Stranger Things star catfishes her crush in Netflix's Sierra Burgess Is a Loser trailer
Netflix achieved #JusticeForBarb by releasing Shannon Purser’s new movie.
The Stranger Things and Riverdale star is shown as Sierra Burgess in the first trailer for Sierra Burgess Is a Loser, a film directed by Ian Samuels. Much as 10 Things I Hate About You was a modern retelling of William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, this is a reimagining of the Cyrano de Bergerac story set in high school.
Sierra is an intelligent teen, but, unlike some of her classmates, she’s not obsessed with typical beauty tropes. Out of the blue, her high school crush (The Fosters‘ Noah Centineo) texts her thinking he’s messaging popular girl Veronica (Rebel in the Rye‘s Kristine Froseth). Sierra must then team up with Veronica to keep the catfishing game going and, in doing so, finds an unexpected romance and an unexpected friendship.
Sierra Burgess Is a Loser also tackles the issue of body image, a subject that has effected Purser.
“I don’t have a typical body type, and that used to be something that made me feel very alone and weird,” she told PEOPLE in August. “I’ve gotten so many messages from people saying like, ‘It’s so refreshing to see somebody who looks like me on TV,’ and that really means the world to me.”
“I think,” she added, “once I kind of got to a place of self-acceptance, looking past all the insecurities that I have, I’ve really grown so much as a person.”
The screenplay hails from Lindsey Beer, who’s a screenwriter in demand between her work on Chaos Walking, Godzilla vs. Kong, the new Dungeons & Dragons movie, and Sony’s Spider-Man-based Silver & Black. Netflix picked up Sierra Burgess Is a Loser in a pre-Sundance sale earlier this year.
Power Rangers‘ RJ Cyler, This Is Us‘ Chrissy Metz, and Back to the Future‘s Lea Thompson also star.
The film will premiere on Netflix this Sep. 7.
