THE WRATH OF BECKY: An Interview With The Directors And Star Lulu Wilson

Cinema Scholars interviews The Wrath Of Becky star Lulu Wilson and directors Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote. Quiver Distribution is releasing the film exclusively in theaters on May 26, 2023.

Introduction

If there’s one thing we learned from the 2020 splatter fest, Becky, you do not mess with this titular character. Giving off major teenage girl-Wick vibes, the unlikely heroine is back in The Wrath Of Becky to show a whole new round of bad guys who’s boss. 

After starting a new life on her own after the traumatic events in the first film, the sequel finds Becky living a relatively quiet life with the help of a new friend and her loyal dog Diego. Soon, however, Becky’s luck runs out when she falls victim to another set of nefarious circumstances. This time, it involves a familiar-looking homespun hate group called the Noble Men. When the guys try to spew their misogynistic venom at the young protagonist, it is actually their luck that eventually runs out. 

Reprising her role as the angsty badass, Lulu Wilson once again falls right in step with the kind of unfettered rage only a teenage girl can muster. And the consummately underrated Seann William Scott goes full dark as not only the epitome bad guy but also as a villain behind a much more sinister movement. The pace is breakneck, the kills are ludicrous, and the taste of revenge is too sweet not to enjoy.

Cinema Scholars recently had the chance to interview Lulu Wilson as well as Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote, the writing and directing duo behind the satisfying mayhem that is The Wrath Of Becky. 

Interview

Note: These two interviews were combined and edited for length and clarity.

Rebecca Elliott:

Thank you for joining me today to talk about The Wrath Of Becky. As a Rebecca, I feel uniquely qualified to conduct this interview. So what’s in a name and what is it about the name Becky that resonates so perfectly with this character?

Lulu Wilson:

Honestly, I’ve never even thought about this, but I love this question. I think because her name’s obviously Rebecca, I think the nickname aspect is a big part of it. It’s snappy and it’s not like Veronica or like something like that. It’s Becky and it’s a poppy name and something pretty unexpected, you know? And it’s great for the title. 

Matt Angel:

That’s a good question. Hats off to Nick Morris.

Suzanne Coote:

Yeah, Nick Morris. He wrote the first one, and so we inherited Becky, the Beckinator.

Matt Angel:

What is it? It’s punchy. Yeah, it’s punchy. Becky, just like, fuck shit up.

Suzanne Coote:

Then there’s the Beyonce song and the drama with Jay-Z, “Becky with the good hair.”

Matt Angel:

And then this one particular community of shitheads uses the name Becky as a derogatory term. And that wasn’t intentional, but we’re like, we have to use that. Right?   

Suzanne Coote:

Someone’s gotta say it. You’re never gonna have “The Wrath of Karen.” Well, that could be great. Veronica? No. But The Wrath of Karen is excellent. 

Rebecca Elliott:

Ha! Becky changes her name to Karen and goes full circle! As mentioned, this film is a sequel. How do you guys approach an already-established universe, but do it with a fresh take? You can’t just repeat the same thing over again. Yet you still wanna stay within those parameters. Can you talk about how you developed the story, what you took from the original, and how you made it your own?

Matt Angel:

We had three weeks to write this movie. That was it. They approached us and said, are you interested? We said, yes. And they were like, go! When we said yes, we didn’t know that was part of it. But it was fun. The first thing we did is we went, okay, what is the worst thing in the world? Bad sequels. So how do we avoid that? Well, you look at bad sequels and you look at how they do the exact same thing. They don’t take their time. They throw you in and you’re just like, “Oh, I guess here we go again.” And so you don’t give an opportunity to invite a new audience in.

We said from day one, let’s not call it “Becky 2.” Because if I’m at a movie theater and I see a sequel and I didn’t know the first one existed, I’m not gonna wanna go see that movie. Let’s call it the Wrath of Becky. Now we’re inviting a new audience in and we’re also gonna make sure we please the audience for the first film. Fingers crossed, hopefully. So that’s the first thing. And then you just look at what sequels do wrong and then what the best sequels do right. Naturally, you talk a lot about James Cameron, and you look at what does in his sequels that make them so good. When you look at Terminator 2 or Aliens, stuff like that.

