FILM · 2016 · USA
The Edge of Seventeen
22 archived facts 2 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (22)
- #001
Woody Harrelson improvised many of Mr. Bruner's jokes and gags, which pleased writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig.
- #002
Hayden Szeto (Erwin) is eleven years older than Hailee Steinfeld (Nadine).
- #003
Kelly Fremon Craig sent the original screenplay, then titled "Besties," to James L. Brooks. Brooks agreed to produce the film, and in one of their first meetings he gave her advice that helped her refocus the plot and add dramatic elements: "The most important thing you have to figure out is what you want to say about life in this story."
- #004
The original screenplay, titled "Besties," focused more on comedy and on Nadine's friendship with Krista than on friendship as one of the forces shaping her life. That script had no Mr. Bruner (Nadine's teacher). Nadine's full name was Nadine Hamidi Yousefa Rostami, her mother's boyfriend was conceived differently (through dialogue), her father's death was not even mentioned, Nick was Dan the Hot Soccer Player with roughly two lines of dialogue, Erwin was a flute player rather than an aspiring filmmaker, and there was a prom scene at the end.
- #005
Nadine wears a T-shirt from Tuktoyaktuk University. Tuktoyaktuk is a village of about eight hundred and fifty people in Canada, on the Arctic Ocean.
- #006
The two scenes in which Erwin interacts with Nadine feature Miike Snow's "Genghis Khan" and The 1975's "Somebody Else," respectively. Both songs are about a jealous man who wants to be the only one in a woman's life, reflecting Erwin's feelings for Nadine.
- #007
It was Kelly Fremon Craig's directorial debut.
- #008
Hayden Szeto was the first person cast.
- #009
The song whose name Nick (Alexander Calvert) cannot remember is "Big Jet Plane" by Angus and Julia Stone.
- #010
Throughout the film, Nadine wears a T-shirt inspired by the Coen brothers' The Big Lebowski (1998), featuring a cartoon version of Jeff Bridges's character the Dude and the word "Abide." Hailee Steinfeld (Nadine) appeared alongside Jeff Bridges in the Coen brothers' True Grit (2010). Woody Harrelson (Mr. Bruner) also appeared in another Coen brothers film, No Country for Old Men (2007).
- #011
In May 2018 it was announced that a spin-off series was in the works at YouTube Red, with writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig returning as executive producer. Craig said the series would feature new characters rather than the film's original characters and would have the same tone and feel as the film.
- #012
"Lakewood High School" is actually Guildford Park Secondary School in Surrey, British Columbia.
- #013
Mr. Bruner shows Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) in his history class; although the film is well liked and considered a classic, it is generally regarded as historically inaccurate.
- #014
At one point during Nadine's (Hailee Steinfeld) date with Erwin (Hayden Szeto), she jokingly says something and immediately regrets it out of racial sensitivity toward his being Asian. In real life, Hailee is also of Asian descent on her mother's side (Filipino and African American).
- #015
The film's working title was "Besties."
- #016
The film shares its title with Stevie Nicks's song "Edge of Seventeen" (1982).
- #017
When Nadine throws her shoe at the wall, she is seen to break the wall.
- #018
Apart from Hayden Szeto, who was in his thirties, all the actors playing the teenagers were in their twenties at the time this film was shot.
- #019
Although the characters are not related, Young Krista and Young Darian are played by real-life siblings Ava Grace Cooper and Christian Michael Cooper.
- #020
Nadine insults Darian by telling him his head is too big and that he cannot fix it. In Kelly Fremon Craig's original "Besties" script, Nadine complains that her head is too small and that she cannot fix it.
- #021
To calm Nadine before school, her father Tom (Eric Keenleyside) suggests she fart on her classmates' backpacks. Eric had previously shown an affinity for flatulence in Dreamcatcher (2003), in the role of forester Rick McCarthy.
- #022
Nesta Cooper and Hailee Steinfeld share the same birthday, December 11, three years apart.
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