Whip It Movie Trailer. When Bliss Cavendar slips away to Austin to see her first roller derby, it’s love at first sight, especially when she meets our hero team – the Hurl Scouts, each one a rough-and-tumble misfit, yet all of them sexy, savvy and seemingly living their offbeat lives to the hilt. Before the skating even begins, Bliss knows she’s found a world that’s for her.
Casting the vivacious Hurl Scouts, and their equally hardnosed competitors, was a challenging and exciting task for Drew Barrymore, who hand-picked an ensemble of vibrant, funny actors – both veterans and newcomers — who had a blast with their roles and took on the action with professionalism and enthusiasm.
First she cast Kristen Wiig (“Saturday Night Live”, KNOCKED UP) as Maggie Mayhem, the captain of the team who takes Bliss under her wing as a kind of no-holds-barred mentor. “Kristen is amazing and I believe will go down in history as one of our most important female comedians,” says Barrymore. “She is both current and timeless, and she perfectly embodies derby femininity. Usually, Kristen does these really broad comic characters but in fact, she’s very collected and has a great carefree quality that I wanted to capture in the movie. There are some wonderful scenes between her and Ellen where she becomes a kind of big sister figure to Bliss. On top of that, she skated amazingly.”
Next, to play Iron Maven, Bliss’s nemesis and the notorious captain of the Hurl Scouts’ biggest rivals, The Holy Rollers, Barrymore cast Academy Award® nominee Juliette Lewis. Known for her incredible diversity, Lewis has worked with directors ranging from Martin Scorsese to Woody Allen but was thrilled to join Barrymore for her directing debut. “Juliette ate this role up,” says Barrymore. “As a director, I had so much fun working with her because she is game for anything. She is so self-possessed and a crowd pleaser and that’s what Iron Maven is. But Iron Maven also has an undercurrent of a quiet longing that Juliette really understood.”
Lewis loved her character’s ferociously competitive love-hate relationship with Bliss. “It’s a classic case of youth versus experience,” says Lewis. “Iron Maven is nearing the end of her derby career and she’s not about to let this young pup come in and take her throne. And yet, underlying that is the reality that Maven truly admires Bliss because of her youthful exuberance and the hunger she has.” She continues: “I’m not one for playing clichés. I like to do things pretty honest so I tried to give Iron Maven some complications and some humanity. Maven might be the classic bad guy in our tale but she’s got a deep love and respect for her opponent.”
Lewis, too, became a huge fan of the fictional Bliss, which is a big part of what inspired her to throw herself into the project, bruises and all. “I think Bliss is in all of us,” Lewis summarizes. “She’s the adolescence we all had, with that fire and yearning for something more. Then she steps into the roller-derby world and channels that rebellion and energy in such a positive way. For her, it’s like running away and joining the circus. I think we’d all want to do it if we could.”
Meanwhile, as the cast grew, Barrymore herself took on the role of Hurl Scout’s Smashley Simpson. “I selfishly wanted to play this character who is a bit of a dichotomy: half-hippie, half-chick- with-anger-issues. I kind of identify with that,” she laughs. “There is a part of me that is totally laid back and everything is great. Then there’s a part of me that really enjoys action.”
Next in line was the multi-platinum Grammy Award winning singer-actor Eve who was cast as Rosa Sparks. “Eve was perfect for this role,” says Barrymore “because she is also a woman who, on her own terms, in her own way, has made a beautiful success of herself. She is a cool, tough chick with a sweet softness. And when she began skating, she was so tentative, it was awesome to watch her grow. With determination and nerve, by the third week she was just crashing into everything!”
Eve says: “What I love about this story it is that it brings a coming-of-age drama and a sports movie and a fun comedy together in a great way. And women’s roller derby – how amazing is that?” Still, she admits she had her doubts. “I’m not the most athletic person in the world, so this was a challenge,” she says. “But I was surrounded by women with so much personality and determination, you just have to embrace it. You can’t be a wuss.”
