Warning: This post contains spoilers for the ending of Girls Like Girls.
Let it be known that the head over heels couple at the center of Hayley Kiyoko‘s teen lesbian romance Girls Like Girls are lovers, not fighters. In adapting her own 2015 single and companion music video — and the 2023 novel they inspired — to the big screen, the musician-actor-filmmaker made a significant change to the story’s endgame, removing a climactic bout of fisticuffs between our lovestruck heroine, Coley (played by Maya da Costa), and her homophobic tormenter Trent (Levon Hawke), over the shared object of their affection, Sonya (Myra Molloy).
That fight closed out the music video that’s garnered over 160 million views since it premiered over a decade ago. And Kiyoko expands on it in the book, describing how Trent attacks Coley from behind as she and Sonya share a quiet moment by a swimming pool, their on-again off-again romance freshly on-again after Sonya finally appears able to accept her feelings for the girl that’s been consuming her thoughts. Shaking off the blow, Coley takes the fight directly to Trent as he menaces her girlfriend.
“Everything goes red,” Kiyoko writes on the page. “Three blows and he’s down on the ground, but I don’t stop. I pin him to the ground with my knees and I keep going. My knuckles might break, but it’ll be worth it. So f–king worth it.”
It’s a moment of catharsis not only for Coley, but for the the audience that’s been rooting for her and Sonya to find their way to each other throughout the movie and setting up their final triumphant kiss. For the record, Kiyoko reveals to Gold Derby that she intended to keep that ending intact, shooting a full version of the fight. But while in the editing room, she arrived at a different conclusion from the story’s previous incarnations, which were inspired by her own experiences coming out at a young age and not seeing lesbian love positively reflected in mass media.
“I saw the incredible performances by these two women,” she says, gesturing to da Costa and Molloy, who joined her for the interview. “And then I realized it wasn’t about him. The whole point of the journey in this film is these women, and so it was important to me to end with them and their experience. And their struggle wasn’t really with Trent anyway; it was more about the struggle within themselves, and I wanted to amplify that.
“I’m really proud of how the film ends by expressing this sentiment of how we can choose to live our authentic truth or we choose not to,” Kiyoko continues, adding that she doesn’t currently have any plans to release the excised fight as a deleted scene on a digital or physical media release. “That was an important message to leave on because of my own journey as a queer person learning to love myself. Had I had that support and representation sooner in my life, I would have gotten closer to not running. So I thought that was a beautiful way to end this 10-year journey with Coley and Sonya.”
Asked to recount what the fight was like for them to film, da Costa compared it to a “dance scene” due to the careful choreography that she and Hawke — the son of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman — were instructed to follow. “Everyone was so collaborative,” she recalls. “Our awesome stunt team pulled through and working with Levon felt very good and very comfortable. And I really do enjoy that it didn’t end on that note, because like Hayley said, [the film is] more about the little quiet moments of deciding, ‘Do I go for this?’ And the ending captured that perfectly.”
“It was traumatizing to see the girl you love get beat up,” Molloy echoes. “It just didn’t feel right; it was such a departure from the message and the choices that Coley and Sonya both make in the film. It was like, ‘Why are we going to let this man decide for anyone?’ We’re going to let Sonya and Coley decide their journey going forward, and it’s their love that prevails — no one else.”
Kiyoko makes another striking choice in the movie’s final moments, ending on the bittersweet image of the Coley and Sonya near-reunion and then saving their actual reunion — featuring the kind of passionate, pure kisses that would be right at home in The Princess Bride — for a post-credits scene.
“I loved the idea of having viewers sit in a theater and go down memory lane with the new version of ‘Girls Like Girls’ that plays during the credits,” she says of the bonus moment, which was the last scene her stars shot. “And then they get that final push of hopeful queer content! It’s such a beautiful moment between those two and I’m so proud we were able to do it as a post-credits scene.”
By the way, that updated version of “Girls Like Girls” is currently available on the film soundtrack alongside ten new songs inspired by the movie. And now that Kiyoko has told this story as a song, a music video, a novel, and a film, a Broadway musical seems like the obvious next choice.
“I think that might be the final chapter if we ever got the opportunity,” she responds happily when pitched on the idea. “But I’m just so proud for people to discover this film, and also the album. I love the idea of being able to go see the movie and then go home and listen to an album and hear songs that are inspired by different sings and characters. For people who can’t access the film, they’re able to access the album and hopefully one day they’ll be able to access the film globally.”
All three women make it clear that they’re most excited to give audiences a lesbian love story that’s filled with joy as a Pride Month present. “I hope people walk away from the theater feeling a little more loved and a little more joyful,” says Molloy. Adds da Costa: “I hope it inspires people to keep going with that pursuit of authenticity and living their most true life.”
“Queer joy is so vital right now,” Kiyoko emphasizes. “I hope they’re able to love themselves a little harder. You think about people who are in their 40s or 50s and who have never seen themselves represented on the big screen before. That’s why this film is so important — because seeing is believing.”
