Yahoo News Samuel Small explains what Bonus Track's happy yet "terrifying" ending means to him
Rainbow Crew is an ongoing interview series that celebrates the best LGBTQ+ representation on screen. Each instalment showcases talent working on both sides of the camera, including queer creatives and allies to the community.
Next up, we're speaking to Bonus Track star Samuel Small.
Rom-coms are getting gayer and more British by the minute if Heartstopper and Nicholas Galitzine's dishy prince in Red, White & Royal Blue are anything to go by.
To kick off Pride Month, Sky has released a gay British rom-com of its own titled Bonus Track that's based on an original story idea by Mike Gilbert and Challengers star Josh O'Connor. Bisexual threesomes are put aside here though in favour of a more gentle love story that blossoms between two 16-year-old students named George (Joe Anders) and Max (Samuel Small).
It's 2006 and George dreams of becoming a pop star. When he suddenly befriends Max, the son of a famous musical duo, at school, the pair start making sweet music together. But are they just friends or something more?
Digital Spy caught up with Samuel Small to discuss music, his chemistry with co-star Joe Anders, and what Bonus Track's happy yet "terrifying" ending means to him.
Did you do a lot of research on the time period? Were you asking people on set about their own experiences in 2006?
Samuel Small: As much as I was barely cognisant, I do still remember the early 2000s, and I have an older sister who was about 10 in 2006. She remembers a lot more than me.
When we were shooting, a lot of people were like, "Oh, my gosh, I was literally 16 in 2006. I remember this and I remember that". So it felt like I had a good group of support with harnessing that era of the film.
It was pretty easy to slip back into that when you're wearing some crazy early 2000s outfits with a flip phone or something like that. It felt really nostalgic in a sense because I was young in 2006. I looked up to these cool teenagers on MTV and in my area. I wanted to be that so bad. So having the opportunity to go back and do that was great fun.
The chemistry between you and Joe is so integral to the film. Talk us through how you connected and developed that relationship, both on and off set.
So we sat down with [director] Julia [Jackman] and watched a film that she recommended for us to watch together to better understand the vibe, I think it was Eighth Grade. We sat and we just chatted and got to know each other a bit better.
When I was auditioning for the role, I read with five or six, maybe more, people auditioning to play George, who were all fantastic. But Joe was the first person that I read with. So then reconnecting in New York was really fantastic.
We got to know each other over the rehearsal days that we had, just sitting down with the script making changes where we felt necessary, where we felt I maybe wouldn't say that or I think it would make my journey better if you said this.
On the Friday, Joe came back to my house. We had dinner together and we sat in the garden and we watched My Octopus Teacher and just really clicked. It never felt on set like we had to force anything because we were both a little bit obsessed with each other. He's so phenomenal.
We were both really in the same boat because it was our first time leading a project, so we were really nervous, the pair of us, but being in that boat together and saying, "Look, let's just hold each other's hand and take each other along this journey and just give it everything. We'll make something nice." And hopefully we did.
Did you work with an intimacy coordinator?
We had an amazing intimacy coordinator called Haley [Muraleedharan]. Joe and I went with her while we were gearing up for our first intimate moment. She broke down the barriers and talked us through everything, and made it seem more like a dance.
Haley found a way to make this moment more beautiful rather than us just us going at each other, which was really interesting because I was in my head thinking, "I'm ready to do this. I'm ready to go and just get it out of the way." But Joe was really nervous. Having that support made it so much easier. If we had any questions on set, we could ask them.
There were times where Joe wanted to focus and didn't want people in his background, in his eye-line to distract him, but she was amazing at sorting that out in a calm easy way. By the end of it, when we had done a couple of intimacy moments, we were fine. We were in it together and complaining that we didn't get to do it again.
Watch Bonus Track on Sky Cinema
Music is another key aspect of the film, especially for your character. How did you prepare for the musical elements? What did you bring to the music yourself?
The second I got this job, I made a playlist of my favourite songs from that period of time and songs that I've acquired along my journey of life. I was just listening to it on repeat.
Julia sent me her playlist, and I was doing a different job in Finland, so I spent the whole night just in my hotel room, listening to this music and immersing myself into that. When I got to set, I had this noughties fever.
The music's really important to my character because I go on and sing the song at the end of it that we create together. There's a scene in Joe's bedroom where we're just kind of riffing off each other, trying to make this song. I was kind of nervous going into that. But Julia said, "Just feel it". A lot of times on the set, she said, "Just find it and feel it". I really appreciate that independence.
There's so many moments in the film that are just completely improvised. The whole moment in the bedroom where we're finding the song, obviously it got cut up, but we would just do about five to 10 takes to find it, just singing it, and think about how musicians would find that. It was really great to have that responsibility.
