This month, the superheroes Electra Woman and Dyna Girl embarked on their biggest adventure yet as they set off for Hollywood to follow their dreams, make it big, and (obviously) fight crime.
This feature-length reboot of the cult 70s show stars comedians, authors and YouTube stars Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart, who’ve forged both a creative union and friendship that has earned them fans worldwide. Hart’s first success was My Drunk Kitchen, which saw her – and, eventually, celebrity guests – cooking while (hilariously) intoxicated. Meanwhile, Helbig got her start on YouTube, creating and hosting the show DailyGrace, before springboarding into more hosting gigs - and authoring two books, Grace’s Guide: The Art Of Pretending To Be A Grown-Up and Grace & Style: The Art Of Pretending You Have It. (And the writing runs deep: Hart’s second book, Buffering: Unshared Tales of a Life Fully Loaded hits shelves in October.)
The film, however, Helbig tells me in Toronto, “is such a bigger project than what we’ve done. It’s putting ourselves into these characters that are versions of ourselves, but really big, extreme versions of ourselves who punch people.”
“This project came about as a way of exploring the Hollywood tropes of fame and glitz and glamour and the pursuit of passion and career and what it does when you try and participate in a system that already exists but you want to bring what your interests are into it,” Hart explains. “These are two indie superheroes who move to LA to try and make it big. So in a lot of ways, it’s more like telling the Hollywood story in a different realm of the universe.”
Which is perfect, since a week without a Marvel or DC release seems almost impossible. But what sets Electra Woman and Dyna Girl apart from their contemporaries isn’t their fighting or action sequences (which Helbig and Hart took very seriously), it’s their approach to storytelling. Mainly, that their movie seeks to embrace it by combining quiet, personal moments with kick-ass crime fighting and tight jokes. While of course avoiding any/all sexist tropes.
Here’s five of the biggest ones Helbig and Hart assured me we won’t see during their latest onscreen adventure.
1. The romance plot
Rest assured, everyone: there will be no levels of Black Widow/Hulk discomfort here.
Hart: “What’s really exciting about this project is that there’s a lot of space in the market for a superhero story that’s driven by women that’s not got any romance in it. There’s not a revenge plot about a boyfriend or a girlfriend or whatever, it’s just about these two characters and their journey as people in this world. I think we need to see more female-led actions and dramas that don’t have anything to do with romance, frankly.”
Helbig: “Yeah, that just deal with two female friends that happen to be superheroes who are dealing with the most relatable life situations in the most un-relatable universe. It’s obviously, for us, awesome to be able to play superheroes. It’s so cool, it’s so out of our wheelhouse, and it’s a really fun challenge, but at the same time it’s awesome to be able to give life to characters who are relatable to [everbody] because of the friendship of it all.”
2. The female superhero™ novelty
FYI, it’s 2016. And this means that the official word for “female superhero” is actually just “superhero”.
Hart: “I just think it’s so wild that we live in this world where it’s like, ‘How phenomenal to see these women act like people!’ It’s like they’re watching a dog stand on its hind legs like, ‘Who knew?’ The other day I was talking to somebody and they were interviewing me about being a ‘female creator’ and I’m looking forward to the time where we don’t have to segregate women in terms of categories.”
Helbig: “And I think it’s really limiting on a personal level. When I started doing improv comedy, people always ask what it’s like to be a ‘female comedian’, but you have female comedians through time that have [always] existed. A lot of comedy and drama comes from being able to relate on a human level to something you’ve experienced in life, whether it’s gender specific or not. So when I think of myself as ‘female comedian’ I can only go so far, but when I think of myself as a ‘comedian’, it opens up a whole new perspective of opportunity.”
3. Sexy costumes
If you’re a superhero who’s into dressing sexy, that’s your call. (And you do you.) But Dyna Girl and Electro Woman aren’t about that life.
Hart: “When visualizing the characters and the costumes, we talked to the director very early on [and said that] super-sexualized costumes were an absolute non-starter. These women would be wearing combat boots, because that’s what these women would be fighting crime in. You wouldn’t fight crime in a pair of heels.”
Helbig: “When we walked into the wardrobe room the first day and saw all these reference photos all over the walls – female superheroes and inspirations for female costumes – there were boobs and asses everywhere. And it felt like I’d walked into a 13-year-old boy’s wet dream. It was so bizarre and it made me so uncomfortable.”
Hart: “And these are images of real characters out there in the comic book universe and you could see right in front of our eyes how the women were barely wearing clothing.”
4. The impossibility of female friendship
A tale as old as time. (So let’s stop writing it.)
Hart: “A woman can be powerful and not be bitchy. She can be strong without being a complainer. We value our friendship off-camera so much, so we really wanted to make sure it was infused in these characters, that they were characters who supported and loved each other, even if they had a moment of identity crisis fallout. But at the end of the day, they’re two characters who will always have each other’s backs, so I think that’s a really important message to give women and men alike.”
5. ‘Using my sexuality!’
Embracing and using one’s sexuality is a personal choice. (Obviously.) Which means superheroes shouldn’t have to rely on it. Unless they want to.
Helbig: “I’ve never led with sexuality in any of the forms of entertainment that I’ve done. It’s wonderful when people do embrace their sexuality, but for me it’s never been a tool. So that was really important in a genre where that can easily be manipulated, it was really important to fight for it not to be in this case. Because I don’t relate to those characters on a human level, so I wanted to make sure that the Electro Woman character was relatable to women that want their voices heard.”
Hart: “I would just love – as a lesbian – to be a really hot commodity to other women. I’m happy to serve an underrepresented community.”
Helbig: “But that’s also important with the Dyna Girl character! Her sexuality is referenced, but …”
Hart: “It’s referenced super-briefly, but she’s super gay!”
Helbig: “She’s gay, but she’s not waving it as her only flag.”
Hart: “There’s so much room for storytelling in terms of race, in terms of gender, in terms of sexuality. I’m so excited because there’s a whole world that’s underrepresented, and I’m excited for the future of entertainment.”
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Electro Woman and Dyna Girl is on iTunes and their official website
