- So Vic, what were you like in high school?
What were you like as a little teeny bopper?
- Oh, a little teeny Vic? [laughs]
OK.
Well, little teeny Vic was super into Joan Jett.
She had a major obsession.
She dyed her hair black.
She had a whole moment where she was like,
"I'm gonna start a girl band
"and I'm gonna play guitar for the rest of my life."
Yeah, she was so cute,
and she loved to create.
- You were a cool (bleep) in high school.
You would have bullied me.
- I would not have, oh my gosh. [laughs]
[Gasps] How dare you say that.
Ku, what were you like
as a little teen Ku?
- I was annoying, OK?
I had undiagnosed ADHD.
I was spiraling out of control.
I had impulse issues.
Every single morning I would hop onto the bus
and I would be singing that song from 'Singing in the Rain.'
I'd be like-
It's like 5:00 AM.
Everyone's like asleep.
And I'm like-
"Good morning! Good morning!"
And everyone's like, "Shut the (bleep) up."
A huge theater nerd.
- 'Cause I feel like in the same breath she would
have, like, opened me up a bit.
And then, like, I would have been like good morning
with my guitar, and I'd be like-
- "Good morning!"
- "Today's a brand new day!"
- Vic, correct me if I'm wrong.
I feel like I'm more of, like, the corrupter
in our real-life relationship,
where I feel like Lupe was the corrupter for Sunny.
- I feel like roles are a bit reversed here. [Laughs]
- I think so, too.
OK, I was gonna say.
I didn't want to say it,
but I think you're right.
- No, it's true because I think-
You're so right in the sense, you know,
and not being super, if we go super
like we're not exactly like them
but if you kind of bring out the qualities of what Lupe does
with Sunny is, you know,
she tries and gets her out of her-
You know she wants her to open up,
and I think that Kuhoo does that for me.
And then I think that maybe sometimes I'm kind of, like,
I, you know, internalize,
and then I will just be like,
"Bah! This is happening to me.
"And just by the way, I had a breakdown, and that was it.
"And so anyway, it's cool."
That's great.
- You ground me.
'Cause, like, I spiral out of control all the time,
and I'm just like, "It's too much."
And so Vic just, like, balances me out and is like,
"Actually, it's all completely fine
"and I'm your mother."
- [laughs] I'm your mother from another life.
Hello.
Kuhoo, do you remember having a sexual health
or a sex-ed class in high school?
And what was that experience like if you did or didn't?
- Yeah.
OK, number one.
Why are all high schools in the universe --
maybe this is not true --
but why are all high schools in the universe,
the sex-ed classes are always taught
by, like, the bald, male gym teacher?
[Victoria Laughs]
I can't understand why that's always the thing.
That's what it was for us.
And it's like sex-ed went hand-in-hand
with the toxic masculinity of like,
"I'm a football coach.
"These are my boys."
And, like, transferring that
into, like, reproductive health suddenly became like,
"Boys, go get that poon.
"Women, I'm not referring to you at all,"
which was so confusing,
and so, like, erasing so many people in the room.
Yeah, so my experience of it was just very much, like,
all geared toward the dudes
pretty much all the time.
What about you V. Money?
- V. Money says that
after seventh grade I was homeschooled. [Laughs]
So it was from a book.
I didn't have, like, a full-on quintessential sex-ed class.
And so [Laughs] I kind of just like read it
and took it as I would.
And yeah, it was kind of pretty boring
to be honest with you.
What we were talking about in our friend groups
and socially wasn't reflecting what we were learning,
and that as a young person I was like,
"Why am I not learning, you know,
"how to truly be safe in education?"
- Sex-ed is like porn now.
And, like, that's such a scary thing.
And, like, I'm not anti-porn at all,
but it's like, it needs to go hand-in-hand
with also some other sources,
because porn is just a highly, like, specific aesthetic
and a highly, you know-
It's not everything.
It's not all of the angles that we need to be acknowledging.
So Vic, in this, like, large road trip quest
what part felt like the most fun to you?
What resonated with you the most in this road trip?
- Turnin' on some jams and gettin' down to some music.
You know, there was-
We both, by the way,
haven't seen the film, but during the filming
of rapping the Christian rap scene,
that was super fun for us because we went hardcore
in learning it, and we wanted to go all out,
and I feel like that's something, you know
that you naturally do in these long road trips.
It makes it so much more fun.
So it made it super real for me.
- God, like, those days in the car
are such a blur to me.
It feels like so little of the movie,
even though it's so much of the movie.
