‘Bottoms’ Director Emma Seligman on Defining ‘The Limit of Ridiculousness,’ Convincing Marshawn Lynch to Co-Star, and Teaching the Cast to Kick Ass
variety.comJaden Thompson On a football field somewhere in New Orleans, a thunderstorm was brewing, and the cast and crew of the lesbian teen sex comedy “Bottoms” grew worried as they watched each other’s hair point skyward from the electric charge in the air. “Okay, we should get off the field because I feel like lightning may strike,” director Emma Seligman told the crew.
They were gathered on that field to shoot Seligman’s second directorial effort, a satirical high school comedy about two queer, unpopular best friends, PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri), who start a female flight club at school with the ulterior motive of sleeping with cheerleaders.
They promote it as a means of empowering women, and their peers actually join the club. In an interview with Variety, Seligman unpacked the experience of bringing “Bottoms” to the big screen — from co-writing the screenplay with Sennott, to how she convinced former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch to act in her film, to the bonding experience of narrowly avoiding lightning strikes while shooting on location.
Seligman and co-stars Sennott and Edebiri needed no introduction on set. The three are longtime friends, having met several years ago at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
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