Rebecca Elliott:

No love for Piranha 2? Sorry, I couldn’t help but to interrupt.

Matt Angel:

Ha! No. But, I think that was a big part of it. What do sequels do wrong and what did they do right? The answer for us was they introduce you to a new version of a familiar character. And when you look at a teenager and you go, what did I feel like from 13 to 16? I was two different people. It’s such a truncated period of time, but it’s no different than moving from 20 to 30. Like, you look back at that split and you’re like, I’m a different person. And so it’s important that we don’t just assume Becky is who she was at 13. She’s not. What has she gone through? And so you started asking all those questions from a character perspective. I think that’s really just how we approached it from day one.

And then it was like, okay, what do the fans want? Well, we need a new villain. What’s a natural progression for Becky? Um, look, we got modern-day neo-Nazis amongst us and in the headlines every moment of every day. One of the producers, J.D. Lifshitz, said, what if we play with the idea of incels and the message boards? And it quickly became a much bigger world than just incels. They belong to bigger communities like Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. So it just felt very much like on a silver platter. Here. That laid the foundation and then it was off to the races.

Suzanne Coote:

Yeah. I will say we intentionally wanted to change the tone from the first movie. We wanted to make this funny when we could. I mean, she’s 16 years old in a bright red jumpsuit running around with a crossbow, like the police don’t exist, right? It works because we have these douchebags out there in the world. And unfortunately, we don’t have a Becky because she’d go to jail. But yeah, I think it was very important to us to change the tone from Becky to The Wrath of Becky. Because we wanted to write and direct that kind of movie.  

Matt Angel:

When it comes to cinematography, the first one was handheld. Well, Becky’s evolved, so let’s evolve the cinematography. Let’s feel sleeker because she’s sleeker. So those little things really helped us feel like we’re evolving things, we’re not doing the same thing.

Rebecca Elliott:

Lulu, for your character, this new crop of incel villains takes the story from straight revenge into more of a vigilante kind of thing. Does that change your vibe as a performer or your portrayal at all?

Lulu Wilson:

I don’t know if it changed my take on it as a performer very much, but it took the story in a different direction. And I think it was a necessary direction because, you know, we live in a world of Becky’s and Karen’s. Which, is kind of stupid, but I think it was great to have a more true-to-reality story. I’m taking on these people that really believe these awful things. And these are people that exist in our world today! Which is obviously very cathartic for me. And hopefully for everyone who’s gonna end up watching this movie.

Rebecca Elliott:

Definitely. Did doing the sequel feel like deja vu? Or was it completely different? Can you talk about stepping into the role a second time? 

Lulu Wilson:

Obviously, it was an honor for me to be stepping into this role again. I, myself am obsessed with Becky. I love the character, and I love both of the films so much. It was so exciting to take on the character again. I wouldn’t say it was a completely different vibe on set because both of the experiences for me were like my best ever. But I had so much fun. It was like murder summer camp for me. And for everyone, honestly. We all had such an amazing time filming this. Like besties making a project together, which was great.

But yeah, it was a little different stepping into this because I wanted her to be not just this angry 13-year-old. I wanted her to have a little bit more of an arc. A little bit more development. I didn’t want her to be one-sided. I’m a teenager, so I wanted her to have a little bit more of a method to her madness and a reason why she is the way she is. It was very important to me and I think Matt and Suze did a fantastic job of developing that with me. And I think it, it really shows on screen.

Rebecca Elliott:

As you mentioned already, you had your villains handed to you on a platter, but you still have to develop these characters. How do you go about creating a bad guy that justifies all the gleeful gore? Because that is a fine line. You don’t want it to be too dark. But, you want it to be dark enough that we cheer whenever something bad happens. 