Of all the actors cast in WHIP IT, one would have an advantage when it came to the physical training — accomplished former stunt woman Zoë Bell, who takes on the part of Bloody Holly, a Hurl Scout blocker who knows no fear. Barrymore admits that she stands in awe of Bell. “She surfs, she skates, she rides a motorcycle, she does it all and with total focus and determination. At the same time, she makes it effortless and fun for everyone around her. She was doing cartwheels on roller skates in week two of our training. She is totally the coolest.”
Bell, who won three second-place finishes in the New Zealand Gymnastics Nationals as a young girl, related to Bliss’s story. “I think many women will identify with these characters’ feelings of not quite knowing where you fit in and that sense of relief when you do find your place,” she says. “Bliss loves her mom and her best friend, but when you find something you really love in life, there’s a real sense of finding a home you didn’t know you had. It gives me goose bumps just to talk about it!”
Another Hurl Scouts’ rival – Eva Destruction, the Captain of the formidable Black Widows – is played by rising star Ari Graynor, who stars on television’s “Fringe” and appeared in AN AMERICAN CRIME with Ellen Page and NICK AND NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST. “I loved this script from the get-go,” says Graynor. “It seemed like the most fun you could have. Plus, it’s rare to find a movie that has so many strong female roles. The best part for me was the amazing camaraderie. As competitive as derby girls are, they make these incredible friendships.”
Also supporting the Hurl Scouts is the lone male presence on the team: their weary, all-too-oft-ignored coach, Brian “Razor” McGee who will never, ever give up on them. To play the role of the short-shorts-sporting voice of inspiration, Barrymore chose Andrew Wilson, with whom she has starred in NEVER BEEN KISSED, FEVER PITCH and both CHARLIES ANGELS films. “Razor sort of reminded me of my dad in the sixties and seventies,” explains Barrymore. “I was obsessed with this character and thought of him as the Beach Boys meets my father meets DAZED AND CONFUSED. I’ve known Andrew for over ten years and I don’t like to make a movie without him. He’s brilliant at improvisation and he will try anything you throw at him so I knew he would come up with something wonderful.”
Another unforgettable presence at the skating arena is the roller derby’s sarcastically slick MC, Johnny Rocket, AKA “Hot Tub Johnny,” played by comic star Jimmy Fallon, who premiered “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” in March and previously co-starred with Barrymore in FEVER PITCH. Says Barrymore, “Hot Tub Johnny stands in the infield of the rink and is your tour guide to derby. Jimmy was perfect for this role. He is a master of improv in the most fun and delicious way.”
Best Friends & First Kisses
When Bliss begins sneaking off to Austin for Hurl Scouts’ practice, things slowly begin to unravel back in Bodeen, starting with best friend Pash, who has her own dreams of escaping the small town. Playing Pash is Alia Shawkat, best known for her acclaimed role on television’s “Arrested Development.” Barrymore chose her for the way she and Page played off each other with perfect ease. “Chemistry is so important,” says Barrymore “and when we did the screen test with Alia and Ellen, it was completely there. Alia has great range – she can be serious and funny, an older sister figure to Bliss and a bit of a wisecracker. She has a personal style that you can’t fake.”
Shawkat was attracted to the project because it was so completely different from every other coming-of-age story she’d seen. “They’re rarely from a girl’s perspective — and especially not a girl who goes into such a rough and tumble world,” she muses. “The characters in this movie are strong and independent and just as tough and smart as any boy.”
She also found herself adoring Pash. “She’s the friend who allows Bliss to be herself,” says Shawkat. “Yet, their goals are different. Pash might be alternative in her dress and like pop music, but she is also determined to get into an Ivy League college. She loves Bliss but she knows what she wants, and she’s not letting anything get in her way. She’s strong-headed, stubborn and very smart.”
Still, when Bliss becomes wrapped up in the derby world, Pash feels she’s being left behind – quite literally. “Pash feels like she’s losing her best friend, the one person in the world she’s connected to. She understands that Bliss needs something to give herself over to, but she is not willing to risk everything for her,” says Shawkat. “Luckily, Ellen and I just had a connection that was really natural and she’s so genuine – she doesn’t say anything without really meaning it – so that made it easy.”
