The Positive Message of Stick It: "I love that the story is not about getting the guy. It’s not about looking good, getting a make-over, acting cooler, having a cute short skirt. It’s about her really seeing who she is and evaluating that and coming to terms with that, which I would love to see every girl be able to do because I want girls to respect themselves.
I want girls to be who they are and what they have to offer. It’s not based on what other people think about you. I mean, you really become your worst critic in that area when you’re used to people putting that pressure on you. It’s not just gymnastics, because gymnastics is a very pressure-filled world at such a young age. That’s why it’s such a great parallel to this. It’s really about seeing it for what it is and loving who you are now, so that you can make a difference later on in a really positive way. I love to see women do that.”
The Scoop on Jeff Bridges: Bridges plays gymnastics coach Burt Vickerman in Stick It. “I was very nervous to work with Jeff in the beginning. I was like, ‘…I admire his work and I’m coming into this like this is my first movie. I hope that I can work with him and be real and I don’t kill the scene.’
I remember when he first came into the gym, he was so friendly and so open. I remember we immediately started talking about the characters and how we felt about it. He really took me in and was just very encouraging to me. He was so genuine and sincere and taught me a lot about it.
We wanted to make sure that the characters, as much as they’re defined, and really, there are some similarities between the two. He didn’t always coach in a cookie cutter fashion. He didn’t always want his gymnasts to do the safe thing. He coached them to do crazy stuff and push the boundaries. When they ended up getting hurt, he got burned so he conformed to what the rules were - and I kind of did the same thing. I quit. I was like, ‘I’m not conforming so I quit and I’m just not going to deal with you. That’s the way I’m gonna do it.’ So when I was forced to go back in the gym, we wanted to make sure that it was more like a father/daughter relationship in the beginning. You know, that I still care what he thinks about me but I’m not going to show it and he still cares about me but is not gonna put up with my crap either. We wanted to make sure that it was really genuine and real and, by the time you reach the end of the movie, that we both learned from that and encouraged each other to go push the boundaries in an appropriate way. We weren’t disrespectful and we didn’t conform but we definitely did it in our own way that was effective and gave each other our life back in a sense.
We wanted to make sure that it was a positive relationship between and gymnast and a coach. There’s a lot of stuff that happens in the real world of gymnastics and we just didn’t want to go there. We wanted it to be caring but not creepy/caring, if you know what I mean. So that the audience isn’t like, ‘What? Is something else going on?’ So it’s a fine line.
He was wonderful to work with. I remember that he wanted to rehearse. He loves to rehearse and I was scared to do that because if I rehearse, then I’m not going to be genuine when I do the scene. I’m going to be tired of it, but that’s not what happens. You really get down the words and movements of the scene and you don’t have to think about them anymore. You throw them away and then you can just be free to try different things and be open. That was one of the coolest things, and it made it just so much more fun to be in a scene.”
