Three major organizations that promote and manage the sport of quidditch announced on Tuesday they are changing the name of the game to quadball, partly to distance themselves from “Harry Potter” author and quidditch creator J.K. Rowling.
The International Quidditch Association (IQA) and US Quidditch (USQ), which are governing bodies for the sport, joined Major League Quidditch (MLQ), a semi-professional league with 16 teams in the U.S. and Canada, in announcing the official name change.
Quadball, which refers to the number of balls on the field as well as the number of positions, garnered enthusiastic support among the sport’s community in surveys, according to the groups.
IQA, USQ and MLQ made the decision to rebrand for two reasons. One was to distance themselves from Rowling, who has made several comments criticized as transphobic.
The second was to trademark a unique name because film and media production company Warner Bros. owns the trademark for “quidditch.”
In the U.S., both the USQ and MLQ will own the trademark for “quadball.” USQ is transitioning immediately to change its organizational name to swap out quidditch for quadball, while MLQ will officially adopt quadball into its name next month.
USQ Executive Director Mary Kimball said quadball has grown significantly and the organizations were “committed to continuing to push quadball forward.”
“In less than 20 years, our sport has grown from a few dozen college students in rural Vermont to a global phenomenon with thousands of players, semi-pro leagues and international championships,” Kimball said in a statement.
Both USQ and MLQ filed to change the name back in December after polling both players and fans on the idea.
The IQA expects to enter into a license agreement to use “quadball” and will adopt the term into its name in the near future.
Chris Lau, the chair of the IQA Board of Trustees, said he was “thrilled” to be a part of the movement to change the name.
“We are confident in this step and we look forward to all the new opportunities quadball will bring,” Lau said in a statement. “This is an important moment in our sport’s history.”
The game of quidditch was adapted from the “Harry Potter” series in 2005 at Middlebury College in Vermont. The sport has now grown to around 600 teams across 40 countries.
Harry Potterfans across the world are waiting with anticipation for the release of the full trailer for Fantastic Beasts 3, which is due for release in 2022.
Ahead of the trailer release, a teaser trailer has been published with fans able to relive many of the highlights of Harry Potter’s story to date.
Watch Fantastic Beasts 3 trailer teaser
The teaser trailer features clips and a look across all of Harry Potter‘s success, from the original books and movies right through to theme parks and Broadway productions.
We see famous clips from the film series and even a very brief glimpse of Gellert Grindelwald, to build excitement ahead of the full trailer launch.
When will the Fantastic Beasts 3 trailer be released?
The full trailer will be released on Monday, December 13, 2021, to give us our first glimpse of what the movie will tell us.
We already know that Newt Scamander and Albus Dumbledore are in for some trouble as Gellert Grindelwald looks to take power, but scant details have been revealed about the plot to date.
Who will star in Fantastic Beasts 3?
The headline news is that Johnny Depp will not be returning as Grindelwald following his resignation from the role, though he had filmed one scene in character before that.
Mads Mikkelsen will take over the role, having starred in films such as Doctor Strange and Hannibal.
Returning cast include Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander. Katherine Waterston as Tina Goldstein, Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore, Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski and Alison Sudol as Queenie Goldstein.
When will Fantastic Beasts 3 be released?
Fantastic Beasts 3 will be released in the United Kingdom on April 8, 2022, with a US release date a week later, on April 15, 2022.
The film was originally set for release in November 2021, but the pandemic caused delays to filming which pushed back the release date.
Johnny Depp‘s resignation led to Warner Bros initially pushing the launch back even further, to July 2022, but they have since brought it forward to April 2022.
J.K Rowling has said publicly that her new book was not based on her own life, even though some of the events that take place in the story did in fact happen to her as she was writing it.
Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images
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J.K Rowling has said publicly that her new book was not based on her own life, even though some of the events that take place in the story did in fact happen to her as she was writing it.
Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images
J.K. Rowling, who rose to fame as the author of the Harry Potter series, is known for writing about magical subjects and fantasy worlds. But her latest book bears more than a passing resemblance to reality — and, critics say, not in a good way.