But I would say probably yes,
the rapping and also tossing snacks to each other.
This is an acting class thing of, like,
if you're eating in front of a camera,
it, like, naturally loosens you up
and makes you feel, like, in your body.
So I'm like, it's impossible to like not be yourself
and be natural when you're, like, having snacks thrown
into your mouth and your face.
So that felt really nice, too.
Vic, what kind of conversations
did you have with Nat
about Lupe and about your character?
- We had really kind of extensive conversations
about what Sunny and Lupe were going through,
and what their dynamic was like.
But specifically for Lupe, you know, I felt like
it was really encouraging for me as an actor
to have somebody on the other side of, you know,
the camera to relate and connect
with Lupe as a human.
And so I think a lot of that was really helpful
in Natalie's conversation and communication with me.
I was really invested
in Lupe being a really well-rounded person,
but also, you know, she has like some deflections in her humor
and stuff like that.
So I felt like most of the conversations were just finding
what was natural and comfortable for her in the moment,
and in this moment in time where you meet them.
What about you Ku?
- Yeah, I think I tricked myself a little bit.
Because of the representation that I do see
of Indian girls and women in the media, and lack thereof,
I think I was having trouble fully committing
to an understanding that it is OK
for Sunny to be a horny person
and to, like want parties, and want boys,
and want this high school experience.
And I just kind of had to keep reminding myself
that it's OK to do this.
And whenever I checked in with Natalie about it
she was like, "This is a rated-R movie.
"She starts off having sex against a bathroom sink.
"Remember that. Remember who you were in high school.
"Remember who you were in middle school
"and how badly you wanted these things
"and how unfettered that was
"and how joyous that exploration of sex was."
And leaning into that a little bit more instead
of just leaning into just the shame part of it,
which is the, like, kind
of emotional trauma porn that we usually see
with women of color sometimes in sexual shame.
So balancing those two things.
Did you ever have like a plan B as far
as like if acting and performing didn't work out
or if it's something
that you decided you didn't want for your lifestyle?
- I think I had ideas.
Like I said a young Vic wanted
to start a girl band [Laughs].
and be a rockstar.
You know that essentially was it.
That was my dream plan B.
My aunt is a curandera,
and she's a healer.
So I've always felt really drawn
to helping people in that way
and going into more of the healing arts.
And so that was kind of, you know,
I feel like story is medicine.
And so I knew that, you know, I was drawn
to giving medicine to some people in some way,
and this kind of happens to be the form
that I'm giving it in.
But I think that I maybe would've found
a different way to give it to people.
What about you, Ku?
- Yeah, I'm not going to take the easy way out
because I'm also, like, a musician
but I'm not going to take the easy way out.
I'm gonna say if I was not a musician, not an actor,
not an anything in that kind of field that industry then-
Well I did want to be a lawyer for a hot sec
and, like, bring people to justice.
Like I'm a Libra, and balance
and justice is very important to me.
So I was thinking about doing that,
or being an investigative journalist.
But also my grandfather is a saint,
and people from around the world go
and visit his Ashram to find healing
and working through their traumas
through kind of like an optimistic mindset.
And so I think that, like, meditation is very important
to me and spiritual healing is very important
to me as well and runs in my family.
So yeah, probably a mix of the two.
A mix of like how do I bring people
to justice through optimism?
- Ku, what do you think little Ku,
teen Ku would think
about what you're doing now?
And if you could kind of see yourself
through a looking glass now, what would that be like?
- It makes me actually greatly emotional, because
she would be so shocked.
She would be so proud that I made it this far
in my journey of joy,
and that I allowed myself to be happy
for the first time in a long time.
I think that she would just be very thankful
that there's, like, some light at the end of the tunnel.
What about little Vic?
- I think little Vic would --
She'd probably scream her head off, you know?
I think that I've had a hardcore, you know --
I have a journal of me being, like, 10 years old
and saying that I want to be an actor.
And so I think that, you know,
she would just smile and say like, "We did it.
"Like, we're continuing to try
"and do something that we love,
"and tell stories in like a meaningful way."
And then I think that yeah, it makes me emotional, too.
- I know I'm like trying not to.
I'm not trying --
- To answer that question. [Laughs]
- I did the same thing.
I kept the journals.
So it's like the little us would be like, "We did it, Joe.
"We did it."
- Exactly. [Laughs]
Exactly.
And then she'd be like,
"And look at, like, the friends that you accumulated
"from the cool new film you did.
"You guys are so cute together."
- It's a dream come true.