Molly Manning Walker said the idea for the story came from a "formative memory" during a teenage holiday, when she saw a girl perform oral sex on a man on stage during a bar crawl. "I started writing from there. We spent a bit of time in Malia doing research. We really tried to... engage with real life and what was going on. And then we did some workshops where we talked to 16-year-olds and their concept of consent, and it was quite wild what came out of that."
Director Molly Manning Walker on the meaning of the film's title in an interview with the BFI: "Everybody is asking about the meaning of the title, and I think what sums it up is that we thought we were meant to have sex in a certain way. The pressure comes from all angles: the opposite sex, the environment, your friendship (group), alcohol. Imagine a world where there was less pressure and no preconception of what your first sexual experience would be. We're so far down the rabbit hole of what people think a sexual experience should be and, for young people, that's really dangerous."
Molly Manning Walker originally wanted to shoot the movie in Magaluf, on the Mediterranean island of Majorca, but the mafia presence deterred her from it. She eventually chose Malia in Crete, as she could have an extra week of shooting and lots of extras.
Director Molly Manning Walker on the casting of Tara in an interview with the BFI: "We thought Tara would be the trickiest to find, but actually I saw Mia's tape and straight away I went, "Damn, she's the one." I think often the onscreen concept of a victim is someone who's traumatised and can't come back from it, and I really wanted to fight against that. We talked about Tara being the loudest in the room, being able to crack a joke at an inappropriate moment, in the way that we all do to try to get out of hard situations. Mia is a real force."
According to Molly Manning Walker, filming took place in Malia during November 2022, in apparently freezing conditions. It was a scramble to get everything finished in time for Cannes.