Disney+ - Hollywood Stargirl : A must watch Disney+ original film

By Mulder, 22 may 2022

Disney’s “Hollywood Stargirl” is a sequel to the 2020 Disney+ hit about free spirit Stargirl Caraway (Grace VanderWaal)—a silver-voiced teenager whose simple acts of kindness work magic in the lives of others—which follows Stargirl’s journey out of Mica, Ariz., and into a bigger world of music, dreams and possibilities. When her mother, Ana (Judy Greer), is hired as the costume designer on a movie, they relocate to L.A., where Stargirl quickly becomes involved with an eclectic assortment of characters. They include aspiring filmmaker brothers Evan (Elijah Richardson) and Terrell (Tyrel Jackson Williams); Mr. Mitchell (Judd Hirsch), one of Stargirl’s neighbors; and Roxanne Martel (Uma Thurman), a musician Stargirl admires and encounters on her journey. Returning as Stargirl, VanderWaal performs an original song she composed, in the film. Julia Hart returns to direct. Hart & Jordan Horowitz wrote the original script, based on the original character from Jerry Spinelli’s best-selling book “Stargirl.” Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, p.g.a., Lee Stollman, p.g.a., and Jordan Horowitz, p.g.a., are the producers, with Kristin Hahn, Nathan Kelly and Jerry Spinelli serving as executive producers.

Reuniting with Hart and Horowitz are crew members director of photography Bryce Fortner (“Portlandia”), production designer Gae Buckley (“The Book of Eli”), costume designer Natalie O’Brien (“The Bad Batch”), editors Tracey Wadmore Smith, ACE (“Fool’s Gold”), and Shayar Bhansali (“Standing Up, Falling Down”) and music producer Nick Baxter (“One Night in Miami”), who, along with Michael Penn (“Boogie Nights,” “Masters of Sex,” “Girls”), serves as the film’s executive music producer.

Shortly after the filmmakers delivered the first “Stargirl” to Disney to debut on its new Disney+ streaming service, studio executives approached them about doing a sequel. “Stargirl” director and screenplay writer Julia Hart and her husband, co-writer Jordan Horowitz (“La La Land”), who produced the film with Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, p.g.a., and Lee Stollman, p.g.a., were very excited, having thoroughly enjoyed making the first film. Hart says, “Making ‘Stargirl’ was the best experience of my career as a filmmaker.” Horowitz recalls, “‘Stargirl’ was one of the earliest films Disney had done for the service, and the response internally was very buoyant. They were really excited about it.” Goldsmith-Vein says, “They did such a great job with the movie. They’re extraordinarily gifted.”

But five days after the movie premiered, the COVID pandemic seemingly shut down the whole world. The studio would have to wait until it was safe for productions to resume to start filming the sequel, but in the meantime Hart and Horowitz started working on the script. It was a given that Grace VanderWaal, who came to the public’s attention with her sensational appearance on “America’s Got Talent” before making her acting debut in the title role of “Stargirl,” would reprise her role in the sequel. Producer Lee Stollman says, “I remember that when we cast Grace in the first film, we were like, ‘She’s amazing, let’s do two.’” But VanderWaal wasn’t so sure. “I was very, very hesitant,” she admits. “I was scared,” worried that she might not be up to the challenges of what Hart and Horowitz had in mind for the followup film, which she realizes now was unfounded. “It ended up being one of the best decisions ever,” VanderWaal says. “I’m very happy to have done it. And I’m so happy I got to work with Julia again. I love her so much.” Hart and Horowitz wanted to take Stargirl, her mom and her pet rat, Cinnamon, on an entirely new adventure. At first they thought about having them go to Paris, but as they started working on the script while isolated in their Los Angeles home, the married filmmaking team decided to have them move from Mica, Ariz., to L.A., where Stargirl’s mom, Ana, gets an offer to work on a movie as a costume designer. Hart says, “Now I can’t imagine any other version of the film than the one that we landed on. The thing that we missed the most during quarantine was our movie family, and so we wanted to tell a story about all the wonderful people that we get to work with and create with and what it means to find those people for the first time.” Says Goldsmith-Vein, “It’s really a homage to Hollywood.”

