The former teen star helms the Freevee original series based on Tegan and Sara's best-selling memoir about their teenage years.
Over 20 years after starring in late-’90s teen films like But I'm a Cheerleader, The Faculty and She’s All That, Clea DuVall is now helming High School, the absorbing Freevee original series adapted from Tegan and Sara’s best-selling memoir about their teenage years.
Serving as director, executive producer and co-showrunner of the series alongside Laura Kittrell, DuVall tells ET she “really loved the book” written by her longtime friends. Ahead of the series’ premiere, she talks about bringing the book to life onscreen, and if there’s a chance she’ll follow up Happiest Season with a sequel.
Starring TikTok personalities Railey and Seazynn Gilliland as Tegan and Sara, respectively, the series is an LGBTQ, coming-of-age dramedy about finding your own identity, and how that journey is made even more complicated when you have a twin whose struggles parallel your own.
“This is not, like, a goofy, surface-y show about sisters who fight over clothes. Like, this is our story. It is about identity and it is about depression and it is about drugs and alcohol and it is about sex and it is about homophobia,” Sara Quin previously told ET about the series, which she and her sister wanted to “feel sophisticated.”
“It is such a nuanced experience that being able to explore that in the show was something that was really exciting,” DuVall says now of going down the path to discovering one’s true self. And with the series, she wanted to capture “just how internal that experience is, you know, as you’re trying to navigate feelings and figure out what they mean.”
Kittrell adds that one of the more relatable things about the series is “having these feelings but not being able to totally talk about them.” Whether you’re coming out or not, “that is something that everybody relates to,” she says of “the stuff you’re keeping to yourself and what you’re showing other people.”
While the series is set in the ‘90s, and is supported by a nostalgic-filled soundtrack handpicked by the co-showrunners and music supervisor Brienne Rose, “it was very important to Laura and I that the show just feel timeless,” DuVall says. “We wanted the story to be front and center, and we wanted the characters to be what drove us.”
For them, it was about “really allowing the story to be intimate and honest and authentic,” she continues, explaining that “because that was what was really driving us, it helped us stay away from [any] tropes” common in many of the teen stories told during her time onscreen as an actress.
DuVall adds, “The story of identical twins in Canada, both discovering their own sexuality, was just so unique that I don’t think that we could have followed the tropes even if we tried.”
Although the show is adapted from the band’s own experiences growing up, DuVall and Kittrell “really wanted the show to take on a life of its own,” the director says, noting that “a lot of the characters within the show are not loyal to real people.” Of course, the two worked closely with the Quin sisters on their approach to the series, making sure they “felt OK with what we were fictionalizing.”
In fact, there was some overlap between the sisters’ experiences and the co-showrunners, who understood firsthand what it was like to navigate “some of these feelings,” Kittrell says, admitting that “as the season goes on, we couldn’t help but have more of our own things start to creep in.”
But given that DuVall and the band have a long history together, it’s not surprising they were able to work seamlessly together here, with High School marking their second major collaboration after Tegan and Sara contributed original music to the Happiest Season soundtrack.
Telling the story of Abby (Kristen Stewart) joining her longtime girlfriend, Harper (Mackenzie Davis), at her home for Christmas, where it’s revealed that she’s not out to her family, Happiest Season was celebrated for putting a lesbian couple at the center of a romantic holiday film. Also starring Aubrey Plaza as Harper’s ex, Riley, the 2020 film debuted on Hulu during the pandemic to positive reviews and raves for Stewart as well as Plaza’s scene-stealing performance.
Since then, Plaza said in a TikTok that a sequel was happening, while co-writer and star Mary Holland also expressed interest in doing more films. Now, two years later, DuVall is open to continuing the story with another film.
“I would definitely make another one,” she says. “I mean, it was such a dream cast. It was such a wonderful experience making it. I would love to, I would love to get everybody back together.”
Here’s hoping it does happen! But in the meantime, fans can enjoy DuVall reuniting with Tegan and Sara on High School, a heartfelt series about navigating feelings.
High School premieres Friday, Oct. 14 on Freevee.
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