ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: [To Megan] And when you were vandalizing the house of another high schooler, the camera is right there as you're spray painting his window —
MEGAN: It seemed like such a good idea at the time [laughs], which sounds awful, I know. At first it was, like, innocent, and then, I don't know, I had no idea I was going to get into that much trouble. In the film, I do say that everybody gets, like, vandalized every now and then. Like, my house definitely got it. So it was like, ''Ha ha, we're going to go tee-pee and vandalize, we should call the cameras!'' Now I look back on it, and I'm like, ''Oh, I'm an idiot.'' [Laughter]
How natural was it for you to have a camera there? How long did it take for you to get used to it as a constant presence in your lives?
COLIN: It seems like it was a month for everybody. The awkwardness went away after a while, and we became friends with [the director and camera operators]. Like, you'd share anything with them.
JAKE: I think that's what made it key. You developed relationships with Nanette, but also with the crew, the people who were doing all the work. You get so accustomed to it, and it feels so natural at that point, that it really doesn't feel like it's a camera. You don't really think, Wow, this is going to be part of a movie. You're just living in the moment at that point, because high school's completely involved like that.
I imagine this is the first Sundance Film Festival that you've all attended. What's it been like for you guys so far?
MEGAN: Amazing, but surreal. Like, I know I'm going to get back to school in five days and be like, Omigosh, I was just at Sundance!
HANNAH: I couldn't imagine what it would be like to come out here. It's better than I could ever have thought about. It's insane.
COLIN: My friends didn't believe me before, but you bet they will now!
I see you're still being taped as we're talking here. Is this for the DVD?
COLIN: It's, like, bonus feature-style.
MEGAN: We keep people updated on what's going on on Facebook, so our fans can maybe watch us — if we have fans. [Laughs]
Because you have all grown up documenting your lives with Facebook and MySpace, does that make doing something like this documentary a little easier?
HANNAH: Yeah, we're the reality-TV generation. We've grown up watching that. We're used to that. That's what we see all the time when we watch TV. And also, I knew letting them in would make for a good movie, and I wanted this to be a good movie. So it was a balance between trying to keep things personal and sneaking around the cameras.
So there were times where you said, ''I'd just rather this not be filmed''?
HANNAH: Oh, and not that polite at all. We would tell them off. You get so used to them, they're like your friends. You say what you want to say to them.
MEGAN: They're like, ''Hey we're coming over [to film].'' And I'm like, ''No you're not.'' [Laughs]
HANNAH: And they listen. Mostly.
COLIN: The more willing you are to show things [about yourself], the better [the film] will turn out. Like, [Hannah] showing her breakup, and me crying after I messed up in one of my games. If those things are out [of the film], it wouldn't be as dramatic.
Do you all see yourself as different at all from the way you were in the film?
HANNAH: In certain ways, yeah. It's been two years, so we've matured a lot. But in a lot of ways, I see that character [in the film], and there's a lot of things I'm really happy with. I'm still kind of real nerdy, and real giddy, and those things will — hopefully — never leave me. I like that about myself.
COLIN: It's not necessarily us that changed. The only thing that changed is that people are going to know us now. Like, if we went through that whole senior year without the cameras, no one would really know about us and we would've been just like any other kid. But now people are going to remember us.
