Here's who sparked the I Saw TV Glow stars' queer & trans awakenings

Get ready for one of the most terrifying trips through nostalgia you've ever seen!

Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine star in writer/director Jane Schoenbrun's triumphant trans horror film I Saw the TV Glow, out in select theaters now, and they know what it's like to grow up feeling different from everyone around them.

I Saw the TV Glow follows Owen (Smith) and Maddy (Lundy-Paine), two middle schoolers who bond over their shared love for a young adult supernatural TV show, The Pink Opaque. As they grow up, the line between the show and reality starts to blur, and the horrors of real life are on full display. The film starts in 1998 and is seeped in hazy, dream-like nostalgia that will be familiar to any queer or trans person who spent much of their youth dissociating and feeling outside of their body.

Out got the chance to talk to the two stars of the film, as well as filmmaker Schoenbrun, about their own childhood monsters, inspirations, and memories of Fred Durst.

Out: What were some of the monsters or villains from TV and movies that scared you as a kid and a teen?

Justice Smith: The Haunted Mask. Remember Goosebumps? Scared the shit out of me. Pennywise scared the shit out of me. Tim Curry.

Brigette Lundy-Paine: I would say Regan MacNeil from The Exorcist. Throwing up pea soup really scared me.

Smith: I love that movie, it's one of my favorites.

BLP: I really only saw the Billy Crystal excerpt from the Oscars until I was 22. Billy Crystal, when he hosted the Oscars, they had a scene where Regan threw up on him. He was like, (they start doing a Billy Crystal impression) "Oh no, what's this?'" Billy Crystal is my monster.

Jane Schoenbrun: I mean, have you seen When Harry Met Sally recently?

BLP: The guy's an asshole.

Schoenbrun: He is a monster, his whole schtick. I guess this was leading men until last year. It was like, "I'm going to tell you why you're stupid and you're going to fall in love with me."

Out: In the film, the show The Pink Opaque "cracks" Maddy's egg, and there are people saying that this movie has done the same for them and helped them realize they are trans. What were those kinds of moments in pop culture for you as queer and trans people?

BLP: Adam Driver's performance in Girls. So good.

Smith: Dakota Fanning in War of the Worlds. When I was a kid, Dakota Fanning in War of the Worlds was like… I was like, "Oh, I can be an actor. I can be the Dakota Fanning."

Schoenbrun: I feel like maybe Clea DuVall in The Faculty. Any time there was a late '90s, early 2000s, dyke-coded goth girl, I was like, "Oh yeah, that's cool. That's a cool thing to be."

Out: In the film, Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit fame plays Owen's father. Did you two know about him and his music before filming?

Smith: No

BLP: "The Nookie."

Schoenbrun: You knew about "The Nookie?"

BLP: I didn't know. You showed me about "The Nookie."

Smith: I know a song that I couldn't name. I knew about it, but I didn't really have any preconceived notions about Fred Durst, which I think was good. That I just got to meet him as a person. And he's dope.

I Saw the TV Glow is now playing in select theaters and will expand nationwide on May 17! Watch the trailer for the film in the video below.