I think the majority of criticism that we’ve got is from people who haven’t seen the film. And they are more obsessed with the ideas that the film is trying to express, like teen pregnancy, homosexuality, a comedy set in a Christian high school, it’s like you’re not allowed to go there. But we screened this film for a lot of different religious groups - pastors, youth groups, Catholics, Fundamentalists - and the response has been overwhelming positive. For me, I find as an audience member this is very much pro-faith. It’s got a very pro-Christian message at the end about the basic teachings of what Jesus was saying. Love and acceptance and do unto others as you want others to do unto you. I think it’s the people who haven’t seen the film who are waving the controversy flags.
Do you shy away from the typical teen movie material and look for things that are more substantive?
It’s not that I shy away, it’s just as a 19 year-old and an audience member, I really try to find roles that I would want to watch. Films that I would want to see. Also, I want to portray youth in the most honest and accurate way that we can. For me, I’m young so I have to defend that right because a lot of people who are making films aren’t young anymore. I have to make sure they know they’re going about it in an honest and accurate way. It’s not all about stereotypes and manipulation and exploitation of female sexuality, and just certain things that are so marketable. It’s just gross, you know? So I’ve always just tried to work on films with open-minded filmmakers and also I’ve had an incredible opportunity, particularly on this film, to work on something where there’s a lot of humor and there’s a lot of truth. It kind of gives you these stereotypes in the beginning of the film, like the good Christian girl, the outcast, the cripple, and throughout the course of the film, each character is allowed the process of breaking down those stereotypes and showing you the reality of that. I think that’s not always true in teen films. Maybe one character, the main character, gets to have a lot of breadth and life and depth, but it’s not true for everyone else around them. For me, that was the main thing that stood out in this film that made it kind of a non-teen movie. I find that teen movies are kind of singular in what they’re trying to express.
Do you see yourself as a role model for young girls?
I don’t. I never really did because it’s a weird thing to think about, but I have a sister who is 6 years-old and it’s just the natural instinct for her to look up to me, regardless of whatever I do. If I trip down the stairs, she thinks it’s cool. It’s really made me step back and reanalyze what images I put out that young girls will eat up.
I think you have to draw a line between the people that you portray on screen and who you are in your personal life. I remember when I was 11 or 12, I was looking through magazines and being like, “That’s what I’m supposed to wear. That’s what I’m supposed to look like.” Because I have a sister now, I’m very wary of dressing up or playing into the whole young female sexuality thing. There’s no reality in it. Maybe because I’m just such a tomboy, I’m going to fight to the bitter end that girls don’t have to wear a lot of makeup and wear high heels to look beautiful. But also, because my sister knows me so well, I don’t want her to see me on a magazine with my hair done up and with makeup – she won’t even recognize me, you know? I don’t want her to think she has to look like that.
I’m very conscious of what I put out there, particularly in the films that we tout. Films are very powerful and in a weird way, religion has always been a form of storytelling and it’s just [been] a very powerful form of storytelling for millions and millions of years. The [medium] of films is storytelling as well and it’s impactful. You have to be very careful what you want to put into the human consciousness because you don’t know who you are going to affect. You don’t know what types of people are going to go and see the films and whether they are going to be able to distinguish between reality and non-reality.
PAGE 3: New Directors and "Donnie Darko"
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Interviews with Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin, and Patrick Fugit/Heather Matarazzo
Macaulay Culkin Interview
"Saved" Photos, Trailer and Credits