“Hollywood Stargirl” continues the coming-of-age story of Stargirl Caraway, but where the first film focused on themes of self-acceptance and personal expression, this sequel underscores the importance of following your dreams and finding a place where you can shine among those who will support, nurture and challenge you to be the best you can be. “The baseline is that it’s okay to have dreams and to live in a city that’s built on dreams,” says Stollman. While the first film, like Jerry Spinelli’s original novel, was told from the perspective of Stargirl’s high school friend Leo, Hart and Horowitz decided that the sequel would be from Stargirl’s point of view. Also, since Grace VanderWaal was now 17, they wanted to honor the ways in which she had grown, changed and matured as a person and as an artist, and reflect that growth in her character. 

VanderWaal says, “This time Stargirl’s kind of like angsty and has a lot more dimension, which I appreciate. Unlike in the first film, where she’s happy pretty much all the time, you see more of her mental battles in this movie. She’s having some problems with her mom. I feel like almost some resentment because her mom’s kind of lugging her everywhere like luggage.” At first, Stargirl isn’t happy about being uprooted from her life in Arizona, but it doesn’t take long for her to discover that moving to L.A. was just what she needed. Says VanderWaal, “I think that this movie could have been called ‘Dreaming,’ because I feel like the overall theme is about dreaming. It’s so crazy how rare it is to meet people who genuinely dream these days. No one just freely allows himself to dream anymore. And believe their dreams could possibly happen.” She continues, “There’s this line in the film: ‘Just because it didn’t turn out or look the way you thought it would, doesn’t mean that you’re not living your dream.’ I think it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. I think it’s something that a lot of people need to hear.”

To support their “Hollywood Stargirl,” the filmmakers assembled a fantastic all-new cast of seasoned veterans and talented newcomers. Hart explains, “One of the craziest things about writing the script in quarantine was that, with only seeing four people for months on end, these characters just became that much more precious, since I wasn’t seeing anybody else. I think I became even more attached to them than I normally do. So, I was really nervous about casting because I loved them so much as characters, and they felt so real to me.” “This is why working with Julia is so amazing.,” says Goldsmith-Vein. “She’s really great at casting.” The filmmakers wanted to focus more this time on Stargirl’s relationship with her mother, Ana, who sees the opportunity to move to L.A. to work as a costume designer on a movie as a second chance to fulfill a dream from earlier in her life, before Stargirl was born. To play Ana, they cast actor-comedian Judy Greer, best known for her roles in such films as “Ant-Man,” “Jurassic World” and “The Descendants,” and for her television work on such series as “Archer,” “Kidding,” “Arrested Development” and “Two and a Half Men.” “Having Judy Greer, an incredibly gifted actress, play Stargirl’s mother really grounds that relationship,” says Stollman. “It’s very special to watch her and Grace play off each other on screen,” he adds.

About Greer, Hart says, “I still can’t believe she’s in the movie. I’ve been a fan of hers forever.” Greer admits, “When I was offered the role, I had never seen the first movie, but I watched it before I said I would be in it. I was like, ‘It’s so good.’” She explains, “I really loved the character of Stargirl. I loved how unselfish she was and how she tried so hard to make other people happy without the acknowledgement. I think people love music and people love, love stories, and coming-of-age stories and fish-out-of-water stories, which this is. But the story I was drawn to was about this young girl always trying to leave things better than she found them.”

