If you were gay and had a pulse during 2019 you remember Kelley O’Hara’s historic coming out moment during her second consecutive World Cup victory. O’Hara, previous defender for the Gotham FC in the National Women’s Soccer League, rushed to then-girlfriend, now-fiancée, Kameryn Stanhouse for a kiss immediately following her win against the Netherlands. This kiss was monumental and it became center stage for many queer people because it was a coming out moment that hinged off of celebration.
Ripe! is an enemies to lovers film that combines these same two elements that sapphics have been dying to see on screen: women’s sports and a happy queer ending. O’Hara, executive producer for Ripe!, worked alongside creative and romantic duo Kerry Furrh and Olivia Mitchell who work under the moniker Tusk, to bring us the same magic as that 2019 moment.
Premiering at Tribeca Film Festival, where it won Best Narrative Short, Ripe! is centered around American college student Sophie and her football rival Gloria. Sophie (Raina Landolfi) is studying abroad in Spain when she develops intense feelings for Gloria (Rita Roca). The pair unpack these budding feelings on the field, a decision that ultimately ends with Sophie accidentally breaking Gloria’s arm. All the while, Sophie’s boyfriend is ringing from home to pass along affirmations and more importantly ask for “pictures.”
Raina Landolfi and Rita Roca in Ripe!
When O’Hara and Tusk were asked what drew them to this queer story — one of competition that breaks from the usual sapphic yearning we see on screen — O’Hara reflected, “I was drawn to the opportunity to be able to tell a story with a happy ending because I think the typical queer love story features a lot of pain and heartbreak.” As Tusk expanded on the topic of queer heartbreak, Mitchell got candid and spilled out, “Do you know how many fucking drafts we had to write to allow ourselves for the ending to be happy? The colors, the script, it all seems so obvious, but it took so much.”
Mitchell and Furrh — the once college best friends, turned lovers, turned entertainment powerhouse — felt as if they were working against their instincts when creating Ripe! because in many ways they were still conquering their own internalized homophobia. When asked how their relationship has affected their directing and writing process they said, “We were both so ashamed, [when coming out] it took seven years to come to terms with what was happening… It took all of our mental rewiring. It took so much work to allow ourselves to tell this simple story that ends well.” Mitchell and Furrh, who have navigated much of their careers concealing the fact they are dating in fear of how it would affect their professional relationships, are now embracing their queerness to give viewers the representation they feel they would have benefited from seeing in media.
Despite working against their natural inclinations, Ripe! has an ease to it that viewers aren’t often gifted in sapphic love stories. The grain of the film, paired with shots of the Spanish countryside, feels like a dream taking form from a beautiful adolescent memory. There is a vivid warmth that highlights the details of intimacy between the characters – flushed cheeks, sweat, movements that are both hesitant and confident. “We just love colors, all of our work is quite colorful,” Tusk noted. “Skin tone is also such an important color in this and something that we thought about a lot, because it kind of gives a sense of sensuality.”
Tusk describes creating this nostalgia as a form of therapy, “It was our story being rewritten in some capacity, when you start writing and trusting your subconscious, you revert back to your teenage instincts, and you feel your pain because… our life was not easy but, this is the beginning of that excavation.”
Rita Roca in Ripe!
“While there is a lot of pain and struggle around love and relationships in general at times, it’s nice to be part of a more hopeful and exuberant narrative,” O’Hara contributes. This exuberance shines through the main characters through a type of liberation that is usually reserved for coming-of-age stories centered around boys. “There’s this feeling of adventure that we have that we wanted to see on screen, like seeing girls jumping off of cliffs, doing backflips into pools and wrestling things,” Furrh explains through a bit of laughter.
This desire for a type of girlhood that is rowdy and athletic is what allows for something to grow between Sophia and Gloria that, at times, transcends the language they are exchanging. “The beauty of sport is that it provides a universal language that allows people to connect and even express themselves in a different way,” O’Hara says on the importance of football in Ripe! “It shows that people are more than what they appear.”
Sophie spends the film pensive in a way many who have been in the closet can relate to, but according to O’Hara, “Once Sophie steps onto the pitch, she’s able to be a different version of her authentic self. She’s forward and aggressive which deepens her connection with Gloria off the pitch.” This connection is what drew O’Hara to the script. “It was very relatable. Throughout my football career I was known for being intense on the pitch. Whether practice or a game, I was fiercely competitive and expected 110% from everyone. Stepping off the field, I’m goofy and don’t take life too seriously. I think that’s why kissing my girlfriend, now fiancée, at the World Cup in 2019 was such a shock to people. I broke character from Kelley the soccer player to Kelley the partner just wanting to share the special moment with the person I love. In 2019, that was my happy ending, and we don’t get to see that enough. So I’m thrilled to be sharing a story, and a happy ending, with the world through Ripe!”
Raina Landolfi in Ripe!
Breaking character to share a moment was something that marked the making of Ripe! Due to scheduling, the first scene that was shot for the film was the most important — the kiss. Furrh explains how she and Mitchell shared aspects of their own first kiss as a directing decision to build intimacy between the actresses. “We wanted to model vulnerability. We wanted them to have this guttural, body feeling about the kiss,” Furrh said. However, as Furrh began to open up about what it was like to kiss Mitchell for the first time, Mitchell began to sob on set. Furrh explains how she told her to, “Let them see you cry, it’s so valuable, let them feel it too. There’s nothing wrong with it hitting a chord.”
Breaking from the role of director to someone recalling what it was like when they first fell in love must have resonated with the team; Mitchell recalls how the next 5 takes of the kiss blew them away. “I wanted this kiss to be something that everyone—queer, straight, everyone— could feel and celebrate, and I think it is,” Mitchell adds.
Furrh and Mitchell transfer their years of quiet passion for each other into what Gloria and Sophie have in a summer. On screen we see so many portrayals of sapphic yearning and loss, rarely do we, as viewers, get the satisfaction of a passionate sapphic love story that ends — like Tusk’s and O’Hara’s – where the character simply gets the girl.
This is such an interesting article