Podcast: Harry Sparks Talks ‘Cheerleaders Behaving Badly’

They can expect some cheerleaders, and they can also expect, hopefully, a fun movie. That’s what I set out to make, a fun, feel-good movie, because my other movies have been a little bit on the dark side. So I wanted to do something that was more fun, more than in a summer vibe. So that’s what I was looking for, looking to make.

I wanted to do something different and just something that was more light, or something lighter, even though, like you said, The Visitor has its moments of levity, and that’s also a fun movie, but this is a more of a summer kind of a feel.

Well, if I think as far back as well, during the pandemic, when we were all locked down, I had several ideas I wanted to pursue, and I actually wrote a first draft of Cheerleaders. And it was a little bit different. It’s a little bit darker. It was more of a mystery about what’s going on in the school. It was involving an investigation about these cheerleaders. What are they doing? But well, that sort of evolved and changed. Like I said, I wanted to do something a little bit lighter and not so serious, which I don’t do very often. I mean, it’s more in line with probably Revenge of the Petites, but it’s a little bit more intimate.

Influences

There’s a whole series of cheerleader movies that came out of the 1970s starting in, I think it was 1970. It was 1972 or ‘3. It was a mainstream softcore movie called The Cheerleaders. And he did a series of them. And I think those were the inspiration for the producers that made Debbie Does Dallas, the original, I guess. They probably saw, those cheerleader movies and said, “Hey, let’s do a hardcore version.” But that was also a motivation.

All the characters are kind of a reflection of myself. So that one, Jasmine, has all the film knowledge, and that’s kind of a part of me, who cares about all these facts about movies. And yes, that was a fun character to write.

[I’m like Jasmine] because I have all these facts in my head, and then occasionally they’ll come out. “Oh yeah, that reminds me of such and such a movie.” The room sometimes gets quiet, like “What?” [Laughs]

I’m a big fan of the American Pie movies, and actually watched all those, all those films that you mentioned before starting the script. I think there are a total of four American Pie movies. Porky’s is one of my favorites. I think that’s underrated. Also The House Bunny, which came out about 12 years ago. It was 2008. Yeah, that whole genre, I guess — there’s definitely a big influence.

The House Bunny and to a certain degree, the movie Easy A with Emma Stone, because she’s sort of telling the story as a narrator. And even a movie like The Wolf of Wall Street or Goodfellas, those were influences, because those movies observe how, you know, someone gets involved in something, and then sort of maybe three quarters of the way through it all begins to fall apart, and you get to see how much trouble that that the main character is in.

That would be really interesting and a lot of fun. I think, yeah, yeah, definitely. You know if I had a dream budget, I think that would be really cool. But we would also have to probably get the songs from that era into the movie and make it really feel like it’s a throwback. But this version also works. I mean, I think you sort of get that ‘80s, ‘90s feel, but hopefully it’s something that people now can identify with when they watch it.

Well, there are a few songs in the movie, and they’re all pretty much upbeat, and since the main characters are female, I chose songs that had a female artist, sort of speaks to their emotions when they’re not on camera, or even when they’re on camera. So that was important. But the main thing is, all the songs help the tone of the movie, which is, like I said, somewhat upbeat.

I pretty much knew that then I wanted Blake Blossom as the lead. So I had her in mind for the main character. And I think actually, maybe on the second draft of the script, I pretty much had the main cast that I wanted. I knew I wanted to work with Gizelle, and I kind of knew Maya, her skill as an actor and with comedy, and I knew that she could pull the role off. But yeah, I pretty much had a pretty good idea of the cast in mind. And fortunately, I was able to get everyone that I wanted to see.

They surprised me every day how good they all were in their roles, because they were all better than what I expected. I had worked with Blake before, also worked with Maya before. This is my first time working with Giselle, and she brought a real sense of fun. She’s also good at improv. She was able to take a scene and make it better with little certain little tweaks she did to her lines, which is very helpful.

