'Popular Theory' with Sophia Reid-Gantzert, Cheryl Hines: Not every teen movie lead has to have a crush

If you're someone who grew up on movies like the 1996 hits Harriet the Spy and Matilda, filmmaker Ali Scher's Popular Theory (now in theatres) will have the comfort of familiarity, with her own spin, starring Sophia Reid-Gantzert and Cheryl Hines.

Aside from being inspired by those two films, Scher also tapped into her own experience of being a self-described "nerd" who loved science, but was made fun of at school, in creating the film set around Erwin Page (Sophia Reid-Gantzert), a young girl who's a gifted scientist.

Erwin lives with her dad Arthur (Marc Evan Jackson), her sister Ari (Chloe East) and her aunt Tammy (Cheryl Hines), a hairdresser who runs her business from the house.

“My worlds are colliding because I actually went to beauty school after high school, then I worked in a salon and then I went to college,” Hines told Yahoo Canada. “I got to use my teasing skills.”

In the film Erwin, named after Erwin Schrödinger, spends so much time alone that Tammy takes matters into her own hands, forbidding Erwin from doing anymore science, in an effort to get her to make friends and spend less time alone.

But when Erwin meets Winston Wilkinson (Lincoln Lambert), who's initially competition for Erwin's science skills, they start to work together to develop the ultimate invention to win a competition. Of course, Erwin has to go through this process without Tammy finding out.

The invention they created comes in the form of gum, which has a chemical that can make anyone adored by others. In this circumstance, Erwin and Winston's initial test subjects are students who want to be popular.

Things take a turn when Erwin uses the chemical on herself, raising suspicious from her sister Ari, as Erwin also learns what's really important about friendship.

For Reid-Gantzert, the film's star really liked playing a character where the story leans into her "flaws," while also having a narrative that's centred on a group of women and girls.

“I just think that we need way more family movies with strong female leads, and strong female characters," she said. "Erwin's just unapologetically her and I know that's definitely something that I aspire to be, because it's something that I've struggled with for a really long time."

"I noticed in a lot of stories that kind of have the same theme as this, it's like, oh they had to change their appearance, or they had to change their personality, or they had to date the jock on the football team. No, she's still herself, but I like how later in the film she realizes, yeah I'm still myself, but I don't need everyone to like me. I just need at least like one or two people, which I loved about it."

'She's this like iceberg that's floating around in a sea of warmth'

Some of the interesting choices Scher made in Popular Theory includes the colour palette being part of the storytelling. For Erwin, everything is blue, while for Winston, everything is orange, and much of the rest of the set (outside of Erwin-personal space, like her bedroom) have warm tones of colour.

“I remember in film school one of the professors told us, everything you do is a choice and if you don't make it, there's still a choice happening, so you might as well make all the choices,” Scher said. “I think that colour is one of the most exciting choices that we have as [filmmaker], because we have this opportunity to tell our story with colour and to have the story of the colour run simultaneously alongside the actual story.”

"Erwin is all blue, so she's this like iceberg that's floating around in a sea of warmth. ... As she befriends Winston, their colour palettes sort of start to meld together. And then when she uses the gum, she reverts back, because ... it's a false sense of connection."

For Gantzert, telling this visual story really appealed to the actor.

“The first time I met Ali in person, she showed me the vision and instantly I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ I was at least 50 times more excited, which was very hard because I was already really excited,” Gantzert said.

'We think that girls are only going to relate if there's a crush on a boy'

Another choice on Scher's part for the story is that romance is nowhere on Erwin's radar. So often in teen-centred stories, there has to be a love interest, or a friend has to transition into "something more," but for Popular Theory, it really is just about friendship.

“My objective as a filmmaker is to make elevated family content that features strong, powerful female protagonists that are positive role models for young girls,” Scher stressed. “There's no love interest for Erwin in the movie. This isn't a movie about a girl fawning over a boy and I remember I got notes on that in the script that were like, ‘Oh, are you sure?' … I was like, ‘No, absolutely not, this isn’t that movie.’”

“I think it's this thing that maybe we think is necessary. We think that girls are only going to relate if there's a crush on a boy, but that's not the centre of all girls’ lives. There's so much else going on for us and I think it's so important to portray the other facets of girlhood and womanhood, and to give something else for girls to aspire to. I think of Erwin as a really aspirational character. She's someone I want to be like. She knows who she is and she owns it, unapologetically. … It took me a lot longer than 11 years to be able to do that.”

Hines highlighted that we need people like Scher to continue to tell stories focused on young girls, who have a variety of interests.

“When I read the script, when I watched the film, I didn't feel like ‘Oh this is so different, finally girls are being portrayed in this way,’ because in my mind that's how we've always been,” Hines said. “But then I realized, ... it's like, oh my gosh right. Why haven't been seeing these types of films, with girls in the lead, women in the lead, telling a simple story that they love science? It’s pretty simple."

"I'm so glad that Ali's out there capturing this and putting it on film, and in a way that it's not a big deal. She's not making a big deal about it. ... But just putting it out there like, yeah she likes science. She's really a super smart girl. So I love that and I think the more Alis we have out there, the better."