'It's Not A Wikipedia Article, It's A Film!': Swiped Director Talks Fact And Fiction In New Tinder Biopic

Lily James stars as Tinder and Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd in SwipedWhether you know the name Whitney Wolfe Herd or not, you will surely be familiar with her work. The tech entrepreneur helped transform the online dating industry in the 2010s by co-creating not one but two wildly successful apps – Tinder and, later, Bumble.Her story – which includes her rise to co-founder status at Tinder, her subsequent forced resignation from Tinder parent company Hatch Labs, the lawsuit between herself and her former Tinder bosses and her rocky journey to creating her own app, Bumble – is the subject of Hulu’s new film, Swiped, starring Lily James as Whitney.Ahead of the film’s release, we caught up with the writer and director of Swiped, Rachel Lee Goldenberg, to discuss portraying toxic male behaviour in the workplace, her admiration for Whitney and making a movie about a period of somebody’s life that an NDA prevents them from speaking about...Whitney riles against in the male-dominated tech industryCongratulations on the film! Whitney’s story certainly feels like one of those stories that once you’ve heard, you can’t quite believe how you didn’t know it already. Was that what made you want to make this movie?Yes. Well, initally, Jen, our producer who met her partner on Bumble, was the one who started researching Bumble and how it came to be, and thought it could be a movie. She brought it to me and I had the same experience.I found Whitney’s story so inspirational and, frankly, cinematic. I loved how she took some of the hardest things in her life and forged them into this big success. It just had this inherent movie quality.Her experience working in a male-dominated field also hit me pretty hard as a woman coming up in the film industry. I know many people feel this way to varying degrees wherever they work. There can be a bit of a toxic culture, and you have this desire to fit in, but then how much do you push back when something feels bad? Issues around culpability and complicity and how to change culture all felt resonated with me really deeply.I think something that’s going to surprise people is that Whitney wasn’t a participant in the film, nor was she consulted or able to speak to any of you because of the NDA she signed after leaving Hatch Labs. How then did you go about piecing this story together, and how much of what we see is true?Knowing there were legal issues and that we couldn’t speak to Whitney, it just felt like a huge responsibility to take this as seriously as possible, and make sure that I was doing the best I could to tell her story.My writing partner, Bill Parker, and I did as deep a dive as we could research-wise. The court documents are all public, and we read every interview, not just about what’s covered in the film, but generally about Tinder on the rise and Bumble on the rise.Whitney creates new app, Bumble, after being forced to resign from Hatch LabsWe also went back and found everyone’s old Facebook and Vine accounts and things like that, to try and piece together as much information as we possibly could. Obviously, the film is not a list of facts – it’s not a Wikipedia article, it’s a film!In her story, what resonated most with me was this sort of arc of her working within the status quo and benefiting from that, and then after everything she goes through, she comes out the other side wanting to do things differently and make a change. So, it became about shaping her story into that, using as much truth and facts as we could, but then making it cinematic.Let’s get into some of the specifics of that then. Take the one million users/water sprinklers scene – was that real or contrived for the story?That’s a perfect example of something that was invented for the film. The idea was to build up how exciting it was for this group of people to have achieved this massive, impossible thing that everyone around them was trying to do. But also, how do you give the audience that visceral feeling that they’re on that journey with them?So that scene was created as a way to have the characters be as euphoric and excited as possible. It’s this big visual set piece to try to create the emotional truth of “wow, it must have been amazing to have this app be such a success”, you know?The real Whitney Wolfe HerdWhat about those text messages from Justin [Mateen, co-founder of Tinder, played in the film by Jackson White]? Those were so awful, but were they real?See, that’s a perfect example of something that is word-for-word. Those text messages are taken directly from screenshots from the lawsuit. Most things in this film of that nature, not literal lines of dialogue, but most things are based in the truth of this story. Like, those are what those texts say.Sort of speaking of that, how did you want to portray men in this film? Obviously, there are a lot of issues relating to toxic masculinity and misogyny at play in Swiped, so how did you approach the male characters in Whitney’s story?Certainly, the plan was not to say all men are bad. I hope that’s not the takeaway of the film. What I was interested in was the larger culture that has been created, and how we’re all a part of it unless you take an active role in pushing back against it.In the film, Whitney has moments of being sort of toxic, and we see the character of JB trying to give Tisha credit or make sure she gets acknowledged. I didn’t want it to feel like it’s a strict gender lines thing. One thing Whitney said in an interview, without spoiling too much of the film, is “people say I ended up in these two bad situations. And it’s like, well, either I’m really unlucky, or there are larger cultural issues at play?”