Stargirl
Stargirl is an adaption of Jerry Spinneli’s bestselling Young Adult book from 2000. The movie
premiered on the Disney+ streaming service on March 13, 2020. The movie had a one-off theatrical screening / opening in Hollywood on March 10, 2020. It was removed from Disney+ on May 27, 2023 as
one of several Disney+ originals.
We have collected information about the film, the production, reception etc. from various sources and present them here in a thematic format.
Grace on the experience
“My initial thoughts when I read the script for the first time was ‘oh no! … It’s a very scary movie to me, it’s like a horror movie to me and no one else. It’s probably the scariest movie I’ll ever do in my life. It’s more vulnerable than anything I’ve really ever done.” (Interview with EW.com January 14, 2020)
”[Before we started shooting] I was super comfortable and confident with it, and not really thinking too deeply about anything. And then, I remember the first day that I was on camera, the reality of the situation just hit me, and I was freaking out, low key, and just really scared. I realized what I was getting myself into and the responsibilities that were now on my shoulders, to play such a beloved character, so it was definitely really, really, really scary.”
[One of the biggest challenges] "was being confident on screen. … It was nerve-racking, because I can't really do that even in my personal life. So, playing a character that's supposed to be completely confident and 100 percent not afraid was definitely my biggest challenge, because I really wanted to bring that to the screen. It was really hard for me, because that's not exactly who I am, that's who I wish I was and who I'm working to be, but not who I was at the time." (Interview with popsugar.co.uk)
“I don’t think I was really thinking it through, I wasn’t very nervous, until the first day I was actually on camera. And then I was like – oooooh – this is real. … My first scene was a cut scene; it didn’t even make it in the movie. I was walking and then Leo pulled up in his car an asked me something, and I remember just being like ‘wow – I suck at acting and I have committed myself in a Disney movie, what am I going to do’. And I started freaking out. And I remember I talked to Julie Hart the director and said – I’m like freaking out, and I am really sorry cause this is your movie. But she was the sweetest angle-baby, she gave me a little motivational pep-talk” (“Build” interview March 25, 2020)
“…It sounds so overdramatic when I say this, but it literally changed my life. I came out a different person! And I miss everybody from the cast so much…I can’t wait for a sequel now!” (Red carpet interview with Billboard)
“When I think about the last day of shooting, compared to the first day, it’s pretty crazy. I definitely, by the last day, wasn’t even thinking about anything. It had turned into such routine, in the best way possible. It was just a lot more fun and laid back. By that time, you know everyone. You know the crew and the cast, so it’s definitely more fun. It just felt like not even really work.” (Interview with Collider)
"What surprised me the most about being on a set and making a movie was how fun it was. I was expecting it to be hard work, and it definitely was, but the cast was so incredible, I made so many friends and had so much fun." (Interview with People.com)
[On memorizing her big speech] “That was the easiest part. I feel like I'm such a serious person. And I was just saying probably the truest emotions of my personal feelings in the movie (when my character makes a speech about appreciating the beauty of a flower growing). It read easily for me, and I feel like you can see that in the movie.” (Interview with USA Today)
[On her first on-screen kiss] “That was a big deal. There were closed sets for every scene like that. I mean, I was 14, very, very young. It's not like I'm a grown-up and I've had like tons of boyfriends, you know? So of course I was nervous, but we all made sure we were just being our characters and (co-star Graham Verchere, who plays Leo) was professional. I think the nerves actually worked well for the movie because Stargirl is supposed to be like that, she’s not some player.” (Interview with USA Today)
Grace on acting in general
At the D23 panel for Stargirl, Grace was asked If acting was something she wanted to do as a little girl? Grace, answered:
“I have always been over-dramatic as a little girl, but music has always been my passion and especially after AGT I really didn’t want to do acting at all, but I feel like Stargirl was really perfect and kind of like meant to be. It’s just as special to me as singing a piece of music that I love”.(D23 Panel)
”I feel I’ve improved a lot. I actually think I would like to do something again, after this now, not really to be an actress, but just to apply what I’ve learned from this movie. I’ve learned so much about acting. It’s just like music, actually. Your first song or writing, you realize that practice makes perfect. The whole process was very, very interesting, to see how movies are made and to learn about acting.” (Interview with Collider.com)
