‘Uglies’ Director McG Says His Connection With Joey King Reminded Him of Drew Barrymore on ‘Charlie’s Angels’

In figuring out who should direct the movie adaptation of “Uglies,” star Joey King apparently immediately fell in love with McG. And, according to him, it felt an awful lot like when he was recruited to helm the “Charlie’s Angels” films by Drew Barrymore.

Now streaming on Netflix, the film is an adaptation of Scott Westerfeld’s 2005 book of the same name. It takes place in a society where, at the age of 16 years old, every resident undergoes a surgery to become perfect in all aspects: looks, personality, abilities, etc. They become what’s known as “pretties.”

Until the age of 16, they’re known as “uglies,” and live in a compound across a bridge from the pretties. Joey King stars as Tally Youngblood, a girl who wants nothing more than to become pretty, until she learns that the surgery and all that comes with it may not be what it seems (sorry, no spoilers here).

King also serves as an executive producer on the film and according to McG, her efforts to bring him aboard as director felt pretty familiar.

“For me, it was very reminiscent of what Drew Barrymore did all those days ago with the ‘Charlie’s Angels’ pictures where, you know, at the time, Drew was very, very powerful,” he explained to TheWrap. “And [she] threw her arm around me and said, ‘Look, either this guy does it or I’m not doing it,’ and I owe everything to Drew.”

He continued, “And then Joey sort of did the same thing. She heard what my creative take was for the film, and we sort of did that psycho, deep eye contact thing that two partners do. And we nodded and said, ‘Let’s get after it.'”

McG heaped praise on King, calling her “fearless” — especially as she did most of her own stunts, including laying in an actual burning field, and dangling from a helicopter with co-star Brianne Tju — and an excellent partner.

“I could not have had a better partner than Joey King, because she’s as talented as you could imagine,” he said. “She’s super cool and easy to work with, very dedicated, a great leader on the set, and just a beast on screen. So I was lucky to have her.”

“Uglies” is now streaming on Netflix.

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