Interview: David Slade (Hard Candy)

Hard Candy deals with issues that may make some viewers uncomfortable. The opening sequence keeps you shifting in your seats as you listen to the flirtation between a fourteen-year-old girl and an older man she met online. It is the conversation that you always feared could happen. They speak so openly to each other as if no one could hear, as if they aren’t doing anything wrong. Well are they?

Hard Candy makes you think about a lot of things you might not want to. It makes you ask yourself what is wrong or right. It might seem so obvious now but can there be an exception? And you ask yourself that question as the victim and the predator switch roles. Hayley Stark, the fourteen-year-old girl, finds herself drinking vodka inside photographer Jeff Kohlver’s home. Becoming increasing intoxicated, she slowly takes off her clothes. She is getting ready to have her photo taken by seemingly shy photographer and then….

Though the tension builds in this film, there is a lot of comic relief coming from the dialogue of Hayley Stark. When talking about society’s response to pedophilia she responds, “Didn’t Roman Polanski just win an Oscar?” She references popular culture in her numerous monologues that provide for an interesting listen. Back and forth they debate many sides of this relevant issue.

One interesting note is in its’ conception. This film was first inspired by real attacks on online predators in Japan by young school girls. One girl would develop an online relationship with a guy they when they planned to meet a gang of girls would ambush the predator. The producer of the film, David Higgins, had read the articles and thought, “I’d never seen a movie about a 14-year-old vigilante do-gooder.” From there he knew he wanted a script with strong characters and a simple location – his own house- so he hired a playwright to write the script. Brian Nelson fleshed out the script with Higgins before approaching the director David Slade with it.

David Slade is a commercial and music video director. Color was the most predominant tool Slade used to create mood. The shades of red and blue and green seem to shift right in the middle of the scene. You can feel the sensibilities of a music video and commercial director at work in the sharp cutting and the stylization present throughout. Here is my interview with him.

Justin Ambrosino: What was the most difficult part about making this film?

David Slade: It’s difficult to say. Shooting the thing in eighteen and half days was really hard. Emotionally going through what these characters are going through with them was really hard. With editing the film, Brian’s dialogue is so tight, so smart and so multi-textural that cutting down the film to a length that was acceptable to watch was a very tough call. It is easy for someone to say, “Its’ two people in a room, in a house, it should be eighteen minutes.” But there is so much subtext. If I cut a scene, it gets lost.

JA: Did you have any problem getting a rating on the film?

DS: It got an R Rating like that. We didn’t have to cut anything. There was no issue with the censorship board.

JA: What would you say is the overall theme for this film?

DS: To Brian (Nelson) and I, this film wasn’t about protecting our children so much as about trying to pull together a piece of text, be it polemic or not, that addresses the fact that people don’t like to take responsibility and an increasing lack of responsibility will lead to abhorrent behavior and heinous acts. So it is kind of a litmus test to the audience. They take away what they bring in to a degree.

JA: What factors lead to the way you ultimately handled that theme?

DS: One thing that Brian Nelson, David Higgins and I all agreed on is that this had to come from a place of realism. If there were any Hollywood beats that would appear we had to eliminate them. It had to be very fresh, otherwise if people would fall in old habits than it might move in the direction of exploitation which would absolutely be undermining the intention of the film.

JA: This is not your typical thriller; it doesn’t have a lot of the calling cards we are used to, why is that?

DS: It’s not that kind of film. It doesn’t work on the same level. I always say you can set up a fog horn behind someone or make a big noise and they’ll jump but you’ll forget that jump. If you can make people jump emotionally without putting a noise they are going to remember it.

JA: What has the audience’s reaction to the comedy of the film been?

DS: I have been to screenings where nobody laughs throughout the entire film and that was like being in a pressure cooker. I have also been screenings where people laugh early on and there is still tension but it’s lessened because it’s a nervous release of that tension. The point at which the first person laughs dictates the tension in the room.

JA: What were you looking for when you were casting the role of Hayley Stark?

DS: When I was casting Hayley I needed to know I had someone who could get through this film and wouldn’t be scarred by it. Ellen is incredibly articulate, incredibly intelligent.

JA: How old is she? And was there any concern with her age?

DS: She was seventeen when we shot it, she just looks very young. That worked perfectly for the film though it did make certain financiers very nervous.

JA: Can you talk about your use of color?

DS: They all stand for character or emotion or for getting a clue. Those colors were chosen way in advance but the level to which we would use them was going to be determined by the level of the performances. If the performances weren’t so strong I would have had to pull back. Instead I was able to underscore those performances. There is a scene towards the end where the colors, the densities, the contrasts change and become more and more intense.

JA: Did you conduct any table readings of the script?

DS: Certain parties wanted to do a table reading while we were casting because they wanted to hear it. I said, “When you read it don’t you hear it in your head?” We fought and fought until we seemed like we were being problematic. They brought people in to read it. They asked for direction, I said, “have fun with it,” because I hate table readings. They are useful for things like comedy and timing but this was not a relevant thing and we knew it was going to be detrimental and it was. They thought they had a comedy on their hands and Brian and I had to fight for it again.

JA: Talk about the rehearsals and how they helped the production?

DS: We had a week of rehearsals. Without that week we would have been in a very difficult position. Brian and I came in with a point of view. The point of view was pretty much unanimous with the actors. It was challenged in places and where it was challenged it was usually challenged correctly, so we took that on board. We’d block out certain scenes that I had storyboarded six months prior and have to re-storyboard it because we found a new emotional connection by just shift them from here to here.

JA: Predominantly the film takes place in one location, the home of Jeff Kohlver, did that cut down on the cost of production?

DS: No, nothing is cheap. The cost of production these days is like a thousand times the cost of inflation. Taking a camera out of box in Los Angeles costs a million dollars.

JA: Did you have Final Cut?

DS: No I didn’t. But there was only one shot that I would change in the movie but I’m not going to tell you what that is because it doesn’t make a difference. It’s just a personal thing. The editor and I said ok we’ll give them that. If we fought for that one shot, seven others would have been changed.

JA: Was Hard Candy initially funded by Lion’s Gate?

DS: It was independently financed. We sold it at Sundance to Lion’s Gate. My job at Sundance was to sit in on the meetings and say, “If you like the film, if you like what you see then buy it but you won’t be able to cut the frame. It’s not material to work with, it’s not potential, it’s finished.”

JA: Were you pleased that Lion’s Gate bought it?

DS: Yeah because I don’t think as many people would have been as bold. Have you seen that poster we have? I know that they do release a lot of horror and genre films, but I’m with what comes with that to a certain degree. I would hate to have sold it and found out it was stuck on the shelf and never released because they were afraid.

JA: Do people wonder why the title?

DS: It’s Brian’s title. It’s a great metaphor that I am not going to give up.

Lionsgate films releases Hard Candy this Friday on April 14th in limited release.