Based on everything I heard about The DUFF before I saw it, it seemed like another typical high school chick flick where the unpopular main character realizes that popularity doesn’t matter, but then she gets the guy anyway and everything turns out perfectly.

However, this movie was not like that. While few movies really portray high school accurately (and The DUFF still doesn’t), I found that most of the characters were very realistic, and yet the movie was still hilarious. The main character, Bianca (Mae Whitman) is charmingly awkward in a completely recognizable way.  At the beginning of the movie, Wesley (Robbie Amell), tells Bianca that she plays the role of the “DUFF” to her friends (the Designated Ugly, Fat Friend, i.e. the approachable one) to these two beautiful girls that every guy wants to date.

Once Bianca breaks up with her friends, Bianca enlists Wesley’s help to de-DUFF her, and to ultimately get her dream guy Toby in exchange for helping him pass chemistry. Even though Wesley seems like a dumb jock, he turns out to be a kind-hearted, sensible person who somehow knows how to give fashion advice and happens not to be bad looking either. However, [Bianca’s] attempts are seriously thwarted by typical Hollywood mean girl Madison (Bella Thorne) when a certain video gets all over school.

Because this book was written by a high school student, the characters speak and act like real high school students rather than sheltered characters on made-for-TV Disney movies.  Although most of the rest of the movie seemed very realistic, there is a predictable confrontation at the end in which Bianca declares to Madison that labels don’t matter, she likes who she is and a bunch of other stuff that no one would ever really say in that situation. Still, that was just one less-than-shining moment in an otherwise fantastic movie that wasn’t even totally a chick flick.

What made The DUFF truly fantastic for me as a Beachcomber writer was when a character stopped hooking up with someone for a minute in order to start writing an article. I suddenly realized that if our staff members really wanted to submit their stories on time, there is always a way, just like how in high school movies–even this one–the main character always finds a way to make everything turn out for the better.

On Jan. 21, I was able to participate in a conference call with the stars of The DUFF. Here are some of the highlights:

Q:  How did you mentally prepare for your role in the movie?

Robbie Amell: The main preparation for me was just hanging out with Mae and Bella and the rest of the cast, and getting close to them.  So that, you know, people would buy that we were friends and actually liked each other.

Q: What did you use as inspiration for your different roles in the movie?

Mae Whitman: I used my own high school experience and it was a tough one, so I just kind of went back there and relived those sad memories.

Bella Thorne: I watched Jaw Breaker, Jennifer’s Body. I feel like the lingo in Jennifer’s Body is exactly how it is in our film. Robbie just went to the gym like he always does.

RA: I just tried to play because my character said some rude stuff but he is not supposed to be mean. I just tried to dumb it down a little and…make you believe that this guy would actually say these things.  But it’s kind of just like a dumb version of me.

BT: Dumber.

RA: Dumber version of me.

Q: Did any of you experience this kind of social phenomena when you were in high school?

MW: I was bullied and called weird names, and that’s a big reason why I was drawn to doing this movie…  A lot of people go through this…so I wanted to use my experience to sort of maybe make people feel less alone. It gets better after school.

RA: I grew up in Toronto where everybody is polite and apologizes for everything.  So I had a very tame high school experience but…I would stand up for anybody that I saw get bullied just because it’s such a silly and stupid thing to do.

BT: Fantastic, I’ve never been to a high school.  So I shoot high school movies and I get to see those pretty little lockers, I get so excited.

RA: Bella loves lockers.

BT: I love lockers.  But I was bullied throughout school for being dyslexic.  So that kind of drew me to this movie too.

Q: What was your favorite scene in the film?

RA: Part of making a movie is you spend 12 to 15 hours a day with the people you’re shooting with.  So you just have to hope for the best and that they’re good people.  And we got really lucky, we got an incredible cast…it was…almost like summer camp.  We just got to have a lot of fun every day…[and] make fun of each other.

Q: Lots of teen movies like Clueless and Mean Girls portray the heroine as needing to be fixed in some ways to fit in, so how would you say The Duff is different?

MW: One thing that I thought was really cool about this movie from the beginning is that [the main character, Bianca] doesn’t change who she is the whole time… It’s more illuminating the process of what makes people feel like they need to change rather than actually anybody changing.

Q: What were the reactions from like the fan base of the book?

RA: I’ve had a few people come up [to me] and I have been lucky enough to host a couple of like fan screenings out in L.A. and…New York, and some fans have come up with the book which is very cool. One of the interesting things I found…[is that] there is a fairly significant difference between the movie and the book.  The book is a little…edgier and racier, and a little darker, but they both have the same message and tell it in a fun, cool way.

Q : Do you think that this film will play a positive role [against] bullying and in the way that teenagers deal with having self confidence issues?

MW: I hope so.  This is a struggle that’s very real for me in school and even just being an actor…I think it’s a really special opportunity to really encourage everybody to be your different, wonderful self and really feel good about that.  And that’s the best thing you can possibly do.