Back in Mica, Stargirl experienced romance for the first time with her friend Leo. In “Hollywood Stargirl,” the filmmakers have given her the opportunity for a more mature relationship with Evan, a high school student whose parents own the apartment building where Stargirl and her mother live. Evan, an aspiring writer who’s making a film with his brother, overhears Stargirl singing one day and immediately wants to get to know her for both personal and professional reasons. Evan is played by Elijah Richardson. Horowitz says, “We cast a pretty wide net with Evan. And from the moment we saw Elijah’s audition, it was clear it was him.” “We were all so happy when Julia decided to cast Elijah Richardson,” says Goldsmith-Vein. “He just felt so right for this role.” When he first read the script, Richardson says, “I immediately checked out my character, and I felt I didn’t really have to do too much to embody the character, because I felt like the character was meant for me.”

VanderWaal recalls meeting Richardson for the first time at a pre-recording session. She says, “I was so nervous, and I could tell he was also nervous. But it was fine. I watched him sing, and he literally has the voice of a baby angel—the sweetest singing voice you’ve ever heard in your life. “He’s very, very talented,” she adds. “I feel like he was absolutely perfect for Evan because he just holds that wonder in his eyes. He’s such a pure soul. It was so nice working with him.” Richardson says, “Grace is extremely fun to work with. She’s a joyful person to be around. And honestly, it doesn’t matter if we’re working late nights or early mornings. She’s always going to make the day better.” “They have this amazing natural chemistry,” says Hart.

Tyrel Jackson Williams plays Evan’s older brother Terrell, an aspiring film director. The two of them are collaborating on a sizzle reel for a film script written by Evan for Terrell to direct. Describing his character, Jackson Williams says, “Terrell is incredibly ambitious, and he’s a massive dreamer. He’s somebody who believes in himself so much that when he decides to do something, he just does it.” “TJ’s a filmmaker and a writer,” says Hart. “And it was really attractive to me in casting Terrell that this is his real passion. TJ’s an incredibly gifted actor and comedian, and the camera just loves him. Some of my favorite shots in the movie are just of his face.” “Working with Julia is a dream,” says Jackson Williams. 

“It’s amazing. She has an uncanny ability to create a positive and loving on-set experience where everybody wants to make something great. She’s also a great director.” VanderWaal says, “I love TJ so much. He’s a blessing of light, he’s extremely wise, very well spoken and intelligent, and probably the funniest person you’ll ever meet in your entire life.” Jackson Williams feels the same way about VanderWaal. He says, “Working with Grace has been really, really fun. Grace is absolutely hilarious. She’s incredibly talented. She’s amazing, a musical genius. And she is one of the funniest people I have ever had the pleasure of working with and being around.” Horowitz adds, “So much of this movie is about Stargirl and Evan’s chemistry, and so much of this movie is about the chemistry of the three of them as well. I remember putting the three of them on Zoom together. It was just electric, the way that they all were relating to one another. It was awesome to see.”

Stargirl’s and Evan’s curmudgeonly downstairs neighbor, Mr. Mitchell, used to be a successful film producer. He is played by Judd Hirsch, who won two Emmyâ Awards for his role on the longrunning classic sitcom “Taxi” and starred in such other series as “The Goldbergs,” “Dear John,” “Numb3rs,” “Damages,” “Forever” and “Superior Donuts,” and was nominated for an Oscarâ for “Ordinary People.” Stollman recalls, “We were all super excited about casting Judd Hirsch to play the role of Mr. Mitchell.” “Judd Hirsch is legend,” says Horowitz. “It’s awesome that we got to make a movie with him. He’s been in some of Julia’s and my favorite movies. It was really amazing to watch him work. I mean, he’s the consummate professional and an incredible performer. And he’s just so funny, too.” Hirsch says, “Julia is really a darling person. She knows very much why she chose me, and kind of lets me know it all the time. And I find myself thinking through her. It’s not hard to think through her head, as I know what she wants. And what she wants is the sweetness of truth.” Oscar nominee Uma Thurman (“Pulp Fiction,” “Kill Bill, Vols. 1 and 2”) portrays Roxanne Martell, a once-promising singer who seemingly disappeared from the music scene, only to turn up every night in the audience at a nightclub in Stargirl’s neighborhood.

