Angourie Rice Steps Into 'Loser' As The Small Tale Grows Into Something Huge

Australian actress Angourie Rice, known for her roles in Mean Girls and The Last Thing He Told Me, is in talks to join the cast of a feature film adaptation of Colleen McGuinness’s short film Loser.

Deadline reports that she will be joining the award-winning short’s feature version alongside Finn Bennett, Ella Purnell, and Lukas Gage, with McGuinness directing, writing, and producing.

The short film follows Alice (portrayed by Rice), who works in a frozen yogurt shop and feels lost in life. Depressed and struggling with daily tasks, Alice spends her evenings overthinking issues that plague our world—from homelessness to gun violence and war. She has two co-workers and one regular customer who always orders the same thing.

Narrated by Rice’s voice and shown from Alice’s perspective, the film offers insight into her mind while hinting at feelings of existential dread in today’s world.

Discussing how she would handle the feature version of the film, McGuinness told Deadline:

“With Loser the short, I wanted to examine that specific turbulence of your early 20s, when your hopes and fears seem magnified, and it’s easy to feel like a loser—until you realize how much bigger the world is, and how good we really have it. In the feature, these feelings spill over into a female-led time travel thriller, which further explores the anxieties, violence, and overwhelming technological advancements of today’s world, and how we cope and heal from them.”

Incorporating a time-traveling aspect into the story of Loser seems like a fresh take on the themes the short film touches upon.

Rice recently began filming the second season of The Last Thing He Told Me with Jennifer Garner. She is also busy working on the rom-com CC: Emily with Spike Fearn and, earlier this year, wrapped filming the thriller Steal Away with Mallori Johnson.