Exclusive Interview: Writer-Director Jennifer Cram Talks Sick Girl, Collaborating with Nina Dobrev, Celebrating Female Friendships, and More

Writer-director Jennifer Cram is an exciting new voice in the industry who is making her feature film debut with Sick Girl.

When Wren Pepper (Nina Dobrev) feels her closest friends slipping away, she lets loose a little white lie that snowballs into a colossal, life-altering event. The film is a hilarious take on the price of insecurity and the rewards of true friendship. Wendi McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs), Dan Bakkedahl (Veep), Brandon Mychal Smith (Four Weddings and a Funeral), Stephanie Koenig (The Flight Attendant), Hayley Magnus (The Dressmaker), and Sherry Cola (Good Trouble) join Dobrev in a brilliant comedy.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Jennifer about Sick Girl, what was it like collaborating with her all-star cast, and how the film celebrates female friendships.

PC: You wrote Sick Girl almost ten years ago. How has the script evolved over time? What was the initial inspiration behind it?
Jennifer: Yeah, I wrote this ten years ago. At the time that I wrote it, I was going through similar things with my friends. That was the inspiration. Everyone was starting to get married and have kids. They were settling into their careers. We weren’t able to spend as much time together as we had before. It was exploring how all of this was going to change our friendships. Would they survive? Would they be different? When I was writing it, I didn’t know how things were going to turn out. I was just exploring. It was a bit of therapy as well.

As far as how it has evolved, you’re writing the script while you’re shooting. If it was up to me, I would still be rewriting the script. You never stop. I’m sure so much has evolved since I wrote it, but I can’t think of any drastic changes. But I was literally rewriting it up until the day that we were shooting. If it was up to me, I would be rewriting it as we were editing it. [laughs]

PC: There are so many incredible women who are a part of this project, both in front of and behind the camera. Who are the women in your own life who have impacted the storyteller that you are today?
Jennifer: Definitely my girlfriends. I’ve been very lucky in that respect. They gave me a lot of confidence to be able to go out and tell these stories.

As far as female storytellers who I don’t know, a lot of them would be authors. I didn’t know as many female filmmakers when I was a teenager. I do recall that My So-Called Life was a huge, huge influence on me. That show made me want to go into the entertainment business and do this. Winnie Holzman, who created it, was a big influence on me. Besides that, it was reading a lot of books by female authors. I like Jennifer Egan.

PC: With your experience as a casting director, you know how important it is to have the right actors in each of these respective roles. As you were penning this script, did you have this particular cast in mind? What was that casting process like?
Jennifer: By the time that we shot this, it had been five years since I had written it. It had gone through a couple of other producers and options. When I initially wrote it, I didn’t have Nina in mind because she was twenty-four at the time.

When we finally shot it, I had to look at it through a completely new lens with a different group of actresses. When her name came up, I was like, “That’s a really interesting idea.” I was definitely a fan of her work. She was doing a comedy series at the time, so she had done comedy, but I hadn’t seen her do a ton of it. I was really interested in exploring that, especially with someone who was very, very eager to do it. I love when actors do something outside of their genre. That’s always really interesting.

Once I met her and we sat down and talked about everything, she felt like a natural fit. As far as the rest of the cast, I met Sherry because I had worked in casting. I met her in a casting session years before and I always made a mental note to remember her. I knew I needed to put her in something because when I met her, I instantly knew she’s a movie star. As soon as we were casting this, I told our casting director John Papsidera that we needed Sherry Cola. I was like, “She has to be in this.” But I didn’t know anybody else outside of their work. I knew Wendi, Dan, and Ray [McKinnon] through their work. But as far as Stephanie [Koenig] and Hayley [Magnus], I knew Stephanie from a lot of the web series work that she’s done, but I had never met her. Hayley was completely new to me. But they’re just such amazing actors. They blew me away.

PC: What you’ve done so brilliantly with this script is that audiences are immediately able to identify with these character. Of your four leads, are you more a Wren, Cece, Laurel, or Jill and why?
Jennifer: I’m definitely more a Wren. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I would never do something like this, I promise. I don’t know that my friends would be nearly as kind if I accidentally had them shave their heads as the girls are in this. But I’ve definitely gone a different path than most of my friends. I don’t have kids. I’m not married. There was definitely a period of time when I wanted to have this career as a director and writer, and that takes time. You watch the people you love, who you’ve grown up with, establish these lives, get these houses, and start to settle down. You’re kind of like, “What am I doing?” I’m not so much a Wren now, but there’s always a little wren in my heart.