As Bliss finds new friends in Austin, she also finds something else – Oliver – an indie-music-loving lead singer with a thing for derby girls. Oliver is played by real life Nashville musician Landon Pigg, who was so real that Barrymore was instantly won over
Mendel and Barrymore had talked from the beginning about trying to find a real musician to play the part. “My point was that no matter what, when you see an actor playing a musician in a movie, especially when they have to play music, no matter how good an actor they are, you know it’s fake, and the spell is broken,” said Mendel.
“I said, no matter what, I did not want an actor for Oliver; I wanted a real musician because actors and musicians are totally different,” she notes. “I went on a nationwide search for a musician who’d never acted before, who could create a song for the film and really play it in the movie, and that’s how I discovered Landon. I knew immediately he was the one. We worked very closely together and it was one of the best relationships for me in the movie. He brought so many elements to the role and wrote a fantastic song called `High Times.’ He possesses something fresh and unique.”
Pigg understood exactly why Oliver falls for Bliss, despite being surrounded by Austin hipsters. “There’s something just a little off, a tiny bit different about Bliss. She’s quiet yet also strangely more confident than Oliver. There’s a tension there and Oliver is drawn to that,” he explains. “Then, he shows her some of his favorite music, which is a secret code. It says so much and surpasses multiple conversations that might be had. Oliver is in love with her responses and things take off from there. She’s full of contradictions and he just wants to go along for the ride.”
Even if Bliss isn’t quite sure if she can trust Oliver, Pigg says that Oliver isn’t necessarily what he appears to be. “He might look like the typical band person – he plays the right music, he’s got the hair style, he’s kind of cool — but he deflates the musician stereotype. He might look like the kind of guy who’s having flings on the road all the time, but actually Oliver doesn’t like to rush into things. He feels like the road of getting to know Bliss is a long one and he’s inspired to take that journey.”
Skate Away: The Training
Drew Barrymore put together a talented, gung-ho cast but, naturally, few had any roller derby experience, and some had never even been on four wheels. So the first order of business was getting down to training. Everyone had to prepare themselves for what was ahead. “It’s a challenge on your nerves having your actresses involved in such a rough sport right at the beginning of production,” confesses Barry Mendel. “It was super intense. But it was also exhilarating to see Ellen Page jump over one of the girls or to see Juliette Lewis whizzing full speed ahead around the track or Drew checking someone and beating them up. I was really proud because all the training they did paid off.”
To oversee that training, Barrymore recruited Alex Cohen, who by day works as a reporter for NPR, but by night skates as Axels of Evil with the L.A. Derby Dolls. Cohen worked most intensively with Ellen Page, since Bliss’s journey from newbie to fledgling star had to be completely believable. “Ellen trained the longest and the hardest,” says Barrymore. “By the end, she was really able to open up and fly. There’s a moment where Bliss has to jump other girls that have crashed onto the track. At first, we talked about using wires but she trained for that jump month after month after month. When it came down to it, she did it herself, and cleared those girls by two feet. It was insane.”
Page recalls of her first meeting with the trainer: “I asked Axels how in the world I was going to be able to do this and she assured me that we would get there. She was so good at breaking it down and explaining every little detail that it all started to come together.” Says Cohen of Page: “When she skates, Ellen always has a look of complete confidence and strength. She’s a scrappy little skater-and I’m hoping we can persuade her that she needs a new career as a member of the L.A. Derby Dolls.”
Soon, the roller boot camp was expanded to include the rest of the cast, which involved a month of multiple track sessions daily and a whole regimen of yoga, stretching and plyometrics. “We trained six days a week,” notes Barrymore, “which made us good enough skaters that we could do our own stunts. It’s all the real cast in the mess jamming or being tossed. Plus, it bonded everyone so the friendships you see on the screen are real. That experience is so crucial to a film like this.”
The training pushed everyone to places they didn’t know they could go. “It’s terrifying when you’re skating at full speed,” confesses Barrymore, “not to mention that you also have blisters, bruises and your bones and hips are so sore that you can barely move. I mean, we had cartoon stars and birds flying around our heads we hit so hard. But you discover that you can just get up and go at it again. You go from `whoa, I’m not sure if I want to do this’ to `you bet I’m going to do this.’”
