“I want to stop fighting the patriarchy and just start helping the matriarchy,” says Nina Moran in a new trailer for “Betty.” The upcoming HBO comedy series is based on “Skate Kitchen,” Crystal Moselle award-winning 2018 indie pic. Described as “a lover (to the ladies), a fighter (to the rest of the world), and a little kid in the body of a woman,” Kirt (Moran) is just one member of an an all-female group of teenage skaters in New York City determined to get respect in a scene dominated by dudes.
The majority of “Skate Kitchen’s” cast returns for the series, including Moran, Rachelle Vinberg, Dede Lovelace, and Ajani Russell. The trailer sees the girls bantering, bickering, pursuing love, and, of course, doing what they do best — skateboarding.
Moselle is directing “Betty” and co-writing alongside “Love” co-creator Lesley Arfin and “Divorce” scribe Patricia Breen.
“I worked for over a year with a group of real teenage skateboarder girls to create a film that was semi based on their lives,” Moselle told us ahead of “Skate Kitchen’s” Sundance premiere. “I met the characters from the story on the train and became friends with them, and was incredibly inspired to make a film based on their lives.”
Vinberg has explained that the crew named themselves Skate Kitchen in recognition of the sexist treatment female skateboarders receive. She told Teen Vogue, “I’d always look at the comments of girl skating videos, and they’d all be saying, ‘Why aren’t they in the kitchen?’” So, in the name, it shows we’re allowed to skate.'”
Moselle made her feature debut with “The Wolfpack,” a Sundance award-winning documentary. The film follows six brothers confined to their home who learn about the world by watching films.
Check out the trailer to see the girls of “Betty” showing off their moves at the skate park. A breakdown of the cast of characters can also be found below, courtesy of HBO. The series premieres May 1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mif1RfqyUPw&feature=emb_logo
Opinionated and loyal, Janay (Lovelace) is strong willed and stubborn in ways that both help and hurt her. Honeybear (Moonbear) is a quiet storm. Her flagrant style is a ruse; an armor she wears to hide her emotional struggles. Kirt (Moran) is a lover (to the ladies), a fighter (to the rest of the world), and a little kid in the body of a woman. She’s the funniest person alive, but even if she knew it, she wouldn’t care. Meanwhile, Indigo (Russell) is a street-savvy hustler trapped in the body of a well-to-do art school drop-out. On the edge of the group is Camille (Vinberg), guarded, perceptive, intelligent and awkward. She wants to be down with the dudes in the skate park and has fought hard for the small space she’s carved out with them, but she needs to realize that cool points don’t actually add up to the sum of anything, especially in the eyes of the other girls.
