The Drama Director Kristoffer Borgli’s Disgusting 2012 Essay About Dating A Teenager Resurfaces

There is something rather odd happening in Hollywood this week, and it involves a director, a former child star, and a gossip website with a form for causing trouble.

To understand what is happening, we need to begin with the film that seems to be the target: The Drama. The A24 film, which stars Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, is due for release next week. It has been eagerly anticipated by fans of both actors, as well as by those who follow the work of its director, Kristoffer Borgli, whose previous film Dream Scenario earned considerable acclaim.

And yet, in the days leading up to its release, something peculiar has unfolded. TMZ has published multiple articles that appear designed to cast the film in a negative light. The first of these spoiled a significant plot twist. Suffice to say, it was the kind of reveal that the filmmakers had clearly intended audiences to experience in the cinema, not read about on a gossip site three days beforehand.

At the time, one might have dismissed it as a careless editorial decision. These things happen. A website gets hold of information, publishes it, and moves on. But then came the second article, which has many people talking.

Two negative articles, one target, and an actress caught in the crossfire

Yesterday, TMZ ran a piece about Borgli, the director of the film. It concerned an essay he wrote in 2012, when he was 27, reflecting on a relationship he had with a teenage girl. The content of that essay is disturbing, and it is entirely reasonable for it to be discussed.

I met a girl ten years younger than me whom I liked very much – a girl who wasn’t old enough to vote – and I had to find something that could recalibrate my moral compass.” It was revisiting Woody Allen’s Manhattan that completely changed my attitude. The relationship there is presented as entirely open and romantic. If a film made in 1979, in which Woody Allen’s 42-year-old character has a public relationship with a 17-year-old girl, is portrayed exclusively in a positive way and causes no controversy in its own time, then why shouldn’t my relationship – with a considerably smaller age difference – in 2012 be ‘within bounds’? …She never laughed at my Seinfeld references – naturally, since she had never seen a single episode – but in return she could recommend books to me…My favorite films became her favorite films.”

Kristoffer Borgli –

But here is the thing: the headline of TMZ’s article led with Zendaya’s name. Zendaya’s “The Drama” director, it called him. As though she were the story. As though she had anything to do with an essay written thirteen years ago, in a Norwegian magazine, by a man she has worked with professionally.

The article had nothing to do with Zendaya. She was a child herself in 2012. Nor was she involved in Borgli’s personal life then, and she is not responsible for his past now. And yet her name was placed front and centre, presumably because it generates clicks.

It is difficult not to see a pattern emerging. Two articles, both negative, both tied to The Drama, both appearing in the week before its release. One spoils the film’s twist. The other attempts to tarnish it by association, dragging its lead actress into a story that does not concern her.

A corporate rivalry, a gossip site, and an actress caught in the middle

Online, theories have begun to circulate. Some have pointed to the complicated web of corporate relationships at play. A24 produced The Drama. A24 also collaborates with HBO on Euphoria, the series that made Zendaya a household name and earned her two Emmys. And yet, according to speculation, HBO may not be entirely pleased that Zendaya has been otherwise occupied. She has not been promoting Euphoria’s third season with the same intensity as before. Her focus, understandably, has been on her film work.

The theory goes that someone at HBO has been feeding stories to TMZ in an attempt to damage The Drama and, by extension, remind Zendaya where her loyalties ought to lie. It sounds rather like the plot of a Hollywood thriller, and it should emphasise that it remains firmly in the realm of speculation becuase there is no proof. What we have is timing, and a gossip website with a history of acting as a conduit for studio machinations.

What we also have is a broader phenomenon that will be familiar to anyone who follows the entertainment industry. When a film starring a high-profile actress is about to be released, it is remarkable how often “controversial stories” suddenly emerge. The actress’s name is placed in the headline, regardless of whether she has any connection to the story. The goal, it seems, is to create enough noise that audiences begin to associate the film with scandal rather than artistry.

A carefully built career should not have to answer for a director’s past.

Zendaya has spent her career carefully navigating the transition from child star to serious actress. She is one of the most sought-after talents of her generation, and she has been notably selective about her projects. The Drama represents another step in her evolution as an actor. It is also, by all accounts, a film that its makers are proud of.

It would be a shame if that film were judged not on its merits but on a series of last-minute articles designed to generate outrage. And it would be a shame if an actress who had nothing to do with a director’s past found herself answering for it in interviews and on red carpets, simply because her name sells papers.

As for Mr Borgli, the essay he wrote in 2012 speaks for itself. It is a document that raises serious questions about his judgment, and it is right that those questions are asked. But those questions should be directed at him, not at the actors who agreed to work with him before the essay resurfaced.

Embed from Getty Images

Final thoughts

This week, we are witnessing not journalism but a campaign. Corporate rivalry may be driving it, or petty score-settling, or simply the algorithm’s appetite for outrage. Whatever the cause, the effect remains the same: multiple forces are attacking a film in the days before its release, and they are dragging a young actress into a story that has nothing to do with her.

Perhaps there is a simpler explanation. Perhaps TMZ simply saw an opportunity for clicks and took it. But when two negative stories appear in quick succession, both targeting the same project, both appearing at the most damaging possible moment, it is reasonable to wonder whether something else is at play.

In the meantime, I will be watching The Drama when it opens next week. I will be judging it on its own terms. And I will be keeping in mind that what appears in the headlines is not always what it seems.