Matt Angel:

This is categorized as a horror film, but to us, it’s much more action comedy. Yeah, it’s bloody. But it’s Edgar Wright who meets Tarantino totally. You know, Guy Richie and those types of energetic action comedy films. When we decided on that tone, you go, okay, how do we accomplish that? Well, we need to make sure we ground the characters right? Most importantly, our protagonist and our key antagonist. I think once you do that and you’re trying to accomplish a satirical world and you start one, you give yourself the freedom to build a world larger than life. And characters that you can then have fun with when it comes to the way Becky’s going to kill them.

And how they’re going to react to those situations when they see one of their own go down. Because you have your lead antagonist who’s a very quiet, intellectual, grounded, bad guy. So you have a lot of reality there in Seann William Scott’s character. And hats off to him. Like he brought all of that. He had a very clear vision of what the backstory was for that character and what he wanted included. How he wanted to portray him was so much better than I could remember ever on the page you could have imagined. I think that earns you the freedom to do a lot in the world around him and earn laughs.

Rebecca Elliott:

Speaking of Seann William Scott, why isn’t he in everything? He’s so great. I’m so ready for his Brendan Fraser moment. So I love hearing about working with him and how he developed this incredible low-key character.

Suzanne Coote:

So another instance of keeping things familiar from the first film, but changing them is that we wanted to also use a largely comedic actor who was underutilized in the drama space and just let them go at it. And he delivered in spades. He brought so much weight to the character and had so many ideas for his lines and his dialogue. He was just great. And he came to set the first day and with him was that huge monologue from one of his first scenes. And we were like, okay, this is the right choice.

Matt Angel:

Well, that monologue was Seann’s idea. That was his idea. And he nailed it in our first meeting with him. I think it was like Robert De Niro or the kind of actor you sit down with and they go, I want a monologue. What makes an actor a great actor? It’s like they want to dig their teeth into the character and have that moment. And he said to us, I think this is his backstory. The scene, originally one page became like two pages of him telling a story that really laid the groundwork for who this guy is and just how dangerous he is in a very manipulating, calculated way.

Seann William Scott brought that. He did more than we ever could have imagined for Darryl Jr. And he just showed up and did it. He was so excited to play that role and get to show this side of him. When you talk to him or do interviews with him, he talks about how when he came to Hollywood and he wanted to be an actor, these were the roles he couldn’t wait to play. And then he landed in comedy. And he loves comedy, but he’s like, I wanted to play a serial killer. Like, that’s the shit I wanted to do. So he really dug his teeth in and I think it shows because people will be blown away by his performance. He’s unrecognizable. 

Suzanne Coote:

Yeah, he was scary.

Rebecca Elliott:

Lulu, I guess you don’t have a ton of screen time with Scott, but can you talk about what he brings as a villain and how that helps support your role as an ass-kicking teenager? 

Lulu Wilson:

He is just amazing through and through. Acting-wise and human-wise. I spent a lot of time with him just hanging out on set. Even when we weren’t together onscreen, we were together on set. I got to know him really well. He’s a fantastic human being. It was really fun to watch his personality off-set morph into this terrifying neo-Nazi on-set because he’s literally the nicest man I have ever met in my whole entire life. He’s like a marshmallow personified. So, it was really amazing to see him shift completely into this monstrous character. Really inspiring for me to be like, you know what? You don’t have to be method to just be a good person and do a damn good job being this insane villain.

Rebecca Elliott:

That’s true. He doesn’t have to walk off-set and still be a jerk. He can just be a jerk in front of the camera. Acting! I mean, you’ve grown up on screen. You’ve been a performer pretty much your whole life. And you’ve also done a lot of grown-up material for a kid too. What is it like being the only kid on an R-rated flick? And has that dynamic changed as you’re getting older? I mean, how people treat you and how they perceive you. Can you talk a little bit about being a kid in an R-rated film?   

