In an age of dating app fatigue, it is easy to forget that they're a fairly new invention. In fact, the story of the origin of some of the most prominent apps of our time, such as Tinder and Bumble, are completely unknown to the general public. In her new film Swiped, starring and executive produced by Lily James, Rachel Lee Goldenberg opens Pandora's Box to tell the story of Whitney Wolfe, who was foundational in the rise of dating app culture.
Ahead of the film's global release on Disney+ this week, Goldenberg sat down with FILMHOUNDS to talk about the five-year journey of making Swiped. With NDAs preventing the cast and crew from reaching out to Wolfe directly, the director talked us through the research process, and how the team sought to be as truthful as possible, even without the direct source.
Goldenberg relayed to us her experience as a woman working in male-dominated spheres throughout her career, and how that informed her approach to telling Whitney's story: “Listening to interviews where Whitney talked about being the only woman at the table, that was what keyed me into, ‘Oh, this is a story that I need to tell'.” She expanded further, exploring how the film deals with toxic masculinity, but also women's complicity in that bad behaviour, saying, “At various times, I've been the hero, or the victim, or the villain,” and reflecting the parallels between Wolfe's story and her own.
In our conversation, the director discussed navigating the drastic tonal changes in Swiped while staying consistent to the story that she wanted to tell; as well as how the filmmaking process made her reminisce on the dawn of dating apps. When asked what she wanted viewers to take away from the film, Goldenberg concluded: “To spark conversation, to have people sort of questioning the culture, to see if there's small ways in your life that you can be pushing back, or just aware, of what you're feeding into.”
You can watch the full conversation between FILMHOUNDS and director Rachel Lee Goldenberg below.
Swiped is available to stream on Disney+ from 19 September.
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