to create as actors what brought them to this point. That’s challenging and hard to figure that out at times, and I was super thankful that the supporting roles here were written so well.

Hayden Szeto: It was clear from the script and from talking to Kelly that she felt for every single one of these characters, and she didn’t judge any of them.

Haley Lu Richardson: Totally. If I ever went to her with any thoughts or concerns that I had about Krista as a character, we always had great conversations. I always wanted to make her as realistic as possible, and whenever we talked about the character and any ideas I had for little things to do with the character, Kelly was always on board. There has to be a reason why Krista hangs out with Nadine. She’s not a punching bag, but an equal in the friendship.

I actually thought when I first read the script that when it came to my own friendships that I was more like Nadine than I was Krista, but then I realized that with these intimate friendships that are like a sisterhood, you always have one person who is the selfless person who’s the rock of the relationship; the dependable one who was always there. Krista was always that person for Nadine, and it becomes a bit more about Nadine trying to become that same kind of person, and that kind of selflessness in a girl friendship is something that’s hard to accurately portray. That’s REAL friendship and that can’t really be stereotyped.

Hayden Szeto: And the thing with Erwin is that he could fall into that classic nerd character. To not play him as geeky and awkward was great. Kelly and I had a lot of great discussions about how many layers we could add to him, and even about the art he creates to form this kind of inner dialogue that he always seems to have going on. She would just tell me at times to be more subtle by saying, “Just do that because that’s sexier” when it came to being subtle. And to hear a female director say that not only about a character that’s kind of a nerd, but also kind of a love interest, that’s not only flattering to hear, but also a sign that you’re on the right track. So yeah, it was learning how to be sexier and how to suck less. (laughs) It takes this character to a whole other level because you so rarely get to see the nerd character actually being sexy. You almost never see that, so that’s pretty cool.

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