'Senior Year' Star Brandon Scott Jones Details How Britney Spears Is a 'Good Mascot' for Rebel Wilson Comedy (Exclusive)
As one of the funniest women comedians of our generation, Rebel Wilson has never been one to shy away from showcasing her powerhouse dance moves. Between her fiery choreography in Pitch Perfect to her bouncy ballerina style in Cats, the Australian native continues to wow audiences with her unique style and rhythm. But it will be her Britney Spears dance number in this Friday's streaming premiere of Senior Year on Netflix that will really awe audiences if the film's screenwriter and her co-star Brandon Scott Jones has anything to say about it.
First teased last year with a photo of Wilson in Spears' iconic "You Drive Me Crazy" wardrobe complete with the sparkly emerald green top, black pants and wavy blonde locks, the behind-the-scenes moment drew fans in for more. Thankfully, with the movie just days away and audiences getting to watch the hilarious sequence, Jones told PopCulture.com exclusively that it was always intended to be a moment they recreated for the hilarious comedy about a woman who returns to high school after recovering from spending a 20-year coma.
"'Drive Me Crazy' by Britney Spears, the Stop remix — specifically the Stop remix — was written into the script," Jones told PopCulture, adding how the song and music video was so iconic and fondly remembered time period for him. "Britney rules and I think she's almost sort of this —I don't want to be one of those people that are just talking about Britney Spears willy-nilly — but I feel like she's sort of a good mascot for this movie of that was her then, and then here's what the world is now. So I really wanted to celebrate that, and I wrote that specifically [in]. I remember very much the making of the video, as well, that MTV aired." Jones added it was a "very specific" moment in time that he "really wanted to just highlight" for the film.
With the film as a nice throwback to beloved teen comedies of the millennium like She's All That, 10 Things I Hate About You, Can't Hardly Wait, and Never Been Kissed, Scott says the movie's concept — which is based on a spec from Andrew Knauer and Arthur Pielli — was one he couldn't pass up further developing. "The second I got it, I freaked out because I grew up on teen movies. I grew up watching everything. I love that era so, so deeply," he said. "I think I was like, oh, how delicious of an idea to wake up in today, basically go into a coma, having gone into high school in She's All That or 10 Things I Hate About You, and you go back to high school and it's Euphoria," he laughed. "You know what I mean? What leap is that? And it was really, really fun to get to revisit that."
Thanks to Wilson recommending Jones for the script after the two kept in touch after filming Isn't It Romantic in 2019 and share similar backgrounds in terms of writing and performing live comedy, the two have proven to be a dynamic pairing as Senior Year will no doubt be a favorite among audiences this weekend. Praising Wilson for being "awesome," Jones says the comedian is a "real mentor" to him in a myriad of ways. "She's been such a champion of me, and I really look up to her. She's so smart and I think that's the thing that people sometimes when you do big physical comedy or you play large characters like the way she does, I think we forget how much she's thinking, and how much she's thinking ahead."
Disclosing details of her process and applauding her take on how she crafts her performance, Jones says he wishes he could have photographed her script because it was proof of how hard she worked. "You would just see all the work that she's doing, and she's writing ideas down, writing beats, writing out things that she wants to try, and it's very inspiring," he said. "It's very, very inspiring to see somebody at her level, and who's been at that high level for so long, continue to work that hard and to work that way and to be so good at it, and make it look so effortless — and then to be a great dancer, too."
Senior Year will be available to stream on May 13 only on Netflix. For more with Brandon Scott Jones — who also stars in CBS's hit sitcom Ghosts — keep it locked to PopCulture.com for the latest.