PC: Throughout the film, we see this snowball effect of what happens when Wren tells this lie about having cancer. Things get progressively worse as the film goes on, but you do such a brilliant job keeping it grounded. How were you able to toe that line so delicately?
Jennifer: It was hard. I was really aware of what I was doing. I knew that this could be something that a lot of people wouldn’t want to get on board with because she was pretending to have cancer. I knew it would be tricky. I wanted to make it as clear as possible that I was never mocking people with cancer or the disease. I was mocking this person’s insecurities and her impulsiveness. As I was writing this, I was very aware of that. The character Leo helped in that regard and showing the face of someone who actually has cancer and what it must feel like to see someone like Wren make up this lie. I love the way that he handled Wren. He did it with maturity, but also this sense of humor and kindness that felt very heroic to me. He balances her out and calls her out on her sh*t. I hope through the writing of this character that it would show people that I was aware of what I was doing and that I take cancer very seriously. It’s nothing to mock or joke about.

PC: The chemistry between your four leads is incredible and you really do believe they’re childhood best friends. Was there a moment on set when you all realized you were creating something special and the dynamic between your four actresses was exactly what you needed and wanted?
Jennifer: I realized it on the very first day. It was a very short shoot. We didn’t have rehearsal. We didn’t even have a table read. They didn’t meet until we got to Tulsa. We were able to squeeze in a few hours here and there for them to hang out and get to know each other. I do think as the shoot went on, they ended up becoming very close because we were shooting on location in Tulsa. That helped immensely because we didn’t have our comfort zones to go home to. It forces you to get close to people quickly. But the first day was a disaster. [laughs]

We were shooting at our hotel’s pool. We had permission to shut the pool down, but they forgot. There was construction going on. They forgot to end it at a certain time. It was chaos. There were all these people in the pool and they were taking pictures. The girls are trying to sit in these lounge chairs and their mic packs kept sliding into the water. A light fell. It’s like they say about crazy experiences, it bonds you. They were all like, “What’s going on?” The first scene that we shot was the scene of them at that pool. They were immediately riffing off each other. Right away, I was like, “This is going to be amazing.”

PC: Time is never a luxury when you’re working on a feature, but you have this dream team of collaborators, many who are versed in the comedy genre. As the writer-director, how did you create the space for these actors to improvise and take agency over their character and make them their own? What was that collaborative process like?
Jennifer: It was a bit tricky because everyone was aware we were on a short schedule. The producer and I sat down with the schedule. For me, the most important thing is giving these comedic actors time to do their thing. So I really did try to schedule in as much time as possible where they could improv and play around. It was difficult. It really was. We didn’t have a ton of time. But there were scenes where I said, “These are the scenes that I want to give a little extra time to.” When you’re shooting a small film like this, it feels like a student film. There’s this comfort of everyone being in it together. We’re all doing this because we all want to be here. It’s very scrappy. Everyone’s trying to help out. We became very tight very quickly. They were comfortable. They knew that I wanted to make the funniest movie possible. I’m not precious about my lines. If they can make it funnier, let’s go. We just want to make people laugh.

PC: With this being your debut feature film as a writer-director, what was the most surprising part about this journey? What was the biggest takeaway for you?
Jennifer: Every day was surprising. I was telling this to someone the other day. I felt so bad for my poor DP. I was so new to all of this. There was this one shot we were filming. I wanted him to get really tight. He was like, “This is as close as we can get.” I was like, “Can’t you zoom in?” He was like, “No, it’s not that type of lens.” [laughs] It was things like that. [laughs] The biggest and most exciting thing is how much of a collaboration this is. I understand now why when people get on a stage at the Oscars and start to thank people, why they always run out of time. You can’t do this alone. This is not my movie. This belongs to so many people. That’s so cool, exciting, and fun.

For me, I could do this every day for the rest of my life. I got to work with all these people who are at the top of their craft and so passionate about it. You’re like, “I had no idea costumes could also be a character and tell a story. It was a blessing to get to work with all these people who are interested in making something with you. It’s been an unbelievable experience.

To keep up with Jennifer, follow her on Instagram. Sick Girl is available wherever you stream movies.

Photo Credit: Kevin Scanlon // Hair: Sydney Valentine // Make-up: Beth Follert