'Eighth Grade' film hits home for teens and becomes eye-opener for parents

I asked one girl she have a special talent and asked everyone if they s no talent and one girl said I have eczema like what there's another kid like eating a bell pepper like an apple and it's like just get them in like how do you get these kids in the process hi everybody i'm peter travers welcome to popcorn where we tell you what's happening at the movies and my favorite movie that's out now Bar None is called eighth grade it's the brainchild of my guest Bo Burnham who is telling a story about a 13 year old girl so where does Bo welcome to the show for having me Peters what is that 13 year old girl living you um we share a duplex no I don't know you know I really set out to make a movie about how I was feeling and what it what I felt like it felt like to be alive now which to me it felt confusing and weird and strange and everything was changing so very quickly it seemed to line up with middle school and so I started like looking at kids that age expressing themselves online making videos the boys talked about video games the girls talked about their souls so it was like okay girl just run slightly their souls yes it evens out or maybe tries to even out a little later in life but at that age it's like the girls are just tapped into slifer slightly deeper questions so I think that continues through life I think so but I it really is in the way that it's personal it's about me now more than it was me when I was that age what's in this movie there's so many things but what pervades it is anxiety yeah it's what do I do yeah nobody's liking me I don't know how to express myself yeah I don't even know what I want to express but I have to do it present myself to the world in some way and now this is the internet age but it could have happened you know back with like that yes yes fourscore yeah I mean exactly that's what I was drawn to his watching kids try to express themselves in the sort of gulf between what they had in their head what was coming out of their mouth and a huge pressure you can kind of tell with young people expression themselves is the like cultural standard of movies they want to sound like people in movies they want to sound like the young heroes they see in movies giving perfectly worded voiceovers that perfectly capture the narrative they're in and sort of the way kids fall short of that I think ironically is worthy of a movie the way they sort of fail to be a good movie in their own mind because that's the weird thing about sort of all post John Hughes generations myself included is like by the time we get to our first kiss we've seen first kisses fifty times in movies so like once when we get to all the landmarks of our childhood we gets them and we go like why isn't why isn't it as cool as Ferris Bueller like what why why does my life feel really lame and and dusty and like or why do I feel like I've seen this before like the time we get to prom we've heard of we've seen prom and culture so much so that tension is really interesting the linings crap music yeah your your your a bad makeup artist for yourself and you're your own bad pal exactly that's that's that's part of we were trying to capture where did you find Elsie Fisher to play this girl um a little clip of her online and really just her being like interviewed on some Brown carpet event and some rec center talking about like cupcakes or something and her vibe was just totally amazing and I was like I really hope this kid can act and she really can't act but I saw hundreds of kids for this role you know and every other kid when they would read it it felt like a confident kid pretending to be shy and she was the only one that played it like a shy kid pretending to be confident which is what it actually is you know shyness isn't inactive being shy isn't curling up in a corner and hiding it's actually trying to speak at every moment and not being able to so she took a character that like could on the surface be very passive and made her active which is you know the entire lifeblood of the story that that if you feel like this person that everyone thinks is quiet and does nothing is actually in every moment pushing forward to try to change your life how long has this eighth grade movie been gestating in your head I wrote it probably years ago three and a half years ago and then would return to it sort of every six months just to like update the tech like update the apps cuz like you know the culture sort of ages like milk and we wanted to like really just capture a moment in time let's write generation generational changes used to be 10 or 20 years now here in our 20 weeks yeah yeah truly yeah it's crazy it's like exactly it's like we had vinyl we had the Walkman that's like we had Twitter we had snapchat those are a year apart but but yeah three or four years or so yeah it's been a long time coming it was oh it took a while to get the money it you know I have to say that when I saw this movie totally annoyed me because it's your first movie it shouldn't be this good where does it cause it's so hard to do mmm do you surprise yourself Oh every day I'd be like how am I so good no no I'm looking in the mirror you're grateful you wrote a song what's called oboe which is terrific I should go you know yeah I think it's like oh yeah I was swirling around that stuff but no I mean really I feel like what I did is I just tried to lean into what I perceived my strengths maybe which is like if anyone knows about young people in the internet it's me and the only people that know the internet better than me or the people that I'll be telling the story about which are the actual kids so I just felt like for my first thing like let me try to not stretch beyond myself a little too much and truly like I think that if this film succeeds and if this film works well it works because of the kids and the actors and then all of a pretty good star yeah it's been nice and nice but it's it really is so much of them and that's not false humility that's just the truth like my job is to just I did a really good job picking kids and picking actors that's that's what I feel like I did it was you I saw yeah I met and I would meet all the extras I would go up meet all the extras