Cosmo rewind
‘Anyone can see I’m a stuffed olive!’ For its 15th anniversary, the cast and director come together to tell the story of how the cult classic coming-of-age movie came to be
I t’s the summer of 2008. The Ting Tings’ That’s Not My Name is now a thing and you’ve just left the cinema, having devoured Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging. While you still don’t know what ‘see you later’ actually means, you’re now an expert on chicken fillets, thongs and the sex god that is Aaron Johnson (now Taylor-Johnson).
To recap: 14-year-old Georgia wants three things. To act like a grown-up, to throw an awesome birthday party and to land a fit boyfriend, all with the help of her BFFs, The Ace Gang.
Based on the 1999 Louise Rennison novel of a similar name, Angus, Thongs quickly garnered icon status, thanks to its universal portrayal of teenage life. The cult classic defined a whole generation, who dedicated sleepovers nationwide to trying out the pencil test and figuring out exactly where they were up to on The Snogging Scale™, all to the soundtrack of Ultraviolet by Stiff Dylans.
To commemorate the film’s 15th anniversary (yep, it’s literally a teenager), we spoke to the cast and director to find out how it all went down.
In 2006, director Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham) was asked by Paramount to take alook at the ‘Georgia books’ by Louise Rennison. She quickly signed on to adapt the first two, Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging and It’s OK, I’m Wearing Really Big Knickers, into one film, and set about the task of finding her Georgia and Robbie.
GURINDER: When Georgia Groome came in, I thought she was just so good because she looked like the girl next door. She was a typical 14-year-old who also had comedy chops.
GEORGIA GROOME (ACTOR, GEORGIA NICOLSON): She [Gurinder] had seen me in a film called London To Brighton and said, ‘That girl will now be older, and that’s the girl.’ I think it was because of my nose. I auditioned with a load of girls, who ended up being The Ace Gang. It’s nice that the final call came from chemistry with the friend group, rather than with the love interest.
GURINDER: When Aaron [Taylor-Johnson] came in, it was a blind audition and I really liked him. There was something about him that I thought, ‘Oh my god, this kid has it.’ He was really sweet, but he didn’t have the trendy sort of haircut that Robbie ended up having. He had long curly hair.
The problem was that Paramount had already decided we should go with another guy. But I fell in love with Aaron as an actor. I thought, ‘This kid is gonna go somewhere.’ I had to fight with the studio over that one.
When it came to The Ace Gang, Georgia’s three best mates, Jas (Eleanor Tomlinson), Rosie (Georgia Henshaw)