The Ink Black Heart is the sixth installment of Rowling’s thriller series Cormoran Strike, which she penned under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The 1,024-page tome started raising eyebrows as soon as it hit stores on Tuesday.
Observers noted that the plot appears to mirror Rowling’s own experience of taking heat and losing fans for expressing transphobic views in recent years. Rowling has said publicly that the book was not based on her own life, even though some of the events that take place in the story did in fact happen to her as she was writing it.
“Although I have to say when it did happen to me, those who had already read the book in manuscript form were [like] – are you clairvoyant?” Rowling wrote in a QA on Galbraith’s website. “I wasn’t clairvoyant, I just – yeah, it was just one of those weird twists. Sometimes life imitates art more than one would like.”
In the book, a popular artist gets harassed for her opinions
The book centers the story of Edie Ledwell, a popular cartoonist who, according to the official description, is “persecuted by a mysterious online figure” — and ultimately found dead — after her cartoon was criticized for being racist, ableist and transphobic (at least partly over a bit involving “a hermaphrodite worm,” Rolling Stone reports).
“The book takes a clear aim at ‘social justice warriors’ and suggests that Ledwell was a victim of a masterfully plotted, politically fueled hate campaign against her,” the magazine continues, adding that the character gets doxxed — with “photos of her home plastered on the Internet” — and faces threats of rape and death because of her opinions.
Parts of the story seem to mirror Rowling’s experience
Rowling has made her own opinions known, particularly in regards to the transgender community, over the last several years.
She faced backlash in 2019 for publicly supporting Maya Forstater, a researcher who had lost her job over transphobic tweets. The following year, Rowling posted several controversial tweets, including one opinion piece that mocked the term “people who menstruate” (“I’m sure there used to be a word for those people,” she tweeted. “Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”), and published a long statement expressing her concerns with “the consequences of the current trans activism.”
Rowling said in November that she’s received death threats. She also publicly accused three activists of doxxing her when they posted photos of themselves holding pro-trans rights signs outside of her house in Scotland, “carefully positioning themselves to ensure that our address was visible,” she said.
The activists, who had been demonstrating in honor of International Transgender Day of Remembrance, later deleted the photo and deactivated their accounts because of the amount of transphobic backlash they had received online. Scottish police later investigated the so-called doxxing and determined no crimes had been committed (notably, Rowling’s home is a popular tourist attraction, as Them points out).
Critics say the book is self-serving and “beyond parody”
Lark Malakai Grey, co-host of the queer Harry Potter podcast “The Gayly Prophet” told NPR over email that he finds the situation “deeply embarrassing” for Rowling.
“She has published a 1,000-page self-insert fanfiction where she’s the victim—it’s the kind of behavior that you’d expect from a petulant teenager, not a grown adult with immense wealth and power,” he added. “I have no idea what she expected, but seeing the internet fill with jokes about the book has been an absolute joy after all the harm she has caused my community over the past several years.”
Rowling’s transphobic comments have lost her many fans
Rowling’s stance has alienated many in her fanbase — which includes a large number of LGBTQ people — as well as a slew of prominent Harry Potter cast members: Actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint are among those who have condemned her comments and expressed their support for the trans community.
Rowling was noticeably absent from the Harry Potter20th anniversary special, a de facto reunion for much of the franchise’s cast and crew that aired on New Year’s Day 2022. She told Graham Norton’s “Radio Show” podcast on Saturday that she was invited to participate in the special but chose not to come because she saw it as “about the films more than the books.”
In that same interview, she stressed that she had written her new book before the events of the past year.
“I said to my husband, ‘I think everyone is going to see this as a response to what happened to me,’ but it genuinely wasn’t,” she said. “The first draft of the book was finished at the point certain things happened.”
KOCHI: No religion or God was spared on Sunday when a bunch of Malayalis got together in Kochi for Litmus-22. Touted as the biggest atheist conference in the world, Litmus saw participation of around 10,000 people, said the organisers. They said atheists, scientists, academics and common people who question religions and the concept of God, took part in the event that started at 9 am. The theme this year was ‘Let evidence lead’.
