Tall Girl 2 is now streaming on Netflix. The film features returning stars Ava Michelle, Griffin Gluck, Sabrina Carpenter, Anjelika Washington, Luke Eisner, Angela Kinsey, and Steve Zahn. Newcomer Jan Luis Castellanos also makes a splash as a new love interest for Jodi.
“After her inspiring speech at the homecoming dance, Jodi (Ava Michelle) is no longer just the ‘tall girl’ – she’s popular, confident, has a boyfriend, and just booked the lead role in this year’s school musical,” says the official synopsis. “But as the pressure of her newfound popularity intensifies, so do her insecurities, and new relationships are formed while old ones are tested. As the world she built starts to crumble around her, Jodi realizes that standing tall was only just the beginning.”
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Tall Girl 2 director Emily Ting about the Netflix film and its themes of parenthood and anxiety.
Tyler Treese: Thought the film was really fun. What really impressed me here was that every single character kind of has their chance to shine in Tall Girl 2. So what was the challenge in balancing all these different storylines?
Emily Ting: This is one thing you hit on something that really drew me to this project. I thought all the supporting characters really got their moment and their arcs in this film, even the villain from the first movie who was very, the one note mean girl, has her redemption and her arc. And that was something, I think from the first movie to the second movie, the second movie became more of an ensemble film. All the supporting characters became a lot more important, and then just sort of balancing their stories. But in the end, this is still called Tall Girl. So, you know, especially in the editing process, we have all of these stories going on, so we want to give them their moment to shine, but also they still have to support Jodi’s main journey. So it’s just always keeping in mind to protect our lead, while also letting these supporting characters really shine.
One of the themes I thought was particularly interesting was just the pressure that parents put on their children. You have Jodi, you know, being supported, but so much so that it’s furthering her anxiety. Fareeda’s parents don’t want her to follow her passions. Can you just speak to that? And I thought there were some really telling moments, you know, exploring that theme.
Yeah. And that’s another theme that I found to be really relatable, both as, you know, a parent myself, and also as someone who had very, very strict parents growing up. Rita’s entire storyline with her parents, where they want her to pursue a medical career as opposed to fashion, basically, is the story of my life. And I found that to be so relatable and even Jodi’s parents, who are such great parents and so supportive, sometimes they don’t realize that they could come off being smothering and almost overwhelming their child and adding to this pressure. So I think this is a great film for parents to enjoy with their kids. And it could hopefully lead to a lot of conversations just in terms of what your actions are doing to your kids and how that might affect what they might be going through.
Anxiety is a big topic in this film and everybody, you know, deals with anxiety, but not everybody has anxiety attacks.
Yeah.
Can you talk about what went into the portrayal of the anxiety attack that happens in the film?
Yeah, so, my DP went through a really big exploration process, in terms of how we want to visualize the anxiety attacks. And we really wanted the audience to feel like they are in there with Jodi having an anxiety attack. So we shot all the anxiety attack sequences with a body cam mounted to Jodi. Our inspiration came from Requiem For A Dream when Jennifer Connelly was walking down that hallway because once you have the camera mounted on her, you could see her emotions so well, you’re right there with her. And then in the sound design element, our sound designer Andy built these crashing waves in the sonic design of the anxiety attack, because a lot of times when these anxieties come and manifests into a physical anxiety attack, it feels like waves crashing. So we built that into the sonic design. So hopefully, with the way that was shot and edited and with the way the sound was designed, we could put the audience in the room and feel what Jodi is feeling at the time and feel like you’re actually having the anxiety moments.
You have a very young cast for the most part, very eager, but not as experienced. How did that differ compared to your past films on set?
Yeah. So this was definitely the youngest cast I’ve ever worked with, but honestly, they are some of the most professional actors I’ve ever worked with. It’s very different to work with a younger, more inexperienced cast than veteran actors. I mean, I have veteran actors in my past films that just don’t take directions very well, or they have a very set way to do things, and you just kind of have to sometimes deal with them a little differently. And with this cast, it was honestly probably the easiest cast I’ve ever had to work with just because they are very eager and they are very open to notes and exploration. A lot of them also really love to improv and have fun. So yeah, so even though they are younger, they are by no means, you know, less skilled. All of them sort of brought their “A” game to set every day.
