The Big Picture · Interview · Roundtable
July 20, 2018/ 31 min/ Sean Fennessey
Sean Fennessey sits down with writer-director Bo Burnham and 15-year-old star Elsie Fisher about Eighth Grade.
6 films across 2 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
In conversation
Burnham's first film as writer-director; Fisher plays Kayla. He wanted a movie about "now," not a nostalgia piece, and cast a girl to keep from projecting his own past onto her. Fisher was past eighth grade when they shot: 27 days, nine-hour days because she was 13. Burnham tested her seven times; the pool-party walk and the closed-set banana scene came up as the moments that read far more intense onscreen than they were to shoot.
The last great thing they've seen the show's closing question
The documentary: "the title's only the first five minutes," so it doesn't spoil itself.
His scripted pick; a warm studio comedy he thought did right by its three leads.
Her current favorite; saw it at a midnight showing and wasn't scared.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Touchstones Burnham named The Breakfast ClubOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestSaving Private RyanAir Bud
Fisher's dad's rotation Con AirArmageddonDivergent
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
Video games Fortnite
Podcasts Extreme D&DThe Bill Simmons Podcast
Ads ShudderWolf Creek