Do Revenge director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson makes movies for the women who inspire her

Simone Niamani Thompson for EW Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

Jennifer Kaytin Robinson could lie and say that The Godfather made her want to be a filmmaker. But she's not going to do that. "I made my mom take me to Clueless six times in the theater," Robinson says. "Now there's Do Revenge."

Do Revenge is writer/director Robinson's latest Netflix success story, the story of two teenage girls who agree to partner up and do each other's revenge. Eleanor (Maya Hawke) needs help with a mean girl from her past, and Drea (Camila Mendes) wants to take down the ex-boyfriend who leaked a sexy video she sent him to the entire school. It's the kind of edgy teen story viewers hadn't seen in years.

"I think that everything kind of swung in a more slice-of-life, romantic direction," Robinson says of recent teen films. "That kind of biting, acid-tongue camp teen movie just hasn't been made recently. The spectrum is To All The Boys, The Kissing Booth, or Euphoria, and we kind of are right in the middle."

But Do Revenge is just the latest film from Robinson, who came onto the scene with 2016's Sweet/Vicious, a female-focused vigilante story about Jules (Eliza Bennett), a college student who's sexually assaulted and then decides to spend her nights in a black hoodie, taking down sexual predators on campus with the help of her friend Ophelia (Taylor Dearden). The series, though beloved by its small following, only lasted one season on MTV.

Robinson then made her directorial debut with 2019's Someone Great, another story that put women at the forefront, as Jenny (Gina Rodriguez) leaned on besties Blair (Brittany Snow) and Erin (DeWanda Wise) while she coped with a breakup and prepared for a major life move.

Simone Niamani Thompson for EW Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

For Robinson, writing stories about women just makes sense. "They say write what you know," she tells EW on the latest episode of Bold School, EW's video series celebrating female power players. "And I know women, and I like writing about women. For me, it's such a no-brainer to want to tell these stories. Yes, I love championing women's stories, I love telling them, but it's just like, that's what's interesting to me. I want to make things that reflect the world around me and my life, and that's why I do it. It's actually incredibly selfish and is not about furthering anything at all. It's super self-serving."

But with telling those stories comes a certain set of challenges. "There are challenges you expect and challenges that are completely unexpected," Robinson says, referencing a moment in the screen-testing process of Do Revenge. "We tested for audiences, and there were a lot of people that interrogated every choice Drea and Eleanor made, their likability. Why did they talk like this? They just picked apart everything. There's just no way that, if these characters were young men they would've been interrogated in that way."

Simone Niamani Thompson for EW Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

Specifically, Robinson references a scene in the film when Eleanor hits Drea with her car. "That became a huge point of contention that people really didn't like," she says. "I just had to have faith that once it was out there, everyone was going to understand. In making things about young women, you can get pulled in a lot of different directions."

The very idea of letting women behave badly is something Robinson has had to fight for in her career. "In Do Revenge and even Someone Great, those are stories about women behaving badly. I think we have to let women do that on screen because the more they do it, the more normalized it becomes, but if we keep changing stories and making them more palatable, we'll never get to a place where it feels like a reflection of how women actually are," she says.

Simone Niamani Thompson for EW Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

Growing up in Florida, Robinson originally thought she wanted to become an actress, but as she puts it, "I thought I wanted to be Rachel Bilson, but I really got here and I was like, no, I want to be Josh Schwartz." (For those who don't know, Josh Schwartz is the creator of The O.C.) It's a realization that Robinson had in her early 20's, and one she acted on quickly, selling Sweet/Vicious by the time she was 26.

Now 34, she's co-written a major Marvel film — 2022's Thor: Love and Thunder — and directed two successful Netflix films. Her advice to other women wanting to get into the business? "I sound like a Nike ad but just do it. If there is not a chair, find a chair, build a chair, create a chair, stand. I think so much of why I am where I am is because I just hustled."

Simone Niamani Thompson for EW Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

And it never hurts to surround yourself with other determined women. When asked about the women who inspire her to keep going, Robinson has a list, from producers Stacey Sher and Emily Levitan to Sweet/Vicious showrunner Amanda Lasher, production designer Hillary Gertler and her Do Revenge co-writer Celeste Ballard.

"As women, we are expected to be a lot of different things, including someone's boss," Robinson says. "We're supposed to be your friend and we're supposed to be your mom and we're supposed to make you feel better." She credits the aforementioned women with teaching her how to do it all and, most importantly, how to set boundaries.

Simone Niamani Thompson for EW Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

Surrounding herself with like-minded women, Robinson continues to stay focused on the kinds of stories she's always wanted to tell. So no, she is not trying to make the next Godfather, and she's good with that. She knows her target audience.

"For me, the people that inspired me the most, it's just me trying to make something that feels like they would like it," she says. "I make [Do Revenge] and I'm like, 'I hope Amy Heckerling likes this.' Or I make Someone Great and I'm like, 'Nora Ephron, if she were alive, I would just want her to watch this.' It's just me. It's just making art for the women that inspired me."

Simone Niamani Thompson for EW Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

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