I enjoy celebrity casting in biopics and TV shows as much as the next person. Give me Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt or Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana any day.
But sometimes a project benefits from casting unknowns, new talent to really embody a well-known star—or in this case, two stars. And it looks like lesbian icon Clea Duvall’s TV adaptation of Tegan and Sara’s memoir, High School, is on track to do just that.
This week, news broke that TikTok twins Railey and Seazynn Gilliland will portray teenage versions of Tegan and Sara Quinn for the new series produced by Amazon Studios for IMDB TV.
The 20-year-old Gillilands have no prior major TV or acting experience, but apparently looking the part and catching attention of a certain beloved Canadian indie duo on TikTok can lead to big things. It was actually Tegan and Sara themselves who discovered the younger twins on the popular video app.
“It felt kismet when I saw Railey and Seazynn for the first time on TikTok,” Tegan said in a statement. “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.”
The twins each have their own TikTok accounts where they share dance videos, outfits of the day and other content, usually together.
And you’ve gotta admit, they look like a Gen Z filtered version of Tegan and Sara.
Railey will play the more outgoing and gregarious Tegan, while Seazynn will take on the quieter and more reserved Sara. The series follows the twins through their high school years in Calgary, Alberta, and will explore their early music career, burgeoning queerness and efforts to navigate the world together. (How I Met Your Mother alum Cobie Smulder is set to play their mother Simone.) The show starts filming in Calgary this month.
And of course, Duvall is tabbed as co-creator and executive producer, along with writing and directing the pilot. Get ready for a new entry into the lesbian canon!
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