The Perks of Being a Wallflower was shot primarily in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, including Peters Township, Bethel Park, Dormont and Upper St. Clair, the same area in which, not coincidentally, Stephen Chbosky grew up.
“There was nowhere else I could have made this movie,” he says. “Filming in Pittsburgh was authentic to the book, as well as to my upbringing. There’s a scene between Aunt Helen and little Charlie outside on the street. The house I grew up in is literally off camera by about 15 yards.”
Emma Watson testifies to the filmmaker’s home‐turf advantage: “Steve grew up in Pittsburgh. It is his hometown, it is where he went to school, and the characters, for the most part, are really based on real people that he knew, some of whom he still does know. It was amazing to be able to shoot there.”
Before shooting began, Chbosky introduced the cast to some of the important landmarks of his own teen years. “Teenagers have some things in common everywhere, but the truth is in the details,” he says. “The cast didn’t know what Sarris chocolate pretzels were until they came here. They hadn’t had chipped ham or cheese fries from the Original O or a sandwich at Primanti Bros. That was the homework that I gave them. Needless to say, they loved their homework.
“Sometimes it felt like I brought the circus to town. We all stayed in one small hotel right near the mall that I hung out at when I was a teenager. They embraced the whole suburban experience, which was something none of them really had. They were all child actors. They grew up on sets, and so they all finally got to have their high‐school experience, go to the food court and go to the movie theater, while sweet Emma stopped and signed every Harry Potter book she was handed.”
For the scenes of some of the characters’ most challenging life moments, Peters Township High School stood in for Mill Grove High School. And for the movie’s riotous Rocky Horror Picture Show scenes, the director returned to the landmark Dormont Hollywood Theater where he originally saw the film as a teen. While Chbosky admits that he was afraid to participate during his own high‐school days, he gave his characters free rein as the stars of the front‐of‐screen live re‐enactment of the classic movie.
“The local ‘Rocky Horror Floor Show’ cast were our technical advisors,” he says. “And the audience is filled with real Rocky Horror devotees. Ezra Miller and Emma Watson were in heaven during those scenes. We had to drag Ezra off the stage because he was so into playing Frank‐N‐Furter! Those were two of the greatest days we had.”
The scene was a highlight for costume designer David Robinson, as well. “We had a lot of fun,” he says. “It had to look like high‐school kids had made their own costumes, but we also needed it to look cool. I think the end result was fantastic. Plus Ezra Miller in five‐inch pumps is someone to be reckoned with!”
Perhaps the most meaningful element for Chbosky in recreating his youth for the screen was the evocative soundtrack he put together for the film. “I don’t care how old you are,” he says. “When you think back to your youth, you think of the music you listened to. I made mix tapes like the kids in the movie, then CDs, and now it’s playlists. It’s a constant with kids. Music is one of the cornerstones of being young. It helps form your identity. It defines you and bonds you to your friends.”
He sets his story to the soundtrack of his high‐school years that includes some of the most memorable music of the late ’80s and early ’90s, including “Asleep” by The Smiths, “Come On Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners, “Could it Be Another Change” by The Samples and “Araby” by The Reivers. “I knew ‘Come On Eileen’ was absolutely going to be the homecoming song. I knew that Air Supply had to be in it. And I wanted XTC’s ‘Dear God’ in the movie because I love that song. But the cornerstone of the movie is ‘Asleep,’ which I first heard on a mix tape many years ago. It defined a year of my life.”
Music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas contributed her ideas as well, recommending songs that Chbosky was not familiar with. “She has such a passion for that era,” he says. “She introduced me to things that I’d never heard before, but I will love until the day I die. To me the soundtrack is a mix tape that reflects a time and sets a tone. I’m really, really proud of the music in this film.”
The music and singing didn’t always stop once the cameras stopped rolling. A hotel room band, jokingly dubbed Octopus Jam, included Ezra Miller on drums, Logan Lerman on guitar and Watson on vocals, along with a rotating roster of “guest” artists, including singer‐songwriter Landon Pigg, who appears in the film as well.
Emma Watson says, “It was such a great group of people. We all hung out at the hotel at night and we played music. Pretty much everyone involved is musically talented in some way, so we spent most of our evenings playing and talking and being silly.”
Equally important to recreating the late 20th‐century feeling for the film were the costumes. With more than a dozen principals and crowds of extras, costume designer David Robinson says he scoured thrift stores in and around Pittsburgh. “The leads had numerous costume changes. We had a football game, a pep rally, a homecoming dance, Sadie Hawkins, Christmas, Rocky Horror, prom, graduation. It was like one huge storm after another of clothes.”
For the extras alone, more 4,000 changes were required. Robinson used local high‐school yearbooks to ensure authenticity and repurposed vintage clothing for costumes including Sam’s homecoming dress, which was refashioned from a long gown. Chbosky was as involved in costume selection as he was in everything else on the shoot, sometimes walking through the wardrobe trailer to pull pieces for specific characters.
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