I think the character that that’s played by Anna Claire Clouds, for much of the movie, she’s sort of like an outsider. And believe it or not, yeah, that’s a character that I could identify with, as someone who’s not necessarily part of the group or part of the situation, but she’s an important character and her performance is amazing in this movie. I loved casting her in this because I think it’s the total opposite of her role in in The Visitor, and it shows her range as an actress. And like I said, she’s great in the movie. [ . . . ]

it’s the complete opposite of her role in The Visitor, and she pulls it off perfectly. But even though she appears to be like a mean girl in the beginning, I think a lot of people can identify with her situation. In all years of life, there are cliques, which I’ve always hated that. If you’re not part of a cool group, or whatever, you’re kind of ostracized.

With Derek, maybe as the student who’s very serious, you know, and he’s very focused, and he’s trying to finish school so he can get a good job or career. So mainly that, I think, and I was able to write his character as far as his feeling that he’s been either lied to or betrayed, but he doesn’t become so angry that he shut someone out. Well, I would say, mostly it’s just that him being a student and being very focused on his work and his studies, because, yeah, I mean, that’s how I was in film school. I was very focused on film and not much else.

I always admired the jocks and cheerleaders, that real popular crowd that I was never really a part of. But I always thought, you know, those cheerleaders are really cool.

That’s the main thing with that is all the sections I wanted to kind of evolve organically. They had to make sense. I didn’t want to just have to have them there, just to have them. They’re all part of the plot, which I think is cool. And there are the way they’re shot – one where Blake’s character is shooting the scene with her phone, and you’re actually seeing part of the scene the way it’s shot, like through her phone, which makes it more real, I think, for the for the viewer. And they’re just different, different perspectives, because we moved from her point of view to pulling back and seeing that the whole thing play out. So that was a challenge, and that was different.

I think most of the shots that I’m used to doing, those take place in between the sex scenes. And in most cases, it’s how the characters are discussing what’s coming next, or what they’re going to do, and that drama. Because those other shots that are taken through the phone, those shots I didn’t have a lot of control over, and usually, as a control freak myself, I like to have control over the composition and everything. But I guess that made it interesting.

It’s interesting because they’re all kind of unique. But I would say that there’s a scene that involves all four girls, which might be pretty hot if you like girl/girl. But I think the one that he hits you in the feels emotionally is the last scene, which is a boy girl scene between Derek and Britney. That’s more of an emotional, romantic scene that might recall that scene between Anna and Alex in The Visitor, which is more of a romantic, slower-paced scene.

It’s very stylized, which evolved. Because part of that has to do with his personality and his room. He has like a lamp, an old style lava lamp, so the room has this sort of like a red-purplish glow to it. And part of the scene is sort of shot through a camera. And that’s all happening, really, that’s all happening inside her head. And the scene is sort of being filmed. It just stays in the theme of the movie. But I don’t think it takes anything away.

It was a total of four. Yeah, and that last day really helped because, because we had so much material, it’s hard to get a feature in that amount of time, but I think everyone worked hard, and we’re pretty organized with what we wanted to do.

I mean, there are certain ideas that I definitely push for that I definitely wanted. There are more shots of using a drone, because I knew going in that I would want to use a drone more. I think with each project, you want to do something new, and that’s definitely such a thing that I wanted to use. And we also shot with more cameras instead of just the one at one time. Most of the sections were done use using three cameras. You had the phone camera, then you had another camera angle for close-ups and another for wide. But overall, I think the vibe was fun. I think everyone had a lot of fun. I mean, it was a lot to do within four days, so there was that pressure, but overall it was a lot of fun to do.

A big challenge. Because when I first started, I thought, well, it’s not science fiction. There aren’t a lot of special effects. So it should be much, much easier, but it was actually much harder, because we’re just editing between the three cameras and trying to get a timing of a funny line correctly. So it was actually a bigger challenge than what I expected.

While I’m shooting it, I think there’s certain things that I’m set on, certain angles, certain compositions, the way I think a scene should be shot. But at the same time, I love having other ideas come in, because I feel like the more good ideas, the better the movie will turn out. Usually, while I’m editing, I like to be completely focused. I’m putting my vision together, and then I love to show it to an audience and have the audience feedback. I mean, it’s very hard to make a movie and read a review, because I don’t get the same feedback. It’s like doing a play and then having the audience react to it. That’s why I always like to have a premiere of my films, because I can tell where certain moments of working for an audience, where they laugh or where they cry, where they get excited. It’s very hard to do that when you just pick up a review and read it. It’s not the same. Or I read a review and think, well, that’s not what I meant at all.