Alex Cohen was impressed with how the entire cast drove themselves harder and harder. “Skating on a banked track is really hard, even if you’re a good skater. You’re skating at an angle while you’re looking out for people who are trying to knock you on your butt. It’s like a three-ring circus going on in your head,” she says. “Yet every one of our actresses was completely determined and found a skill she could do really well. Each of them has taken serious spills but rather then saying `I’m out of here,’ they have gotten right back up and kept skating. And that makes me really, really proud.”
She adds: “Drew was always dedicated to making sure that all the roller derby stuff you see in the film is genuine. She’s made sure that everything, even her own skating, was exactly right. I loved watching her direct on her skates. She would literally jump over the rail and roll around in between the extras and camera crew. The skates became an extension of her feet, which was our goal all along. It’s an amazing feat and she should get extra points for that.”
Stunt Coordinator/2nd Unit Director Jeff Dashnaw (FINAL DESTINATION, GRIND HOUSE) also was involved with the skate training. He was even more amazed than Alex at how quickly the cast became committed to the sport. “When we were still in Los Angeles, I saw some of the girls skate for the first time,” he recalls, “and I said `you guys are nuts. This will never work.’ I now see how wrong I was. It was quite an accomplishment. Kristen Wiig and Ari Graynor, for example, had never been on skates. Ellen, who is now phenomenal, hadn’t skated since she was a child. I thought we were in big trouble, but they pulled it off.”
The cast was perhaps even more uplifted by their achievements. Recalls Eve, “I hadn’t been on a pair of skates since I was twelve or thirteen. My first two days of training I kept saying `why did I agree to do this movie? I’m never going to be good on skates.’ Now I think I’m a bit addicted.” Adds Juliette Lewis: “I’ve never been more fit or healthy in my life. I had skated when I was a kid but this training process was awesome. I won’t even pretend that I could play derby for real but we were so proud of our bruises we put up pictures in our trailers.”
The Music
Music has always been a huge part of Barrymore’s life and she wanted a strong musical presence in the film, “Music grabs you and puts you in that mood. Mix that with film and it’s very powerful”, says Barrymore. Whip It, which has over 75 music cues throughout the film, brings together everything from classic punk rock to hip hop. Rhino Records will release the Whip It soundtrack this September.
Barrymore also decided that classic composing wasn’t keeping with the tone of the film. She enlisted The Section Quartet, a Los Angeles based group that calls themselves “the loudest string quartet on the planet.” The Section Quartet does not play classical, they only play rock and roll and have sold out shows in Dublin, New York and Los Angeles.
The Wheel World: The Design
The look of WHIP IT goes from rural home town to the streets of Austin, as Bliss journeys from the pageant world to the totally opposite derby world, through a storm of colorful emotions and situations. From the beginning, Drew Barrymore had a vision for how she wanted to visually bring the full spectrum of Bliss’s experiences to life on the screen. “There were so many different styles that I wanted this film to have,” says Barrymore. “It was sort of a greedy vision. I love comedy. I love action and I love human drama because we have all that in life, and I wanted to mix all of those together.” She and Mendel put her vision into action by pulling together a rock-solid creative team, including cinematographer Bob Yeoman, Oscar nominated editor Dylan Tichenor and music supervisor Randy Poster, all of whom Mendel had made multiple movies with as well as production designer Kevin Kavanaugh and KILL BILL costume designer Cat Thomas, with whom Barrymore had recently worked.
Yeoman — who is known for taking on strong thematic stories, ranging from Gus Van Sant’s DRUGSTORE COWBOY and all of Wes Anderson’s films – was immediately impressed with Barrymore’s preparation. “Drew had lots of visual ideas. She had put together a book of photos for each scene, which was our starting point. We then played with different processing and began to establish a look for the film,” he says. “Based on the way she described what she was looking for I thought of John Huston’s FAT CITY which was shot by Conrad Hall. Drew watched it and loved it so we used that as a reference. This is also a movie with a lot of women so having our actresses look good dictated a lot of my lighting. We wanted contrast without harshness.”
