The cast of The Hitcher joined their director Dave Meyers and producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form for a press conference to discuss the remake of the 1986 horror film. Sean Bean and the couple he terrorizes in the film – Sophia Bush and Zachary Knighton – were on a much friendlier basis at the media event than they were in the movie, although both young actors admit Bean is more than a little intimidating even when he’s not in character.
Sean, was this a difficult character to play because we really don’t know anything about him?
Sean Bean: “It was. There wasn’t a great deal of back history to the guy. Not a lot of information about where he came from, which I thought was quite interesting really. It allowed me the freedom to create what I wanted and to invent as a person. I always thought that it was somewhat scarier that you don’t know anything about him or where he comes from. I always find that the less you know about people, the less you trust them. I usually like to have something to go on, but for this particular movie I would say he was like an angel of death wandering the freeways, and that quite appealed to me.”
Does the fact that we don’t know much about the hitcher mean there might be a prequel?
Producer Brad Fuller: “No, I don’t see a prequel happening. As Sean said, give him a blank slate and let him do what he’ll do with it. There was no thinking about a prequel until you brought it up.”
Sophia, what are the challenges of playing a girl like this and avoiding the clichés?
Sophia Bush: “Right, I think that was a big thing for me and something we definitely looked into in a lot of moments in filming. I don’t want to be that girl running around whining and irritating. But at the same time, I don’t want to come out like Lara Croft with guns blazing, because that’s not quite right either.
I think that something that made it great was - or greater for me rather - was a lot of what Zach and I got to do together. We spent weeks just working on the chemistry of our relationship and how Jim and Grace behaved and reacted, and the ways we kind of messed with one another in the ways partners in a long standing relationship sort of do. So what we had, I think this gave me some license to go on the emotional roller coaster instead of just being one kind of woman. …When Grace wasn’t going to make it, Jim pulled her up. And when Jim wasn’t going to make it, Grace pulled him up. It was a very symbiotic relationship, so it allowed me to show both sides. It allowed me to flip the scales from her being kind of happy go lucky to her being stripped down and very animalistic. It let me do that slowly more in a seesaw than in one quick flip, and I think that’s a more accurate of how people change and how people sort of tap into their strengths.”
How much got cut from the film and what was your experience working with the MPAA on getting an R rating for The Hitcher?
Director Dave Meyers: “I had a really great MPAA experience. I didn’t focus on violence in the film, even though there is some. I tried to keep everything on thrills and suspense. We cut most of it out before we actually filmed it which is sort of how we kept the budget extremely low, and yet we still have huge car action and all that stuff. Part of the relationship I had with the producers was trying to cut that stuff before we filmed it. And, really, cutting the fat everywhere we could. I pulled from my commercials and video background and keeping things really succinct. It’s lean and there is only one scene that has only five different versions of it, and that hopefully make it to the DVD.”
Which scene was that?
Meyers: “The motel scene. We shot that so many times I think Sean might be mad at me. He was like, ‘Again?’”
Sean, how difficult was it stepping into Rutger Hauer’s shoes?
Bean: “I saw the film when it first came out about 20 years ago and it made a big impression on me. It was a very well-constructed film and Rutger Hauer gives a very good performance. I remember being scared by it, and I thought it made an impact, but I really didn’t want that running around my head and cluttering things up when we were making our version of it. So, I think working with Dave and obviously, Zach and Sophia, I think we created quite an interesting new version. I really didn’t have any reservations or concerns about being compared to another actor. I just wanted to start from scratch and do it my way.”
How is the relationship between the three actors, since Sophia and Zach had to act afraid of Sean?
Bean: “It’s quite good in a way - that they were scared of me.”
Zachary Knighton: Laughing, “I’m still afraid.”
Bean: “The first scene we did in Austin, Texas was a night shoot, was the scene in the car where they are picking me up the garage and we shot the interior of the car, which is quite a long scene. It was quite good that we didn’t really know each other by then at all, did we? [It didn’t matter if] we liked each other or not.”
Knighton: “You didn’t talk to us at all.”
Bean: “That’s not unusual.”
Bush: “It took us a couple of weeks to all get speaking.”
Bean: “But it actually worked because we weren’t supposed to know each other, so I’m glad we did that.”
Bush: “Our first conversation was about how hard you could push the knife into my face. (Laughing) I was like, ‘Hi. How are you? Feel free to hit me.’”
Page 2: On Keeping It Real and Tough Female Characters