“I learned so much while making this movie, and I'm ready to apply it and see if I can be good. You can't really do anything to the best of your ability on the first try or even the second try, but I do want to see. I like to be good at things. If I'm doing something, I want to abandon it knowing I did the best I could. There’s this one role that I really, really want, but I don’t want to talk about it because there’s literally like a 30% chance that I’ll actually get it.” (Interview with USA Today)
[Answering the question: how is playing as Stargirl different from performing as yourself?] “It's so different! Just because I'm not telling my own story. You know what I mean? (At my shows), I know exactly what I want people to feel. But when you're telling someone else's story, it's more difficult to try to figure out what they would have wanted people to feel.” (Interview with USA Today)
How Grace got the part
When Francis Ford Coppola told (in an Instagram post) about how he had known Grace´s family for years, and about his connection with the movie’s director, Julia Hart, through his work with her scriptwriter farther. Many assumed that Grace had been given the role of Stargirl without competition, but that does not appear to be the case:
“VanderWaal had plenty of competition when it came to the leading role for the Disney+ film. She beat out 700 actresses.” (People)
That does not mean that the producers were not aware of her previously:
"I read Stargirl when I was 12 on America's Got Talent … Someone sent it to me and thought I'd be good for the role because they knew that a movie was being made. I was not ready for the role yet and I don't even think they were ready for casting. Years later, it got back to me again and I just sent in a video, I talked to Julia Hart the director and then I met Graham, and we made the movie." (People.com) And Grace must have been near the top of Julia Hart’s list as Graced explained in an interview that She and Grace skype called about the part, before Grace even sent in an audition. But apparently, despite of the Coppola connection, Julia did not know Grace beforehand. (D23 Panel, September 2019)
Julia Hart on casting Grace in the role and on her performance
“When the person who is the part comes to audition for the part you have to cast them in the part. I mean, Grace is Stargirl.” (D23 Panel, September 2019) “I knew she was Stargirl almost immediately. The world knows what a talented performer she is, and I cannot wait for everyone to see just how many sides there are to this special and magical young woman.” (Julia Hart in interview with Deadline)
“Stargirl has a profound acceptance of people for who they really are, which is a kind of innocence that shouldn’t be mistaken for naivety. Grace was able to capture this ineffable 'worldly innocence' that this character embodies in a way that never felt self-conscious — and that is a tall order, especially for your first big acting job. When I think of 'natural talent,' I think of Grace VanderWaal.” [one of the most noticeable things about Grace is] “her unbelievable gift for communicating emotionally with audiences through art. … Grace has an uncanny ability to become friends with people no matter how old they are or where they come from. She became as close to my 4-year-old son as she did to me.” (Interview with thelist.com)
Julia was not the only one who was impressed with Grace’s audition. At the D23 panel for Stargirl in 2019, the Interviewer (a Disney Executive) recounted how
“I remember when everybody at the studio got to see Grace’s audition, it was like – I can’t believe this book came out before you were even an idea.”
Grace on working with Julia Hart
”I think the biggest thing that drew me to the movie was the director, Julia Hart. I was very, very unsure about it, and she took the time to talk to me, which was insanely sweet. She just had the best energy. The moment that I started talking to her, I just knew it might be something that I wanted to do. It was very collaborative, with me and her, and with her and all of the actors. She’s a director and it makes sense, why she’s so successful. She really knew how to talk to us, especially the young actors, like me. She just spoke to us really well and made us all feel really comfortable while still getting what she needed for the movie.” (Interview with Collider.com)
Grace on the adaption of the book
”The book, itself, is a really beautiful book, and I liked the idea of a movie adaptation of the book. If you read the book, there are definitely things that are different. It is a movie adaptation. I think that the movie actually followed the book pretty well, for a movie adaptation, but of course, there were still things that didn’t make it. I think, all in all, the energy of Stargirl is still pretty much the same, between the book and the movie.” (Interview with Collider.com)
In the book, a classmate named Hillari Kimble confronts Stargirl and slaps her face during a school dance as a result of one of those actions, but the film slightly tones down the interaction.