one by one every Saturday in pre-production and after the first Saturday I got deathly sick because I'm like shaking a bunch of 13 year olds hands so that stop play to ask kids like I asked one girl she have a special talent I'd ask everyone if it snows talent and one girl said I have egg like what there's another kid like eating a bell pepper like an apple and it's like just get them in like how do you get these kids in HoN process I want this person on camera exactly and like they're like that was the whole point is that like they're qualified and I can never write something for the extras that would be better than the way they already are because you a lot of times like extras and day players and movies they come in and they're there they are actual kids and when they show up in a movie they feel like they have to be in a movie and they're like playing video games like this you know I mean even though that's not how they would do it in real life the whole thing was just like telling the kids like don't act yeah just be like show me show us what it means you know what it means to be 13 we don't so just show us did they know you some of them did Elsie knew me the people that know me I think more our high school college out of college age yeah which was nice some of them did but but not really they would know me from like vine because I've made like vine videos yeah yeah they wouldn't they wouldn't know that I was a stand-up but you're the vine guy and I'd be like I'm gonna I'm that guy I'm gonna go hide Nick we've been a lot of guys you know you're the guy with that you know you did do the stand-up you did the songs my mother's son my mother's son you baseball player 8th grade yeah Blue Jays yeah the first time I remember seeing you was when he did that video of my whole family thinks I'm gay yeah yeah I was about right that was it it was like you needed to express all that's comic subtlety of a 16 year old 2006 yeah I really peaked then I hope overcome this film is for people who saw me at first and dismiss me know but they didn't some of them dead it's okay I wouldn't there's yeah I'm trying to find out where this anxiety in the movie grew and you you know when you were 13 yourselves I get in the couch yeah get better yes um when did it really start when did you real it probably started physical manifestations sophomore year of high school I was sort of a late bloomer so sophomore year of high school I was like in and out of the hospital but stomach problems thinking that I had this my Boston accent Hospital hospital popcorn I say popcorn and I get a lot of flack for that popcorn closet it's bad I in that and I thought I just had stomach issues and it wasn't until like 10 years later I was like oh I was just nervous the whole time and then provide a lot of performance anxiety performing and then I started to panic attacks on stage and that's sort of where a crescendo and I was like okay what do you do when you're having a panic attack on stage you keep going I would just keep going and power through it I was able to I mean yeah if your head you're thinking I'm falling apart yeah I'm tunnel vision short of breath and then but I'm also like within the confines of a stage show that I've written to the word it's a very surreal out-of-body experience but you know you get through it you go you know you lose three pounds of water weight over the course of an hour and it's you know you keep going well then they run the final route who who is that guy that we see compared to you because there's one I saw one thing of yours where you you were preparing to do your act and you said now I'm gonna recede into my stage four so yeah yeah which is and use the word receive receive do not proceed you are much higher up there on the anxiety level than the stage persona yeah yeah I think well this is me as much as I can be on camera and I think it's movie is truer to actually Who I am you know like I think people that are familiar with my comedy see this movie go like what a little bit but people that know me actually think know that this is a truer expression of what I am I had to sort of fit my thoughts into like a sort of buzzy sort of flashy satirical cynical ironic form I think my natural disposition is more genuine or emotional like this movie is really just breakdown you seem to me always in terms of what you did and it's in the movie to not one thing you know just like the whole way the movie views the internet it can be like this is just a thing ridiculous yeah and then the next is but this is helping me yeah yeah I need it I shouldn't have it I do then yes it's that push and pull heaven and hell things yeah yeah I feel that way I feel double behind it or contradictory for sure I just feel that as most true to my subjective experience of the world is inconsistency you know I'm not trying to juggle tones in the movie my day is totally consistent I wake up nervous my afternoon is boring and my night is terrifying well you know whatever it is like and that certainly it's what I feel like to be alive right now like don't we feel like oh my god we're on our phones so bored then we turn on CNN we're like ha ha and then like you know we're like nauseous then the next moment and then we're laughing with our friends you know like I think being alive especially in America right now is like having 16 contradictory things going on in your head at once you're annoyed with the world you're Boyd bored with the world you're entertained by the world it's so much of what your phone is your phone is the most boring entertaining thing you've ever seen in your life right well that's interesting because it used to be love hate but now it's kind of love bored yes it really is yes like I love this thing until I can't stand it anymore or I can't feel anything yeah I told that that exactly I think and that is what everyone's terrified of like you can actually feel it like expressing itself in the market like companies aren't scared of being hated they're scared of being ignored everyone that's the fear is that you will not be paid attention to not that you'll be hated attention is the currency so are you being seen or are you not being seen that's sort of the way and that's the currency for kids and which is not a great currency