Tuesday, March 10, 1998
Outrageous thriller points out absurdities of humankind
FILM Jazzy ‘Wild Things’ presents trashy fun that’s meant to be
laughed at
By Stephanie Sheh
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Don’t let the ads deceive. "Wild Things" is not a typical
thriller. It’s outrageous. It’s trashy. And if you feel like
laughing at its absurdity, go ahead. The cast, gathered at the
Century Plaza Hotel, insists that you’re supposed to laugh.
"They kind of walk out going, ‘Oh my God! I can’t believe I
liked that movie,’" Kevin Bacon says of the reactions that
audiences have had to "Wild Things," which screens tonight at
UCLA’s Freud Playhouse. Clad in an Emma Peale t-shirt and leather
jacket, Bacon not only stars in the film but also serves as
executive producer.
He nestles comfortably into a large leather conference chair and
then continues, "That’s kind of the reaction I got reading the
screenplay. I read the first 15 pages and I go, ‘God this is really
trashy.’ And then it sort of went on and took a turn and surprised
me and surprised me and surprised me again. By the end I put it
down and was like, ‘Honey I just read this thing and you’re not
going to believe that I like this, but I really do.’"
For some reason though, the film is being marketed as a dark
thriller or even film noir.
"I don’t see this film as noir. And frankly I have a little
problem with re-doing noir," Bacon says. "I kind of feel that it
was a time period that worked. There was some cool movies made, but
I don’t know if it’s really applicable to us anymore. This movie’s
bright. It’s not dark. It’s not night. It’s jazzy. It’s neon. It’s
like neon-noir. Maybe that’s it."
Thanks to Network Event Theater and McIlhenny Co. Tabasco Brand,
who are sponsoring the event, tonight Bruins and other college
students will get to judge for themselves. Following the free
screening at the Freud Playhouse, a question and answer session
with Bacon and the film’s other stars Matt Dillon and Denise
Richards will be broadcast throughout a network of colleges across
the nation.
"I’m excited," Richards says of visiting the UCLA campus."I
think it’ll be fun for us to talk about the film and let them ask
what they want."
Bacon, who recognizes that the film is targeted toward a younger
audience, says that he nevertheless hopes he will see viewers over
25 at cocktail parties secretly admitting that they saw the
film.
"I think that’ll be an interesting thing," Bacon says of the
event. "I’ve never actually done that satellite thing before, but
they’ve started to do it now and it seems like a good way to reach
out to campuses."
With young stars such as Richards and Neve Campbell in it, the
film is sure to draw in at least the young male population.
Relatively new to the acting arena Richards, who started as a
model and was last seen in "Starship Troopers," has been carefully
building her career. The actress says that she chose to do "Wild
Things"because she found her character complex and interesting.
Richards plays snobbish high schooler Kelly Van Ryan who accuses
her guidance counselor (Dillon) of rape. Richards describes Kelly
as manipulative and having no conscience. In a climactic courtroom
scene she throws a glass at the head of a classmate (Campbell) who
testifies at the trial.
"I was so nervous doing that scene, throwing the glass because
I’m a lefty," Richards says excitedly. "And everyone made fun of me
because I can’t throw. When we rehearsed I threw a plastic bottle
of water and it just went everywhere so they built this bulletproof
glass over Neve for me to nail the X. I was actually sweating
waiting for my cue. I’m like, ‘God I’m going to slam somebody in
the head.’"
Another of the film’s demands that made Richards nervous was
performing a love scene. Richards, who had never done nudity before
(she was one of the few who remained clothed in "Starship Troopers"
although more skin was originally written into the script) says
that she felt that her character and the plot called for her to
unrobe.
"We had to be very professional," recalls Campbell, who helped
put her co-star at ease about the film’s notorious threesome scene.
"It was about us sitting down and saying, ‘What are you comfortable
with? What are you not comfortable with? What are all our
boundaries?’ So I gave her a bottle of wine and some margaritas and
we were okay."
Director John McNaughton understands actors uneasiness in
undressing in front of the camera.
"Those scenes are always difficult because you take actors in a
room with a crew and reduce the crew as far as you possibly can,"
McNaughton explains. "But you’re taking off your clothes and you’re
pretending to have sex in front of technicians who are wearing
combat boots and cut offs and t-shirts and it couldn’t be more
unnatural and uncomfortable."
Richards attributes her comfort and ability to do the scene to
both Campbell and McNaughton, who is from the south side of
Boston.
"A lot of my friends there have nothing to do with this
business," McNaughton says twiddling his thumbs. "So they go, ‘Oh
you got to do the nude scene with the girls. Oh that must be really
special.’ It’s like, ‘You don’t know what hell it is. It’s the most
uncomfortable thing.’
"Mostly people are uncomfortable with it and you set your
schedule and that day has a sort of little red flag on it,"
McNaughton continues. "When you get closer to it the tension starts
to build."
No matter how difficult, the love scene was essential in
conveying the outrageousness and absurdity of the film, which
NcNaughton feels is true of all crime stories.
"One of the most fascinating things about true crime is how
stupid most criminal plots are," NcNaughton laughs. "I had more
than one set of friends actually that robbed banks. And they were
all in jail before the sun went down. And I think they sat around
and thought they were really going to rob a bank and have all this
money."
Coming from the director of "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer"
perhaps it’s not surprising that he finds crime humorous. He says
that one of his favorite examples of the absurdity of criminal
plots was the Nancy Kerrigan Tonya Harding fiasco.
"You look at those people. They sat around and hatched a plot.
‘Okay, now Nancy’s going to come by and there will be three
thousand camera crews out there. Now you. You run out there with
this iron pipe and hit her on the leg. Then we’ll win the gold
medal at the Olympics.’ It’s just like, ‘What were they thinking?’
And it’s a shame that she got beat in the leg with the pipe, but
there’s a great deal of humor in the insanity of human behavior,
especially criminal plotting, how short-sighted it is. Bad behavior
is endlessly amusing to me."
McNaughton’s actors also understand how he finds these things
amusing.
"He’s got a great demented sense of humor," Dillon says. "He
doesn’t let on right away, but it’s always there."
Richards agrees, "He’s got a little dark side which was good for
the film. He likes to shock people."
And the director embraces Richards’ statement about his interest
in shock value, "Yeah let’s shake people up. Who wants to sit there
and be lulled into complacency?"
With his slightly warped sense of humor, it seems that
McNaughton is the perfect director for bringing out the absurdity
in "Wild Things."
"One of the great things about John McNaughton is that although
he really pushes the envelope and pushes extremes and makes people
uncomfortable in this movie, that’s what they’re about," Campbell
explains. "They’re about the absurdity of life. They’re about the
absurdity of human kind and we should be able to laugh at that and
sometimes some people may be uncomfortable laughing at that, but
it’s okay to do it."
FILM: The NET free screening of "Wild Things" and question and
answer session will start tonight in the Freud Playhouse at 6
pm.
Mandalay Entertainment
Neve Campbell and Denise Richards play coniving high schoolers
in "Wild Things."