Lulu Wilson:

I love that question too! Oh my God. Yeah. I mean, often for me it’s been being the only kid on set. And I love it. TBH, I don’t get along with people my own age very well. I get along better with adults. I think the biggest difference for me is I feel a lot more respected on sets now that I’m older. Because coming onto a set as a child actor, people are a little bit skeptical of how I’m gonna be, what I’m gonna be able to do. And now that I’m 17, almost 18, it’s definitely changed a lot. But, I prefer to be the only kid in an R-rated movie because then I can be like, “Haha! You guys don’t know I can kick ass, but watch this!”

Rebecca Elliott:

It seems like needle drops are the thing these days, which mercifully you guys do not rely on in The Wrath Of Becky. But you do use a fun trick, just twice by my count, where you break the fourth wall just for a second. I loved it so much and it’s so effective in those moments. Was that on the page or did you decide as you were shooting?

Suzanne Coote:

It was not on the page. We were shooting the scene when she’s deciding that she’s gonna go find these motherfuckers, and I was like, let’s just try one where she looks at the camera. Let’s just have it in our pocket. And it just felt good at the time. I was like, it’s gonna feel so good when we cut it and there’s music and there’s this. And then the very end, we were like, we gotta have one more where she looks at the camera. Like a final payoff.

Rebecca Elliott:

So good. Speaking of cues and needle drops, you have this incredible score with the same composer, Nima Fakhrara, from the first film. I feel like it just lends more legitimacy to the film and also helps keep it from feeling trendy. Can you just talk about working with your composer and how you got him back for the second film?

Matt Angel:

We had met Nima in the past, and we were really excited to work with him at some point in the future. When we sat down to write this film, we broke the story together and then I wrote it. I write to score and there was no score I could write “Becky 2” to other than the Becky score. So I was so obsessed with that theme. I’m very much a score junkie. I drive to film scores. I’m a total nerd like that. It was just perfect and unique. He does such incredible things with unique instruments from all over the world. And he just embodies the character and the theme. So there was no doubt we were gonna bring him back. And he’s like a big deal. He’s doing some big stuff now. And he was like, “Oh my God, I love that score. I’m in. I have to do the movie.” This movie was a lot of people who loved the opportunity they got on the first one, and they just couldn’t wait to like come back for round two.

Rebecca Elliott: 

One, last kinda random question for Lulu. You’re completely covered in blood for nearly half of The Wrath Of Becky. So I guess you probably get to know your makeup and effects crew pretty well by reapplying your fresh layer of blood every day. Can you talk a little bit about what it’s like to go through that process every day? And then you’re in that all day long, I’m assuming? How does that affect your performance? Does it help, or does it hinder it sometimes because you’re, like, sticky and yuck?

Lulu Wilson:

Oh my God. I would love to talk about this. I’m filming right now, and I was on set yesterday showing off my bloody pictures, being like, “I had to do this all day for four days.” It was okay the first day getting bloody. Getting the blood thrown on me as I was, you know, hacking away was amazing. I needed that to go as ballistic as I did and I feel like it helped me too. I could kind of feel what I had done as Becky.

But on a real note, it was really difficult. The first couple of days I was so game, I was like, “This is the best thing ever! I love being covered in blood! Let’s never make this stop!” And then after a while, I was like, “Okay, this is getting kind of old. It’s turning my hair red. I wanna go to sleep.” First few days? Amazing. Then it got a little sticky. It also tasted terrible. Oh! Like the worst taste ever imaginable.

Rebecca Elliott:

Such a great answer! And on that note, I think we’re out of time. Thank you so much for chatting with me, and I’m looking forward to Becky 3, please!

Lulu Wilson:

Me too. Thanks.

Matt Angel:

Thanks.

Suzanne Coote:

Thank you.

Quiver Distribution is releasing The Wrath Of Becky exclusively in theaters on May 26, 2023.

Read more interviews from Cinema Scholars!

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