The ‘Crush’ writers, Kirsten King and Casey Rackham, discuss penning the lesbian rom-com they would have loved to see as teens.
The girlies really do launch the world in Hulu ’s young rom - comCrush . Megan Mullally is a majestic undivided mom by choice , Michelle Buteau is a in high spirits school day principal , and the teens who roam the halls of Miller High School are so openly cross that the one straight duad is respectfully tokenized . In other words , Crushfeatures the variety of lesbian , matriarchal utopia that dream are made of .
By queering rom - com figure , and by being endlessly magical , Crush — direct by Sammi Cohen and executive produced by the likes of Natasha Lyonne and Maya Rudolph — feels refreshfully refreshing . For the movie ’s Centennial State - writer , Kirsten King and Casey Rackham , they set out to write " the high school day we like we had , where queer kids can be the cool kid in shoal , " King say over Zoom . progress out its world where women hold central positions of mogul and non - binary people are featured conspicuously was simply raw in tell the chronicle they wanted to distinguish . " It was n’t a conscious choice , " Rackham says . " That ’s who we wrote because that ’s who we ’re wall by , mostly women . And then just naturally anything Kirsten and I do is blend to be really queer . "
That extends to the cast , crew , and euphony extract as well : " One specification up front with our producers is we want queer role player to be playing the queer use , " King say . " It ’s something that seems very comfortable and should be the default , but it ’s something you have to push for . " That hunting led to project the motion picture ’s leash , Disney Channel’sGirl Meets Worldstarlet Rowan Blanchard as Paige , an aspiring mountain lion , and Auli’i Cravalho , intimately known as the voice of the titular Moana who is also starring in Amazon ’s forthcoming seriesThe Power , as the skateboarding , rearward chapeau - wearing AJ . Blanchard came out at just 14 age one-time in 2016 , and Cravalho in 2020 with a TikTok TV . Along with Cohen , they promote to feature as many rummy musicians as possible on the soundtrack;Crushstarts and ends with twee - as - ass songs from Mal Blum and Jax Anderson , whom King and Rackham tally as champion . " It makes a difference when it ’s pen and point by queer women , " King adds . " The vibes are dissimilar . "
Auli’i Cravalho and Rowan Blanchard in ‘Crush’|Hulu
King and Rackham first met seven years ago working on the editorial squad at BuzzFeed and embark on a queer writing mathematical group four years ago where things really began to click . " We begin shout out what our commonalities were in our high-pitched school experience , " King says of their first night brainstorming , a few martinis deep . " We both did trail , my good admirer on the cart track team were twins , Casey and her baby are both queer , I grew up with a individual ma . So it became this hybrid of our own personal experiences . " At the same time , " we really just want to create this Earth devoid of the number out injury and just make it about who these nestling were as people . "
InCrush , Paige desperately wants to be accepted into the competitory Cal Arts summertime curriculum , but is utterly uninspired by the program prompting depicting her " happiest moment . " Told by her star that her lack of extracurriculars wo n’t assist her opportunity of getting in , and because she ’s under intuition for vandalise school place as the elusive street artist King Pun , Paige declare that she " bet track " and unite the squad ’s tryouts .
Proving herself as mostly abysmal at every event , Paige is pressure under the tuition of AJ , the twin babe of her lifelong jam , the tall and champagne Gabriella ( Isabella Ferreira ) , to start the 4x4 electrical relay . Naturally , affair get complicated in the satisfying way that expectant rom - coms do with plenty of modern flourish along the means . Take , for instance , one of the movie ’s liberal classic party scene where the data track team parties in a hotel room and plays Seven Minutes ( NOT In Heaven , which " perpetuates a Christian story , " and no one is push to make out " because it ’s 2022 " ) , where Paige and AJ are paired up and break the tension with random beast facts . " All the beast facts in the movie are our own personal animal facts , " Rackham says . " Kirsten pronounce the wild squirrel line to me once after we were writing , and I was like , ' okay , well , that ’s run low in the playscript . ' "
Rowan Blanchard, Isabella Ferreira, and Auli’i Cravalho in ‘Crush’|Brett Roedel/Hulu
" I ’m very afraid of wrong a squirrel because of their photographic storage , " King tote up . " I never make oculus contact with them on the street because of that . "
Both King and Rackham are Brobdingnagian fans of ' 90s and former 2000s rom - coms — Rackham cites10 Things I detest About YouandLove & Basketball — and set out " to emulate that tone of early ' 90s nostalgia , but also speaking to a Gen Z audience and giving them credit for how evolved they are , " King sound out , and it show . The teens inCrushare empathic , socially progressive , and universally go for ; plus , it ’s just a all-fired safe rom - com . " Hopefully it wo n’t be refer to for forever as the ' queer rom - com , ' " Rackham says . " There ’ll be so many that you ’ll be like , ' Which one ? ' "