“God is Harry Potter,” said C Ravichandran, one of the leading figures who has spoken out against religions. “Religion is fiction created by some. However, unlike other literary figures, these writers never admitted to writing fiction,” he said.
Litmus garnered international attention when writer and academic Richard Dawkins tweeted about it recently. The organisers said more youngsters attended this year. Among them was Suraj C S, 21. “More youngsters are questioning religion now. This year, around four to five speakers were aged under 26,” said Suraj, who discussed the topic ‘Will India become a Hindu nation?’
“Some in our country, especially Hindutva forces, wish for it to be. Some fear it. However, it will never happen any time soon, at least officially,” he said. “The RSS already believes India is a Hindu nation. However, it won’t be able to make it official as our Constitution is secular,” he said. Suraj said not all attendees were atheists. “Some are curious or doubtful. What is important is to keep the discussion going,” he told TNIE.
Askar Ali, a young ‘ex-Muslim’, spoke on the golden age of Islam in the first session. “There was a time when Islam promoted scientific thinking, philosophy and new interpretations of the Quran. However, 14th-century Islam returned to traditional beliefs. Women weren’t allowed to read or write, and studying science or philosophy was banned. This didn’t change. Muslims are paying the price for it even now,” he said.
He said though an increasing number of Muslims are questioning rigid religious rules thanks to social media, some continue to follow old practices. “My family blames me for thinking more and asking questions. They feel we are not supposed to gain more knowledge than someone who lived in the sixth century,” he said.
KOCHI: No religion or God was spared on Sunday when a bunch of Malayalis got together in Kochi for Litmus-22. Touted as the biggest atheist conference in the world, Litmus saw participation of around 10,000 people, said the organisers. They said atheists, scientists, academics and common people who question religions and the concept of God, took part in the event that started at 9 am. The theme this year was ‘Let evidence lead’.
“God is Harry Potter,” said C Ravichandran, one of the leading figures who has spoken out against religions. “Religion is fiction created by some. However, unlike other literary figures, these writers never admitted to writing fiction,” he said.
Litmus garnered international attention when writer and academic Richard Dawkins tweeted about it recently. The organisers said more youngsters attended this year. Among them was Suraj C S, 21. “More youngsters are questioning religion now. This year, around four to five speakers were aged under 26,” said Suraj, who discussed the topic ‘Will India become a Hindu nation?’
“Some in our country, especially Hindutva forces, wish for it to be. Some fear it. However, it will never happen any time soon, at least officially,” he said. “The RSS already believes India is a Hindu nation. However, it won’t be able to make it official as our Constitution is secular,” he said. Suraj said not all attendees were atheists. “Some are curious or doubtful. What is important is to keep the discussion going,” he told TNIE.
Askar Ali, a young ‘ex-Muslim’, spoke on the golden age of Islam in the first session. “There was a time when Islam promoted scientific thinking, philosophy and new interpretations of the Quran. However, 14th-century Islam returned to traditional beliefs. Women weren’t allowed to read or write, and studying science or philosophy was banned. This didn’t change. Muslims are paying the price for it even now,” he said.
He said though an increasing number of Muslims are questioning rigid religious rules thanks to social media, some continue to follow old practices. “My family blames me for thinking more and asking questions. They feel we are not supposed to gain more knowledge than someone who lived in the sixth century,” he said.
An attraction inspired by the popular Harry Potter franchise just a half hour drive from Staffordshire could be held annually for the next five years. Families could soon be able to step back into the magical realm of Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience, which launched its opening trial run in October.
The popular attraction has given families the opportunity to navigate their way through a forest filled with mystical creatures, special effects, lights and sounds, offering Harry Potter fans the experience of being in the films themselves. Now Ravenswood Experiences, which operates the event, has applied for its return “for a temporary period of five years”.
The existing woodland trail and parking areas associated with Arley Hall would remain the venue for the attraction as it has since its opening. According to planning documents submitted to Cheshire East Council, 198,991 people attended the event since its opening, with 92 per cent of visitors from outside the county, including Staffordshire.
