Chloë Grace Moretz is only 22, but has already been acting for 15 years. After leading a number of studio films ever since the double whammy of Let Me In and Kick-Ass in 2010, over the last few years, Moretz has been taking supporting roles in foreign productions in order to work with some of the most renowned international actresses; be it opposite Juliette Binoche in Clouds of Sils Maria or Tilda Swinton in Suspiria (in which she has one lengthy scene). That approach opened her up to co-starring opposite one of the most sensational actresses who rarely makes a movie stateside, the great Isabelle Huppert, in the 90’s throwback thriller Greta.
Greta focuses on an abusive stalker relationship that takes hold of a lonely older woman (Huppert) after Moretz’s kind and new-to-New-York young woman discovers that the Good Samaritan trick that she fell for—returning a purse found on the subway—is actually a routine that Greta uses to trap a nice young woman in a creepily attached friendship. The consequences of denying Greta’s attention are much more severe than guilt trip texts.
Recently, we chatted with Moretz about working opposite the award-winning French actress, how Oscar-winning director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Interview with a. Vampire) changed the original script to better suit Huppert (and add actor Stephen Rea into the mix), and what’s in her own purse that she’d freak out about losing.
Greta is currently playing in theaters nationwide. Check out showtimes after reading our interview below.
Fandango: There are a lot of fandoms on the internet, and a lot of them are not great, but many of the positive ones are the niche ones - and I particularly like the Isabelle Huppert fandom, like her cat photos, drinking wine while tearing apart stuffed animals, and things like that. What was your level of Huppert fandom prior to Greta?
Chloë Grace Moretz: I've always been a pretty massive fan of hers. I just think that first of all, French cinema's one of my favorite things in the world and I've had the amazing opportunity to work with Juliette Binoche in the past and Olivier Assayas. I feel like I had a little bit of a foray into the love I have for French cinema started there.
And then being able to work with Isabelle—she is someone who is very commanding but also elegant—the way that she is at fashion shows and the way that she is in interviews, and this is what makes her somewhat of an internet sensation in her own kinda niche way. I was fairly aware of it going in and, yeah, and to see it in person—commanding elegance—was very cool.
Fandango: You've been working with some amazing international actresses for a couple years now, like Juliette Binoche in Clouds of Sils Maria, Tilda Swinton as a man in Suspiria and Isabelle here. Are you crossing off a working list of all the incredible actresses or who do you hope to work with next?
Moretz: I feel like it's been so amazing to be able to have these relationships I've had with these amazing actresses, including so much inspiration from working with them. Particularly, actresses who are my senior who are also, in a lot of ways, mentors to me and kind of taking me in as a confidante and a friend and a partner and also kind of a mentor.
There's so many people I still wanna work with. I really, very badly, I wanna work with Amy Adams. She's probably my number one right now that I'm just kind of aching to work with.
Fandango: Yeah, that's a great one. I'm not sure if this would be something that you would've been around or involved with as far as pre-production, but were there multiple handbag options that you got to give any input on? 'Cause there's something about it being green that's just so perfect because if it was a black handbag, I feel like that's something you just turn in but there's something unique about this boutique green bag that makes it more appealing…
Moretz: Completely. I know Neil (Jordan) definitely took a lot into account with that bag and he wanted it to be very indicative of the kid of suave, international woman that Greta is and I know that was a change. Because he didn't write the original script. I know that he really wanted to put his mark on the script and one of the big things was once he cast Isabelle and I, he wanted to fit Rae into my kind of persona in some ways and Greta into Isabelle's persona.
Originally, before Neil came in, Greta was a bit of a bag lady, kind of schleppy, and he turned her into this elegant, international, French sophisticated, many dashes of this European prowess. That was Huppert/Greta put into the purse itself, as well. Yeah, I know there were four main options and he chose the green one specifically. He really loved the crocodile print on it.
Fandango: What's the one thing in your handbag that you can't ... If you lost it, you'd be like 'oh my god, I need to find it ASAP 'cause I can't live without this particular item?'
Moretz: It sounds pretty dumb but for me, it's actually a Rose Quartz Face Roller. It sounds so stupid but it's more so than anything kind of a comfort thing but you roll it on your face and it just feels really relaxing.
Fandango: That's like a physical, what is it, ASMR?
Moretz: Yeah, legit, it's the equivalent of ASMR but for your skin.
Fandango: Going back to the internet niche things, there already is a meme of the table flip that people have been using which is a lot of fun to see on Twitter and such. How many takes did you get for flipping the table and how long does it take to reset something like that? Or was it just something you had to get done correctly in one?
Moretz: Well, we had one big take in terms of shocking the extras they hired a few dozen people. We did the establishing wide shot first and we wanted it to be a complete secret to the audience, so for all the extras that were in the room, he wanted them to not know.
We rehearsed it alone and on the day, we did one big take and it got the audience, the peer reaction there and then we did it probably three or four more times and then once we did that big flip, we did it in coverage but not nearly as heavy, not as much of a big deal as throwing it. Probably all in, we did it eight times, nine times. But the audience reaction was so genuine in the first one.
