WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the Paramount+ movie, Honor Society.
Honor Society follows the story of Honor Rose, a high school student who is determined to do whatever is necessary to come out on top. However, her plan to receive a Harvard recommendation from her guidance counselor goes south after realizing she is not the only student in his good graces. With her life spiraling out of control, things become even more complicated when she falls for Michael Dipnicky (Gaten Matarazzo, Stranger Things), her biggest competition.
Written by David A. Goodman and directed by Oran Zegman, Honor Society also stars Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Mr. Calvin (How to Train Your Dragon), Amy Keum (Evil) as Kennedy Smith, and Armani Jackson (Grey's Anatomy) as Travis Biggins.
Screen Rant chats with actor Gaten Matarazzo about the differences between Michael and his character in Stranger Things and Honor Society's big twist.
Screen Rant: Stranger Things definitely has a lot of comedic undertones, but it's not really a comedy. So this is your first rom-com type of role.
Gaten Matarazzo: Yeah!
Screen Rant: Did you always want to do something like this or was this new for you?
Gaten Matarazzo: Not necessarily. I think I just like to take anything new. It seemed like a really fun opportunity. What's interesting is that Dustin is a much more comedically driven character in a project that's not really driven by its comedy. And I think Michael is a character that's not necessarily driven so much by his knack for comedic timing, in a movie that is driven through comedy.
That was a really different vibe, trying to match those tones up. Because you're trying to dial something back when the surrounding people around you are bringing the comedy forward. I'm used to doing [the opposite] on Stranger Things, so that was really interesting. But it was a lot of fun.
Screen Rant: Honor Society has a lot of different plot twists that I did not see coming at all. What was your initial reaction when you read the script for it?
Gaten Matarazzo: It was cool. It was pretty fun to kind of dive into stuff. I think I knew a good portion of an ending arc for all the characters, the plot in general and my own arc. I understood that there would be some big shifts going in after the audition, because they needed big shifts.
And they needed to see that change during an audition to see if there could be a bit of differentiation between the beginning of the movie and the end of the movie. It was fun, though. It was a lot of fun. And I enjoyed it a lot. And reading it was really, really cool. I hope people enjoy it.
Screen Rant: Michael was essentially acting for the majority of the movie. What was it like to play that as an actor yourself?
Gaten Matarazzo: It's really cool. So we filmed that scene of him telling Honor that - or at least Honor finding out - he's been a bit of a douche for the majority of the movie pretty early on. It was like the first thing that I filmed, and that was rough. I remember that was really, really hard. And a part of me wishes that we could have waited till the end. But I think if we hadn't, I would have been spending my whole time filming the show, not the shot.
And so you start filming this movie, worrying about that scene and worrying about that shift. I'm kind of glad that we were able to get it done, establish that different side of that person, and then work on that guarded appearance throughout the remainder of the film, which was pretty great. Oran said she liked it.
I remember I was stressing so much about that scene, and there were takes that we had that I hope never see the light of day—just awful choices on my part. I'm kind of just losing all subtlety in the situation, and Oran goes to me, "Stop freaking out. Go back to the audition." I was like, "You're so right. I've got to just go back to why you cast me in the first place." And I remember right after that note that she gave me, "Just go back to the audition, dude," I did. She was like, "That's great. There it is. That's what we need."
Yeah, there was a lot of stress going into it. But it was fun after the fact.
Screen Rant: Do you think there was anything genuine about that relationship on Michael's side? Because Honor does ask and he doesn't really give her a straight answer.
Gaten Matarazzo: I think that it's [a story] about two people that are doing basically the same exact thing. Both of them make a choice, and they happen to make different choices. I think both of them care about each other. I think that the idea of being in a relationship with her was exciting for Michael and intriguing, and it was great that he was even gonna be able to have an opportunity to. Of course he wanted a girlfriend. He wanted to be noticed, he wanted to feel attractive, and he wanted to have these experiences that all teenage people are going to want to have at some point.
I think a part of him really wanted that reality of being in a relationship with Honor. But I think he knew from the get-go that she was using him. He didn't want to let up and let his guard down to an extent. After he realized that she was starting to reciprocate feelings for him, he was willing to also let that guard down until she started continuously making decisions that not only would harm him academically but potentially harm him physically.
That was an all-bets-are-off situation where she decided that she would drop her goal and pursue enjoying her time in high school, having a boyfriend and having friends, and enjoying her time there and letting go of the reins a little bit. And for Michael, it was the opposite. They kind of went on the same exact journey up until that moment where he decided that, "I'm going to keep this going." And she decided not to. I think that's how I always looked at it.
Honor Society Synopsis
Honor is an ambitious high school senior whose sole focus is getting into an Ivy League college, assuming she can first score the coveted recommendation from her guidance counselor, Mr. Calvin.
Check out our other High Society stars Armani Jackson & Amy Keum and Angourie Rice, as well as director Oran Zegman. You can also catch our previous interview with Matarazzo for Stranger Things.
Honor Society is currently available to stream on Paramount+.