Darby and the Dead brings supernatural dramedy to the teen scene. Stars Kylie Liya Page as Taylor, Genneya Walton as Bree, and Nicole Maines as Piper talk about the inspiration for some of the scenes and their teenage characters. While they were definitely inspired by some cool teen movies, Darby and the Dead is not just another teen film.
Improvisation and Dynamics
Page, Walton, and Maines talked about some of their inspirations like Mean Girls, Clueless, and Bring it On for their styles and character inspiration, but they also talk about what makes them unique.
Maines talked about how fun it was to be able to improvise on set. “The more we got to play with each other, the opportunities for improvisation just grew so much. By the end of the film we were sort of given the green light to just do whatever stupid thing popped into our heads.”
Walton doesn’t want you to think it’s just another teen movie. They wanted to do more with their characters. She said, “We could’ve taken the Mean Girl group tropes but we were trying to find more depth to that and show that we’re just teenage girls that happen to be popular and cheerleaders, but are also trying to find their way throughout life and what it means to be a teenager in this current digital age.”
Page spoke about the dynamics of observing and portraying humor with grief. “It was so much un playing these teenagers needing to go through such a traumatic experience. I think teenagers already have so much emotion that that they don’t know how to deal with and so much energy.” They were able to be especially dramatic and hilarious, and it shows.
Darby and the Dead is now streaming on Hulu. This Darby and the Dead Parents Guide will give you some age recommendations for the film.
