A vibrant storm of defiance and ambition, Lily James erupts onto the screen in Swiped, a film that chronicles the journey of Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd. In a performance both raw and refined, James captures the spirit of a woman who refused to be silenced, navigating the toxic, male-dominated landscape of early Silicon Valley with a ferocious grace.
The film, which played at TIFF and streams on Disney+ on Friday, paints a world of cutthroat startups and volatile environments – think The Social Network – where innovation and ingenuity collide with misogyny and betrayal. It chronicles Herd’s early career in the tech industry, focusing on her experiences at a company that would become Tinder and ultimately leading her to leave and create her own company with a mission to empower women. Through James‘s compelling portrayal, viewers witness a story not just about an app, but about the deeply personal and powerful act of reclaiming one’s narrative and forging a new path forward.
For Lily James, the role of Herd was a profound personal and professional journey, marking a new era of her career. While inspired by the true story of Herd, the film is entirely a fictionalization account. Seated for an interview after her film’s premiere at TIFF, James said: “There’s so much in this story that I was inspired by and related to as a woman on many levels. I think one of the biggest things was this isn’t a story about the past. It highlights the kind of conversations that we still need to be having around gender dynamics and gender equity. I was bowled over by how young she was when she achieved all that she did.”
“For me, what I really picked up on in this script was this woman who was really fighting to be heard and despite the adversity she faced, she created something good and that takes great courage,” said the England-born actress. She believes this message is beautiful and inspiring, showing that when faced with difficult times, one can “pick themselves up and keep going, and push forward.”
James turns in an incredible performance as Herd, and many will recognize themselves in some of the workplace situations. The actress captures a range of emotions that are often quite palpable. The Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again actress admits she is guided by her emotional and intuitive response to scripts. When portraying a real person, as she does in Swiped and playing Pamela Anderson in Pam & Tommy, she feels a “huge responsibility to honor them and do justice to their story, and I take that very seriously.” This commitment to authenticity is a cornerstone of her craft. Her primary drive is an emotional and instinctive connection to a role. She seeks out stories that inspire or move her, looking for a character into which she can offer a piece of herself. This intuitive pull, she explains, sparks her curiosity and pushes her to be “fearless and take it on because I know that it will be a rewarding experience.”
For director Rachel Lee Goldenberg, the project was a “huge responsibility,” especially given that they were not in contact with Wolfe Herd. To do the story justice, she and her team embarked on an intensive research process, meticulously reading “the court documents many, many times,” pouring over the articles, and reviewing “every interview with anyone tangentially involved.” This deep foundational work, Rachel says, gave her the confidence to make the film feel “truthful” and “cinematic.”
Rachel purposefully invoked the spirit of famous tech biopics like The Social Network and Wolf of Wall Street but with a key difference. She notes that those films “are all male protagonists. It’s more men in these high-powered positions, so it was exciting to get to tell a story of this scope and size with this human protagonist.”
“I’m sure many people from different industries can relate to that feeling of trying to navigate how to behave in a situation where you’re standing out and like, ‘Do you try to fit in?’ Do you try to go with the status quo and play into the current culture to succeed, or do you push back against what especially starts to feel wrong. I feel like our system is sort of set up where there’s a reward structure for just shutting up and going along, and then often there’s more pushback if you start to push back and so that balance and navigating that really resonated with me, and I felt like Whitney’s story had such a beautiful version of her sort of starting in one place and ending up a really different place on that journey.” She believes that many people can relate to feeling marginalised at work or having some sort of toxic experience at work, and hopes that they can feel seen in that way through her movie.
Beyond her performance, 36-year-old James took on a new level of creative control as a producer on Swiped. “I’m really grateful to have been able to come in and have real agency,” she said. The actress felt a strong desire to “have a voice in terms of how this movie came together and all the different creative choices along the way.” This role was a “huge learning curve” and a “collaborative experience,” which she felt was essential given the responsibility of portraying a real person.
James hopes to carry the strength and brilliance she channeled from Whitney Wolfe Herd into her own production company and future career path. “I felt very empowered through playing her. I felt very inspired by walking in her shoes, and there’s so much about her that I long to hold on to and particularly in terms of my production company and this next chapter of my career.”
Swiped streams on Disney+ on Friday.
Feature Image: courtesy of TIFF.