.Jackson White stars as Justin Mateen, co-founder of Tinder, who harrasses Whitney in the film.I think that’s more important than saying, “this person’s bad” or “this gender’s bad” or anything like that. I think it’s more about ruminating on the complexities of culture, and how easy it is to go along with toxic behaviours sometimes. The Herculean task is to figure out how to shift that.Yes, there is that moment in the film where Whitney takes responsibility for how badly she’s treated Tisha, for instance. To change the subject slightly, did you always want Lily for the role of Whitney, and what was that casting process like?I mean, I was so thrilled when Lily said that she wanted to take on this role. She’s the perfect Whitney! I was already a huge fan, and I love so much of her work, but I obviously didn’t know her, and what I could not believe was how hard she worked. I’m a little bit of a passionate slash obsessive person around my work, and we really connected on that.She did as deep a dive into it as I did on all the research. She watched all these Whitney interviews, partly to get the mannerisms and the specific physical things, but also to try to understand where she was coming from. She took that responsibility extremely seriously.What was behind the decision for her to wear contacts in the movie?I think it was part of her process to be as deep in the role as possible, and I thought it worked great for the character. She dyed her hair and put in the contacts and we took inspiration from Whitney’s clothing, too.Also, a few times, the costume department was able to find clothes that were nearly identical to what Whitney wore at some place or another. I think getting as deep into the accuracy of it was all part of the process for Lily.Lily James dyed her hair and wore contacts to play Whitney.Did you have any particular references when you were making the film – maybe something surprising or unusual?We have some less surprising references like Steve Jobs and The Social Network. I guess for that paranoia sequence where things are starting to turn for her at Tinder, we wanted to create this unsettling feel where you can’t quite tell whether she’s being pushed out or whether it’s all in her head. I took inspiration from The Conversation for that – all of the slow zooms and the sort of off-kilter feeling of that.Another one is for the million users scene, I actually had all of the cast and crew watch that scene from That Thing You Do!, where they hear their song on the radio for the first time. It’s such a specific, euphoric moment where it’s like, it feels surreal. The actors are just going nuts because it’s like a larger-than-life type of moment. We all watched that scene together before we shot our scene, it was great!The Hatch Labs team gather to celebrate their success with TinderI can definitely see that actually. What about a scene that was particularly difficult for you to either write or direct for any reason – do you have one of those?I think a scene that was just emotionally and physically tough is Whitney’s spiral. For me and Lily – and really everyone on set – it was pretty brutal, in the best way, I think. In the way it should be, at least.After reading about Whitney’s experience, it was really important to me that audience members understand how deeply this stuff can hit. It can be devastating to a person. It was important to make that as visceral as possible. I wanted that scene to sort of feel like a panic attack for the audience. It was pretty exhausting and taxing for everyone. Lily had to keep going there again and again and having those panic attacks, but even as we were shooting it, it felt like, this is going to work.The combination of her beautiful performance and the work of our cinematographer, Doug Emmett, in creating that disorienting visual look, it was great. But yeah, it was a tough couple of days, but in the best way.Absolutely, it hits hard. Especially when you see Whitney reporting tweet after tweet. I’m curious, if you could watch a version of this movie by another director, who would you choose and why?Oh my gosh, I really just wish a man had directed it, you know? No, I don’t know… I love my job so much, but I think sometimes people don’t realise how many decisions go into every single detail – from the shot to the music to the sound design to the lens choice and cut.I would be fascinated to see someone else do a version of Whitney’s spiral scene. I mean, Marielle Heller and Greta Gerwig are some of my favourites. It would be fun to see someone else’s take on it.Myha'la as Tisha, Lily's best friend in the movieFinally, what is the overall message of this movie, and what do you want people to take away from it?I hope that the film is complex enough that there’s not a sort of bow around the end. It’s certainly inspirational how Whitney ends up in a place where she’s willing to risk it all and do what feels like the right thing to her, but I don’t think that it’s easy for everyone to do that. I would never say, “well, if you’re not yelling at your colleague who’s being inappropriate tomorrow, then you’re not doing your part”.I think, for me, it’s about having these conversations and having people be more aware or more empowered or feel seen, or just be able to be in dialogue about these things. I hope people realise that there are issues with our culture and that there’s still many inequalities. I’d like to see us work our way towards a path of equality and decency together where you can question things. That feels like a pretty good start.Swiped is now streaming on Disney+.MORE FILM NEWS:Lily James Shares How Pam & Tommy Backlash Gave Her Second Thoughts About Choosing RolesHugh Bonneville: ‘Downton Abbey Still Has A Lot To Teach Us’15 Behind-The-Scenes Secrets You Probably Never Knew About How The Thursday Murder Club Was Made

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