• The series High School is based on best-selling memoir.
•  Railey and Seazynn Gilliland are the actresses who play the singer-songwriters.
• They spoke about the significance of a programme like High School.

Railey and Seazynn Gilliland, who play Tegan and Sara, respectively, are the actresses’ first cinematic performances in High School.

The two spoke about the significance of a programme like High School as well as the challenges they faced while filming in an interview with Variety.

The series High School , which is based on Tegan and Sara Quin’s autobiographical best-selling memoir of the same name, follows the twin teenagers through high school as they start to figure out who they are as people and where they fit into the world.

Tegan and Sara are a gay indie pop duo that has been putting out music since 1999, in case you’re not familiar with them.

High School, a co-written memoir by the twin sisters, was published in 2019 and debuted on the New York Times Best-Sellers list.

The same-named television series, written and created by Clea DuVall, is based on that biography, which details their singular experience growing up in Canada as twin lesbians in the 1990s and eventually becoming a Grammy-nominated songwriting duo.

Finding twin sisters to play these two must have been challenging, but TikTok allowed for the selection of the Gilliland twins as the ideal fit.

The fact that the Gilliland twins both identify as queer is crucial and admirable because Tegan and Sara’s story revolves around dealing with coming out to oneself and others.

No matter how convenient their appearance or orientation, the parts would still call for actresses who could sing and act.

Fortunately, they had acting skills from their time on TikTok, where they were found. Sadly, neither of them thought of themselves as singers.

In fact, both Gilliland sisters hesitated to submit in a clip of them singing even though it was required for the part.

They came up with all kinds of excuses not to, until Railey secretly recorded her sister performing a Tegan and Sara song in a parking lot. How did Seazynn overcome their stage fear, they were asked?

She replied: “Oh, I didn’t. Especially in front of the crew and everything. The first time I had to do it, Railey wasn’t even in the scene but she came into the room we were filming in and just sat there, because there was no other way I was doing it. Even every single time after that, when we had a scene where we were singing, it never got easier.”

High School also examines issues of growing up gay and how it might alter one’s sense of self and relationships with others.

It was adapted for the screen by actress and director DuVall, who also serves as the showrunner.

Tegan and Sara, as well as the young actors who play them in the series, identify as gay, and a significant portion of the book and the show revolve around that self-discovery, particularly as they navigate growing up in the turbulent ’90s.

This aspect of themselves starts to unravel the bond that bound the two sisters together for so long, allowing them both to explore different avenues and ultimately launching their great music careers.

Railey commented on the message they wished to deliver through High School;

“I would say, especially to the young queer kids, that they’re not alone. I felt that way in not seeing myself on TV and being around homophobia and in the church and everything. I felt so alone.

I didn’t have anybody that I could see myself in and relate to. But then being able to play this person that is feeling all of those things that are actually really normal, I just hope that people realize there’s other people who are going through the same thing.”

Kyle Bornheimer (Marriage Story) plays their father in High School, and Cobie Smulders (The Avengers) plays their mother.

The first four of the eight episodes are already accessible on Amazon FreeVee; the next four will air every Friday.

Check out Tegan, Sara, and DuVall’s TIFF interview with Collider below:

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