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Beanie Feldstein, left, and Kaitlyn Dever in Olivia Wilde's Booksmart.Francois Duhamel/The Associated Press

Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart is certified fresh. Currently sitting at a 99 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, the uproarious feminist coming-of-age comedy sees two high school overachievers (played by Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever) give sex, drugs, and partying a try the night before graduation. Deemed “the female Superbad” since its SXSW premiere, the film is also a deeply romantic ode to best-friendship and every woman who left high school with a 4.0 GPA and her hymen fully intact.

Quickly downing soup before their Toronto premiere this past week, Feldstein and Dever are just as charismatic and open as their on-screen avatars. They took a method approach to develop their on screen friendship, living together over the 26-day shoot. Now months into a gruelling press tour, you sense a mutual respect and admiration in how carefully they listen to each other. The Globe and Mail spoke with the duo on working with Wilde, whether roles for young actresses are changing, and what Richard Feldstein (father to both Beanie and her brother Jonah Hill) thought of the picture.

You’ve both been promoting Booksmart since March. How are you?

Dever: It would be a lot for anyone, but it’s great.

Feldstein: We never get sick of talking about the movie and being with each other.

Dever: We were on the plane this morning. I had a terrible earache where I was full-on crying and you were right there, taking care of me.

Feldstein: I have a Jewish mother bag of tricks I like to travel with. She needed Aspirin because when your ears are clogged, it’s a decongestant...

Dever: Make sure you get all of this.

You’ve delivered such memorable performances in smaller roles previously, like Short Term 12 for you Kaitlyn, and Lady Bird for you, Beanie. What was it like to play the leads for the first time?

Dever: For so long, I’d always go out for the lead and they’d say, “You’ve never led a film, so we can’t trust you’d be able to handle it.” How can I lead a film if I’ve never been one? The fact that Annapurna Pictures said, “We want you” without me even having to audition had never happened. Two years later, I still wasn’t sure it was going to happen.

Feldstein: I felt like that, at the premiere! “Are you sure you want me in this?” We both have such unique experiences. Kaitlyn’s been acting since she was a kid, and I only started acting after I graduated college. I feel so lucky because everything I’ve ever been a part of has been deeply feminist. Even Neighbors 2 was like a low-key feminist movie about girls who wanna party and aren’t given permission, so they create that space. Booksmart was the first film I did after Lady Bird and I felt like there couldn’t be a better next step. While Olivia took a risk on casting us, the fact that she was the director was also a risk. It really was a situation created by other women bringing each other up. Our producer Jessica Elbaum handed it to Olivia who handed it to me and Kaitlyn.

Are there finally great roles for young actresses out there?

Feldstein: I can only speak for myself, but it was hard to say no to things at first. To say, “No, this doesn’t fit with my morality” as, like, a human in the world. Once I did Lady Bird, the bar was raised so high that I can’t ever turn back, I just can’t ever lower it. That’s a gift.

Dever: It’s just a wonderful thing when female stories are told by females; I think it’s so much better. Still, our film isn’t great because the screenwriters and director are women. Olivia’s been an actor on so many different sets. Sometimes, you’ll have a hookup scene and they’ll say it’s a closed set, but once you get there, it’s not. Olivia made sure of this. She knew when she finally got to be in charge, she’d create the environment of what she always wanted.

I love how you used the word “finally” because I remember an interview where Greta Gerwig discussed how women always ask for permission, which no one’s gonna give you. You have to give it to yourself, right?

Feldstein: I honestly felt like a deer in the headlights. Olivia guided me because I was intimidated by [my character Molly]. She’s an intense creature and I was used to only playing the crazy person, or the sweet wallflower. I’d never been asked to hit that hard and I needed her to say, “It’s working, it’s right, don’t hold back.”

Dever: We were all finally trusted. I’ve worked with so many great filmmakers, men and women, who really shaped me, but Olivia put her trust in everybody. She looked beyond the résumé in all aspects of this movie. She knew there were talented women who deserved this.

Feldstein: It’s not for lack of talent, it’s for lack of opportunity. Like, hello! Hello! We’re right here!

I’m jealous that this generation has Booksmart to survive high school.

Feldstein: So are we! You never think about these things when you’re making a movie, but hearing how young people are having the best time watching the film is deeply meaningful. Even my dad is 67, he’s an accountant, he wears his pants very high, and he doesn’t like everything me, or my family, have been in and has made that clear. After SXSW, he told me: “I would say after The Godfather, this is my second-favourite film.” This is a man who only says four sentences a day and I watched him laugh so loudly he couldn’t speak! It just goes to show you don’t have to be a certain age, or gender, or sexuality to watch a movie. When stuff is real, it just hits.

Booksmart is in theatres now

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