'Crush' Writers Casey Rackham and Kirsten King on the Enduring Power of Rom Coms
The romantic comedy genre has historically been dominated by stories centered on heterosexual white people. It’s easy to love the genre itself, to be swept up in the grand gestures and montages set to indie pop songs. The heyday for romantic comedies was in the ’90s, but recent movies like To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Marry Me make it seem like we’re in the midst of a rebirth of the rom com.
Sitting down with FilmSpeak are writers Casey Rackham and Kirsten King, whose upcoming feature film, Crush, premieres on Hulu April 29th. Rackham and King are longtime lovers of the genre, but they knew they wanted their writing debut to shine the spotlight on an often-under-represented group of people.
Crush centers on aspiring artist Paige (Rowan Blanchard), who is in the midst of applying to an intensive summer program at her dream school, Cal Arts. Part of the application asks for Paige, in the medium of her choice, to portray her happiest moment. The lovesick teenager in her wants to draw her years-long crush on Gabby (Isabella Ferreira), one of the most popular girls in school. Paige’s best friend, Dillon (Tyler Alvarez), tells her that in no way will CalArts think this crush is worthy of admittance.
In a blatant attempt to spend more time with Gabby, Paige tries out for the track team. Despite her mediocre athleticism, Coach Murray (Aasif Mandvi) encourages her to join the team and enlists Gabby’s twin AJ (Auli'i Cravalho) to train Paige. Gabby and AJ seemingly have nothing in common. Gabby is bubbly and extroverted, while AJ is quiet and shy. The more time Paige spends with AJ, however, the smaller her crush on Gabby becomes. With a big track meet on the horizon, conflicting feelings, and a looming deadline for CalArts, Paige is more than a little overwhelmed about growing up.
Rackham and King met in 2015 while working on the editorial team at Buzzfeed. They got to know each other while writing quizzes and lists, and discovered a mutual love for screenwriting. Eventually, they “started a queer writer’s group outside of Buzzfeed and that’s when the wheels started turning on this idea,” says King.
“We didn’t start writing Crush until 2018,” Rackham adds. It may have taken three years into their friendship for the idea to come about, but “the night we came up with it, we started brainstorming,” Rackham continues.
“It really came from this place of having a similar taste in rom coms. We both love 10 Things I Hate About You. So we drank a few martinis,” King recounts. “We were writing on a whiteboard that night, just super excited. And then we kind of knew we had something because…it was all we could think about or text about for, well, I mean it’s still all we can think about or text about.”
“We now have a really helpful term where we either say before we text, we say ‘work talk’ or ‘friend talk.’ Y’know, some work/life separation,” Rackham laughs.
Crush was born organically as a mix of personal experiences from both Rackham and King, but also from their deep desire to put confident queer teens on the screen. Rackham’s first crush in high school was a girl on her track team and King also ran track, so they knew a high school sport would have some role in their script. King grew up with a single mother, so that carried over to Paige and her mother (Megan Mullally). Crush is unique in that AJ and Gabby are twins who are both queer, which is a nod to Rackham and her queer sister. “I think that’s such a special bond and it normalizes it even more. It’s not like the black sheep of the family. My sister and I run this household now,” Rackham says.
Paige, Gabby, and AJ are not the sole examples of queer representation in the film. “It’s nice to see so many different types of people and genders and sexualities. And then at the same time, it’s like Kirsten and I are very well aware we were not even close to being able to include everyone in one movie. One movie can’t be everything for everyone, but it’s one step forward,” Rackham explains.
Many LGBT movies fall into the trap of wanting to focus on the coming out narrative, or attempt to be “realistic” and shy away from giving queer characters a happy ending. When asked if an unhappy ending was ever in a draft of the movie, Rackham emphatically says, “literally no.”
“When I came out to my mom, her reaction was like I don't want things to be harder for you. I think that is a reaction because that’s all you see in movies. Things being harder for queer people,” King says. “If we got a note from an exec that was like make this a sad coming out story, we were ready to just sit on this script for the rest of our lives until someone was willing to let it be what it was.”
In a time when there is rampant anti-LGBT legislation across the world, there is still something radical about giving queer characters a happy ending. Even when they were in the early days of writing the script, King had a strong feeling of “we need to give this to queer people.” That feeling is evident in the script. There’s pure joy, exuberance, and undeniable love for the rom com genre. The love that Rackham and King have for the story, their characters, and the wider goal of spreading joy is palpable.
With its exclusive streaming release, Crush has the potential to reach a far wider audience than a traditional theatrical release. Rackham and King see this distribution strategy as a strength and are excited to see fan reaction. Their ultimate desire for the movie is “that people can watch this and for an hour-and-a-half feel safe and good and like there’s a positive future for them. A little beacon of light,” says King.