Do you ever just stare at the blank page before you open up a dirty window and let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find? Well, Natasha Bedingfeld certainly did when she wrote those words for her hit song “Unwritten” in 2004, which has made a comeback as of late not in one, but two romantic comedies! After the Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell movie Anyone But You went viral for including the song, the new Max film Sweethearts used the song as well, but no, it wasn’t a reference to the other.
When CinemaBlend spoke to the cast of Sweethearts, they had a hilarious reaction to “Unwritten” being in both movies. Check out what the leading cast had to say:
Kiernan Shipka: “I think Unwritten is for everyone. Unwritten is for the people. And, I think it's beautiful. It's like this song that brings everyone together, obviously.”
Nico Hiraga: “But, we had it first.”
Caleb Hearon: “Yeah. I agree. Kiernan said it perfectly well, and I agree with Nico, who said it perfectly.”
Wanna know what’s even funnier? The story behind the writers of Sweethearts finding out about “Unwritten” in Anyone But You when it became a huge box office success last year. As writer/director Jordan Weiss told me:
We wrote that into the script like five years ago. Yeah. And if you can imagine us sitting in the theater during Anyone But You and like having already shot this movie and it's not like we could put in a different song. He's singing it on camera and I think I just like literally sunk to the floor of the AMC. I was like, ‘Oh my God, another movie has our song’. But it's fine.
As Weiss shared, Sweethearts did in fact have the song first when her and co-writer Dan Brier added it to their script because it was “huge” when they were in middle school and wanted to bring the early ‘00s to their movie. As Jordan Weiss continued (also in the video above):
It's the best song ever. It was really funny though truly how many times [Anyone But You uses] the song because the first time I heard it I was like ‘Well, surely it's gonna be just like once. It's not gonna be that big of a deal.’ And I'm like by the end like the whole cast is doing the end credits. I'm like in the AMC texting Dan like ‘We got a problem.’
Can you imagine? Sweethearts has long been in the works for Weiss and Brier, but of course they had no way of knowing they would have the same song in mind for a hilarious scene in their rom com as a movie that came out 11 months before. Weiss recalled being in the theaters watching the movie play out its massive use of “Unwritten” and texting her co-writer and real-life best friend as she began stressing. That being said, they are clearly happy to share the beloved tune. As Weiss also said:
That song was very nostalgic to us. But I will say you know, Will Gluck gets a shout out 'cause he used Pocketful of Sunshine and Easy A, so he had claimed to Natasha… But also, nothing but love to Will Gluck and Alana Wall and the writers of Anyone But You.
They are great sports about the whole thing! Plus, Sweethearts is totally its own movie. It has Kiernan Shipka and Nico Hiraga playing best friends who decide to breakup with their high school sweethearts on the same Thanksgiving break week after realizing the limitations of already being nailed down in college. All the while, their other best friend has an important queer coming out journey in his Midwest hometown while on break from his new home in Paris.
“Unwritten” is an amazing song, and we’re not surprised at all it’s getting a lot of love at the movies. You can stream Sweethearts with a Max subscription now.