because being seen is not necessarily good and being and having a little bit of alone time is not necessarily bad either of course yeah well no but I'm saying your what your dress material yeah you're 27 now so when you were 13 it wasn't quite the way there's that no not at all is it so what were you doing to get love and indifference and 30 it was not hard to get indifference the indifference was coming in waves and your family you have yes I older brother oldest sister and I think of you when you started on that YouTube what did they set was there an intervention or was they were just happy my mother was a little more concerned I have a very funny family that's all very engaged so they were all cool my mother at first was like what is this right but she came around and no very very supportive I was always a sort of a weird little wacky kid so it wasn't that surprising it's hard to imagine so siblings not feel like you are you like really just the original in your family no I mean I was the only one that did like any sort of artsy stuff they're all very sports family but they're very very funny I mean it's like not like I'm not like the black sheep or anything like my family is like they make me laugh harder than anybody in the world so I feel like I get a lot from them and any skills I have artistically I get from my my family my family's very funny and witty but all of them and my mother is like a sort of beacon of empathy so if I get any of that any ability to see things emotionally it's certainly from her but I mean look you did that you did the YouTube thing you did stand-up you don't do it anymore no so you're sort of leaving things behind maybe yeah maybe it's almost like that whole thing about love and then I'm a little bored with it or I'm moving on with it mmm is this gonna happen to use it Phil I'm going to go not Kabul with Daniel day-lewis yes that's what we're gonna go that would be the problem think I'm gonna take the right shoes here take the left I think he does boots and you could really help you work in the new start in the toe we'll meet in the middle there's nothing left I mean no I mean the mountains are you wanting to climb feathers I think that's sort of silly cuz I just like I think it's the entertainment industry where we love to multi - and stuff or like I'm a writer-director whatever and like a chef isn't like I'm a Dicer slash boiler slash I mean like I just think I'm I like to make stuff you know and and I like to writes I think I myself as a writer I do first a writer and then you know I do think my stand-up was it was sort of leading to this I'm definitely not trying to wear hats just to be some sort of like loser like some look at what I can do I I do think it was leading but that's it this movie isn't a show off it isn't look what I can do I get a camera sewing from the rafters I can do all this it's it's very humane it's very much about who is on that screen oh yeah well yeah thanks yeah that was I directed some stand-up specials of people and that definitely taught me to do that you know that the best thing you can do is just learn how to service the person on camera and that was the intention with this entire movie when I would get bogged down with the logistics of the production which can be very very stressful I returned to the monitor and like CLC's face and be like oh right this is all I'm actually doing all I have to do is attend to her be a fan of hers be there when she needs me and it's why I can actually watch the movie and enjoy it still because I don't see myself I don't see my hand my directorial hand I just see her performance and to see your own core but you don't see the basically you moving things around I don't see my work I don't see I see their work I see the actors work because that that's what I go to very unselfish it's for well it's like it's just one egomaniac but it's my selfishness and as a viewer what I like to watch i watch performances that's my favorite movies I love the performances I love directing and I love but I'm not like I would in a million years rather see a great performance in a poorly films film than a well films film with a great performance I mean with a bad performance I like it's all about the actors it's all about the expressed humanity right it sounds good but is it you know because ego gets in there you know it is your work yeah it says a bo burnham film yeah I do I am not that I didn't have him scrub it I did keep that I did say little bolder typeface come on well we kiddin well anyway when you haven't been on this show before because I don't know why well I haven't made a film I mean whatever you've done so much yeah but come on looks like dignify those mediums let's keep it real okay just go to this but this show always ends in a little bit of song oh okay what are your songs with well all you have to do you can do whatever is in your head okay is there something in your head that you can do for us of course out of course again it's a blank stare of course i was III maybe a little Abba bring it once we good why not mama Mia yeah here I go wipe grade right off my my how could I forget you I kind of want to do it as a spoken word because that really is you need to as poetry yeah yeah Mamma Mia mmm-hmm here I go again my my how can I forget you and how could I forget your Peter he couldn't know like we go ago we should next time and I could I could basically hear the music to that look at me now I don't even know these words yes will I ever know I don't know you actually it's scary how much you do now there's a fire within my soul oh just one look yes and I can hear a bell ring yeah one more you should see someone if you keep hearing the bell ring exactly we'll get 17 seconds and the assisted-living sequel will get into a strike will do that is great to talk to you Wow [Music] hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News youtube channel if you'd like to get more video show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: Popcorn with Peter Travers

Views: 35,438

Rating: 4.9819937 out of 5

Keywords: Eighth, Grade, Bo, Burnham, Elsie, Fisher, Movies, School, Popcorn, ABC, Peter, Travers

Id: --n4jVe177s

Length: 19min 34sec (1174 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 03 2018