Says Stollman, “Julia had a very specific vision for Roxanne and what she wanted this character to be physically and musically. And the fact that Uma was available when we needed her, the stars aligned.” Hart says, “Uma Thurman is someone whom I had been a fan of my whole life, so working with her was a dream. She’s so dedicated and yet so fun to direct. Having her play that character was just so special.”

Thurman recalls, “My manager, Dannielle Thomas, watched ‘I’m Your Woman’ and said, ‘“I’m Your Woman” is going to blow your mind. And you’re going to fall in love with Julia Hart.’ And so, I then watched ‘I’m Your Woman’ and it blew my mind. And I watched ‘Stargirl,’ and I loved it. Then I did a Zoom with Julia, and what’s not to love about her? She’s really an extraordinary talent and so deserving of her success and a really beautiful artist and writer. Wonderful film. And I think that the energy that they’ve put into this second iteration is going to be a totally new energy. Also, Grace being such an incredible young woman versus kind of like young, young woman, almost really, a kid. Now she’s sort of blossoming, and it’ll be a twist. There’s romance and there’s music, and there’s dancing, and there’s an incredibly eclectic, wonderful cast. I think it’s quite magical.”

Thurman says about VanderWaal, “She’s fantastic. She’s like a Parisian movie star. And she’s very unique. She’s not a cookie-cutter type of person. She’s different and special.” About her character, Thurman says, “I think Roxanne is getting a little healing from this young girl. She’s getting reminded about being free. She’s getting reminded about having fun. She’s seeing something beautiful and with hope. Roxanne comes to realize that her real self is still that kid too.” Says VanderWaal, “I love Uma. The first time I met her, she just gave me mother energy. She was just very warm. Very welcoming. Very, very humble. Very funny. It was always fun when she was on set. And it was really an honor to work with her. They say never meet your heroes, but she truly did not disappoint at all. She was a very pure energy. She was awesome.” Stargirl’s best friend, her pet rat, Cinnamon, was played by several rats, the main ones being Chloe, Penelope and Phoebe.

For the film, VanderWaal composed an original song with music producer Mike Elizondo. Unlike in the first “Stargirl,” where the song she wrote was played over the end credits, this time her song is featured in the course of the film. Hart recalls, “I gave her an idea and a title that was sort of woven throughout the script, and then she and Mike, who is an incredible music producer, went away for three days and wrote ‘Figure It Out.’ And we developed it and worked on it, but the core of the song and the lyrics and everything that they did in that original writing session is what’s in the movie.”

“The process was really long because you have to show it to all the producers. And then they had a bunch of notes. And then we make it again,” explains VanderWaal. “It was a big challenge for me, because it’s very hard for me to give up control like that, especially when it comes to my music, and so it was definitely testing my control issues. But now looking back I love every single change that they made, every single suggestion that they had. We kept rerecording it. And then the final was finally there. And then I just forgot about it until it was time to record it on set.” She says, “I’m so happy that they let me do it. Because, honestly, not to toot my own horn, I couldn’t imagine a different song. I think that it’s perfect for the movie.” Music producer Michael Penn, a longtime friend of Hart’s who wasn’t involved with the first film, wrote two original songs for “Hollywood Stargirl,” which he produced along with other music for the film.

Explains Penn, “The challenge for me was to write in the voices of the characters that are ostensibly writing these songs. And the first one is a song that in the film was supposed to have been written by Roxanne Martell twenty years earlier. And the other is a song written by Stargirl. So, after discussing with Jordan and Julia what they wanted to communicate with the songs and what purposes they served in those moments in the film, I decided to write two songs that were sort of about the same thing but coming from the perspective of these two characters twenty years apart.” He wrote both songs about the moment when a person dreams of a life in some kind of creative field and wants to explore their relationship with their physical place and their identity. The song for Roxanne is called “Miracle Mile,” a Los Angeles neighborhood that in the ’90s was an artistic hub that Penn himself was part of. Penn says, “Julia was somebody who used to go to this club where I played a lot in L.A. and was involved in that whole scene in L.A. in the ’90s. She’s got her taste and her aesthetic, and her music sensibilities are great.” He says that the song for Stargirl, “Heaven Knows,” was more challenging because the lyrics needed to sound like something a character her age would actually write.

