The BULLY wins and the GEEK loses in life!
Award winning screenwriter Jesse Speer (BITTER) talks about his belated coming-of-age comedy script. About a valedictorian, slated for success. Now, 10 years later, she’s just a bitter waitress, struggling with resentment and unmet potential, all while PARKER, her high school bully, lives the good life as a prominent influencer.
Is this the world we live in now?
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LISTEN to the full podcast: https://youtu.be/LDDc9iCiutc
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Watch the best scene reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GncsGI4_L3o
Get to know the screenwriter:
What is your screenplay about?
Bitter is a belated coming of age story for anyone that feels like the paradigm of success has shifted. It takes the traditional geek vs bully high school sub-genre and basically turns it on its ass, focusing on WILLOW, a once-hopeful two-time valedictorian, slated for success. Now, 10 years later, she’s a bitter waitress, struggling with resentment and unmet potential, all while PARKER, her high school bully, lives the good life as a prominent influencer.
What genres does your screenplay fall under?
Bitter is definitely a comedy. When developing this story, it felt necessary to look through a humorous lens. The plot tackles a lot of socially-relevant themes and issues we all deal with on a daily basis: comparison culture, scam-influencers, toxic personalities—things that can absolutely consume a person. So, I thought it was important to craft the story and its characters from a place of comedy. I wanted to avoid the perception of whining or lecturing, and write a story that has something to say, but also has audience wanting to listen because they’re getting to laugh along the way.
Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
Movies have changed drastically over the last decade—some changes good, some bad, but I think a gap has been created for some of the sillier, more light-hearted comedies that can still pack a punch—that have something to say, but do it in a way to invites, not divides. I think Bitter recaptures this approach, in line with early-2000’s movies like Mean Girls, Bruce Almighty, Miss Congeniality. The themes are there. The lessons are there. But so is the fun.
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