It provided 82 jobs and claimed to have brought a gross value added figure of £2,677,907 to the counties economy, reports CheshireLive. A statement submitted with the plans says: “This application is for the operation of a new tourist attraction at Arley Hall, Arley Park, Arley.
“Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience is a night-time woodland trail experience that takes visitors through areas of the woodland which are associated with Grade II-listed Arley Hall. Visitors to the attraction will be taken through some of the most iconic forest scenes from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films with the experience lasting between 60 and 90 minutes for guests.
The trail is based on the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films (Image: Warner Bros)
“Visitors to the event would use the existing, established car parking areas at Arley Hall. The woods have a pre-existing path that will continue to be used for the event walking trail and would be installed with sympathetic low-level lighting.
“Throughout the woodland at various stages of the walk, guests would be able to engage with interactive displays created by award-winning theatrical designers and experiential creators. In addition to the trail itself, a ‘Magical Village’ will be created at the end of the trail comprising temporary structures to sell a variety of food and drink, and Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts merchandise.
“The application seeks permission for a five-year temporary consent. The event operates on an annual basis between the months of October and January with opening hours between 4pm and 11pm.”
It goes on to claim that the ‘small-scale event’ would generate a ‘tangible social and economic’ benefit that will ‘enhance the future vitality of Arley and its heritage assets’. It added: “It has been fully evidenced that the proposal will not create any environmental harm.”
Many serious issues were discussed during the UK’s Leadership Debate on Channel 4. However, one of the candidates in the race for Prime Minister used a not-so-serious source to support his arguments during the debate. Tom Tugendhat, a member of the Conservative Party, quoted Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter in one of his answers.
“I’m willing to call out friends as well as enemies,” Tugendhat said, following up with a quote that sounded eerily similar to one from Dumbledore in the J.K. Rowling books and movie adaptations, “It’s easy to stand up to your enemies. It’s sometimes harder to stand up to your friends.”
One Harry Potter fan noticed the quote from the franchise and tweeted, “Tugendhat literally quoting Dumbledore in his pitch to be PM,” alongside an image from the films.
Tom Tugenhat was the ONLY one to admit Johnson isn’t honest got an applause for that. Seems like a decent bloke knows his Dumbledore.
He won’t last…#C4LeaderDebate#Ch4newspic.twitter.com/4P8PciiBk8
JK Rowling says she chose not to participate in HBO Max’s Harry Potter reunion special.
“I thought it was about the films more than the books, quite rightly,” she told Graham Norton.
Speculation swirled at the time that she wasn’t asked to be included in the special over past anti-trans comments.
When “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts” debuted on HBO Max earlier this year, speculation swirled that Harry Potter creator JK Rowling wasn’t asked to participate because of her past anti-trans comments.
The reunion special instead used archival footage of interviews with the author, with an on-screen note that said they were filmed years earlier.
But in an interview this week with Graham Norton, Rowling struck down that speculation, saying that she chose not to participate. When Graham said that Rowling was “excluded” from the special, Rowling pushed back.
“I was asked to be on that,” she said. “I decided I didn’t want to do it. I thought it was about the films more than the books, quite rightly. That was what the anniversary was about.”
Rowling sparked backlash in 2020 with a lengthy essay defending her stance on the trans community and her concerns regarding “trans activism.” She’s doubled down on the stance since in a number of tweets.
“When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman … then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside,” Rowling wrote.
Rowling also told Norton that she still keeps in contact with some of the cast members of the movies, “some more than others.”
But some actors from the “Harry Potter” films have spoken out against Rowling’s rhetoric.
“I firmly stand with the trans community,” Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley, said in 2020. “Trans women are women. Trans men are men. We should all be entitled to live with love and without judgment.”
Fans can go behind the scenes of the “Harry Potter” franchise by visiting the “Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter,” in Leavesden, United Kingdom. Image: ETX Daily Up/Sabrina Alili
A study looking at the most expensive movie franchises for fans has found that being a super fan of the Harry Potter franchise can be more costly than Star Wars fandom. So which are the top 10 most expensive and most affordable movie franchises for fans?
Evidently, the magic comes at a cost for fans of the Wizarding World. As the latest installment of Fantastic Beasts spin-off series hits theaters April 15, the movie franchise based on J.K. Rowling’s books has been named the most expensive for super fans, according to Money.co.uk.
