'I love the idea of thinking big about how to change culture': the director of Hulu's new movie Swiped on how she hopes to inspire audiences

Lily James as Whitney Wolfe Herd, looking at her cellphone.

(Image credit: Hulu)

Swiped joins new movies on Hulu (Disney+ internationally) this month, and follows the life and career of Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder and CEO of the dating app Bumble. We've picked out the movie as one of our weekend recommendations.

Recently, I had the chance to sit down with the movie's director Rachel Lee Goldenberg about Swiped covering how she decided to make a movie about Herd's career, and working alongside the always brilliant Lily James.

When asked about whether or not more apps should follow in Bumble's footsteps, Goldenberg told me: "I love the idea of thinking big about how to change culture.

"I think that the ambition of just trying to think of how something can be done differently or if there's a better way to do something is exciting, whether it's Bumble specifically or just the idea of what are problems in our culture and how can we shift those dynamics."

Andrey and Whitney sitting down across from each other in Swiped — (Image credit: 20th Century Studios/Hulu)

Much of the movie centers around Lily James in the role of Herd. After starring in movies such as the Disney live action remake of Cinderella and the Hulu mini-series Pam & Tommy, Goldenberg told me that she felt "lucky" to have her on board for Swiped.

She said: "We were just so lucky that Lily wanted to do this film, you know, I had the script and I sent it to her and she responded. She responded to the script and she responded to Whitney's story too.

"She signed on after reading the script and learning about Whitney, and then the rest of the cast was a process from there. It was really about finding people who could expand the role, and bring as much of themselves and as much depth these characters as possible, and make these roles jump off the page."

While the movie is a biography, Goldenberg confirmed that they weren't able to speak to Whitney Wolfe Herd, but she said that they'd done plenty of research to help influence the movie and the tale it was telling.

"Due to legal issues, I was unable to speak to Whitney, so I took the responsibility very seriously. As much research as possible," Goldenberg told me.

She added: "My writing partner, Bill Parker, and I read every single interview, we watched every video available, we pored over the court documents, we stalked everyone's old social media… it was a pretty extensive process to try to just have as much of the real information as we could to start."

Despite Swiped's disappointing Rotten Tomatoes score of 38%, I encourage you to go against the critics and watch it this weekend. It's a sometimes funny, sometimes tense look into Whitney's world, and we're all living in it.

If you want more recommendations, don't forget to check out our best Hulu movies article for plenty of them.

Lucy is a long-time movie and television lover who is an approved critic on Rotten Tomatoes. She has written several reviews in her time, starting with a small self-ran blog called Lucy Goes to Hollywood before moving onto bigger websites such as What's on TV and What to Watch, with TechRadar being her most recent venture. Her interests primarily lie within horror and thriller, loving nothing more than a chilling story that keeps her thinking moments after the credits have rolled. Many of these creepy tales can be found on the streaming services she covers regularly.

When she’s not scaring herself half to death with the various shows and movies she watches, she likes to unwind by playing video games on Easy Mode and has no shame in admitting she’s terrible at them. She also quotes The Simpsons religiously and has a Blinky the Fish tattoo, solidifying her position as a complete nerd.

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