Screening as part of this year’s SXSW Film & TV Festival in the Narrative Spotlight section, which showcases features having their World, North American or U.S. premiere, Sweetness tells of the chance encounter between 16-year-old Rylee and her rockstar crush, which leads to the discovery of his drug addiction and the subsequent spiral of her teenage fantasies blurring with her own reality.
Inspired by the world of pop music and the surrounding fandoms, writer/director Emma Higgins conjured this genre blend (you can read our review here), expressing both her passion for female-driven stories and her uniqueness behind the camera.
As the film screens across this year’s festival, Peter Gray spoke with the burgeoning filmmaker about her own love of musicians, subverting the expectation of the “dumb girl” in horror films, and which classic titles she utilised as references. But first, let’s talk about Britney!
I can completely understand that fascination we have with a musician or someone that means something to us. Before getting to Sweetness itself, is there a musician for you that holds a special place in the same manner Riley does for Floorplan?
I was obsessed with Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. (Kurt) had long since passed, but my teenage room was all his posters everywhere. It’s kind of odd, but that was definitely the one I was most obsessed with. I’d print out Kurt photos and put them all over my wall. It was more of a love thing.
I also had a massive crush on Jonathan Taylor Thomas from Home Improvement. I never missed that show. There was something about that middle part (laughs). Interesting middle parts inspired this film. And the pop girlies too, that’s another thing I’m still obsessed with.
As an unashamed gay man who, at 15, heard “…Baby One More Time” and knew his world changed, I get the pop girl thing. I will defend Britney Spears to the end of the world. I think she’s incredible, and what she’s done for pop music is still not appreciated. It makes me feel very validated now.
Who’s your vote to play her in the biopic?
Ooh. I think Millie Bobby Brown is campaigning too hard, and I don’t know if I see that vision. I think they should go with an unknown. Give someone that chance. It could take away all expectation. I know Sydney Sweeney’s been mentioned, and Tate McRae…
What do you think of Addison Rae? She’s giving Britney in the “High Fashion” music video. I see that as her essentially auditioning. I don’t know if Tate can act. But she can dance! I agree on Millie Bobby Brown. I don’t see it. It doesn’t feel right.
I could honestly talk about this forever, but we should probably talk about Sweetness.
(Laughs) Probably.
I loved that we have a character here that isn’t perfect. But we completely understand her actions. She’s unapologetic in what she does. It’s such a tough balance in a film to execute. Did you find it came easy to you? When you were writing, did you always know Rylee’s character trajectory? Or did it become more apparent as you were working?
I think there was a goal to create a character that was sympathetic in a way (in spite) of what she was doing. I like genre movies, I always have, but there’s always this sort of stupid feeling, and I didn’t want to make a dumb female character. We’ve seen it for too long. I didn’t want someone who was just going to advance the plot for the sake of it. Like, don’t run up the stairs towards the killer, or walk off on your own. So Rylee was someone who, with every decision, you understood why. It seems fully realised.
Like, you may not agree with it, but you see how we got here. I didn’t want to add noise to the dumb girl characters in movies. It’s a really fun social experiment to see when audiences get off board with Rylee too. They’re with her to a point. Some stay with her till the end. Others get off board at certain points where they’re just like, “Nah. Girl. That’s it.”
I also think a lot of that comes down to casting too. Similar to what we spoke about with the Britney film, having someone that we have preconceived notions about really helps us believe this journey.
Certainly for the role of Rylee, we wanted someone we didn’t know. It’s also because of the age of that character too. Kate (Hallett) had done one really big movie before this (Women Talking), but she wasn’t the lead. So this is her first lead role, and it was a really good opportunity to bring someone new in. Also, another beef of mine in films, is where the teenage character is supposed to be 16 and they look 29. It just gets me. And it takes away from the film.
This movie is called Sweetness. She has to have that balance of being sweet and sour in one thing. And Kate gets away with so much more because of that, because she’s just a kid. I was in a lucky position where we were supported in this film to get the right people for the roles. Finding Herman (Tømmeraas) for the role of Payton, as well. He came to us through a casting director, and I was so struck by how he was like the person I had in my head the whole time. And he’s a triple threat. He’s a professional dancer, he can act and he sings all the songs in the film. He’s got perfect pitch. I didn’t even use his skill as a dancer, but putting it out there to future directors…the man can dance!
When it comes to blending genres, did you ever find that one aspect was taking over more than the other? Was it a case of scaling back and finding itself in the edit?
I feel with creative pursuits, sometimes my only way to approach it is to feel like I’m more of a vessel for whatever the correct thing is to come through. It’s my job to channel it a bit more. At first, in the writing process, it was much more of a horror approach and it turned into a thriller. Also, it depends how you define horror. Some people look at the gore count, but, to me, Misery is a great reference for (Sweetness). Misery is a thriller. I don’t think it’s a horror movie. But other people disagree with me. Or Silence of the Lambs.
I was thinking a lot while writing, so I wasn’t trying to define either horror or thriller in the process. I think what emerged or grew with the film as I was making and editing it, is that it became a lot more fun. I think we embraced the middle space of allowing laughter and camp to come through. Even with these dark places. I love that we’re twisting and turning and making people feel a little bit uncomfortable, hopefully, and they ask whether or not they should laugh. It’s such a weird space to play in, but it tickles me.
I’m more than happy for you to keep tickling those genres. SXSW is just one of those festivals, too, that harness such unique voices and give love to the movies that may not always get what they deserve, so I’m just so excited to hear more from your voice.
I’m so happy to hear you say that. Yeah, I’m really happy about South By (Southwest) supporting this. It’s a fun movie, and it has a lot of girl energy behind it, and it’s just my biggest joy to work with women. We’ve had a lot of great men be a part of it too, but it’s exciting to see more and more balance. It’s coming. There’s a tide. It’s on the cusp. I’m in the States, so it’s still a challenging space, but it’s time.
Sweetness is screening as part of this year’s SXSW Film & TV Festival, running between March 6th and 15th, 2025. For more information on the festival, head to the official site here.
