“I met Sidney when she was 14 at a backyard wedding in south Buffalo. A very fringe, informal wedding. There was just something about [her] that really struck me. The wedding was a total disaster, and I felt like she was in over her head. I wanted to call her mother and tell her to take her home. She had a curious presence, I would say. I was working on another film at the time and followed her on Facebook to talk about it in 2013. She didn't write me back because she was grounded. Flash forward, we're casting and we're looking at 400-plus young women for the role. I kept thinking about Sidney and contacted her mom via Facebook. She trusted us enough to come down to audition. We cast her and were looking for this character to play her friend and her cousin. Talia had a date for the callbacks, and she was also from Buffalo, so they already had something in common. They got along really well, and that was the kind of chemistry we were looking for.”