17 "Do Revenge" Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Amazing Soundtrack That Are Just So Cool

🚨 Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Do Revenge! 🚨

If you've been on Netflix lately — or even just the internet — you've probably heard about Do Revenge, the newest film from Jennifer Kaytin Robinson that is low-key my new obsession.

Inspired by Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, the movie follows Drea (Camila Mendes) and Eleanor (Maya Hawke), who team up to exact revenge on each other's tormentors at their high school.

Now, when I tell you Do Revenge has one of the best casts ever assembled, I am not exaggerating. From Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke to Austin Abrams and Alisha Boe to Talia Ryder and Sophie Turner to THE Sarah Michelle Gellar, this movie just checks every box on my "dream cast list."

And while I could talk about the cast, the costumes, and the set design for hours, what we all really need to discuss is the killer soundtrack because, my god, it's perfect.

So, here are some behind-the-scenes facts about the Do Revenge soundtrack:

1.For the Do Revenge soundtrack, director and writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson worked hand in hand with music supervisor Rob Lowry, who has worked on other projects like the Gossip Girl reboot, The Bold Type, The Lost City, Cha Cha Real Smooth, and more.

2.When thinking about what songs they wanted to use for the film, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson told BuzzFeed that she wanted a nostalgic feeling to the great movie soundtracks from the '90s. She said, "I remember growing up and going to like Barnes & Noble or Best Buy and buying the CDs of the soundtracks to iconic teen movies, and I wanted that feeling. I wanted the feeling of, like, ripping off the plastic of a CD and devouring every song. I wanted Do Revenge to feel like that."

3.Rob Lowry and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson wanted the soundtrack to be "the perfect intersection between new and nostalgia," which is why the Do Revenge soundtrack is made up of '90s songs like "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks, and 2022 hits like Hayley Kiyoko's "For the Girls."

4.When it came to choosing the songs that would be included, like "Silk Chiffon" by Muna and "Happier Than Ever" by Billie Eilish, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson said the goal was that "every song [had] to be perfect, and every song [had] to be more perfect than the last song."

5.In fact, the main goal for the soundtrack was that audiences would be more excited each time they heard a needle drop in the movie. "I really wanted every moment in the movie to be like, 'Oh my god! This?! Oh my god! THIS?! No, this is my favorite! No, THIS is my favorite!" Jennifer Kaytin Robinson told BuzzFeed. "If that is how people feel, then I've done my job."

6.Jennifer Kaytin Robinson typically writes a lot of music into her scripts, and for Do Revenge she had "at least 40 songs" in the script, which meant Rob Lowry was brought on to collaborate for the film before it was even cast.

7.In fact, during the pre-production process, Rob Lowry "ended up clearing around 200 tracks" for use in the film. He worked fast to try to get permission for certain songs "as quickly as possible" since the music was so important for the film.

8.Originally, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson and Rob Lowry planned to have the Do Revenge soundtrack made up of only covers of classic '90s songs, but once the film began to take "shape" they decided to add in contemporary music as well.

9.For the "Brutal" by Olivia Rodrigo needle drop that occurs in the beginning of the movie, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson actually directed Camila Mendes during that moment with the song playing in her headphones. "I knew that I wanted the smash into the water at the beat after the violins of the song," Jenn said. "So I timed Cami's performance to the song in my headphones."

10.Jennifer Kaytin Robinson's favorite new song featured on the Do Revenge soundtrack is Juliana Madrid's "Pretend," which plays while Drea and Russ (Rish Shah) have their paint fight after skipping school. Jenn told BuzzFeed, "I actually got that song before it came out; a friend of mine who produced it sent it to me, and I thought it was so fun."

11.Maude Latour's version of "Kids in America" was commissioned specifically for this film, and is a nod to the use of the song in Clueless. In Do Revenge, the song plays when the dinner ceremony at the school begins to fall apart after Drea and Eleanor get everyone high.

12.While Drea and Eleanor singing "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks is a brilliant final moment for Do Revenge, originally Jennifer Kaytin Robinson envisioned the duo singing Des'ree's "You Gotta Be." Once Rob Lowry and Jenn came up with "Bitch" as an alternative, he worked "frantically" to clear the song.

Meredith Brooks even gave the moment a shoutout on her Instagram after the film's release, saying that the Drea and Eleanor scene reminded her of "the first time my BFF and I heard 'Bitch' on the radio."

13.While "Dreams" by the Cranberries plays over the closing credits, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson originally scripted the scene with Lenny Kravitz's "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over"; however, getting permission to use the song was too expensive. "I begged them to lower the price," Rob Lowry explained to Netflix's Tudum. "It was a song I always wanted to use. But 'Dreams,' when you step back and look at the film as a whole, actually fits better. I wouldn't call it a happy accident because it was very intentional, and I love having the Cranberries in the film."

14.Este Haim and Amanda Yamate scored Do Revenge, so they created the instrumental music. Este and Amanda wrote a Drea and Eleanor-themed bass line that you can hear throughout the movie. "We needed something that felt like it could live within all of the needle drops, which there are many," Jennifer Kaytin Robinson told BuzzFeed. "That bass line, that awesome Drea and Eleanor-themed bass line, it's so good. Having an Este Haim bass line in your film as the score? Like, iconic."

15.In terms of which movie soundtracks inspired the Do Revenge soundtrack, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson revealed a lot of "classic teen movies" were inspirations, such as Clueless, Cruel Intentions, 10 Things I Hate About You, Can't Hardly Wait, and Jawbreaker.

16.Other albums that inspired Jennifer Kaytin Robinson while writing the film and working on the soundtrack were Sour by Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift's Reputation. An Olivia song is featured on the soundtrack; however, Jenn joked that while Eleanor has "big Reputation energy," until there's a Taylor's version of Reputation "*whispers* don't stream Reputation."

17.And finally, while the soundtrack can be played in any order when you stream it, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson and Rob Lowry built it in a very specific order that ties into Drea and Eleanor's emotional arc in the movie. "We really examined everything from song titles, to lyrics, to the feeling, to the evolution of how the music is changing and morphing with the emotional arc of the film," Jenn explained to Netflix. "Hopefully the soundtrack tells its own story and you feel like you’re listening to a fairy tale in listening to the soundtrack — a fairy tale of revenge."

You can listen to the Do Revenge soundtrack below:

More on Do Revenge:

• "Do Revenge" Writer And Director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson Talks Music, Rom-Com Inspirations, And Landing Sarah Michelle GellarNora Dominick · Sept. 19, 2022

• 26 Tweets About Camila Mendes, Maya Hawke, And Every Single Iconic Thing "Do Revenge" DidAngelica Martinez · Sept. 19, 2022