Exclusive Interview
Kiernan Shipka & Nico Hiraga Break Down the ‘Sweethearts’ Spin on the Rom-Com (VIDEO)
[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Sweethearts.]
Sweethearts will steal your heart. The Max Original movie is one of the best rom-coms of the year, except it’s not exactly a rom-com. The film dabbles with the beloved genre but creates something fresh and exciting.
Jamie (Kiernan Shipka) and Ben (Nico Hiraga) are college freshmen and longtime friends who make a pact to break up with their high school sweethearts over Thanksgiving break. They set out on a road trip, which leads to a wild and enlightening night out in their hometown. The film has a splash When Harry Met Sally as Jamie and Ben navigate their platonic relationship — and if there’s something more to it.
Anthony Platt / Max
Jamie and Ben do share a kiss in the movie, just to test the romantic waters. After some pondering, Ben races to Jamie’s house (like many romantic leading men before him), only for both of them to acknowledge that they’re truly just friends and nothing more.
Swooon spoke with Shipka and Hiraga, as well as writer/director Jordan Weiss, about this rom-com twist. “I loved it,” Shipka said. “I feel like a lot of us have lived it, and I loved the idea that we were subverting and sort of being a little twisty with it. I thought it was fun. It can still be a happily ever after and a happy ending, even if people don’t end up together.”
The actress reiterated that Jamie and Ben’s platonic relationship is “for the best,” and Hiraga loved “changing the script” of the typical rom-com. Shipka added, “It felt totally right for the characters, too. I think that’s what makes me happiest. I’ve played characters that have not had very happy endings, so to sort of land the plane smoothly and let both of the characters end up great friends in a place that is good for them and where they’re evolving and growing felt really good.”
Hiraga noted that it was “hinted at throughout the movie a little bit that these two might end up together,” and the kiss between Jamie and Ben was a test for the audience — and the actors. “What I will say about that scene is that we shot it at the very end of a very long night, and the sun was coming up, so there were constraints and timing,” Shipka explained. “It was going to be a couple shots, then they ended up just doing like a one-er for kind of a push in. I think even the first couple times we did it, we had a little bit of a trepidation. Jordan came in there and was like, ‘Guys, make out. You gotta make out.'”
Courtesy of Max
Sweethearts is based on the real-life friendship between Weiss and Dan Brier, who co-wrote the film together. Similar to what Jamie and Ben did, Weiss and Brier took a cross-country road trip years ago that had everyone convinced they were on a “secret romantic getaway.” Their loved ones assuming they had a romantic relationship sparked Sweethearts.
“I think the other thing that really we wanted to talk about as writers was the end of first love, and the way that that is such a cardinal experience and is as formative as falling in love for the first time,” Weiss said. “I think there are really amazing rom coms, especially set in high school, about falling in love for the first time. I always think, wow, after the credits rolled and these two beautiful people at prom are now together, are they gonna break up six months later when they both go to different colleges?”
That’s what she wanted to explore with Sweethearts, which also marks Weiss’ feature directorial debut. As she did with Dollface, Weiss focused on “love stories about friendship” in Sweethearts.
“It’s also a coming of age story, and I think that Dan and I really intentionally wanted this movie to have a happy ending,” she told Swooon. “And for me, the happiest ending I could think of for two college freshmen was not finding love and partnership, it was finding the space and the confidence to evolve as individuals and explore and have adventures and try things and make themselves uncomfortable and fall in love and have heartbreak. That, to me, was a happier ending for these characters at this point in their life, and that is what I was most interested in. Not the most romantic ending, the happiest ending.”
Sweethearts, Streaming Now, Max