The biggest challenges lay ahead, however, as Yeoman had to rely on sheer ingenuity to come up with creative ways to capture the visceral, hard-hitting intensity of roller derby – from a skater’s inside perspective. “The girls move very quickly and my concern was how to shoot without a camera moving quickly around the track,” he explains. “We didn’t want to use a regular ATV with a camera mount because they’re gas powered and it would spew fumes into the skaters’ face. I thought of a bicycle but it wasn’t’ fast enough. We finally found a perfect electric cart modified for film use.”
Yeoman often shot with three cameras simultaneously, grabbing all the perspectives Barrymore was after. “We had one of our stuntmen hold the camera on his chest and skate with the girls so you get a bird’s eye view of what it’s like to be in the pack. We also have dolly shots where you travel for a long time and it’s very smooth and gliding,” says Barrymore.” I also really like the rough and tumble of hand-held and Bob operated the camera himself for some awesome hand-held shots. I mostly wanted to keep it old-school and traditional because those are the kinds of films that growing up made me want to direct .”
To design the world that Yeoman captured, Barrymore was looking for someone with a fresh perspective. She found that in Kevin Kavanaugh, who makes his production designer debut with WHIP IT, but has served as an art director on projects including THE DARK KNIGHT and TRANSFORMERS. “Drew wanted someone with a clean eye,” Kavanaugh notes. “We talked a lot about the two stories in the film, the contrast between the beauty pageants Bliss enters for her mom and the roller derby world where she fits in. We didn’t want to make fun of the beauty pageants or make them wildly over the top so we kept that simple. The derby world is more punk rock and underground, but what interested me is their parallels. They’re both about costumes and being on stage and developing a persona.”
Kavanaugh created the derby warehouse utilizing an actual derby banked track at an empty Monarch Steel Company warehouse in Detroit. The massive building housed not only the rink but the locker room set, all the trailers, the catering tent and the entire base camp. He also searched Michigan for a locale that could stand in for the very Southern Oink Joint. “I knew I would only find what we wanted on a country highway, so I scoured every one in the area. I finally drove by a 50s carhop diner called Ken’s. Abandoned for years, to me it was an open canvas. It was on a desolate road, had a huge parking lot and Drew thought it was perfect.”
To help give the building a new life, Kavanaugh had an enormous pink pig hand-sculpted from foam then plastered over and hauled in from Los Angeles. Sitting atop the diner at 12′ high x 16′ long x 7′ wide, the larger-than-life oinker regularly caused traffic along highway 83 to come to a screeching halt.
Meanwhile, costume designer Cat Thomas (A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, KILL BILL), who had recently designed the eccentric costumes for GREY GARDENS, in which Barrymore starred, was also working on turning heads with her mix of Texas thrift store outfits, pageant gowns and authentic derby uniforms.
Knowing her work would be key to bridging the film’s different worlds, Thomas first had to learn about the history of roller derby and its myriad locally-grown styles. “I discovered that there are so many subtle differences between regions and between flat track vs. banked track, I had to soak it all in. Then there was the pageant world, which I was more familiar with and knew how I wanted to address it. Finally, there is the coming-of-age story involving Bliss’s entire family, which to me is the most beautiful part of it. Combining all three so that they are visually linked was the underlying challenge.”
Further research, took Thomas into the heart of the Austin hipster scenes. “Austin hipsters are different from Los Angeles hipsters and from New York hipsters. It’s a crazy combination of `anything goes’ with a southern Texas vibe. There’s lots of vintage clothing and the huge amount of music to be found there influences the way people dress. The kids in Austin have great style,” she says.
When it came to the derby costumes, Thomas had her work cut out for her. “Drew wanted the skaters to be superheroes, but to still have a sense of reality,” she explains. “Each team has their own individual palette and we used a lot of color and tried not to restrict ourselves too much. Some of the team uniforms are inspired by actual teams, like the Holy Rollers. But we looked at what they wore and tweaked it a bit. The Hurl Scouts uniforms we completely invented for the film. For the `Fight Attendants’ we incorporate a `60s vibe and the `Black Widows’ are very super hero looking – with their stripped down outfits that started as bathing suits. As in a real derby, we had girls ranging from size 0 to 22. It’s what is so beautiful about that world, It has a place for everybody, no matter size or shape.”