"I actually so badly wish that the book scene was exactly like the movie scene just because that's personally one of my favorite parts of the book. I don't know why that was changed. That's definitely a question for the filmmakers, but I actually wonder that myself. (Interview with thelist.com)
Grace on the song “Today and Tomorrow”
”The song I wrote for the film came very, very naturally. I was never told to write a song for the film. I just wrote it. I texted it to Julia Hart and I was just like, ‘I don’t know if you would want to do anything with this. It’s totally fine. No pressure. It’s your movie. I just thought it could be cool.’ Everything happened very, very naturally. Nothing really affected me, artistically, when it came to music, in that sense. I started writing the song, how I always write songs, just throwing out words and doing random stuff. And then, as we were going on, it started becoming Stargirl, but it was nothing that we discussed – me and the producer and writer. It was nothing where we were like, ‘Let’s write from Stargirl’s perspective.’ Everything about the process happened very organically.” (Interview with Collider.com)
"It definitely just came about and then as I was singing through the lyrics and creating the song, it became Stargirl's perspective, and it just very organically happened. But who knows? Maybe I was subconsciously inspired and I didn't even know." (Interview with thelist.com)
“I actually didn’t [write the song with the ukulele in mind]. I was just singing in the studio and the producer pulled out a ukulele and started kind of like jamming to it and then we were just like, “That sounds really good.” The whole song just kind of happened. I wrote it while I was filming “Stargirl,” and I showed director Julia Hart and I guess she liked it. So, it’s in the end credits . (Interview with USA Today)
Grace on the message of the film/Stargirl’s character
[Grace could relate to Stargirl’s character and her experience]
“Especially when the school turns on her and she toughens it out,” she says. I’ve definitely done that before. Stargirl seems so perfect and confident but what’s cool about the movie rather than the book, it really shows she’s just like everybody else and she can feel insecure. She doesn’t spread the message of, be confident and perfect and then you’ll be able to be yourself, because that’s impossible. We all have insecurities, and you have to accept that for the rest of your life you’ll be scared and have insecurity. Stargirl more stands for, you will always have insecurity and nerves, but you have to strengthen your other side to be stronger than that.” (Interview with EW.com)
"She is so unapologetically herself and it's ridiculous because she's so young," she observed. "Stargirl is not afraid of anyone, of doing her own thing. She understands the concept that no one cares — or at least people don't care as much as you think they do." (Teen Vogue)
“From her character, I've learned a lot about positivity and optimism. And she just always somehow can see the bright side of things, and that's very admirable. She definitely inspired me to just be a little more comfortable with myself and accept that you're never going to make everyone happy. I think it was pretty amazing that they put that into the film, that she definitely didn't make everyone happy. At the end of the film, we see how Stargirl's actions, however good-intentioned there are, affect people differently.” (Interview with thelist.com)
Grace on the ending of the film
“I love the way the movie ended ‘cause it’s the way the book ended. I’m so happy that they didn’t change the ending for the movie. Not would that maybe upset the Stargirl book fans, but it would upset me, too. I’m a Stargirl book fan, and I think that would be really sad, if they made it a happy ending because the Stargirl book isn’t really a happy ending. It’s very realistic, I feel like. I think she probably just started traveling with her mom and doing what her mom wanted to do. She did what she wanted to do.! She went to a public school, but I don’t think it’s what she expected. She romanticized the idea of public school and teenagers a lot, and the reality of it really shocked her, but taught her some things that she really needed to learn, and that’s all she really went there to do. She went there to make friends and learn, and that’s exactly what she did. It’s almost like her mission was completed, and now she’s ready to just take it day by day and do her thing.” (Interview with Collider.com)
Production
Development
As so many movies, this also had a false start with a different cast.
“On July 15, 2015, it was announced that Catherine Hardwicke was set to direct an adaptation of Jerry Spinelli's novel Stargirl for Walt Disney Pictures. The novel was initially adapted by Kristin Hahn who was also set to produce the film. Production companies involved were expected to include Gotham Group and BCDF Pictures, with the latter also financing the film. It was announced that the film would star Joey King as Stargirl and Charlie Plummer as Leo, the boy who narrates the story.”
“On February 8, 2018, it was announced that a new iteration of the screenplay had been developed, Hardwicke would be replaced by Julia Hart as director, and the film would be produced by Walt Disney Pictures. The following month, it was confirmed that the production was in the late stages of development, that Hahn's screenplay was still being used, and that she would continue to produce alongside Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Lee Stollman. Production companies were to include Gotham Group and Hahn's company Hahnscape Entertainment. By June 2018, Hart had polished Hahn's script with her husband Jordan Horowitz, who also served as an executive producer”. By June 2018, Vanderwaal had been cast to star as Stargirl. By August 2018, Verchere had been cast as Leo. By September 2018, Esposito, Brar, Stanchfield and Hernández had been cast in supporting roles.
