Words: Rob Corsini | Photographer: Kristina Shakht | Creative Direction: Ione Gamble and Meredith Alloway | Styling: Gabriel Held | Lola Makeup: Benjamin Puckley | Lola Hair: Dana Boyer | Lili Makeup: Kale Teter | Lili Hair: Peter Butler | Meredith Makeup: Shaena Baddour | Meredith Hair: Lauren Berrones | New York Editor: Marie Koury | Editorial assistants: Grace Bennett, Jade Alcantara | Photo assistants: Julia Aracely, Maddy Mock | Styling assistant: Evan Dombkowski

forbidden fruits lola tung lili reinhart meredith alloway polyester zine polyesterzine pz film movie indie horror girl women free people actor — In *Forbidden Fruits,* friendship is a double-edged sword; something that couldn’t be more different than the friendships in the lives of director Meredith Alloway and stars Lili Reinhart and Lola Tung. In a roundtable conversation with Polyester, they talk about their experiences working retail, how competition and capitalism shape women’s relationships, and what *Forbidden Fruits* taught them about female friendship.
Below is a preview of their conversation, to preorder the issue, click here.

Why don’t we start at the beginning. What was it that drew you to the project?

Lili Reinhart: The synopsis of girls who run a cult at the equivalent of a Free People. I gotta take this meeting. Then I had a Zoom with Meredith and Lily, you told me after that I kind of scared you guys?

Meredith Alloway: For sure. I think that Apple is the cool girl of the mall - but the mall is a Dallas Mall. So, I really wanted to cast someone that I believed would actually be the cool girl in Dallas. And Dallas is such an uncanny, strange place.

Lili: I love that you think I'm the cool girl in Dallas. What does that mean?

Meredith: I don't know how to describe it other than it’s not the cool girl that would be in the Free People in New York. It's just a different place. You were wearing this little cardigan and you were very much leaning into the control themes that Apple has. We got off the Zoom I said to Lily: I'm kind of scared of her. She was like: Me too, perfect!

Lili: I just had such a specific viewpoint for her. I wanted her to have red nails, two short ones, for context clues about her sexuality. She was very still and precise. She commands the room when she's in it. I haven’t heard about how you two met.

Meredith: It was in person. You weren't available when we were originally going to shoot because you were doing the second season of The Summer I Turned Pretty and then the strike hit, the movie pushed.

Lola Tung: And then I saw you randomly! We were both at this fun spot that we like.

Meredith: Yes! We can’t say what it is. A little restaurant.

Lola: I was eating there, you walked by, and I asked how everything was going. I mean it was a strike; nothing was really happening. You told me that the movie pushed and then we ended up having a meeting where we kind of solidified it after the strike. At that same spot!

Thinking about the depiction of female friendship - what were the things in the script that felt familiar to you? What didn’t resonate.

Meredith: When I read Lily’s play, I really connected to working in retail and this weird competitiveness that comes with relationships built in a capitalist environment. I think there can be many things that inform the way women connect that relate to competition and capitalism

Lili: What retail did you work?

Meredith: Limited Too, girl!

Lili: Let me tell ya, Pier 1 Imports, there was not competition going on. But Limited Too, that makes sense.

Meredith: But I think that in my own life, something that made me feel very separate from the characters was that I don't feel that in my female friendships. I feel like I have incredible groups of women that I'm friends with. There is no competition and we truly support each other and celebrate each other, in our successes and in our failures and everything in between.

Lola: I agree on that point my friendships with the women in my life are very healthy, thank god, but I never worked retail so I didn't know that aspect of it. But from Pumpkin’s perspective, I understood being the youngest one in a group and coming in and being surrounded by these women that you immediately look up to. You want to belong and want to be accepted and a joke that everybody laughs at.

Meredith: Holding your own is a big thing in groups of women.

Lili: I’ll never forget something that Mädchen Amick, who played my mom on Riverdale, told me. She said: you’re gonna work with a lot of women in your career that are the same age as you, and sometimes one of you is gonna be ahead, and sometimes one of you is gonna be behind, and you're gonna have to be okay with that. But it's hard, our industry literally tells us that you have to compete and fight for your place here or you'll be replaced.

The Spring/Summer issue is out soon - you can pre-order your copy here.

Exclusive Preview: Our Forbidden Fruits Cover is Available for Pre-Order Now!

What Wigs Can Teach Us About Irreversible Self Commodification