#Plush Q&A Catherine Hardwicke Considers 'Twilight' an Indie

Catherine Hardwicke On Her Kinky, Twisted Thriller 'Plush' and Why She Considers 'Twilight' an Indie

indiewire Catherine Hardwicke often speaks with the giddy, impassioned verve of a teenager. She takes great breaths in her speech in order to emphasize ideas, and to help you feel the way she feels about them. Given Hardwicke's filmography, such a disposition seems only natural. It's easy to see the themes and characters that attract the director. Since her searing, achingly raw breakout, “Thirteen,” Hardwicke has gravitated toward the filmic translation of adolescence, rebellion, rock, and angst, preferably channeled through a young female protagonist. Hardwicke is also, of course, the helmer of the first “Twilight” movie, which she says she personally regards as an “indie film,” as well as “The Nativity Story,” which gave us Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes) as the original pregnant teen.

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Arriving on DVD and VOD October 15, and co-starring “Twilight” alum Cam Gigandet as Hayley's cuckolded hubbie, “Plush,” Hardwicke says, was a work that allowed her to stretch, and she concedes that it may reflect that she's a little twisted herself. Speaking further, she chats about how Browning and Samuel's onscreen heat translated into true romance, how kid leashes and coyote vomit made it into the final cut, and how “Plush” is a sinful pleasure that's off the rails in all the right ways.

Regarding the females you've presented in your work, you've really run the gamut, from Tracy in “Thirteen” and Mary in “The Nativity Story” to Bella Swan in “Twilight” and Red in “Red Riding Hood.” How does Hayley fit into that mix for you?

Let me just say first that I love that you threw Mary in there too. Thank you! Well, Hayley, in my mind, is struggling to find out who she is as an artist. She had this awesome collaborator in her brother, and now she's vulnerable, and trying to recover from that and find herself again. And she's also got herself in this crazy situation with two kids and a husband, and she's probably too young for all of it, and it's maybe not her choice. So it's like, how does a woman right now try to have a creative life, or a career, and a family? How do you do it all, and how do you do it all well? She wants to push the edge with her art, and she really wants to try to do something different. How do you get into that zone? Who gets to do it?

Yeah, she's living two lives. How old is she supposed to be in the film?

Well, she had the kids when she was about 19, and now they're about four and a half. So she's, like, 24, which was exactly Emily's age when we filmed.

I'm sure you get asked this question constantly, but can you just briefly touch on what the majority of your post-“Twilight” experience has been like? Personally, I've always felt that your film stands apart from the others in a very distinct way, but since the saga became so huge, and both sacred to its fans and an easy target for its critics, how do you feel about it now?

For me, I have to say that, in a way, I was lucky. Because on my “Twilight,” it didn't have the level of expectations that any of the other ones had. No one, even the night before the film opened, ever expected to hit $400 million. [Laughs] Or $69 million on opening weekend. That just kind of blew everybody away. So I wasn't under that kind of pressure and scrutiny. I got a chance to make my “Twilight,” more like an indie film, in a way. I could really just kind of feel the characters. And at that time, I believe Stephenie [Meyer] was busy writing two other books—the last of the “Twilight” books and “The Host”—and promoting the third “Twilight” book. So she wasn't even able to be there that much. And I think that later on, the pressure became more intense from every angle for the other directors, and they were probably less able to make [their films] as personal as mine was able to be. And I loved the first book the best anyway—just her fresh, impulsive, first idea.
There's this dizzy, crazy, madly-in-love feeling, and that feeling is what attracted me. I just wanted to see if I could translate what people were feeling when they read the book—all that dizzy, crazy, madly-in-love stuff. For me it turned into its own outrageous thing.

 And you have your “Twilight” star Cam Gigandet back again for “Plush.” Kudos to you for not just hiring him to take his shirt off. He gets pigeonholed and typecast quite a bit, and that isn't the case here.

Yeah, and one thing that's cool about Cam is that since I worked with him on “Twilight,” he's had a kid. Actually he's had two kids. So he really has developed that father thing, too. He's a hunky father, and obviously amazing, but he's also become really soulful, and really connected with his children. So I thought he was kind of perfect for this as the grounded figure who's trying to be as supportive as he can. He holds on as long as he can until it stretches the boundaries of all credibility.

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There's a line in the film about artists and geniuses being a little twisted. Is “Plush” to be the definitive film that tells us Catherine Hardwicke is a little twisted?

[Laughs] Oh my god. Well, yeah, you never know. I think I just wanted to really try to explore some of these things that you explore in your brain, and try and figure out how to get in the zone, get in touch with your own ideas, take risks, break barriers, and jump out of your comfort zone. How do you stretch? How do you get creative? I just wanted to let go and explore all of that. Full interview at source