The Skater Kids of Mid90s Keep It Real In Jonah Hill's Directorial Debut

There's a scene in Jonah Hill's Mid90s as soon as young Stevie (Sunny Suljic) successfully lands his first ollie soon after weeks of repeatedly practicing, and falling, in the driveway. It's the middle of the night, yet he doesn't care; he screams and jumps around in pure, raw elation, throwing his board with reckless abandon. It's a specific feeling, landing your first trick, one that only someone who's spent time on a board — and stuck indoor their own head — can understand. (For Suljic, it was the initial time he nailed a kickflip.)


It's what makes Hill's surprisingly truthful directorial debut such an achievement. He made a film about his own experience growing up in Los Angeles in the '90s, once skateboarding was a grimy subculture for social outcasts, teenage misfits, and damaged kids from damaged homes. Thirteen-year-old Stevie is a lonely kid whose attempts at connecting with his violent older brother (Lucas Hedges) can often met with the elder's fists. Yet everything changes as soon as he befriends an audience of burnouts at the local skate shop, Motor Avenue, and picks up a board.


That authenticity was key to Hill — and to the film's young cast, most of whom were scouted at local skate parks around the Los Angeles area with the help of co-producer and skate consultant Mikey Alfred.


Hill (right) with stars Hedges (left) and Suljic on the set of Mid90s.


Alfred, the 23-year-old creator of skate brand Against the law Civilization, introduced Hill and Hedges to 11-year-old Suljic at Stoner Skate Plaza. Suljic was small for his age — brilliant for scrappy young Stevie — and he might really skate, having picked up a skateboard at age four. "The auditions were more of a rehearsal," Suljic, right now 13, told MTV News at the A24 offices in New York City. Hill, he mentioned, just wanted to get a sense of everyone's chemistry, and to prove his own skate cred to the cast, he landed a brilliant kickflip the initial starting day of shooting.


In the film, it doesn't take long for Stevie to be accepted by the crew: charismatic Ray (Na-Kel Smith, a professional skater), who dreams of going pro; loudmouth Fuckshit (Olan Prenatt), who doesn't visualize the point in dreaming at all; quiet Fourth Grade (Ryder McLaughlin), who films the group's exploits; and try-hard Ruben (Gio Galicia), who brought Stevie into the categorize so the guys would have someone else to rag on. Nevertheless in real life, they were already companions.


"We were just fucking around, trying stuff," Smith mentioned of the audition process. For Prenatt, another local skater from Venice, it was a similar vibe. "Mikey brought me into the audition," he recalled. "I didn't know anything that was going on. I just sat down and spoke with Jonah and instructed him a story about how I used my girlfriend's ID to get into somewhere, and we just began laughing. I guess he did not remember to audition me."


"I went into it just wanting to do the ideal job possible to not embarrass myself or embarrass anybody who was piece of the movie," Smith added. "Then I got good feedback, and everybody was telling me, 'You did a good job.' And I was like, 'Bro, I honestly don't know what the fuck that insinuates


Smith (left) and Prenatt (right) on the set of Mid90s.


For Hill, the challenge wasn't teaching a crowd of skater kids to be actors; it was bringing each person else in the cast to their raw, emotional level, stripping away years of polish.


"I had never acted before, so I never understood, like, this is a good performance," Smith mentioned. Nevertheless they're not playing themselves — Suljic will be the initial to tell you that he's nothing like meek Stevie — Hill noticed performers who could tap into something real and lived-in.


soon after we finished it, I was like, 'Damn, acting it tite. I really acted in a movie,'" Smith mentioned. Although soon after [the premiere], I was like, 'I got to do another one.' I'd like to continue to push this and visualize how far I can take it."


"Fuck yeah," Prenatt added.


As with most coming-of-age stories, especially ones about young people on the periphery, there's a thrill to finding this sort of human connection — even once things get awkward. As soon as Stevie has his first sexual experience with an older teenage girl who knowingly tells him that he's "at that age before guys become dicks," it's uncomfortable to watch. He's terrified. He doesn't actually like the experience up until he tells his companions about it, eliciting cheers, high fives, and crude jokes.


each person has gone through those cringey moments," Suljic mentioned. Whenever you have your first kiss, it's routinely super awkward and not organic. It could be sort of weird if it wasn't."


Yet Mid90s also doesn't shy away from the suffocating ennui that makes adolescence so unbearable; for Stevie, the scars and bruises remain long right following the physical wounds heal. Suljic navigates Stevie's turbulent mental state with a sense of weariness that only an a actual teen could possess.


"All of the those scenes have different feelings and different emotions attached to them, so it's all about digging deep," he mentioned. "It's hard acting everything."


However his biggest challenge wasn't Stevie's emotional turmoil or getting pummeled by Hedges; it was pretending to be a bad skateboarder, at least in the starting. "I've been skating for so long, so it's kinda weird for me to act bad," he mentioned.


That being mentioned, Mid90s really isn't about the excellent class of the skating, however rather the feeling you get once it's just you, the board, and also a few companions hitting the pavement. As soon as Ray tells Stevie about his younger brother's death, he describes how he may barely get himself out of bed for weeks — up until Fuckshit "literally dragged me out of bed and made me go skate." It's the only thing that made him feel like himself again. So, any time Stevie gets lost in his own dark thoughts, it's Ray who pulls him out and makes him skate.


any time I first began skateboarding, no one understood why I did it," Smith mentioned. However right now my mom can watch Mid90s and know what I was going through at that age. It's just really good to be able to see it portrayed in a real way and not like, sick dude!"