‘Bottoms’ filmmaker Emma Seligman dishes on her unconventional high school comedy

The new movie Bottoms is here to make you laugh, and also slightly alter the paradigm of teen sex comedies.

“Bottoms is about Josie and PJ, two horny, unpopular girls in high school who start a fight club so they can try to impress and hook up with their … cheerleader crushes,” director and co-writer Emma Seligman tells ABC Audio.

“I think that I wanted to put something in the world … that I wish I could have seen in high school,” says Seligman, who co-wrote the raunchy coming-of-age comedy with Rachel Sennott, who stars alongside The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri. “I think Rachel and I … just wanted to write a comedy and make people laugh and do something fun and stupid.”

Because of its queer representation, Seligman says the film has an element that was missing from similar movies she watched as a kid, though they were all strong influences.

“I loved all these teen rom coms growing up like Ten Things I Hate About You or She’s All That or, you know, on the campier side like Not Another Teen Movie and you know, Sugar and Spice and Bring It On … Superbad, American Pie and whatnot,” she explains. “It’s like a love letter to these movies for sure.”

“It was important … to show queer horny girls,” says Seligman, noting, “What is so refreshing about watching teen sex comedies is that these characters are flawed and relatable and human and selfish and hormonal, and they’re able to get away with doing things that, you know, adults really can’t.”

“They’re making mistakes left, right and center,” she continues. “And I think that it was just important to like, see a version of that for girls and for queer teens.” 

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