‘Find Your Friends’ Interview: Bella Thorne and More

(L to R) Sophia Ali, Zión Moreno, Helena Howard, Chloe Cherry, and Bella Thorne in Izabel Pakzad’s ‘Fine Your Friends’. Courtesy of Shudder. A Shudder Release.

Opening in theaters on June 12th is the new thriller ‘Find Your Friends’, which was written and directed by Izabel Pakzad (‘The Deuce’).

Release Date: Jun 12, 2026

Run Time: 1 hr 29 min

The film stars Bella Thorne (‘Blended’), Chloe Cherry (‘Euphoria’), Helena Howard (‘I Saw the TV Glow’), Sophia Ali (‘The Wilds’), and Zion Moreno (‘Gossip Girl’).

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Bella Thorne, Chloe Cherry, Sophia Ali, and director Izabel Pakzad about their work on ‘Find Your Friends’, developing the screenplay, casting, the characters, working together, filming in the desert, and navigating the movie’s violent moments.

Related Article: Bella Thorne Talks ‘Saint Clare’ and Working with Rebecca De Mornay

(L to R) Chloe Cherry, Bella Throne, Sophia Ali, Zión Moreno, and Helena Howard in Izabel Pakzad’s ‘Find Your Friends’. Courtesy of Shudder. A Shudder Release.

Moviefone: To begin with, Izabel, can you talk about developing the screenplay and as a filmmaker, what were some of the themes that you wanted to explore?

Izabel Pakzad: Well, it was very loosely inspired by something that happened to me and my friends in Joshua Tree. We had this traumatizing trip that turned into a crazy car chase. So, that was where the seed of the idea came from. Then I was just thinking about where me and my friends were at that time in our lives and we had just graduated college, and it felt like we were stuck in all these weird party rituals. I wanted to find a way to explore that with this story. A big thing for me is I love genre movies, but the one thing that I generally don’t like is this “final girl” trope that the final girl has to be innocent and sweet and fit into this box in order to survive. I love that in this film it’s not exactly that. These women are vulgar. They have no issue talking about sex. Their dynamics can be messy and complicated, but then we get to see them unravel in all the best ways. So, I think that was really a big thing for me, just kind of reinventing the final girl in that sense.

MF: Bella, what was your first reaction to the screenplay, and could you relate to your character right away?

Bella Thorne: My first reaction to the screenplay, I was reading it on a plane, which is where I like to read a lot of my scripts. I was in a bad mood the rest of the flight. I needed an extra drink. My fiancé was like, “What’s wrong?” I’m like, “I just read this traumatizing piece of material.” That’s the energy it was giving. It was so fun immediately on the page. I tend to like things that are a little bit more towards the darker side. So, I was just like, “Oh man, where are we going with this?” So, that was a fun read for that. I think immediately I understood where Izabel was taking the characters and then meeting all the girls in person and us figuring out our own personal dynamics with each other was a whole separate thing. There’s the script and then there’s actually in life and making them both come together was really special.

Chloe Cherry in Izabel Pakzad’s ‘Find Your Friends’. Courtesy of Shudder. A Shudder Release.

MF: Chloe, what was it like working with Bella, Helena, Sophia, and Zion to create the relationship between these characters?

Chloe Cherry: I mean, it was fun to work with everybody to create this relationship. I feel like we all naturally got along because we’re all the same age. We were able to naturally get along and just find a rhythm together and have a lot of fun together, because we all genuinely love acting. We love being on set. We love playing a character, all of us. So, we all genuinely were having fun with each other, just acting together and riffing with each other. I feel like we just found a rhythm where we got to know each other as ourselves and we all love what we do. I feel like it just came off that way on screen.

MF: Sophia, can you talk about how the characters become venerable to an attack once they go to the desert, and how they end up relying on each other to survive?

Sophia Ali: I think that their focus is having fun memories. They want to create that fun memory environment and it’s just hard to see a lot of the danger that’s around them. Then I think once they do see it, they realize they are vulnerable to it and then they react.

Chloe Cherry in Izabel Pakzad’s ‘Find Your Friends’. Courtesy of Shudder. A Shudder Release.

MF: Izabel, can you talk about the challenges of shooting on location in the desert?

IP: There’s never enough time. I’m so lucky to have these girls because they were such troopers. It was Joshua Tree in March, and it was nice weather at first. I was like, “This is the perfect time to shoot here because it’s not too hot and it’s not too cold.” But it ended up being freezing cold during these shoots. These are long nights, a lot of nights and just intense scenes. I just want to try to cultivate an environment that feels like people want to be there. I’m just so lucky. It was fun and hard.

MF: Izabel, what did you learn from that process?