The British price comparison website has selected 39 movie franchises, among the most popular worldwide, consisting of at least three films, to determine the average cost of box sets and fan merchandise on eBay. The study puts the Harry Potter franchise at the top of the table as the most expensive franchise for fans, with a total of £467.98 (about P32,050).
To determine this top 20, the site compared the average price of a full box set of movies, an action figure, a t-shirt, a costume and a signed movie poster. The first Harry Potter movie, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” was released in 2001. Since then, seven other movies have been released, making the franchise a particularly prolific business.
In second place comes the “Godfather” franchise. Although with only three films, the franchise directed by Francis Ford Coppola comes at a cost of £448.62 (about P30,720) to fans. Unlike “Harry Potter,” while the average price of the box set is cheaper, the signed poster reaches £382 (about P26,160) compared with £306 (about P20,910) for the boy wizard. Next in the top three comes “Back to the Future” costing £355.84 (about P24,340).
As for the most affordable franchises, “Star Wars” is in sixth place at a cost of just £109.17 (about P7,500) to fans. But the top prize goes to “Shrek,” with a total of only £60.46 (about P4,100) for the box set and all the merchandise. The “Die Hard” saga and “Twilight” complete the top three most affordable franchises for movie fans, according to Money.co.uk.
Top 20 most expensive movie franchises for super fans
‘Harry Potter’ director interested in making ‘Cursed Child’ film with original cast
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Take Amtrak for a summer escape to visit the world premiere of the exhibition’s global tour at the Franklin Institute
PHILADELPHIA, July 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — This summer, Amtrak passengers can celebrate the magic in Philadelphia at Harry Potter: The Exhibition, at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Open now through Sept. 18, this experience is one of the most comprehensive touring exhibitions ever presented about the Wizarding World. Amtrak will transport customers to Philadelphia where they can experience Harry Potter: The Exhibition and the18,000-square-foot space featuring 21 celebratory galleries, including the Great Hall, Hogwarts Castle, Hagrid’s Hut, Hogwarts Houses and Newt’s Case.
“We are thrilled to announce Amtrak as the official travel partner of Harry Potter: The Exhibition at the Franklin Institute,” said Tom Zaller, President and CEO of Imagine Exhibitions. “Amtrak will provide guests of the Exhibition a wonderful way to easily get to the experience any day of the week.”
“Amtrak is proud to serve as an official transportation partner for Harry Potter: The Exhibition at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia,” said Amtrak Assistant Vice President National Advertising Brand Management, Darlene Abubakar. “By taking Amtrak, families can travel to the Exhibition without dealing with the hassles of driving, expensive gas prices and parking. Remember to book early for the best Amtrak fares.”
William H Gray III 30th Street Station (PHL) is serviced by ten Amtrak train routes with destinations as far south as Florida, as far north as Vermont and as far west as Chicago. Amtrak trains deliver travelers right to the heart of the action and within a mile of the station are numerous Philadelphia attractions, including the Franklin Institute.
Amtrak Saver Fares offer low prices on the Northeast Regional, select Keystone Service and select Pennsylvanian service trains. Book travel early to get the best prices and save on convenient downtown-to-downtown service. Amtrak is also the more sustainable way to travel and is 46% more energy efficient than traveling by car and 34% more energy efficient than domestic air travel on a per-passenger-mile basis.
High school is hell. That much we all know. If you look back on your high school experience and think, “Wow, that was so great,” you were either a combination of a bully and a popular kid or on some kind of mind-altering substance that you should’ve been sharing with the rest of the class.
The diabolical nature of throwing a bunch of puberty-stricken adolescents together in one building has been the subject of teen films for decades. This has given us plenty of straightforward comedies over the years—most recently, Do Revenge’s hyper-stylized modern take—but slightly more rare is the high school horror movie.