Thomas paid particular attention to another aspect of roller derby style: tattoos. “Body adornment is such a badge of honor in that world that we just had to include it on our cast,” she says. Along the way, Thomas began to realize that she was in a completely unique situation, designing clothing primarily for a powerful, athletic female cast. “This movie was an amazing opportunity to work with a group of strong, brilliant and creative women – from the director to the cast to the crew. It was incredible to have that many strong women and not have any personality conflicts!”
Screenwriter Shauna Cross says that it was Barrymore’s leadership that allowed the production’s cacophony of ideas, personalities and voices to all come together in such a creatively boisterous and positive way. “Drew has this certain joy of spirit that permeates everything she does.
She’s a great cheerleader and, while true to what I wrote, she also made this story hers. Really, she’s the perfect person to represent the strong girl vibes and positive energy of this story,” Cross sums up. “I think we all felt both proud of her and inspired by her.”
Roller Derby 101: Rules And Lingo
Everyone knows the basics of roller derby – skaters in wild outfits, fishnet stockings and chinstrap helmets round an oval track at a frenetic pace bashing into each other. But there’s much more to it than that. Derby rules can vary from league to league but here are the rules the Hurl Scouts learned:
Roller derby is a race. One skater – known as a JAMMER – must get through the pack andv pass all of her opponents in order to score points. For every opponent a jammer passes, she scores one point. If the jammer can’t get past her opponents the team scores no points at all. Jammers receive additional points for lapping the other team’s jammer.
Teams are made up of 5 skaters. In addition to the jammer, each team also has a pivot and 3th additional blockers. The PIVOT’s job is to keep track of the team’s jammer, call out plays and signal the blockers to speed up or slow down in her defense. The BLOCKERS have the high-adrenaline task of keeping the opposing team’s jammers from passing them and scoring.
The jammer has 60 seconds to score – this time period is known as a JAM. Each game,v known in roller derby as a BOUT, has two 12-minute periods. The lead jammer can CALL OFF THE JAM at any time by putting her hands on her hips.
Full body contact, such as HIP-CHECKING, is allowed in blocking but players cannot grab,v yank or trip one another. They must keep their arms bent and may not use any part of the arm below the elbow. Players who foul another player get a penalty of one minute. Severe fouls can result in the loss of a player.
Blockers can also ASSIST jammers with movies like THE WHIP, in which a blocker grabs av jammer’s arm and pushes her forward with momentum, or THE TRUCK-AND-TRAILER, in which teammates skate, with one (the truck) pulling the other (the trailer) from behind.
Despite the rules, and despite protective equipment including mouth guards, helmets, kneev pads and elbow pads, roller derby fights and fouls do happen and injuries are common – ranging from the sport-specific “FISHNET BURN” and bruises to broken bones and concussions.
Most amateur roller derby leagues welcome new recruits, even those who haven’t skated inv years or at all, and provide training. Players, who come from all backgrounds – from lawyers to nurses to stay-at-home moms — learn how to skate at high speeds, dodge obstacles, fall without injury and jump on moving skates. There are now more than 400 amateur roller derby leagues worldwide… and counting…
Whip It! (2009)
Directed by: Drew Barrymore
Starring by: Drew Barrymore, Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis, Zoe Bell, Ellen Page, Daniel Stern, Barbara Coven, Eulala Scheel, Carlo Alban, Douglas Minckiewicz
Screenplay by: Shauna Cross
Production Design by: Kevin Kavanaugh
Cinematography by; Robert D. Yeoman
Film Editing by; Dylan Tichenor
Costume Design by: Catherine Marie Thomas
Set Decoration by: Meg Everist
Music by; The Section Quartet
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content including crude dialogue, language and drug material.
Distributed by: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release Date: October 2, 2009
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