IP: Well, just to work with what you have, right? We had only so many days, and there’s no way to change that. Instead of trying to fight that, embrace it. Just make it work and get the things that you need and continue to move on and don’t fixate on things. Because there were moments where I wanted to fix it, and of course in any ideal world, you’d get everything you want, but it’s just learning how to move and flow through the thing. Then there’s just so many funny things that happened. I mean, I don’t know if you guys remember this, but it is so ironic that this happened in our hero house, where we were shooting and we had a permit and everything. We had every right to be there and there was this crazy drunk neighbor who came over. He was like, “You have no right to shoot here. What are you doing in my town?” It was so crazy because I was like, “This is literally Russell. This is the neighborhood.” It was a weird sign. Obviously, he called the police and we had everything we needed to be there. But I was like, this is so funny and so of the moment. The dynamics that are happening in the film were happening while filming in Joshua Tree.

(L to R) Helena Howard, Zión Moreno, and Bella Thorne in Izabel Pakzad’s ‘Find Your Friends’. Courtesy of Shudder. A Shudder Release.

MF: To follow up on that, did actor Chris Bauer take any inspiration from that for his character?

IP:Chris Bauer was on set. He was so funny. He’s like, “Yeah, of course that’s happening”. But I guess he took some info for it, but Chris came in and he knew the character already. He nailed it because he had already shot before that moment. So, he was like, “Yep, obviously that’s happening. He’s coming over to call the police on you, of course.”

MF: Bella, as an actress, how do you prepare for some of the violent and intense scenes that you have in the movie?

BT: Good question. Different preparation for different things, for sure. I think for the party going into the bad things that are happening, and this is getting odd, I try to be my most authentic just in-the-moment self and not overthink any sort of reaction, and to be completely there every time they say those lines that slowly start hinting to us that something’s wrong. Because I’ve been to parties and there’s conversations that you overhear, and trying to invoke that same feeling that makes you start feeling a little uncomfortable. So, I tried to be very in the moment for that stuff and then preparing for our big, fantastic ending was a thing in its own. I was sick during that, so I was also throwing up in different trash cans around the set and I was just trying to do the best that my body would allow me to do. Luckily, I was able to push through everything and give Izabel what she needed. You never plan for these things. You never plan to get sick. So, I think that’s also kind of the beauty of filmmaking in a way. I think it gave me more to play with at that ending because I was miserable, and it really works for having so much anger and rage just built up in you and you’re not feeling well. So, it was like thank you stomach at the same time for making me sick.

Bella Thorne in Izabel Pakzad’s ‘Find Your Friends’. Courtesy of Shudder. A Shudder Release.

MF: Sophia, did you have rehearsal time to work out some of the more complicated and intense scenes?

SA: We did. I think Helena and I got there a little bit earlier, a day earlier or something like that. We did some rehearsals, and it was nice to be able to get the tone and work through that before, just so that we have it ready before we started filming.

MF: Izabel, did you do any chemistry tests while casting? How did you know that these were the five actresses you needed for this film?

IP: Intuition. We didn’t have time for any of that. I mean, this was not a big budget movie. I didn’t get the chance to do that, but it was fine because I just trusted my gut. Obviously, I knew all the girls. I sat with all of them individually. I could feel that they wanted to embrace this movie and they were game, and I just was like, “I feel like it’s going to be good. We’re going to be fine.”

Chloe Cherry in Izabel Pakzad’s ‘Find Your Friends’. Courtesy of Shudder. A Shudder Release.

MF: Chloe, what was your experience like working with Izabel as a director on this project?

CC: Honestly, it was so inspiring watching Izabel work because we’re the same age and we have a lot of similar tastes and that was very inspiring. I was like, I really want to do that. I really want to find my story to tell one day, and I want to make a movie. It showed me how I should just do whatever I want to do. I don’t have to wait until I feel like I’m invited to. Yeah, just make what I want to make, and same with Bella, who also was very encouraging with that. At the end of the day, people watch things to see people act, and if I want to write something or make something, people are always looking for entertainment and looking to be entertained. It made me realize that I can tell so many different stories and make my own things one day.

MF: Finally, Bella, what are you going to remember most from the experience of making this movie?

BT: We had a great time. Obviously, the movie itself is a difficult one to pull off. So, it was lovely watching Isabel work through that and to pull it off. I felt very lucky to have all the female dynamic. Mostly on set, you work with a lot of men. So, I remember when I was to Joshua Tree, I was excited that I’d never done a movie where it was all girls the, and I was excited hoping fingers crossed that I would come out with some friends, and I did. So, that was really rewarding.

‘Find Your Friends’ opens in theaters on June 12th.

What is the plot of ‘Find Your Friends’?

Amber (Helena Howard) and her four best girlfriends (Bella Thorne, Chloe Cherry, Sophia Ali, and Zion Moreno) take a trip to escape the L.A. bubble and cut loose in Joshua Tree for the weekend. But upon arrival, they quickly realize the locals don’t want them there.