The hot young stars of Beware the Gonzo talk about their advice for teens, the advance of technology, and how everyone just needs to ‘calm down.’

Beware the Gonzo is definitely not your typical high school movie, thankfully so. It tells the story of Eddie “Gonzo” Gilman (Ezra Miller), a rebel journalist who is ousted from his prep school’s newspaper and decides to become the voice of the oppressed by starting an underground paper, with the help of fellow outsider Evie Wallace (Zoë Kravitz). Initially, they set out to give a voice to all of the misfits who are victimized by the in-crowd. But, the more Gonzo uncovers about the injustices in his school, the more he learns that the truth comes with consequences and it can hurt the same individuals he believes he is helping, including the ones he cares about most.

During an exclusive phone interview with Collider, co-stars Ezra Miller and Zoë Kravitz talked about how exciting it was to take on roles that were not typical high school teenagers, that they believe everyone feels like an outcast in life, how their friendship on screen developed into a real-life friendship off screen, and how when you search too deeply for the truth, it can often hurt as much as it helps, and that they both have the desire to remain honest in the roles and projects that they do. Miller also talked about having recently finished filming The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Kravitz said she hopes that Mad Max (for which she has signed on to do a role) will get the go-ahead for production soon. Check out what they had to say after the jump:

Question: How did this film come about for each of you? Was there something specific that interested you in the story and the characters?

EZRA MILLER: I saw the word “gonzo” and decided that I had to do the movie. And then, I read the script and agreed with myself. From a very young age, I’ve had a very deep, insatiable love for the work of Hunter S. Thompson, and the notion of a kid being so obsessed with those notions and mythologies that he actually almost fixing everything and then destroys everything, I just thought was a funny, true and possible tale. That was the interest. I loved it, as an idea for a story.

ZOE KRAVITZ: Yeah, I agree. Anyone that is able to put a high school film and gonzo journalism together, it’s like, “Yes, please!” And then, I really liked the character of Evie. Just seeing a layered, full female character is so lovely because women are used as accessories in film. Seeing a real character is just exciting.

MILLER: There was something really, very exciting, considering a lot of the scripts we read as young actors. When you read a script where teenage characters feel real and don’t feel like this other, Disney-fied mythology of the modern, bubble-gum teenager, it’s immediately undeniably exciting.

Ezra, how did you first become aware of the work of Hunter S. Thompson?

MILLER: I had found a copy of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in this house where my family stayed on the beach, one summer. I was very young. I read it and I didn’t really understand it. And then, I read it again and again, and I saw the movie. My first girlfriend really gave me the full introduction on Hunter S. Thompson as a man, as a legend, as a character maker and a character actor, and as one of the best journalists the world has ever seen. I was 13 or 14, when that happened, and after that, it was just what it will be until I die, which is devotion. I am a devout reader and believer. I just believe in his extreme action, his extreme mentality, his drive and how he executed the work of his life.

Seeing as you guys both play outcasts in this film, was that something that you were able to identify with from personal experience?

KRAVITZ: Well, I’m perfect and normal, in real life.

MILLER: I’m super-popular, so I had to pretend to be a loser, which was super-hard.

KRAVITZ: No, of course! I feel like most creative people are total freaks.

MILLER: Artists walk alone.

KRAVITZ: Until the lone wolf finds its wolf pack. So, yeah, I’m a total weirdo and have often felt like an outcast and a freak, and I love that. It makes things so much more exciting. I feel like, for me, playing a very accepted, normal person would actually be more interesting and difficult to do.

MILLER: Yeah. I have this feeling that actually everybody feels like an outcast, even CEOs of the most major companies. Everybody feels like an outcast because the world is so large and every fingerprint is so vastly different from one another, and yet we have these standards and beliefs, and dogmatic systems of judgment and ranking, in almost all the societies of the world. So, it is conducive to a reality in which everybody feels unaccepted and everybody feels like an outcast.

With this film also being inspired by writer/director Bryan Goluboff’s own high school experience, did he give you any insight into playing these characters?

MILLER: Absolutely! Bryan just knew the hearts of those kids, so intimately. He believed in those characters, so completely. It’s that thing of a writer’s mind, directing a movie. We were all playing his brainchildren. He knew about any of the internal conditions or external circumstances that that character would find themselves in, at any time. He was definitely that director who always had the answer, if you were curious.

KRAVITZ: He also trusted us, though. He did such a fantastic job of actually finding these people. He saw a part of every character in us, as people. There was so much trust there. Once we were hired, he knew that we knew what to do.

MILLER: It’s such a hard thing for a director to do. It’s the ultimate direction balance. To what degree are you going to keep control of your brain-child’s story, and to what degree are you going to let the spontaneous true things that are happening, in the moments of making the film, carry the story? I’ve seen a lot of directors push it too far, to one side or the other. Bryan, as a first-time director, did such an amazing job of walking that line.

