Bella Thorne And Kian Lawley On Shovel Buddies, Working Together [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO]

Bella Thorne and Kian Lawley are the stars of Si & Ad’s – Simon Atkinson and Adam Townley‘s – new film Shovel Buddies, premiering at SXSW.

Bella Thorne & Kian Lawley Video Interview

Shovel Buddies centers on the death of a teenager named Jimmy, who calls upon a trio of young survivors to fulfill his dying wish – getting buried in his favorite football jersey. The trio includes Jimmy’s sister Kate (Thorne), Jimmy’s childhood friend Dan (Lawley) and Jimmy’s little brother Lump, played by Anton Starkman.

Since Jimmy made his dying wish via Snapchat – the social media app that lets users send short videos that expire upon being viewed – those called upon to carry out the wish have trouble proving the legitimacy of it to Jimmy’s parents. “So we have to steal a body. We steal a body in the film. We steal a dead kid,” Thorne explained to uInterview in an exclusive video interview at SXSW in Austin, Tex.

Jokes aside, Thorne revealed that her character Kate is not only trying to cope with the passing of her young brother, but she’s also trying to navigate her way through the pitfalls of being a teenage girl.

“I think the one thing that girls are always so worried about is that when they have sex with a guy, the guy will never talk to them again,” said Thorne. “So, not only is she dealing with the loss of her brother, she’s also dealing with being humiliated and she’s not self-confident, kinda sleeping around to get out of that head space. I think that’s super damaging, and I think it happens really often.”

Throughout Shovel Buddies, which deals with death and the sexual politics of the high school, there’s humor. For Thorne and Lawley, bringing that to the film was a breeze thanks to their easy chemistry with one another on and off the screen.

“The chemistry was there,” Lawley said. “Like how in real life I’ll say something stupid and she’ll come back and she’ll say like – ”

“‘You’re stupid Kian,’” Thorne chimed in. The back and forths between Lawley and Thorne’s characters were some of Lawley’s favorite parts of Shovel Buddies. “I remember we were going to the casket to open him and I said something like, ‘We should take a picture for Facebook,’ and she came back with one of her funny [retorts],” Lawley recalled.

For Thorne, she was most amused by taking direction from Atkinson and Townley, who, on occasion, had differing opinions on how she should play a scene.

“My first three lines in the film is ‘Choke on a c–k’ and Si comes to me and he’s like ‘You know a little less c–ty and a little more vulnerable’ and I’m like ‘Yeah ok,’” Thorne said. “Then literally AD comes to me like the next second and is like ‘More c–ty Bella, more like you hate this kid, you literally wanna rip his head off!'”

Shovel Buddies premiered at SXSW earlier this month.