Everything Sucks! Stars On Teen Emotions And '90s Slang They Still Don't Understand

At Boring High School it's the theater kids who rule the school — or at least they think they do. Netflix's charming '90s coming-of-age comedy, Everything Sucks!, examines common teenage ennui and awkwardness via eyes of the freshman geeks who sit at the bottom of the social hierarchy and the drama freaks who routinely make their lives a living hell by doing the absolute most at all times.


Everything Sucks! is My So-Called Life with even more Tori Amos references, where the mean women aren't so much mean as they are misunderstood and the bad males act rebellious so that no one can ever get also close. And then some of the perfect folks are the nerds no one else wants converse with.


MTV News chatted with the Drama club's self-appointed king and queen, Elijah Stevenson (Oliver) and Sydney Sweeney (Emaline), to talk about their characters' insecurities and style inspirations, the '90s slang they still don't understand, and what they would tell their high school selves right now.


MTV News: I love that the theater kids are sort of the villains in this show. It's a narrative we don't often visualize in pop culture.


Sydney Sweeney: It's more like we think we're cool, however we're not cool at all. That's why it comes off like we are the villains. We put so much of ourselves out there because we want a person's eye so badly, and folks are just like, "Whoa."


Elijah Stevenson: We're a little bit much.


MTV News: So where do the theater kids at Boring High fit in the in general high school hierarchy?


Sweeney: We're at the bottom. Drama club is just slightly above AV club.


Stevenson: do you know we're outranked by Chess club? Chess Club is probably at the bottom.


MTV News: At least you guys look cool.


Sweeney: Each person looks cool in the '90s.


MTV News: Speaking of, Emaline certainly takes fashion cues from No Doubt era Gwen Stefani.


Sweeney: Courtney Love and Gwen Stefani, yeah. Emaline dresses fully different than I do. She's really out there with who she is, and she puts on these different personas for different people. I thought her fashion was so cool, yet I would never personally dress like that. I don't have the confidence that Emaline has. Emaline is aware how she wants to look and why she wants other people to look at her.


Stevenson: I wear a lot of flannels as it is, so I got to wear even more flannels and comfortable clothes. Nothing was super fitted, so there was a lot of room to move. I wore a trench coat for almost the full season, plus it was a love-hate relationship. It looked awesome, although it was really warm — too warm.


MTV News: It does feel like Emaline is playing a different character in each episode.


Sweeney: She doesn't know who she is, so she tries to be other people, specifically the people she thinks each person else wants her to be.


MTV News: What's the verdict on Gwen Stefani's baby hair buns? They looked really cool, however I'm sure they were a nightmare.


Stevenson: You kept tell me that they were hurting...


Sweeney: They were hurting really bad! I didn't like all my hair up in it, nevertheless I did like it once it was just the couple in the front and long in the back because I loved my hair big like that. I wish my hair was as big as Emaline's hair day-to-day. It was so cool.


MTV News: Were you guys theater kids in school?


Stevenson: I didn't really do it in high school, nevertheless I was in theater in middle school.


MTV News: Why not high school?


Stevenson: It's not cool to be in theater in high school. Or at least that was my high school experience. Each person could be like, "There are those weird theater kids." I avoided that at all expenditures.


Sweeney: I was on the math team, and I was on the soccer team. I'm a large nerd. I was actually valedictorian of my class.


MTV News: Where does the math team rank on our hierarchy?


Sweeney: I do not actually aspire to picture it!


Stevenson: The math team isn't even on the hierarchy. It's its own entity. If you're going to be a mathlete, you have got to have something to counteract it, like soccer.


MTV News: How hard was it to be so mean to Jahi [Winston], who plays Luke? Because you guys had to be really mean to him.


Stevenson: I'm glad to mention that it was really fun. I really enjoyed that. There's something really fun about being mean.


MTV News: The show carries a lot of '90s slang. What was the weirdest thing you had to say?


Stevenson: I remember once you had to mention apple-bobbing, and we had to look it up.


Sweeney: OK, so, any time our characters were playing spin the bottle, they were making us mention the weirdest things. And we might not stop laughing. There was apple-bobbing, pumpkin-patching, heavy-petting... We were like, "Is this what kids in the '90s were into?"


Stevenson: I Googled it because I didn't know what any of it meant. I thought Mike [Mohan, co-creator] and Ben [York Jones, co-creator] were making it up. I didn't know what pumpkin-patching was.


Sweeney: I still don't. Don't tell me!


MTV News: Did you listen to a lot of '90s music beyond the scenes?


Sweeney: We played '90s music, we watched '90s movies and TV shows — it was just like summer camp. We got sent top list of movies to watch. We watched 10 Things I Hate About You with each other.


Stevenson: I took some notes from Heath Ledger. There really are a lot of parallels between him and Oliver.


Sweeney: Quinn [Liebling] and I watched Freaks and Geeks with each other. And I went through and put all the songs that were in the script into a playlist, and then I added a bunch that I thought Emaline would listen to, like Oasis, Nirvana, Fun Lovin' Criminals, Weezer, Tori Amos, The Cure, The Smashing Pumpkins, Madonna, Sublime... I still have it on my phone.


MTV News: Despite being set in a different decade, this sort of coming-of-age story is universal. Could you relate to your characters?


Sweeney: One hundred percent. All the different story lines are so relatable, although it's in the '90s. Everybody has gone through what one of those characters has gone through. I relate to Emaline and Kate, also. They both feel like outsiders, and I've certainly felt that way.


Stevenson: Even right now it's nice to know that I wasn't the only person going through that super awkward, insecure phase. It's a common segment of growing up, and that's our show.


MTV News: in case you can go back and tell your high school selves one thing, what would you say?


Stevenson: I would tell my high school self to not worry about who I hang out with as long as they're real people. I attempted to hang out with the popular crowd, and for the most part I did, however soon after high school I don't converse with any of these right now. I wish I would have focused more on the authentic companions that I had and still have right now. You should put your time into companions who really care about you.


Sweeney: I would tell myself to not care what other people think and to just love myself. I dealt a lot with attempting to create other people happy, and I lost track with making myself happy.