It's funny because it was more so the shattering of the glass that definitely had a bit more issues with it, because sugar glass is what we used - it's literally glasses and stuff like that, decanters or glasses and bottles made of sugar, right?
It's still incredibly sharp. Even though it's made of sugar and it will literally dissolve with water, it's still shards of sugar which is intense. I remember she would shatter this glass over and over and over and over and over and I always had to pick it up with my bare hands. By the end of the day, I had so many little cuts all over my hands with these little baby shards of sugar.
Fandango: One of my favorite things about Greta actually is your friendship with Maika Monroe and how that's used throughout the film, there are so many wonderful payoffs with how you guys operate as a unit, like her having all the free time in the world and whatnot.
Moretz: Completely. Maika - I've known her since I was 16 when we did The 5th Wave together. We've been genuine friends in LA for years now. When we got to make a movie together again, it was really so, so, so much fun. Neil really let us have freedom on the entire situation and really let us kinda dictate what the dialog would be to get across our friendship as naturally as possible.
Fandango: When she's photo-stalked by Isabelle Huppert and you're receiving the text messages, did Isabelle offer to take those?
Moretz: When she’s going through and sending the photos and stuff? Like are they real photos of me?
Fandango: Oh no, the ones in the alley.
Moretz: Oh, the ones in the alley when she's chasing Maika down the alley taking photos?
Fandango: Yeah, it just tickles me that whole scene because the It Follows gets followed again!
Moretz: [laughs] That really makes me giggle now; I had never thought of that. That's really funny. You're like, It Follows! She's still getting followed!
Fandango: Yeah, Isabelle Huppert is now It.
Moretz: [laughs] Isabelle is It. Ok. Where were we? They filmed that for hours and hours and hours, it was a really late day when they filmed that. I think we did that last shot of her almost getting hit by the cab, we filmed that 'til three or four AM that night. It was a brutal shoot.
Fandango: For that one, you're reacting to this text message chase in a completely different area. Is acting with a phone and emotionally reacting to things that are happening somewhere else, while on a phone - is that one of the hardest things to do as an actor? I can't imagine doing that myself without being, sorry, phony.
Moretz: Yeah, that 911 phone call scene and that chase sequence was easily one of the hardest things I've done. I mean first of all, it was I think it was nine pages of dialogue all together going back and forth. We had Maika on set with me sitting in chair as I did the full scene out and to try and learn that dialogue was so, so, so difficult.
But to also try and keep the amount of tension in my voice with the photos coming through and imagining photos coming through because my screen, it was just a green screen on my phone so I didn't actually see anything. We had someone say "picture" and “bling bling”, we had someone make a sound every time a new text would come through.
We had a person on set doing the sounds and then we had Maika doing the dialog on the other side of the phone and me talking to the 911 person at the same time. It was probably one of the more chaotic things I've ever done.
Fandango: I also just imagine someone saying "picture" and then reacting horrified is an odd thing to do as well.
Moretz: Exactly. Trying to process it and pretend.
Fandango: Something that happens in this film is it's justifiability, one of people's biggest fears that could happen to them. What is your biggest fear?
Moretz: I mean definitely one of my biggest fears, I'm severely claustrophobic. One of them was very much realized in this film with having to be put in the box. That was something that, in those moments when you watch the movie, I look terrified because I genuinely was not okay doing that.
Fandango: You're working with Neil Jordan and he always gets Stephen Rea in there some way. Do you feel a little cheated to be in a Neil Jordan movie but you didn't get to have a scene with Stephen Rea?
Moretz: I know, I definitely was bummed. I think they've worked together 18 times, I think it is. I was definitely a little bummed that my scenes weren't with him.
Fandango: I always love when directors kind of have that one person just to have that one scene. Keep the streak going to put the stamp that this is Neil's movie.
Moretz: Oh yeah, he wrote that scene in. The part that he plays was not in the original script.
Fandango: Oh interesting. He's like, I need Stephen Rea.
Moretz: Yeah, yeah. He must be in there!
Fandango: When we were talking about acting on a phone, you did a lot of acting in the recording booth for this year. You're also doing a number of animated films this year. I'm just curious how you would describe the process of becoming Wednesday Adams for a new Addams Family?
Moretz: It was incredible. Being able to take on, to me, this iconic character, this character that I grew up with and I loved deeply and being able to do it in animation and really put my own spin on the entire character was so much fun and such a dream. Having Charlize Theron play my mom and Oscar Isaac play my dad and Finn Wolfhard play my brother and Elsie Fisher's in it. It was a really stacked cast—
Fandango: Yeah, that'll be a fun press tour—
Moretz: Yeah! I'm so excited. I really can't wait for everyone to hear it and see it. It's a lot of fun. It's very well written and I think Greg (Tiernan) and Conrad (Vernon) (Sausage Party) really made it their own. They did a really wonderful job with it.
Greta is currently playing in theaters nationwide. Get tickets!
