Dylan Meyer is a screenwriter, film producer, director, and actress known for her work on the Netflix film “XOXO”.
Her studded comedy “The Wrong Girls” follows two best friends living paycheck to paycheck who get caught in a case of mistaken identity that throws their lives into chaos.
The film stars Kristen Stewart, LaKeith Stanfield, Kumail Nanjiani and Seth Rogen.
The Wrong Girls frequently finds humor in failure, bad decisions, and unexpected detours. Why are those moments often more interesting than success stories?
I wrote characters who felt like me and my friends and put them in very heightened circumstances. Once you have people who make bad choices, you can put them in more and more extreme environments, and the bad choices just get funnier as the stakes get higher. A lot of the movie comes from the fact that they just can’t
quite keep up with the idea that there’s a major, life-threatening problem. I once got a series of notes on this script asking. Would the girls really do that? And I was like, well, I’ve either done that or I would completely do that.
Frankie and Molly wear the term “Wrong Girl” as a badge of honor. What does it mean to be a Wrong Girl?
Wrong girls are prone to DIY chaotic solutions to problems. It’s self-generated comedy chaos. Wrong girls aren’t upset when these things happen, they expect it. They know it’s coming, they know it’s their fault, and they can’t choose when or if they’re not a wrong girl. It’s a lifestyle that chooses you. You also don’t need to smoke weed to be a wrong girl, although the two have a mutually symbiotic relationship. A lot of wrong girls do smoke weed, and it certainly adds to the calamity.
The film is grounded in a delightfully weird Los Angeles. What version of the city were you interested in capturing?
Los Angeles is one of the most photographed cities, but it’s usually given a sheen of glamour, mystery, hustle, dreams, and ambition. I felt compelled to point out that there are entire communities of people living here who have nothing to do with any of that. I wanted to capture the dirtbag magic of the unseen sides of LA that I find beautiful, even if they’re not beautiful in a conventional sense. It’s a mecca of dreams and bad ideas, a place where everyone kind of has a fake job. Showing the people under the radar, drifting through technically unremarkable but really compelling and magical lives-that’s the stuff I’m in love with, and I wanted everyone else to see it too.
What was the challenge and the fun in directing an ensemble cast with so many distinct comedic voices, including Kristen Stewart, LaKeith Stanfield, Kumail Nanjiani, Seth Rogen?
Directing such a talented cast was intimidating, but every time I came up against a personal limitation or fear, I weighed it against my greater fear that the movie wouldn’t become what I needed it to be. That one always won. Everyone was incredibly kind and supportive. LaKeith was such a team player and such a gift to the film. I didn’t know him at all, and I had no idea why he wanted to come party with us, but I wrote a lot of impassioned letters to cast members trying to get them to ride the crazy train with me.
What would you like audiences to take away from the film? Is the hope for them to have fun and feel like they’re just hanging out with friends?
I want people to have a good time, but movies take too much to make if you have nothing to say. We live in a world obsessed with money,success, and owning things. I wanted to make a movie about people who make their own things and who, within the scale of their own universe, are thriving. I wanted to make a movie about people who are none of those things-people who remain completely themselves against all odds.
Dylan Meyer’s “The Wrong Girls” releases in theaters August 14.
