Megan Fox stars in Jennifer's Body.
Juno scribe Diablo Cody's new film isn't a heartwarming follow up to her Academy Award winning indie. It's more of an eat-your-heart-out, hard R horror and dark comedy with a rock-yo'-socks soundtrack. We spent a rainy day with the cast and crew on the Vancouver set of Jennifer's Body, a throwback for fans of the genre.
Rarely do we see a visionary filmmaking team headed by women that desires to pay homage to horror classics, such as Carrie and Nightmare on Elm Street. With Cody's witty script, the direction of Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux), and Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried in starring roles, producer Jason Reitman believes Jennifer's Body is a showcase for four interesting female voices who've brought back a "warmth" to the characters—ones he can empathize with, as opposed to today's cold slice-and-dice sessions.
We chatted with all the main cast members except Fox; coincidentally, it was the day after her nude photos leaked online.
Writing the Script
Cody, wrapped up in her leopard print coat, joined our press tent in between filming scenes. She'd given herself a bartender cameo with no lines. Before sitting down with a roundtable of reporters, she hovered over the catered food, excited by the mini hot dogs. "Oh my goodness. Little wieners. Awesome!"
It took her a few months to write the script, and for inspiration, she thought of what would scare her. "All I could think of was girls," Cody says. "Teenage women are terrifying. They can be really frightening, really ruthless, irrational and evil. I would blame it on hormonal fluctuations, for sure." (Seyfried also blames the menstrual cycles.)
And so the story of a childhood friendship turning toxic in high school began to emerge. Set in rural Minnesota, it involves two teens, Jennifer (Fox) and Needy (Seyfried), who visit a local tavern and watch a rock band from the city. The band and its eyeliner-wearing frontman (Adam Brody)—obsessed with achieving fame and fortune—make a virgin sacrifice out of Jennifer. Possessed by a demon, though, she returns and starts devouring the boys at her school.
"She wants their mojo, she wants their energy," Cody says of Jennifer's man-eating metaphor. "I think sex is a form of consumption, and to write that stuff was very fulfilling."
Behind the Horror Scenes
Soft-spoken Mamma Mia star Amanda Seyfried sat down with us for a few minutes—long enough to tell us about shooting her fight scenes with Fox. "I got hip bone bruises from her," Seyfried says. "I was straddling her for days. It was kind of fun. I feel like I got a good workout from it."
Her quiet personality, though, seems to clash with the horror genre, and someone asks if she's a fan. "Not really," she admits. "They give me lots of nightmares, and I'm very affected by real life in my dreams." Seyfried confesses she hasn't been sleeping well. "I had to watch when Jennifer was being sacrificed, and it was really difficult."
Brody, though, describes his comical horror scene with gusto, playfully stabbing at the air. "They're squirting blood on me as I'm stabbing—that was kinda neat—except that the guy was literally shooting it right in my eye," Brody laughs. "It was my first time where you call 'cut' and I'm drenched in blood."
Karyn Kusama points out that the level of discomfort ratchets up further when Jennifer starts butchering boys. "I think this is more tender and uncomfortable because the characters who die—we feel something for all of them. Do Jennifer's victims deserve to die? Absolutely not."
Fox, Seyfried and Brody's Tavern Scenes
Fox – known for playing Mikaela in Transformers—brings more to her role than smoldering looks. Despite being an icy beauty, Kusama says Fox exposes the loneliness and insecurity of Jennifer's character.
We watched Fox and Seyfried rehearse a scene multiple times where Jennifer and Needy enter the local tavern after getting their hands marked with the requisite "X" to signify their minor status.
"Can't wait till I'm old enough to get wasted," Jennifer complains. They make their way through the bar to get a good view of the stage where Brody's band is about to perform. Needy talks about a foreign exchange student she thinks is cool. Jennifer doesn't think so. "Why did we order him?" Fox's p.c.-be-damned delivery is spot-on.
A guy mumbles a compliment to Jennifer as she passes, eyeing her wistfully. "What up, Craig," she responds with petulance. She's more receptive to a guy who approaches her—beer bottle in hand—after she lights up a smoke…he snatches the cigarette from her and tosses it, comparing her lungs to "two pink lamb chops." She feels him up.
"Are you going to arrest me?" she seductively purrs.
***
Reitman meets us off set, and gives us his take on Fox's casting. "I've seen auditions of people trying to do Diablo's dialogue and it's like falling off a cliff," he says. "It's tough dialogue, and [Fox] just nails it. She's mean, funny, dangerous and sexy."
Brody also pulls his weight and gives a believable performance as the pop rocker. Right before he starts lip syncing the first lyrics of a song, he tilts his head back and blows a wad of gum out his mouth. During playback, a crew member comments that his gum has "good arc." Decked out in all black with a fake tattoo of a moon crescent on his neck, his stage presence uncannily resembles lead singer Chris Carrabba from Dashboard Confessional. The catchy love song he performs is called "Through the Trees," by Test Your Reflex. Brody calls it the "anthem for the movie."
A Natural Horror
Reitman says nature is almost another character in the movie, adding to its cinematic creepiness. Forget people popping up in mirrors. (Cody says she hates that.) Waterfalls, woods and fields provide a middle-of-nowhere isolation and supernatural atmosphere for Devil's Kettle Falls—a waterfall that splits off into a black hole; water swirls in, but no one knows where it exits.
The concept art hanging inside the press tent reveals a romantically lit high school dance auditorium in a snow-covered forest. Another drawing depicts an indoor pool with sunlight streaming in through wide windows, illuminating what looks like overgrown parasitic plants.
That midwestern atmosphere sets the story in motion, Cody explains. It's what Needy and Jennifer aspire to escape. The band they see represents the cosmopolitan crowd, and their desire for it leads to their demise.
The writer hopes moviegoers will make the film a family affair—yep, the whole family, spending quality time to watch a horror flick. "I think Juno is a life-affirming, warm look at teenagers, and [Jennifer's Body] is showing how atrocious they can be. They're opposite sides of the same coin. It's important for teenage girls to see big representations of themselves in the movies."
More From the Jennifer's Body Set:
Set Visit Interview with Jennifer's Body Producer Jason Reitman
Set Visit Interview with Jennifer's Body Screenwriter Diablo Cody
Send feedback on this column to
editorial@fandango.com.