D.W. Waterson, director of Backspot, in Toronto, on Sept. 5.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Looking at the canon of films centred on teenage cheerleaders, there seem to be a lot of tears represented onscreen and relatively less of the blood and sweat inherent to the demanding sport.
The first feature film from director and long-time DJ D.W. Waterson is an exception: “How a dude would approach a football film is how I wanted to approach Backspot,” they said. “I wanted to dive into the juxtaposition of the aesthetics in the sport – the sparkly bows as well as the gruelling nature beneath that performance.”
Following the equally ambitious and anxious Riley (played here by Devery Jacobs, who also produces), Backspot focuses on the challenges and vulnerabilities that occur when the teenage girl makes it onto an elite cheer squad alongside her girlfriend, Amanda (Kudakwashe Rutendo).
The film – also the debut feature from executive producer Elliot Page’s Page Boy Productions and Jacobs’ and Waterson’s Toronto-based production company, Night is Y – features performances from Evan Rachel Wood as the team’s hardened, drill-sergeant-esque coach and Shannyn Sossamon as young Riley’s perfectionist mother.
Ahead of Backspot’s world premiere in the Discovery section of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Waterson spoke to The Globe about the intentions they’ve brought to their first film, including the importance of accurately representing cheer as a sport and creating a more considered world for queer characters of all ages.
How did Elliot Page come to be involved with the project?
Elliot is a big fan of Reservation Dogs, which Devery stars in, and the two of them met while Page was starting up Page Boy Productions. Devery had been talking about working on Backspot for four years at that point and there was a lot of interest in the project. They ended up really connecting with the material and wanted to get involved in supporting it.
Something that struck me about your film is the way you didn’t shy away from laying out the desirability politics at work in the sport. There’s this expectation, in a sport compromised largely of female athletes, to appear fine, if not happy, while performing at these gruelling levels of endurance and skill. It’s a very gendered kind of doubled performance.
I think it’s so interesting how these athletes are throwing bodies in the air and there are all of these concussions and injuries, but when it comes down to the visual aesthetics and the performance of the sport, they have to pretend as if that’s not happening. Whereas, usually, with male-dominated sports, there’s this pride in showing off the injuries, blood, and taping.
How did you balance representing the almost superhuman physical resilience that teenagers have alongside the emotional overwhelm and vulnerability a lot of young folks are experiencing?
For teenagers and young people, it’s often their first time experiencing these kinds of emotions; they don’t often have the words to describe what’s happening or what they’re feeling. And while there’s an invincibility to being able to throw your body into the air like they do in cheer – I did want to explore the cool gymnastics of it all – I also really wanted to explore the intimacy of Riley on her own, the anxiety rolling over her as she is alone in her room. And I really wanted tender moments to carve out that beautiful relationship between her and Amanda, too.
I appreciate that Backspot isn’t a coming-out story, too. What were your intentions with the queer characters in the film and the world that they live in?
I wanted to move past the coming out story – I think there’s so much trauma in that, which normally is the main conflict in films centred on queer teens. Working with my writer Joanne Sarazen on the story, world, and characters I wanted to explore, it was important for me that Riley and Amanda be a healthy queer couple. We never see healthy queer relationships onscreen because movies need conflict: coming out is a conflict, your parents not supporting you is a conflict, the person you’re seeing not being out is a conflict. For me, the conflict had to be based around the sport and those relationships. I really wanted to protect Riley and Amanda’s relationship.
How did you imagine the role of queer elders in the film?
A lot of those dynamics are based on experiences I have had or that my friends have had. You find an older queer person [when you’re young] and it’s like finding a diamond – being able to have a mentor who can help you navigate this world. It’s such a magical relationship, but I’ve also had horrible experiences where there was this bitterness for younger queer folks and this idea that the world is somehow easier for them. I really wanted to explore that dynamic of the tension that can arise between different generations of queer folks – rather than the tension between queer people and straight people – because I had never seen that in film before. We have a lot of conflict in our community that we should explore, but also we are all in this together.
This interview has been condensed and edited.