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PATRICK WILSON on 'HARD CANDY'
Contributed by Michael J. Lee, Executive Editor
for Radio Free Entertainment
April 10, 2006
In the suspense thriller Hard Candy, Jeff (Patrick Wilson), a fashion photographer in his 30s, and Hayley (Ellen Page), a young teenage girl, agree to meet in person after some flirtatious chatting across the electronic, anonymous gulf of the internet. But Hayley isn't as innocent and naive as she first pretends to be, and what begins as an inappropriate date quickly escalates into a dangerous psychological game when she drugs Jeff and terrorizes him over the skeletons of his shady past.
With a simple setup and a heavily character-driven plot, Hard Candy feels like a two-person stage play with a pair of strong performances. It offers several twists and turns, and seems perfectly comfortable with challenging conventional notions of victimization, leaving audiences to wonder which character is the predator, and which is the prey.
In this interview, Patrick Wilson talks about the making of the film.
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The Interview
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MEDIA: Ellen said the two of you didn't really associate once the cameras stopped rolling. Was that to build up the tension between your characters?
PATRICK: Just schedule-wise, we shot this film in 18 and a half days, and we were pulling long days to shoot 10-12 pages of script a day, so I didn't really get to know anybody on the film, to be honest with you. I'm a pretty private person anyway, so it was kind of easier when you're doing film like this to say, "Okay, see you tomorrow." It wasn't, "Hey, let's go out and get a drink." Plus, she's 17, so we didn't hang out a lot. I don't mean to make light of it. Maybe it was just the nature of the film. To be honest with you, to give you a better answer than that, when you're doing something like this, I didn't really get to know anybody on Angels in America really, as well, just to bring that up. When you're working on a subject like this, you're pulling long, physically, emotionally exhausting days. I really just wanted to go home and be with my girlfriend, or talk to my friends, and just kind of get away, take it off.
How are people reacting to you after seeing this movie?
I wish I had some kind of cool answer. I haven't been around a lot of people who have seen it. I think men and women have different reactions to the film, and maybe to me. I think guys, for one or two of the scenes certainly, are like, "Wow, I feel for you." I think the most surprising thing for people is when people go, "I found myself really being sympathetic for you, and I didn't like myself that." Or "It was really strange for me to kind of care." And that's great. That's kind of the goal.
Do you think this movie works as a cautionary tale about the dangers of the internet?
You don't set out to do a movie like this, like, "Boy, I hope this convinces parents..." I'd like to think that parents watch what their kids are doing anyway. If some parents don't and they walk into this movie theater and it makes them, yeah, good on you. Great. Whatever it takes. But it's not an instructional video. It's not a documentary. This is a movie, and so you don't set out to kind of teach. I think that for me, the best thing about the movie, or one of the best things, is that it raises questions and it makes you think. That's great. And if that's what it makes you think--that you want to watch your kids a little more--then more power to you.
What was the most difficult scene for you?
Probably the first one, to be honest with you. Not the first shooting, but the first one in the film. I remember a couple years ago reading something about French Connection...the opening scene, that Gene Hackman had a tough time because it was his first day of shooting, he had to rough them up, and it's that big opening sequence, and he just have to be very violent with the criminal, chasing him down and getting him on the ground. That's Popeye Doyle. And he had to reshoot it at the end. And by the end of the movie, he nailed it because he lived with this guy. And I felt like that's a very similar kind of experience. Like we shot most of the film and sequence in the house, then we went back and shot the opening scene. Because weirdly, that opening scene was much more intimate. Once you're confined to a table, your objectives are pretty clear--get out, get free, do what you have to do, try 9,000 ways to convince this girl. That's not easy, but clear. But the first scene, when you've been hiding behind the internet and you see who's opposite you, that was tough. Tough to talk about and decide the best dialogue, how to shoot it. I just want to be very clear, because if the audience isn't with you then, or if they just think you're an awful person from then, then they're not going to care about the rest of the movie. So I wanted to kind of play this charming as you could, and kind of lure her in.
