Devery Jacobs and D.W. Waterson made the gritty, gay cheerleading movie we've been waiting for

Here & Queer is an interview series hosted by Peter Knegt that celebrates and amplifies the work of LGBTQ artists through unfiltered conversations.

You'll never look at cheerleading the same after you see the new film Backspot. More akin to Black Swan than Bring It On, it offers a window into the physical and mental challenges of competitive cheerleading. And it also just so happens to be… very gay.

The confident feature directorial debut of Toronto filmmaker D.W. Waterson, Backspot stars the always exceptional Devery Jacobs as Riley, a young queer woman who will do whatever it takes to make it in an elite cheer squad. It's being released in cinemas this spring, but we were so lucky to have both Waterson and Jacobs make their way to the set of Here & Queer when Backspot debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall.

Waterson initially approached Jacobs with the idea of a cheerleading movie back in 2017.

"I was like, 'That's actually really funny, because I used to be a competitive gymnast and was provincial champion for a couple of years,'" Jacobs says. "There's a lot of overlap between gymnastics and cheerleading. A lot of cheerleaders start as gymnasts because of the tumbling aspect and the jumps. But I had to start from ground zero when it came to cheering, when it came to stunting and backspoting and all of that, like throwing people in the air and doing pyramids. That was a new challenge that we had to figure out."

Waterson said it was important to show the grittiness of cheerleading — "the toll the sport takes on [the athletes'] bodies but also on their mental health."

"We always think about the sport as so physical, but it also has a mental impact," she says. "And so diving deep into Riley's psyche and seeing what's going on, and what that pressure is doing, and how that ultimately affects her relationship with her mom, her relationship with her girlfriend and this new relationship with Coach Eileen."

Coach Eileen is played by none other than Evan Rachel Wood, who serves up cinema's most terrifying lesbian cheerleading instructor. Wood is just one of the many examples of queer talent involved in Backspot, which in addition to Waterson and Jacobs themselves also includes Elliot Page (an executive producer).

"A lot of our producing team was queer and a lot of our crew was queer," Waterson says. "Obviously, the characters are queer, and a lot of the actors are queer. Hire queer actors to portray queer people! You're bringing a three-dimensional person with lived experience into those performances."

One of the few actors in the film who does not identify as queer is Shannyn Sossamon, who plays Riley's mother. Though that wasn't exactly a hardship. 

"Shannon is a queer icon," Watterson says. "I remember mentioning that to her when we were working on set … and she's like, 'Yes, I have heard.'"

Now, Waterson adds, "We've had so many people be like, 'Shannyn Sossamon is in your movie! Oh my God, she was my queer awakening!' And we are like, 'We know!'

Backspot will be released in cinemas this Spring.