Enter the new film My Best Friend’s Exorcism, based on the popular YA novel by Grady Hendrix, which sees high school as exactly what it is: a breeding ground for demonic energy. The film follows Gretchen (Amiah Miller) and Abby (Elsie Fisher), two longtime BFFs in the 1980s who are trying to make the most of their time together before Gretchen moves away. Intent on creating memories, they make the dreaded, classic mistake of messing with a Ouija board one night with their friends Glee (Cathy Ang) and Margaret (Rachel Ogechi Kanu), to typically malevolent results. When Abby is inhabited by a demon named Andras, she becomes her Christian private school’s biggest mean girl, threatening her relationship with her friends—and their lives—forever.
Other films like Ginger Snaps and Jennifer’s Body have similarly explored the difficulty of being a girl in high school through a metaphorical lens. But My Best Friend’s Exorcism seeks to touch on all of the different types of nuanced marginalization that teenage girls can go through. It’s not just dissecting how gender plays a role in high school relationships, but how burgeoning queerness and being a person of color can impact those experiences—two things often left out of similar takes on the genre.
Ahead of the film’s release on Prime Video this week, The Daily Beast spoke with the four main stars of My Best Friend’s Exorcism to discuss embodying possessions, 11-foot mutant worms, and bringing their experiences with fairweather teenage friendships to their characters, all before playing the hottest new game of the Halloween season: Demon Name or Royal Name.
Amiah, how fun is it to play an evil demon queen and vomit on people? Because the movie obviously does weigh some heavier subjects, but you also get the chance to be totally evil and cruel, and do the coveted slow-motion glamor walk into a room—which is a big dream for so many people, myself included.
Amiah Miller: I loved the parts where I was possessed, but it was also hard because I said and did a lot of mean things. And it kind of sucked because…some of the stuff I had to say to Abby! At the end of the day, that’s Elsie! Those were the hardest scenes for me. It wasn’t even the exorcism scene, it was having to say mean things to Elsie because I would die for her.
Elsie, you’ve had quite a bit of experience playing teen characters in all stages of adolescence. Was it fun to get to do something like this that’s still examining the complications of being a teenager but through a more light, fun horror lens—at least lighter than something like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, which you were in earlier this year?
Elsie Fisher: Definitely, and even Texas Chainsaw Massacre is like, genre. But that one’s definitely a lot more serious, so I really enjoyed [making My Best Friend’s Exorcism]. I think that’s something you see often in coming-of-age stories. There’s Percy Jackson and Harry Potter, where a lot of [the story] could be a metaphor for what being a teenager feels like. It feels that big, it feels like you’re slaying dragons. So it was fun to have a shot at that.
Rachel, this is your first feature film and you’re so wonderful in it. You strike this perfect tone between a mean girl and someone who’s just trying to navigate the hell of high school. You also get the honor of a very horrifically disgusting scene where you vomit out an 11-foot-long tapeworm. So all that said, what was it like to play Margaret?
Rachel Ogechi Kanu: It was definitely a rollercoaster. Like you said, this is my first big feature, so it was bringing that new actress thing to a set, but also playing the tough, brash, confident one. It was fun to lean into! I’m the newbie, I might as well just do it. The sort of sisterhood that I created with Elsie, Amiah, and Cathy was sort of a cradle in that confidence that I was able to bring to set.
The tapeworm scene was definitely very exhausting. I feel like every day on set, it was like, “Tapeworm scene’s comin’ up!” But once it came to that day, it was one of the most calm [during the whole shoot], because even though it’s fun and gory, it’s Margaret’s biggest insecurity with her eating metabolizing into its own demon. So even though it is a big, fun scene in the film, it has to be treated with a lot of care.
Amiah, what was it like to film the exorcism scene, because it’s physically demanding and you’ve got to do final girl horror movie screams. And I feel like whenever I watch an exorcism movie, I’m always so impressed by actors who are committing to something full-body like that. What was that day, or days, on set like for you?
Amiah Miller: Yeah, it was plural. It was days.
Elsie Fisher: Many, many days.
Amiah Miller: Exhausting days! They were, in the moment, not very fun, because I was focused on doing a good job. And where we were filming, we were in this cabin in Georgia. We were in the middle of nowhere, with no internet, completely secluded and not in our real lives at all. So I was very into that scene and into that character. I watched real exorcisms to prepare for that. And I prepared at night and after watching those I was supposed to just go to bed and I did not sleep.
