Penn Badgley talks Easy A, plus film review!

September 17th, 2010

Easy A opens in theatres today and in case you’ve somehow missed the bazillion posters covering every city in North America talking about the film, our good friend and one of the stars of Easy A, Penn Badgley, describes the film. Over to you, Penn.

The film stars Emma Stone as Olive, a high school senior who has been flying under the radar for the past four years. When she receives detention for sassing the Queen B of the Purity Club, Marianna (played almost too convincingly by Amanda Bynes), Olive bonds with Brandon (Dan Byrd), a classmate that is picked on every day for being gay. Brandon asks for Olive’s help with his rep, thus setting off a chain of events that lead to Olive being the Saint Theresa of the uncool, virginal male population (you know, if Saint Theresa pretended to have sex with people to help them with their rep).

Along the way Olive is dropped by her best friend Rhiannon (Hellcats’ Aly Michalka), uncovers a martial affair and becomes a social outcast at school. Woodchuck Todd, or just Todd, played by Penn Badgley, is a childhood friend of Olive, who gradually becomes more than a friend by the end of the film.

Olive is able to apologize to those she hurt and get her old rep back by explaining the events leading up to her ‘Scarlett Letter’ phase over a live chat with the entire school. The hilarious film is delivered with impeccable comedic timing by the cast, including Stone, Badgley, Michalka, Thomas Haden Church and the undeniable duo of Patrica Clarkson and Stanley Tucci.

Emma Stone’s character Olive is a refreshing protagonist whose sensitivity and humour is often absent from teen roles. While in town promoting the film for TIFF, we talked with Penn Badgley about the similarities between Olive and his Gossip Girl character, Dan Humphrey.

While the film is for the most part light-hearted and humorous, Easy A has undertones of the very real reality that high-schoolers face. Olive is lambasted with the reputation of being a tramp, easy, and much worse and is eventually ostracized, while the boys she is helping are hailed as hero’s and find their social status changing dramatically for the better. Brandon, the first boy Olive helps, is not accepted by the other students until they believe he is straight after ‘having sex’ with Olive at a party, reminding us (as if anyone has forgotten) that homophobia is alive and rampant. Marianne’s cruel rumour spreading and Rhiannon’s unwillingness to stand by her best friend will likely hit home with the audience seeing Easy A, as few people throughout high school are safe from rumours or friends whose loyalty is flimsy at best. Easy A’s frequent references to a variety of 1980s John Hughes films remind us that high school is just as difficult now as it’s been in decades past, if not moreso.

Still, Easy A keeps in check the one overriding factor that make teen movies a favourite genre for many – hope. Hope that high school will get better and hope that family and friends will stand by you in difficult times. And watching Badgley pretend to be a woodchuck doesn’t hurt either.

Rating: 4 red Scarlet Letters out of 5

Tags: Easy A, Emma Stone, gossip girl, Movies, Penn Badgley