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Last I reviewed the strong new revenge film, Girls Against Boys, which I was hugely impressed with. It tells the story of Shae (Danielle Panabaker), who over the course of a few hours is the victim of some very bad men. Her new friend Lu (Nicole LaLiberte) takes Shae on a vengeance filled day, before revealing she may be just as bad as the men they take down.

I was very lucky to be able to talk to director Austin Chick via email about his film, working with Panabaker and LaLiberte, the origins of the story and much more. There are some spoilers, so tread with caution.

Andy Burns: First of all, congrats on a fantastic film, Austin. I absolutely loved it. Where did the idea for the story come from?

Austin Chick: Thanks Andy. I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it.

I wish I had a simple answer for you but I don’t.  I guess the idea for the movie started with the character of Shae.  I arrived in NY when I was seventeen and I’ve known dozens of women like Shae over the years.  Young, perhaps a bit naive, but desperately wanting to be seen as mature, sophisticated, independent.  There was a period in the ’90s where I spent a lot of time in and around the fashion industry and watching what happened to some of the young models – both girls and boys, often in their teens, totally on their own but desperate to fit in – I was fascinated and horrified by how some of those stories evolved.  GIRLS AGAINST BOYS isn’t about the fashion industry but exploitation is everywhere.  The feeling of wanting to lash out after having been wronged somehow – taken advantage of, fucked over, lied to, whatever – that’s a pretty universal feeling and revenge movies tap into our own violent fantasies.  But I wanted to explore the repercussions of vengeance on the person who chooses that route.  We all get victimized or fucked over at some point in our lives but how we deal with that is what shapes us as people.  I see this as a parable about the loss of innocence.

Andy Burns: Can you go a little into the writing process? How long did it take to write the script?

Austin Chick: I had the idea for this movie a very long time ago.  I think it was as early as ’04 or ’05.  I wrote an outline and started writing the script but somewhere around the middle the violence began to get to me.  I’d never done anything with this kind of graphic physical violence and I felt like it was a movie I’d like to see but I wasn’t sure I was prepared to live with it day in and day out for a year or more which is what you need to do when you are making a movie.  So I put it aside and ended up working on a couple of other projects and it wasn’t until a few years later that I came back to the unfinished draft and reread it.  I still found the ideas interesting and decided to finish it.  So to answer your question, I wrote the first draft in two sessions, probably a week or two each, but with several years in between, and it was a few more years until I decided to try to make it.
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