Cathy, you identify as bisexual and your character, Glee, seems like she’s on the verge of starting to embrace her own queerness. What was it like dipping back into that world, of someone who is still trying to come to terms with this kind of thing amidst a friend group who doesn’t quite understand?
Cathy Ang: That’s part of what excited me so much about the film and the character. I don’t feel like I’ve seen many films that depict a young Asian-American girl who grew up really taking in [her] conservative Catholic upbringing, and [figuring out how] she could fit into that mold. Stepping into those shoes is a little heartbreaking. But we get to see that despite it all, Glee makes it through, and she even learns that she’ll still love and support her friends. And she realizes that all the love that she feels is so powerful. I’m just glad that she exists.
This film is a dissection of how teenagers can sometimes turn on their friends at any second, but we get to explore that with this friend group as demonic possession. Would you say the film reflects similar experiences you’ve had with fairweather friendships in any way?
Elsie Fisher: I had my freshman year, did sophomore online, and then graduated. But even the way specifically young actors end up interacting with each other, you either do have this kind of cutthroat relationship or you form these crazy, wicked strong bonds that last forever.
Amiah Miller: Like Elsie said, when you’re in this industry and there are so many other girls and you all want the same part, it kind of does feel like what I imagine high school would be like. That’s why I was a little nervous to work with someone so close to my age, and so closely, because there is always this competitive nature that comes with that. But with Elsie, she was so supportive of me and I was supportive of her and I think you can tell watching the movie that we just want each other to do a good job.
I wanted to wrap up by playing a game that I just made up called Demon Name or Royal Name. The demon’s name in My Best Friend’s Exorcism is “Andras,” so I’m going to give you two names, and I’d like you to try to guess which is the name of one of Andras’ friends in demonology and which is the name of a historical royal figure.
Elsie Fisher: This is really, really good. I’m ready.
All right, first round: “Vseslav” and “Valak.”
Elsie Fisher: Valak is sort of giving me Eastern European. Going to go with Vseslav. That one feels like a demon to me.
Amiah Miller: I don’t know if Valak is royal or not, but the vibes aren’t good. Elsie, I’m going to go with you.
Rachel Ogechi Kanu: OK, Veslav is giving me Vecna?
Cathy Ang: Valak…is a demon.
Unfortunately, only one of you is right. Vseslav is the Grand Prince of Kyiv from 1068 and Valak is the demon nun from The Conjuring franchise.
Elsie Fisher: I think that was actually, truly hard.
Round two: “Naberius” and “Berenguer.” One’s a demon, one’s a royal.
Amiah Miller: Mm-mm, Berenguer’s not nice. Demon.
Elsie Fisher: I feel like there’s a little switcheroo here. I feel like Naberius is kind of a red herring. Amiah, let’s go together on this. Berenguer’s the demon.
Rachel Ogechi Kanu: Naberius feels royal. Am I crazy?
Cathy Ang: Let’s go together here, Rachel. Naberius is royal. Berenguer’s the demon.
I am so sorry to tell you that you’re all wrong. Naberius is the demon and Berenguer’s the 11th century Count of Barcelona.
Amiah Miller: I was so sure, I was so sure! This is actually embarrassing.
OK, final round. “Haakon” and “Balam.” Which is our demon, which is our royal?
Elsie Fisher: I think it would be really funny if we got every single one of these wrong.
Cathy Ang: Oh, Balam is a demon.
Rachel Ogechi Kanu: I feel like my first reaction in the past has been wrong, so I’m going to go with Cathy [and say Balam is the demon].
Amiah Miller: OK, and I’m guessing that Haakon is the demon?
Elsie Fisher: I’m going to say, final answer: Balam is the demon.
Elsie, Rachel, and Cathy are all correct! Haakon was a Norwegian Earl. Balam is the demon!
Cathy Ang: If this was a drinking game, I would be dead by number two.
To be fair, this is an impossible game.
Elsie Fisher: Oh, it’s possible, because I just got one.
