How Natasha Lyonne landed her role in the cult classic ‘But I’m A Cheerleader’
Over two decades after the release of the cult teen classic But I’m a Cheerleader, stars Natasha Lyonne and Melanie Lynskey reunited to tell the story of how Lyonne secured her role in the film.
In an interview for Variety, Lyonne recalls: “Clea DuVall had put me in the movie because the script for But I’m a Cheerleader was on the floor of her car, and I was in the passenger seat. So I picked it up and I said ‘What’s this movie? What’s my part?'”
Lyonne recalls that DuVall, who plays the supporting character Graham Eaton in the film, told her: “‘You can’t play this part, because you’re not this type of person’. And I said, ‘Excusez-moi, Girl, Interrupted‘. We went over to Jamie’s house, and boy, did we show her ‘Watch what I can’t cheerlead,’ I said.”
Lyonne also suggested Lynskey for the film. She tells Lynskey, “I wanted you to be in all the movies.”
But I’m a Cheerleader was the second time Lyonne and Lynskey had worked together. They first shared the screen in Detroit Rock City, a 1999 film about a Kiss tribute band.
The two reflect on the impact of the film, which has since become a cult classic and marked a pioneering moment in LGBTQ+ cinema. Lynskey suggests that the film was “very ahead of its time” and Lyonne adds that she was “not hesitant at all” about telling the story of conversion therapy.
Lyonne has seen the impact of the film first hand, recalling: “These kids would be crying and saying, ‘Thank you for putting out the film.’ And I remain so proud of But I’m a Cheerleader, and so genuinely confused that we’re in such deep future. Prince could only conceive of 1999.”
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