He says, “I certainly allowed it to be more sophisticated lyrically than if I had been writing a song for the first film, and I wrote it very specifically for Grace’s voice. I wanted it to reflect hercharacter. So, I wanted to have her superhero spirit in there somehow, and it be a song about this moment in her life, where she realizes that something has to change, and she’s now in Los Angeles in this new world. And it starts out from a perspective before she meets this group of people but understanding that she needs this community in her life. “It’s been a joy to work with her,” adds Penn. “She’s great. She sang it so perfectly right from the get-go.” Music producer Nick Baxter, who worked on the first film before returning for “Hollywood Stargirl,” adds, “Grace has done a lot of her own work over the last couple of years, songwriting and exploring some different styles, and is finding her own voice as an artist. So, we wanted to make sure we honored that growth in her but also honor the original character of Stargirl, which is its own thing. I think we got to a really cool place that honors both.” Baxter says, “Grace is incredibly talented. She surprises us every day. She has such control over her voice. And what she brings to the scene is so natural.” VanderWaal recalls filming the dance sequence for Terrell and Evan’s “sizzle reel” for their film project. “I’m not a dancer, but it was really fun. It was very nerve-wracking, but it was one of my favorite scenes.” She adds, “I also loved filming the little jam sesh between Stargirl, Roxanne and Evan. That was so fun. Once again, I wish that that wasn’t a silent scene because I want people to know we were actually doing it.”

When Hart and Horowitz approached “Stargirl” costume designer Natalie O’Brien about working on the sequel, and finally met to discuss “Hollywood Stargirl,” they sent her some up-to-date photos of VanderWaal so O’Brien could see what she looked like now that a few years had passed. Recalls O’Brien, “She’s evolved; she’s just a swan. She’s changed from the 14-year-old girl that was strumming a ukulele in the first film, and now she’s a woman.” Hart told her that she envisioned mid-20th-century American actress Jean Seberg as an inspiration for what Stargirl might look like in the sequel. Seberg’s signature look was her boyish pixie haircut, teamed with slouchy Breton tops, cigarette pants and ballet pumps, and she also loved oversized shirts, chunky knit sweaters and Peter Pan collars. In “Hollywood Stargirl,” Stargirl’s hair is cut short like Seberg’s, and as an homage to the Herald Tribune logo T-shirt Seberg wore in the 1960 French New Wave classic “Breathless,” Stargirl wears a Los Angeles Times logo T-shirt.

“Stargirl’s wardrobe palette changed from the first film to this one,” explains O’Brien. “The first film was set in Arizona, so we did a lot of sunset colors. For California, another one of Julia’s inspirations was the film ‘Cooley High.’ And it’s like, punch you in the face with color. Everyone has it.” She recalls that Hart told her she wanted not only Stargirl to look very colorful but also everyone else around her, so that it’s clear Stargirl has found her people. Her wardrobe in the film includes a watermelon-colored outfit and a button vest found in one of the vintage shops that populate L.A.’s Little Ethiopia neighborhood, where they had bought several pieces for the first film. Stargirl wears the vest with bell bottoms and an authentic 1970s shirt. O’Brien calls the outfit “very retro, but also kind of now.”