Were there takes where you were aware of being "too charming" or "too monstrous"?
I pick and choose moments throughout the film and throughout those first few scenes where you might see a little, or you might not. But I did it. Just moments where he's not just a boring kind of milquetoast guy that met this girl. I mean, he definitely has an agenda. But I just thought on the page, you could just look so bad, and I just wanted to just go the other way, and not make him this leering kind of [person]. You know, you have this idea that people that are on the internet come walking in with their shoulders hunched and they're creepy, weird nerds. And I just wanted to make him a very charming...He's a photographer, he knows how to work the lens, he knows how to view people, how to be charming. So I went more that angle. Because 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 kind of develop that into the character. But no matter what way you play it, you still gotta say these lines. So it gave me a lot of freedom to kind of play it the other way.
When your character was tied to the chair, were you all method about it and want to be truly restrained?
Yeah, I did. And that's not like out of any sort of ego. That's more out of [the fact that] you're only going to get three passes at this, you're only going to get a couple takes. You gotta move on. We've got 12 pages to shoot today. So the last thing I want is to be all into this scene, and have them light it, get it ready, you're rolling, and then the rope's come undone. Like that's the worst to me.
Was it physically uncomfortable?
Yeah. It was supposed to be uncomfortable. But I knew it was going to be over. For instance, in Phantom of the Opera, at the end of the movie, there's this scene where I'm tied to a grate, and we shot that thing over four days. Now to me, that was more uncomfortable.
Did you look to torture movies like Misery for inspiration?
No, not really. I mean, I loved Misery when I saw it. I know Misery, I've seen Death and the Maiden...There's a number of two-handers where the predator becomes the prey. But for me...I've never done a role like this, so I didn't feel like I needed to kind of steer clear of any sort of other action. It was pretty cut and dry. We had five days of rehearsal, which would have been great on any movie. But when you're only spending 18 and a half days shooting it, to have five days to talk about it is gold. So that was kind of when we flushed out any of the traps of, "I've seen this before. This feels a little Hollywood, this feels a little typical. Let's go the other way. Let's leave a little to the imagination."
How would you characterize Hayley? As the antagonist, is she evil or misguided?
Gosh. I mean, I think there are two antagonists. I don't think there's a protagonist in the film. There are two villains. There's no real heroic moment. I mean, I guess maybe some people might think she has a heroic moment, but as an adult, we can sit back and go, "Wow, she definitely has some issues." You know? I don't mean to be kind of snarky about it, but yeah, she's certainly got some. But I don't even know. I literally don't sit back and think about it and judge it, because there's so much of this film that you could just judge. "What kind of a guy is he? What kind of a girl is [she]?" And I've never really cared about that, because it's like some people may think she's doing something great and heroic for society. And some people may go, "You've gone way too far, and this is completely masochistic, and you have real problems as a teenager." I mean, 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 grey more. So I believe her. I believe her agenda, and 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, you know?
Did you work on a backstory for your character?
Well, I just needed to be clear on what the story was. So much of the film is about responsibility from him, and what he kind of cops to at the end. I just needed to be clear, "What did he do with this girl that she's talking about? What exactly happened?" 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.
How did you get involved with this film?
They came to me and threw it my way. I don't really know where else it was. I know that they had the hardest time looking for the girl. It's a very difficult character, and I'm so glad that they went the way they did...She has a very specific look. She looks very young, and she looked even younger when we shot the movie a few years ago. It was finding someone who had that sort of strength and passion. You just met her. [She's] a very well read, astute young woman that can still have the innocence to kind of betray the look. Those are a real find.
Has your family seen this movie?
Not yet. I'm probably going to show it to them in the comfort of my own home, I think. My mom's seen me play some different kind of people, but again, I think the amount of pain that I go through in this movie would be hard for any parent to watch. So I think I'm just going to show it to her where I can tell her about each scene, or you can turn [it] off if you want and walk away.
Thanks for your time.
Take care, you guys.
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