The relationship between Gonzo and Evie is so real and genuine. Did you guys have time to get to know each other or rehearse at all, prior to filming, to develop the trust that you have on screen or did it just click right away?

MILLER: I guess we clicked right away, but then also spent time together.

KRAVITZ: Ezra had the part and we met, before I was actually hired, just to get ready for a chemistry read, and there was chemistry. We became best friends immediately, and still are.

BEWARE THE GONZODo you think it’s true that, if you search too deeply for the truth, you can often end up hurting people, whether it’s intentional or unintentional?

KRAVITZ: That’s an interesting way to ask that question. I don’t think it’s about searching for the truth, specifically. I just think that investigation, of any kind, is sticky, whatever you’re looking for.

MILLER: I like that question a lot.

KRAVITZ: Me, too.

MILER: My personal opinion is that truth, like honesty and non-harmfulness, often are at odds with one another. It’s a very difficult thing to navigate, “When should I be honest?,” and “When should I be trying not to hurt?” There’s a reason why the world, right now, is dominated by a bunch of lies. It’s because they’re easier. They’re a lot easier to deal with. Full truth is going to be half really pretty, beautiful stuff, and half the darkest shit you could imagine. So yeah, any wisdom or knowledge seeker in the world knows that the further you go, the more light means the more darkness, the more hurt and the more pain. That is an age-old, timeless reality. I think the answer to your question is an unequivocal yes.

Right from the start of both of your careers as actors, you’ve done a really varied assortment of roles in TV and film. With so many young actors presumably vying for the same roles, has it been important to you, in making a name for yourself, to really show the range of what you’re capable of?

KRAVITZ: I’m not trying to show anyone anything. I’m just trying to do stuff, and hopefully people react well to it. Acting and making art is just something I love to do, and I love to tell stories that feel important, honest and necessary. It’s not about me. It’s about being part of something. If one took a role with the intention of, “I’ll show them what I can do!,” then it’s not going to be good because the ego is going to just block everything.

MILLER: I completely agree with Zoe. But, at the same time, there is something to be said for being cautious of being pigeonholed and celebrity crucified.

KRAVITZ: Yeah, but you avoid that, just by being honest. You don’t like just one thing, you like all kinds of things, so you just do that, and then you’re not pigeonholed.

MILLER: Exactly. Essentially, it comes down to that cheesy, old phrasing of being true to yourself. If you’re worrying about anything else, then you’re not actually doing what you want to do. Eventually, that will creep up from under that big, old rug.

Are there things that you look for, when you’re deciding which projects you want to sign on for? Does it start with the script for you, or do you also look at who’s involved?

KRAVITZ: All of those things. There are definitely names that make my ears perk because I like their work. Of course, a script is just as important. If there’s a story there, then I want to help tell it. Sometimes it’s less about the character and more about the story, for me. I’ll play a rock in the background, if I think the story is fantastic and I can be a part of it, somehow. That’s what I look for.

Do either of you know what you’re going to be doing next, or are there things that you’re focused on now, as far as where you want to go next with your career?

MILLER: I just want to make art, forever.

KRAVITZ: I’m playing music with my band. I have a film, Yelling to the Sky, that I did a few years ago, that’s finally coming out at the end of fall, beginning of winter. And then, I’m supposed to do Mad Max. It’s been pushed so many times that I’m just waiting for the go-ahead on that one. That’s it. I’m just in the process of reading scripts and seeing what turns me on.

MILLER: We finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower about a month ago. That’s coming out in the spring, and I suspect that it will be awesome. I also have two other films coming out in the next few months. One of them is called We Need to Talk About Kevin, and the other one is called Another Happy Day.

Beware the Gonzo is available VOD from August 25th – October 27th, with a limited theatrical run beginning September 9th.

The hot young stars of Beware the Gonzo talk about their advice for teens, the advance of technology, and how everyone just needs to ‘calm down.’

Beware the Gonzo, directed by Bryan Goluboff, is an indie throwback to ’80s and early ’90s high school touchstones like Heathers and Pump Up the Volume, as well as John Hughes films like The Breakfast Club. Gonzo has a high-tech twist as the teens find that information spreads faster than ever, and revenge can come back at you online worse than gossip in the girls’ bathroom.

Plenty of high schoolers feel bullied, ignored, and just plain screwed over by The Man. Not many take it into their own hands to print an underground ‘zine revealing the icky underbelly of high school, from the meanest wedgie-givers to a nasty cafeteria. Eddie “Gonzo” Gilman (Ezra Miller) is just that guy, and with help from his fellow outcasts, the newspaper Beware the Gonzo (the movie and the ‘zine) is born. Evie (Zöe Kravitz) is a sweet-faced girl with a bad reputation and revenge on her mind, and with her Internet savy, Gonzo even goes online. The repercussions are more than they could have anticipated, though.