The performance at the end is this joyous culmination of everything Max and George have created together. It's a big moment for you especially, so can you talk us through filming that and what it means to end Bonus Track on that note?
I haven't been so terrified for something in my life for a very long time. There was no way of faking it or making it bearable. I just had to get up there and do it in front of the audience. Also in the back of my mind was, "Not only do I have to do it, but it's also the key moment of the film we've been working towards this. I've just come back and we have this amazing moment on stage to prove that he isn't a loser."
I was losing sleep about it for nights. I was so nervous. I had been listening to the song on repeat. I knew all the words. I knew I wasn't going to sing it. I knew I was just lip syncing it and I'd sing it again at a later date. I was just so nervous about... I don't know what it was.
Then I woke up on the day of the first day of shooting, because we ended up shooting over three days, and I just had this moment in my head where I was like, "What am I worrying about? I just need to go out there and give it everything. Have fun. And it will be completely fine." And it was.
I got up there. I did the first take, because we went straight in for a take because they knew I was nervous. And before leading up to that, Julia had said in the little dance break, "I just want you to dance". Oh my god, then I was even more nervous. But I did it. Everyone in the audience was cheering and being so supportive. I got loads of great feedback from everyone.
Despite being so nervous about it and thinking, "When it comes out, I'm not gonna be able to watch it," I love watching it. It's so much fun and I'm really proud of it.
It's a very happy ending, which is wonderful to see for a gay love story in particular. We're seeing more and more gay romcoms embodying this kind of joy, like Heartstopper and Red, White & Royal Blue, for example. Why is that important now and how does Bonus Track fit into this new wave?
Rom-coms are famous for being wholesome, for being happy and sweet. I just don't see why Max and George can't have that happy riding off into the sunset living happily ever after ending. Being a part of something like that is so sweet and so beautiful.
After one of the screenings we had at the London Film Festival last year, I had someone come up to me and say thank you for being a part of a queer story that's just got a happy ending. It makes me feel seen and it makes me feel proud.
To have this lovely film come out at the start of Pride Month and celebrate queer love is just such an honour to be a part of. I hope everyone that watches it feels that sense of pride that we all found while making it.
The ending was really important to that person in particular, but what was your favourite scene?
My favourite scene to shoot was the montage in his bedroom where we're making the song. That's my favourite because we shot that on the last day. We didn't have long to do it because then we had to do the ending scene on the last day as the last scene of the day. And no one wants to do overtime on the last day.
That was my favourite scene to shoot because we both just kept coming up with these wacky crazy things. We were just dancing around in his bedroom for an hour or two.
My favourite scene to watch is the whole double date palaver where we go on the double date and have the piercings with Josh O'Connor. Loads of that was improvised. A lot of the scene walking down the path in the park between me and Joe was improvised. Julia said, "Just figure it out yourselves".
And then the whole piercing scene with Josh was improvised completely. When we got into the caravan, we looked at how it was going to work and how we were going to shoot it. It didn't add up so we just improvised it and I think it really pays off because they're both really sweet funny scenes.
Josh O'Connor is having such a big moment right now with Challengers. What was it like to have such a big rising name so heavily involved in the project?
While we were doing our actual shoot, Josh was away shooting something else, so he was getting all the rushes sent to him, but we had no way of being in contact with him. He felt a bit like this mysterious name that kept getting whispered around on set. And then we did this extra reshoot day in November where he came in and did his moment.
Having him on set just felt like that final fit to the puzzle. He was so funny. We were improvising a lot, so just being able to just riff off someone who's so fantastic, it was really an honour to have him on set and to be a part of a project that he helped create. He was just such a fantastic, wholesome, sweet guy and he still continues to be. He deserves all the successes that is coming his way.
Bonus Track is set in 2006, but it feels very relevant in a lot of ways still. What do you hope people take away from watching this film now in 2024?
This situation has happened and will continue to happen to so many people. It doesn't matter who you are, what you identify as, what your sexuality may be. As daunting and as scary as it may be to pursue this kind of relationship, you can have the happy ending and you deserve the happy ending that is out there for you.
I hope that watching this film can help you see that and appreciate that and it can show you how far we've come, but also how far we are still yet to go. Despite it being set in 2006, it still feels like it could happen now.
Especially for the queer people that watched it that were 16 in 2006, I hope you feel seen, and I hope you feel like your experiences weren't just you. They happens to loads of people. You can have that happy ending that millions of other heteronormative romcom couples can have.
Bonus Track is available to watch now on Sky Cinema.
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