Movies

Caitlin Moran: “I was the only teenager in the country who had that kind of power”


The film tells the story of Johanna Morrigan (Beanie Feldstein), a working-class writer from Wolverhampton whose life is somewhat based on Moran’s. When Johanna wins a writing competition by reviewing the Annie soundtrack she ends up being thrown into the world of rock music, reinventing herself as biting, often cruel, critic Dolly Wilde.

The film premiered at the Toronto film festival to a terrific audience reaction, an experience that Moran calls “intense”. “Obviously you’ve worked on it and watched it a million times, so all you’re doing is watching the mistakes,” she says.

“Then it finished and there was this standing ovation that just got louder and louder, and me, Alfie (Allen), the director (Coky Giedroyc) and Beanie went on stage. I could see their hearts beating underneath their shirts and we were all just going ‘Oh my god, it worked!’. 

Unfortunately, the screening in Toronto may be the only chance audiences have to see How to Build a Girl on the big screen, with the Covid-19 crisis meaning the planned theatrical release had to be scrapped. But Moran isn’t worried about the ongoing situation keeping audiences from discovering the film, positing that the intended viewer might be more comfortable with streaming at home anyway.

“This is the most heretical thing to say – and I love the idea of cinema and don’t want them to go out of business – but in my life, I find it so hard to go to the cinema,” she says. “I’ve got to sort out a babysitter or work out what to do with the dog and print out the tickets when I get there. The chair’s never comfortable and I don’t like the smell of stale popcorn. So I always wanted it to be streamed, even though we had all of these amazing plans for it to have a theatrical release.



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