Years before they were onscreen buds in The Wrong Girls, Alia Shawkat and Kristen Stewart were jamming together as the titular rock “Queens of Noise” in 2010’s The Runaways.
At a recent screening for their upcoming Dylan Meyer-written/directed Neon stoner comedy, which premieres Aug. 14 in theaters, Shawkat recalled they “were children” on the set of the Floria Sigismondi-helmed musical drama, which starred Stewart as Joan Jett.
“You barely talked on that movie,” Stewart recalled to Shawkat in a video from the Q&A.
Shawkt explained, “Yeah, I literally was not allowed to speak in that movie, because the character I was playing became an entertainment lawyer and was like, ‘I don’t want to be involved in the film.’ And I found that out my first day on set, after I’d learned all the songs. They were like, ‘You can’t speak for legal reasons.’ And I was like, ‘OK, cool. So, just like holding a guitar in the background?’ They’re like, ‘Yeah, just stand to the left a little bit.’”
Tracing the roots of the 1970s “Cherry Bomb” rock group, The Runaways also starred Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie, Stella Maeve as Sandy West and Scout Taylor-Compton as Lita Ford. While Shawkat is credited as Robin Robins in the movie, her character is a stand-in for bass guitarist Jacqueline Fuchs (aka Jackie Fox).
“Anyways, it was still a cool project. And we hit it off, but we weren’t hanging all the time,” said Shawkat, as Stewart recalled she thought her co-star was “so fucking cool.”
In The Wrong Girls, Shawkat and Stewart play codependent stoner best friends Molly and Frankie, who are one day away from being evicted when they discover a mind-altering drug that gets them caught up in a chaotic case of mistaken identity.
“This was the first time we actually got to hang out properly and play friends,” explained Shawkat. “We hadn’t reunited until we made this movie, and it felt like it was a moment where we were able to capture something that was always there, that luckily enough, we got to play best friends in this rad movie.”
Stewart added, “We wanted to kick it forever, and then we got to make a movie, which is like the best way to kick it with anyone.”
The pair stars alongside LaKeith Stanfield, Zack Fox, Tony Hale, Seth Rogen, Kumail Nanjiani, Geena Davis, Kate McKinnon and Cate Blanchett.
