Charlotte Regan’s favorite Letterboxd review of Scrapper, which I won’t link here, calls her “the worst of the two Charlottes,” crowning Aftersun director Charlotte Wells the winner of this non-existent battle. Regan loves that film, so is “backing” Wells in the fake fight and suggests both filmmakers read bad reviews of their films to one another. “It would be such a sick time,” she says.

Scrapper and Aftersun are wildly different films, but are made by British women and feature a father and daughter, so I guess it’s easy, if lazy, to join the dots. But the whole thing about Aftersun, about Scrapper, about Blue Jean, Rye Lane, Sweetheart and so many other recent films from the British Isles, is that all of these storytellers bring different experiences, sensitivities, talents and loves to their art.

“There have been some really risk-taking debuts from British filmmakers, which really paved the way for our film,” says Regan of Scrapper’s journey, which kicked off in earnest when the film won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival this past January. “But there are still people expecting a certain thing for a British film and then almost being initially quite offended that it isn’t doing what they want a British film to do. I think they want Ken Loach vibes, because as soon as you do working-class films, you’re compared to anyone who’s done a working-class film. I’m so sorry, but it’s been missold to you, lads.”

Whatever it’s been sold as, Scrapper is, in fact, whatever Georgie, played by first-time actor Lola Campbell, wants it to be. Georgie is a self-sufficient and perfectly fine thanks-very-much twelve-year-old kid in full command of her own world. That world, when we meet her, is a council flat she inhabits alone, having recently lost her mother. A local shopkeeper lets her record voice memos in which he pretends to be her uncle; she plays these to the social workers who phone to check in on her. A friend, Ali (Alin Uzun), helps her nick local bicycles and sell them for parts to keep Georgie’s pantry somewhat stocked. She is the titular scrapper, an English term for someone who keeps on going against impossible odds. 

Georgie’s carefree young dad, Jason (Triangle of Sadness star Harris Dickinson), falls, literally, over the back fence and back into her life, threatening her finely calibrated freedom. Scrapper is about grief, sort of, but more about the hope and joy found in community-led families, as well as the worlds a kid builds with not much more than their imagination, some scrap metal and a beaten-up soccer shirt. Various characters in Georgie’s world get to have their opinions, even the spiders lurking in the flat. 

Regan, of course, is the one to say that Dickinson is “magic”. Neither will accept such praise from, or say it to, each other—only in our separate conversations. “Harris is similar to Georgie in a way in that he has this maturity but also this childishness to him,” she says. “He’s so free of ego and he’s selfless—in every scene, he’s always looking for ways to elevate others.”

In Scrapper, it’s Campbell who definitely took a minute to be convinced. “She’s been saying to everyone that she was cautious of me,” Dickinson says of his young co-star. “But that’s a good thing. I think you should be cautious of strangers. I don’t know what I did to deserve it though, I thought I was coming across with good energy and good vibes. But she’s at least less cautious now.” It makes sense when watching Campbell on screen as Georgie: scrappy is what she is; not quite rude, but staunchly in control of who comes into her life and when. It’s refreshing to see a tween with neither the trappings of a future girlboss nor of a kid who needs to be saved. She’s just got shit to do.

“There were moments of scripted sincerity that didn’t necessarily end up being in the film because of how reluctant Lola is to be sincere and loving,” Dickinson reveals. “She found that difficult with a stranger. We got to know each other, but those bits changed throughout the script a little bit. Our relationship was found along the way for sure.” The initially spiky relationship between Jason and Georgie speaks to one of the film’s most beautiful, accidental teachings, too. As Alice Romano writes on Letterboxd, it’s “a quietly heartwarming British film that understands the universal truth that twelve-year-old girls can take better care of themselves and of a house than 30-year-old men.”

Since they wrapped filming, Regan is constantly asked by her young star to hang out and go on adventures, even though Campbell is “very noncommittal with her enjoyment levels on everything” since becoming “a super-cool teenager” at the age of thirteen. But the actress, like her director, has an energy you want to bask in. They are two squarely different people though: Regan wants everyone to have a good time, frequently asking you for your enjoyment levels on a scale of one to ten, while Campbell keeps more of a distance—it’s less cut-and-paste than the verisimilitude many might want to see in this film directed by a woman about a young girl.

The writer and director lost her father and grandmother while she was writing Scrapper, acknowledging the film is very much about grief, though the personal element stops there. “I know the world, I know the characters, but it’s not biopic vibes at all,” she says. “I find it tricky when people are comparing us. People take ownership of the film once it’s out, which I do love, but they have different ideas on it. When there’s a female filmmaker and a female character they’re like, ‘It’s about you.’ And I’m like… ‘do we do that?’

“I don’t mind it really, but I find it more weird when people are like, ‘How similar is Lola to Georgie?’ and she will not be seen dead in a tracksuit or football top. She is the most high-fashion thirteen-year-old you’ve ever met.’” Still, testament to just how impactful Campbell’s debut performance is, Letterboxd member Thomas writes: “This film was eye opening, I would never have thought there could be a likable West Ham fan.”

“From the start we were really open,” Regan recalls. “She had script opinions, and we would write visual ideas between me, her and our producer, Theo. We were a little trio.” The three of them would sit on the furnitureless floor of the empty London apartment they were filming, brainstorming over a takeaway dinner. And football. Always. Watching. Football.

Regan explains that “no one was precious” on Scrapper, which allowed for a feeling of both fluidity and safety among cast and crew. “If you wanted to give a note to the cast, that was fine. Or if I wanted to be specific about lighting, or Molly had thoughts on the script. We wanted that process, and it’s one we all search for in projects going forward. But we’ve realized it’s not the case across everything.” They relished the colors, the fresh air, the butter-yellow bedroom walls and the rich purples of a favorite football shirt. They knew they had something special.

Dickinson agrees, saying the actor-cinematographer is always close, but not always like this. “It’s always a very trusting relationship—they are the first point of call into your emotional vulnerability,” the actor says. “The relationship is based on so much love, trust and closeness. Molly was a massive part of the vision, she was very much part of every conversation in what was going to happen. It should always be like that but it’s not—so we were very lucky.”

One final person who had a surprising amount of input on Scrapper, if only closer to release, was Regan’s mum. She probably read that Letterboxd review about both Charlottes before her daughter did. “My mum is terrible at tech when it’s positive,” Regan says. “She can’t text, but she can navigate Letterboxd all of a sudden. I’ll look at the bad ones when I’m feeling good, but sometimes she’ll send them to me and I’m like, ‘Mum, I don’t need this. I’m having a weird day and you’re screenshotting me this man doing a one-page rant?!’”

Still, Regan is grateful for the online spaces that have welcomed her film, even if her mother can’t quite remember the title: “Scrappy, Stringy, she’s gone through a range.” Since Sundance, the hype has been slowly growing: Scrapper sits at a solid 3.7-out-of-five average on Letterboxd, with a public release finally here after months of festival screenings. But buzz is not always the easiest thing to trust.

“Hype isn’t empty. It’s a mad privilege to have a film that gets released—but you can get stuck on the hype, and it can impact your writing process on the next one,” Regan says. “Everyone says they like the film but they’re probably lying. I’m like, ‘Let me find your Letterboxd, bruv.’ I like the honesty over there, everyone is right in their negative opinions.” Any favorite ones that jump out, focusing on this one Charlotte and her soulful, scrappy debut? “You’re right, the spiders were dodgy. You are 100 percent right to have picked up on that.”