Tegan and Sara have shared the first trailer for their ‘High School’ TV series.
Based on the pair’s 2019 book of the same name, the Amazon show is executive produced by the duo, alongside writer-director Clea DuVall.
TikTok stars and twins Railey Gilliland and Seazynn Gilliland have been cast to play teenage versions of Tegan and Sara respectively, having initially been discovered by the pair.
Cobie Smulders has also been cast to play their mother Simone, while Kyle Bornheimer will play Simone’s boyfriend Patrick.
“It felt kismet when I saw Railey and Seazynn for the first time on TikTok,” says Tegan of the show’s casting. “There was something undeniably intriguing about them: They were sweet and original, impossible not to watch. I felt compelled to send Sara the video. ‘Too bad they don’t act,’ I texted her.
“Sara wasn’t deterred. They were performers, musical and dynamic. ‘You can’t teach charisma,’ Sara said, which they had in spades. Sara was relentless – these were the twins that had to play us. We were overjoyed when they were cast, and we couldn’t be more thrilled that it all worked out.”
A description of the series reads: “High School is a story about finding your own identity – a journey made even more complicated when you have a twin whose own struggle and self-discovery so closely mimics your own.”
‘High School’ will debut on Amazon’s Freevee service on October 14, after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September.
It comes as Tegan and Sara prepare to release release their 10th studio album ‘Crybaby’ this autumn.
The Canadian duo’s latest long-player was produced by John Congletonand recorded at Studio Litho in Seattle and Sargent Recorders in Los Angeles.
“This was the first time where, while we were still drafting our demos, we were thinking about how the songs were going to work together,” explains Tegan.
“It wasn’t even just that Sara was making lyric changes or reorganising the parts to my songs, it was that she was also saying to me, ‘This song is going to be faster,’ or ‘It’s going to be in a different key.’
“But Sara effectively improves everything of mine that she works on.”
It’s preceded by the single Yellow, with Sara adding the track “was written after we began to take steps to heal the bruises we have both carried with us since adolescence and early adulthood – wounds that never quite healed right and flare up seasonally, sending us spiralling backward in time”.
The duo will support ‘Crybaby’ with a run of North American tour dates at intimate venues, beginning October 26 in Philadelphia and wrapping November 20 in the twin sisters’ current Vancouver homebase.
‘Crybaby’ is out October 21 and available to pre-order now.
