The Wrong Girls – Alia Shawkat & Kristen Stewart

The two coolest actresses in LA – Alia Shawkat and Kristen Stewart – have been in the industry long enough to outlive their initial “it girl” status and settle firmly into bad-ass women territory. Longtime friends, the pair join forces on screen in The Wrong Girls, a stoner comedy written and directed by Kristen’s wife, Dylan Meyer, in her directorial debut. Out this August, the film follows Alia and Kristen as Molly and Frankie, codependent best friends who become accidental drug mules after ingesting a top-secret substance that lets them communicate telepathically with each other (and their cats). Beyond the talking felines, the film is full of surprising twists, refusing to fall into familiar tropes. The guy Frankie rejects to hang out with Molly? He’s actually not interested anyway. The angry mob chasing them through an abandoned shipyard? They’re high as hell and break into song and dance.

Alia Shawkat and Kristen Stewart are our August digital and AW26/27 print Cover 1 stars

Kristen: vintage top, Kristen’s own necklace

Alia: vintage jacket, IRO top

Kristen: STELLA MCCARTNEY jacket, IRO top, Kristen’s own necklace

Alia: Vintage top & dress

I spoke with Alia and Kristen over Zoom shortly before the film’s release. Listening to them riff off each other on everything from friendship to 1970s cinema, it was easy to see where the irreverence and wit at the heart of The Wrong Girls originates.

PR:  You both have such distinct careers, so it was especially exciting to see you guys come together on this project. What initially drew you to the film? 

AS: Dylan sent me the script a while ago, and we met in Los Feliz and had coffee. I just really loved the script. I thought it was so funny and her vibe was so chill. I had known Kristen for a long time, and I really loved the idea of getting to do this with her. There aren’t a lot of scripts like this, and there aren’t a lot of characters like these. 

KS: The script had been around for so long and had kind of had a hard time finding its feet because nothing like it really existed yet. It was such a delight to read because we’re usually just not allowed to have this much fun with each other, and so sweetly and irreverently. The movie is kind of punk in the way that it just doesn’t give a fuck. It just cares about what it cares about and has such a distinct voice. I was so proud of Dylan for writing that. And then finding Alia – I just don’t think there are many actresses my age that could have swung with me.  

PR: I kept thinking about how the film creates this alternate reality through the friendship portrayed on screen. Obviously, the characters are high a lot, so there’s that altered-consciousness element, but it also feels like they build this little world together that’s insulated from everything else.

AS: I think they’re living in their own little world. Wrong Girls seems simple, but it’s actually really important: just a real friendship, where they care about each other. That’s the crux of the movie. All this crazy stuff happens, but at the same time it’s just about them and their own little world and making sure that it’s safe because they want the best for each other, and they love each other.

At the end of the movie, we’re saying, “I love you” to each other. It’s so sweet to have platonic friendship love at the forefront of a movie. For a lot of people, it’s always about romantic love, being sexually desired, and I just don’t think that’s always such a great end goal. If you have good friends, I feel like you’re a much happier person, and then you have sex sometimes, you know?

KS: What a fallacy, what a crippling barrier to think that you have to grow up and be less close with your friends. Like, what? I don’t want to grow up if I have to not be as close with my best friends anymore. I don’t want to perpetuate that nonsense. That’s bullshit. In the movie, we just take drugs that make us able to hear each other’s thoughts and inhabit a world together that feels like it’s going to last forever, even though we go through hijinks and conflict in the movie. It’s funny, in interviews you’re always asked, “What do you want people to take away from this?” I’m like, “Dude, they’re having a good time.” And that is a lesson to fucking learn. That’s very important as well.

PR: I love that we’re seeing a resurgence of these female friendship comedies like Bottoms and One of Them Days. But I feel like Wrong Girls has a sort of dreamlike, surreal quality that reminded me of older films like Daisies or Céline and Julie Go Boating.

AS: I think those were a lot of references that Dylan had, and a lot of shots were even inspired by that. For a lot of people, especially younger people who maybe don’t know some of those references, what’s refreshing and cool about a movie like this is that everything’s very practical and lo-fi and kind of handmade. I think our generation grew up a little more on films like that, where you’re like, “Oh wow, they just made that with nothing.” I think we get a little desensitised, just because we’re taking in so much information and stuff on screens. We don’t even know if stuff is real anymore, or if it’s AI. It’s really refreshing for the eyes and the soul to just watch something that feels really handmade.

Kristen: vintage top, TORY BURCH trousers, Kristen’s own necklace

Alia: vintage jacket, IRO top, MAGDA BUTRYM shorts