Occasionally, it happens. Yeah, it occasionally happens on both the adult and mainstream work. I’ll read something and I’ll be like, that’s totally not it.

I feel like all I can do is make the movie and hope everyone gets it. But occasionally I’ll read something that’ll be like, wow, that’s interesting. But a lot of the times I’m like, I’m thinking, did you even watch the movie?

There’s a difference between when you read a comment online or and watching a movie with an audience. Because I still remember back when I was a teen and I was making my first movies. I made an adventure movie, you know, kind of an Indiana Jones type of movie way back when. And I shot it on Super Eight with my friends, and then when I screened it from my family, I sat with the projector, and they were all laughing and clapping throughout the movie. And at the end, everyone applauded. And I remember feeling so good with that, because, yeah, it was such a high that I had after that. After that it was something that I craved. Like every time, having that audience feedback is so important. So I think that’s why, to me, there’s such a big difference between reading a review, okay, and then sitting in the audience, maybe in the back, and just observing how everyone reacts to it, because there’s a big difference between watching a movie and going home and thinking about it, trying to be clever, you know. And then that immediate reaction, I mean, it’s very hard to do with an adult movie, because they don’t get shown in theaters as much.

Back in the day, I think was in the ‘70s, they had some they had big premieres where actual mainstream stars went to watch these movies. So yes, that’d be nice instead of watching on your phone. But right, I guess I came too late.

I think those lines [from] Jasmine, played by Maya, who has all the film knowledge and she’ll bring something up. And it’s not fall-down funny, but it’s a different kind of funny, different kind of humor, so I hope some people get those moments. But it’s not slapstick. It’s not the obvious kind of humor, but hopefully people will get it.

if that’s the kind of movie they’re looking for, they should probably look somewhere else, because this movie kind of has a plot — that’s not overly complicated — but the plot is there, and the plot is the main drive, I think, of the sex. I feel like if people just want sex, there are plenty of other films out there that are like that, but if they’re looking for something a little bit more challenging, then I think they should watch this, and they should like it.

I think if this one does well, and people would like to see more of what happens to these characters, I think it’ll be fun. It doesn’t have an ending, like The Visitor, which is which I kind of feel like that story is more complete. But I guess yes, you could do a sequel to that as well. But with this, I think it would be fun to see what happens to these characters after this little adventure. [ . . . ]

And they also did something similar with the original Mean Girls, where you sort of see what all the characters are, what happened to all the main characters, which I like. I guess that film is a big influence as well.

The priority really has to be the movie itself. I mean, it’s cool if it does win something, or if it gets nominated, but my main goal was to hopefully make a movie that people will keep coming back to and watch it over and over again. That’s the main thing I’m hoping for that people like the movie and watch it again and again.

I would always like to win an overall best director of the year award, I think. But I’m not sure how awards work, but  that’s always an award I like. Or an individual award for directing an individual project, I think. As I said, either that or body of work, the whole body of work.

I don’t even know yet. Have a few ideas, but we’ll see. I’ll see where everything lands. We’ll see what takes priority, I think.

I would say I’ve always viewed porn as part of film. You know, yes, it’s just another category of or genre of film that a lot of people don’t like to acknowledge that they watch it, but it is what it is. It is still film, and film is an art. But having said that, I’ve always tried to make the priority of telling a story, and at the same time, entertaining people is my goal. And, yeah, that’s always been my goal, either in mainstream or adult. It’s just a good story, well told, and make it entertaining for people. But yeah, I do think it is part of film, and it is an art, and filmmaking is an art.

I mean, I think of it as a craft that people should learn. I think how to tell a story on film is a craft that’s important to learn as you’re picking up a camera and working with it, because I think that is more important than just having sex with no purpose. Because I just like things that have a beginning, middle and end to them.