ARTNEWSPRESS: ‘Tall Girl’ remains one of the most beloved teen films of the year. HL spoke EXCLUSIVELY with star Luke Eisner about the movie’s impact, why this film means so much to him, and more.
Tall Girl was released on Netflix in Sept. 2019 and became an instant teen classic. Luke Eisner stars alongside Ava Michelle, Sabrina Carpenter, and Griffin Gluck in the romantic comedy that follows Jodi, the tallest girl in her high school who falls for a handsome foreign exchange student named Stig. Over the course of the movie, she becomes caught up in a surprising love triangle and realizes she’s so much more than just the insecurities she has about her height. Luke plays the dashing Stig in the Netflix movie and talked with HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY about the positive impact the movie has had on young people today. “It was so nice to have this script come across my table,” Luke told HollywoodLife. “Growing up, I was bullied and to have an anti-bullying movie is just so important. It’s just one of those things that when I was 14 or 15 I would’ve loved to have seen. I think they did such a good job of making it entertaining. You don’t watch it and feel like you’re being taught a lesson, yet you walk away with one.”
Luke revealed that he definitely shares a lot of similarities with Jodi. “She has a really nice dynamic where she finds that the things that make her different are actually what makes her stand out,” he continued. “I think I had that kind of moment in high school. I was always picked on for being tall and skinny and having long hair. And then when I moved to Los Angeles, it was being tall and thin and having long hair that got me into modeling into acting, and then with music, it felt appropriate. I think I was just growing up in an environment of buzzcuts and football and it didn’t quite line up. So I definitely aligned a lot with Jodi.”
The actor learned a lot about himself throughout filming and it was quite an eye-opening experience for him. “My father was actually diagnosed with stage four cancer right before I went to film it,” Luke said. “There was something really nice to be able to escape into someone like Stig. I think even the accent helped because I was able to go into a completely different mindset. But I learned that that wasn’t the right thing to do. You don’t want to run away from something. Halfway through the filming process, I was realizing I shouldn’t escape and I should embrace it. That’s how the song ‘Stand Tall,’ which we did for the movie, kind of came to be. I was like, ‘I’m actually going back to this song that I originally wrote from my father and I’m going to make it for the movie.’ Jodi was running from her problems and then she turned around to face them at the end. I had the exact same evolution in my own life.”
At the end of the movie, Jodi ends up with Dunkleman, who has liked Jodi all along. Stig ends up stag. “I love the ending. I think that it leaves things at a nice point,” Luke told HL. “I love Jodi’s character arc so much. I like it when she just owns up to everything that she is. It’s such a coming of age film and that’s so important right now. I’m glad that Netflix took this project on.”
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Avery Thompson
