Parents, the Internet and Hard Candy: “You don’t set out to do a movie like this thinking, ‘Boy, I hope this convinces parents.’ I’d like to think that parents watch what their kids do anyway. If parents don’t, and some parents don’t, and they walk into this movie theater and it makes them, good on you, great, whatever it takes. But it’s not an instructional video. This is not a documentary. This is a movie. You don’t set out to teach. For me, one of the best things about the movie is that it just raises questions and it just makes you think, and that’s great. And if that’s what it makes you think, that you want to watch your kids a little more, than more power to you.”
The Delicate Balance of Not Being Too Charming or Too Monstrous: “I pick and choose moments throughout the film, and throughout the first few scenes, where you might see a little, or you may not, but I did it. Just moments where he’s not just a boring, milquetoast guy that met this girl. He definitely has an agenda. I just thought on the page, he could just look so bad, and I just wanted to go the other way and not make him this leering guy.
You have this idea that people who are on the Internet walk in with their shoulders hunched and they’re creepy, weird nerds. I just wanted to make him very charming. He’s a photographer. He knows how to work the lens. He knows how to view people and be charming. So I went more that angle. I just don’t know that type of person, to be honest with you. You have to find a kernel of something that you know in order to develop that into the character. But no matter what way you play it, you’ve still got to say these lines. So it gave me a lot of freedom to play it the other way.”
Patrick Wilson Shares His Take on Ellen Page’s Character, Hayley: Is she evil or just misguided? “Oh, gosh. I think they’re both antagonists. I don’t think there’s a protagonist in the film. [Laughing] They’re the two villains. There’s no real heroic. I guess maybe some people might think she has a heroic moment. As an adult we can sit back and go, ‘Wow, she definitely has some issues.’ I don’t mean to be snarky about it, but yeah, she’s certainly got some issues. But I don’t know. I don’t sit back and think about it and judge it because there’s so much of this film that you could just judge, and I’ve never really cared about that.
Some people may think she’s doing something great and heroic for society. And some people may go, ‘You have gone way too far. This is completely masochistic and you have real problems as a teenager.’ I think the way some of the dialogue is set up, which I think is great, is that teenagers do see things pretty black and white. Adults tend to find the gray more. I believe her. I believe her agenda. I believe that she thinks that she’s doing the right thing. But I really don’t get caught up in what I feel about it.”
Developing a Convincing Backstory: “I just needed to be clear on what the story was. So much of the film is about responsibility from him, and what he cops to, at the end. I just needed to be clear on, ‘What did he do with this girl? What exactly happened?’ And so the ironic thing is, by the time you get to the end of the movie, you don’t even know if he’s telling the truth or not. You’re like, ‘Did he do it?’”