(All above from Wikipedia)
Grace’s salary
According to her minor's contract, Grace took home a base salary of $125,000 for the first film. (TMZ.com)
Locations & Filming
The first "Be True to Your School" and "We Got the Beat" were filmed at Moriarty High School, Moriarty, NM. The second "Be True to Your School" was filmed at Valencia High School, Valencia, NM. Trivia time - the best way to tell these two football fields apart is the color of the track around the field (black vs maroon). Then Stargirl has a brief uke teaching moment in the courtyard at Valencia High School (Give Me Love(Give Me Peace On Earth) by George Harrison) (Thanks for input from Vandervault user aldri49501)
Principal photography started September 24, 2018, and wrapped on November 16, 2018.
Viewership
According to ScreenEngine/ASI, Stargirl was the 23rd-most-watched straight-to-streaming title of 2020, as of November 2020. (Wikipedia)
Reception
The movie got a respectable 68% on Rotten tomatoes with an audience score of 69%. But the reviews were mixed.
From the glowing:
“Vanderwaal, a singer-songwriter making her film debut, shows audacious promise with her work. She ropes us into the mystery of her character reveal with heaping amounts of magnetism and grounded authenticity. … She and Verchere, who’s a genuinely sweet cross between Jessie Eisenberg and Michael Cera sharing the physicality and vocal tonalities of each, are a remarkable pairing.! (Courtney Howard, for Variety)
Over the largely positive:
“VanderWaal is new to the acting game and still learning the nuances of dialogue and reaction, but when she strums that ukulele and puts her unique vocal spin on pop classics, she’s a star in the making, pun intended”. (Jason Bailey for Chicago Sun Times, given the movie 3,5 out of four stars)
“It’s a Disney movie, with music-video sequences showcasing Vanderwaal’s ethereal singing … Verchere and Vanderwaal have some chemistry …Vanderwaal acquits herself well enough in her film debut.” (Michael Ordana for LA Times)
To the very negative:
“Vandewaal is opaque to the extreme here and doesn't ignite the character at all. She doesn't have the skill as an actress to give us a sense that Stargirl has an inner life.” (Sheila O¨Mally for rogererbert.com)
The Manic Pixie Dreamgirl trope
Several reviewers, as well as many of the audience reviews on IMDB sees Stargirl as a prime example of the “Manic Pixie Dreammgirl”.
The term Manic Pixie Dreamgirl was coined by the film critic
Nathan Rabin, who described her as
“that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.”
In her piece
“Why the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Trope is Problematic” Noshin Nabila writing for UpTHrust has a thoughtfull dicussion of the trope and its possible repercussions.
Richard Lawson, writing for Vanity Fair<>i>about Stargirl describes the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl (MPDG) trope like this:
“you’ve heard it and seen it a million times before in 21st century movies and TV: the magical girl who rescues the regular boy from the dullness of his existence without ever really having much concern for herself, really only the faint hint of an inner life…. it’s based on a bestselling young-adult novel released in 2000—a book that may have helped invent the so-called manic pixie dream girl, a noxious character archetype that came to inform so much culture in the years since.”
Sheila O'Malley writing for Erbert.com finds that “Stargirl is the most "manic pixie dream girl" whoever pixie-dreamgirled. She's practically the prototype .. “
Beth Webb wring for Empire agrees:
“Vanderwaal’s vamped-up persona; Stargirl, with her rainbow knitwear and ukulele, is the very essence of the manic pixie dream girl from years past, an unrelatable product of the male gaze that is never rewarded with the character development she deserves.”
Courtney Howard, writing for Variety, had a different take:
“One of the best things about this adaptation is its deconstruction of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. The film isn’t so much concerned about subverting it, instead examining its facets and offering a healthy alternative.”
Molly Horan, in a piece for Refrinery29 from 2015 titled
“Manic Pixie Dream Girls Aren’t The Problem. The Guys Are”, argues for why the trope may be problematic seen from a feminist perspective. Her main argument is that
”…the thing that seems to be overlooked is that the Manic Pixie Dream Girl doesn't need a man, he needs her. She was doing just fine on her own.”
Stargirl did appear to do fine on her own, and she is the one who changes several times during the narrative, Leo doesn’t. The story may be told form Leo’s perspective – but he is little more than a plot device, used to tell Stargirl’s story. On the surface, Stargirl undoubtedly has many of the features of the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl, but at the movies core, she is not.
Sources
| Wikipedia page for the movie |