Although Stargirl wore a lot of hats and jewelry in the first film, O’Brien toned it down this time. She explains, “I didn’t want to go too heavy, because I did a lot on the first one. She’s got such a beautiful face and this crazy, beautiful swan giraffe neck I would kill for, and the new hair. I didn’t want to hide her under too much of it.” O’Brien mentions one of her favorite outfits that combines a corset on an off-the-shoulder white top and jeans. She says, “I wanted to do a corset because it’s a more grown-up piece of clothing for a 17-year-old girl to wear. It was a mix of vintage and new, and a mix of something borrowed not blue. I really loved Grace’s reaction to it.” She also points out a hand-crocheted, off-the-shoulder feather top VanderWaal adored, a highwaisted vintage skirt, an Americana floral strappy dress that Stargirl wears with a satin bomber jacket, a two-piece sherbet oufit with a plaid skirt and a rouge orange floral top. O’Brien says, “In the scene in the recording studio, Stargirl wears these wing-tipped boots, because in California we wear a lot of boots. And we used lots and lots of socks. The amount of socks that she had were almost more than her shirts. That’s the biggest accessory.” “I’m in awe of Grace,” admits O’Brien. She says, “Anything she touches, anything that she does, is kind of golden. She’s very special, a very rare beauty, but she also connects, and she’s herself, and I think that’s really cool.”

The filmmakers wanted “Hollywood Stargirl” to be a love letter to Los Angeles and were eager to incorporate as many iconic L.A.-area locations as possible. The first day of production they filmed at Will Rogers State Beach, Tower 5, for a scene when Stargirl and Cinnamon take the bus to the beach. Another beach location was Sycamore Cove/Point Mugu Rock, where Ana and Stargirl go when they first get to Los Angeles to watch the sunset and have dinner. They also filmed at Westward Beach for the scene in which Terrell directs Evan and Stargirl dancing in their film. The classic bungalow-style apartment building where Stargirl and Ana live is located on Genesee Avenue in Hollywood. Stargirl and Mr. Mitchell have breakfast at a decades-old coffee shop on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, which for the past 20 years was known as the 101 Coffee Shop. Shuttered during the pandemic, it recently reopened as Clark Street.When Grace and Evan go on a date, they eat ice cream and enjoy the view in the Cedar Grove section of Griffith Park, overlooking Los Angeles. And Delicious Pizza on Adams Boulevard in West Adams is the pizza parlor where Stargirl and Evan visit Terrell at work. Sunset Sound is where Roxanne takes Stargirl and Evan to record their songs in the film, and where VanderWaal and Richardson actually recorded their songs for the film. This iconic recording studio, founded by Disney’s legendary director of recording Tutti Camarata in 1962, is where many of the studio’s classic musical soundtracks were recorded and was later used by such artists as the Doors, Paul McCartney, Van Halen, Bee Gees, Whitney Houston, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Led Zeppelin, Kenny Loggins, Elton John, Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin and Fleetwood Mac, among many others.

Itw Julia Hart (Director, Co Writer)

Itw Jordan Horowitz (Co Writer, Producer)

Itw Grace VanderWaal 

Itw Uma Thurman

Itw Al Madrigal

Itw Elijah Richardson

Itw Judd Hirsch

Itw Judy Greer

Itw Tyrel Jackson Williams

Synopsis : 
Stargirl's destiny as she prepares to travel to California with her mother Ana, hired to make costumes for a movie in Los Angeles. The young girl, who hopes to make her dreams come true and become a professional singer, meets a wide variety of characters, including Mr. Mitchell, her neighbor; brothers Evan and Terrell, two aspiring directors; and Roxanne Martel, a musician she admires.

Hollywood Stargirl
Directed by Julia Hart
Written by Jordan Horowitz, Julia Hart
Based on Characters by Jerry Spinelli
Produced by Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Lee Stollman
Starring  Grace VanderWaal, Elijah Richardson, Tyrel Jackson Williams, Judy Greer, Judd Hirsch, Uma Thurman
Cinematography : Bryce Fortner
Edited by Shayar Bhansali, Tracey Wadmore-Smith
Music by Michael Penn
Production companies : Walt Disney Pictures, Gotham Group
Distributed by Disney+
Release dates : May 23, 2022 (El Capitan Theatre), June 3, 2022 (United States)

Photos & Videos : Copyright Walt Disney Company