Tribeca sat down with Kravitz (X-Men: First Class) and Miller (City Island, We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Perks of Being a Wallflower) about Gonzo and the questions it raises about teens and technology, film festivals, and the endless scrutiny the pair are under, both online and off.

Beware the Gonzo, which also stars Jesse McCartney, Amy Sedaris, Judah Friedlander, and Campbell Scott, premieres on demand via Tribeca Film on August 25 and hits select theaters on September 9.

Tribeca: Gonzo is a diehard print guy, and Evie gets him to put his ‘zine online. Which do you prefer in real life?

Ezra Miller: The great thing about our generation is we don’t have to choose. Everybody’s arguing about whether we should be reverting to an analog world or whether we should be embracing this highly… digital world. We don’t have to choose.

Zöe Kravitz: It’s about the decision to continue because people are really stopping even putting things on paper… so it’s kind of about keeping the consciousness around the importance of having something in your hand.

Tribeca: One thing that I really liked about Evie is that she says she was getting letters from other girls and wanted to help them. If you guys had your own gonzo website or newspaper, what kind of advice would you give teens, specifically?

Zöe Kravitz: The advice I would give teens [is that] they don’t really need advice. They’re fine, and they should march to [their] own beat… Run away from this thing that’s trying to tell everyone what to do on the Internet and celebrity, and the this and the that, and trying to follow these trends…

Ezra Miller: Run so far away.

Zöe Kravitz: Bolt… It’s great to be inspired by each other, but don’t try and just be told what to do, and don’t wait for someone to tell you what to do.

Ezra Miller: More than anything, just hang on for dear life. Dear life. Because it’s just—there are so many whirlwind emotional states within adolescence, and it’s so hard to remain grounded in any version of the truth in such a whirlwind… I’ve met a lot of kids who are just not okay and who don’t think they can make it through, but this is what we’re bound to do. We’re bound to get through this time and really feel all the things we need to feel in this time so that we can happily proceed through the rest of our lives.

Tribeca: Beware the Gonzo really reminds me of movies like Pump Up the Volume. Did you guys take cues from those movies or your own experiences in high school?

Ezra Miller: Both and neither.

Zöe Kravitz: That’s exactly it. I mean, that was a big reference for the film, so I think we saw that and ran with it a bit… I had one really bad year of high school, because I went to this really awful private school in Florida where I did experience the whole kind of clique-y, high school jock-y kind of thing where I was a total freak, and then got really lucky and went to a great art school in New York… and didn’t have to deal with that so much. I mostly drew from that one year where I was just like, “Get me the *@&% out of here!” [It made me] definitely be able to relate to these kids.

Tribeca: Beware the Gonzo is premiering on demand first, and I know a lot of people my age are into on-demand movies. Do you think it will reach the target teen audience?

Ezra Miller: It is perfect. I mean, like, the generation after ours is—

Zöe Kravitz: Everything’s immediate.

Ezra Miller: Pure digital. Pure immediately. They’ve grown up entirely with the Internet. We’re the last to have time in our lives where there wasn’t the Internet.

Zöe Kravitz: I feel like now when people go to a film, it’s usually something that you specifically want to have the experience of seeing on a large screen, going and having popcorn, things like that.

Ezra Miller: I think releasing it initially on demand, it also just fits into all of the hilarious motifs of the movie, which is like, yeah, we just release it to everyone first and then people can find their way to the select theaters or whatever later.

Tribeca: I feel like you guys are film festival experts. What is the coolest thing about film festivals?

Zöe Kravitz: The best thing about festivals is the chaos that it creates, this creative chaos. Having all of these creative people in one space is always like the scariest, most fun thing in the world.

Ezra Miller: And then out of chaos comes the best type of order, which is an actual growing system and infrastructure of international independent film: production and presentation and distribution… I feel like [it's] one of the most exciting things happening right now… It’s these massive conglomerations of people [who are] just entirely art-centric. Which is kind of what we need and want as communities, I think.

Tribeca: Especially as young actors, you guys are under so much scrutiny… [A lengthy discussion about Tumblr ensues.]

Zöe Kravitz: It’s totally bizarre and scary, and it doesn’t make any sense.

Ezra Miller: I’d like to encourage people to calm down.

Zöe Kravitz: The whole thing is that most of the things that people even think about us are not even correct. The kind of things that we believe in and want to support—I don’t want to support girls wanting to be like me because girls should want to be like themselves, and that’s what I want to [support]. It kind of freaks me out. {tribecafilm.com}