Director Karyn Kusama on Jennifer's Body, Megan Fox and the 'Crisis of Being Looked At'
How do Jennifer and Needy fit in the continuum of the female protagonists in Girlfight and Aeon Flux?
That's interesting. I'm very interested in dysfunction. I kind of realized in my first film that a character with so much rage that she didn't know where to put it was both heartbreaking and interesting to me. I love the idea of adopting a masculine stance of using your body as the battleground for those feelings. At the time I was making Aeon Flux and at the time I felt like there was a cut I felt I could have called my own -- which doesn't exist theatrically -- it was very much about the sense of disconnection from oneself. That was less about femininity than it was about one's own humanity. Initially, it was about a memory of your human self and being haunted by that, and having to reconcile that with living life as some kind of replica. Again, I'm not sure if those ideas are expressed in any way other than your typical, incoherent text of a movie that's been f*cked up by the studio beyond recognition. This movie, to me, is also very much a kind of female dysfunction or codependency on each other, where men are ancillary to the core relationship. That idea of worshiping an ideal that you do not yourself occupy as a woman or a girl was very touching and real to me. But where it fits along a continuum...
I guess there doesn't have to be a continuum.
I'm not exactly sure. There's so much in the movie about the crisis of being looked at. I mean, the movie stars Megan Fox. By being in the movie, there's almost sort of a meta-relationship between who she is in the public eye and who she is playing this character. In a funny way I feel like that's a real tension that's happily visiting us -- where there's a lot of power in being looked at, but it's a limited power. It's limited control. I guess there's a question about female identity that has to do with figuring out how much value we can place on being looked at as opposed to looking ourselves.
Even though she was "Megan Fox" when you cast her, you couldn't have anticipated that.
No. When we had our first meeting at the Cat and Fiddle, I remember her saying very articulately and very frankly that she'd only done Transformers, and she didn't think I'd have any expectations that she was talented. She's a hot girl -- that's what she plays in Transformers. I hadn't seen the movie, so she was like, "I lean over the hood of a car. I wear belly shirts. I'm Michael Bay's hot girl." And I could tell that as much as she saw the opportunity on some professional level, there was a complicated, angry relationship to that being her big break. That immediately made me see in her the desire to be more than just captured, observed, looked at. And it made me think, "There's a discomfort she feels with this process that will really work for the movie." And now it's just been magnified by 1,000 times because she's become an international superstar.
She's also known now for her public candor. She's obviously feeling empowered, but how healthy is her demonstration of that?
I don't know. I think being a young female star must be really, really pretty rough. I was in a conversation with her with another journalist, and somehow it came up that she was just hoping to be working 10 years from now. The journalist seemed a little surprised, and Megan said, "I'm 23. When I'm 33, I will not be a spring chicken, and this business throws you out on the street by the time you're in your late 20s, essentially. You're not of the same use." And I think it was one of those hardened comments that makes you realize just how rough it can be. So there's definitely a shrewdness and a wisdom to her. She understands there's a very disposable attitude toward beautiful women in Hollywood -- or at least that part of the moviemaking industry. I think for her, though, there was something about making a movie where even with these outrageous genre situations, she got to act. I mean, she got to try things. She got be human, exposed, vulnerable, bossy, icy, frightened. I felt like she gave a very layered performance. I'm sure for her that was a very refreshing experience.
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Comments
Great interview. I'm trying not to have too many expectations going into this film, as the reviews seem to be allllll over the place.
Maybe it's time to start liking Megan Fox? Maybe even champion her? She seems to be a Stone Rose in a garden of Fragile Flowers. . .
Listening to this broad go on and on about tropes and continuums and crudités, no wonder movies suck today. It's a horror movie, for God's sake--the protagonist is put under a spell and eats high school boys!
It ain't "Chinatown."
Have you ever heard of anyone--let alone someone with Kusama's meager track record--be so completely full of herself? My favorite lines is when she volunteers that she "literally ate bagged popcorn." Wow, just like regular folks!
If this film is a hit, it will be for one reason only: Guys like looking at Megan Fox. How's that for critical thinking?
Lemme guess Dave, first in line for Transformers were we?
The reason movies ''suck'' today is because people such as yourself like bagging on ''broads'' who have the audacity to put a bit of thought into their creative process. People such as yourself who think a sufficient rationale for a film's basis is '' Guys like looking at Megan Fox''.
Oh, and when exactly was the last time you actually ate that plebeian staple, bagged popcorn? Are you kidding me?!
oh nice, "broad"? You can't even refer to Ms. Kusama by her last name, can you? Why should anyone bother to listen to your opinion, you sexist pig?
CALRAIGH!! How is the grave digging going? As for Dave, you have to forgive him> His balls just dropped.
To clear up a few points for anyone so bored as to spend their time reading these posts (which obviously includes me):
I apologize for using the word "broad," which is sexist and outdated.
I meant to replace that word before submitting, and I overlooked it.
I did, however, use the director's last name when referring to "Kusama's meager track record."
I have not seen either Transformers film. I understand that they concerned robots blowing things up. Yawn.
The phrase "bagged popcorn" sounded a bit affected to me. I assume it refers to either microwave popcorn (of which I am a huge fan) or pre-popped corn sold in grocery stores (which I find a bit bland). If I am considered "plebeian" for eating it, I don't have a problem with that description. It's Lady Kusama that felt it necessary to point out that she and her colleagues had deigned to eat it. (With a side of crudités, of course.)
Now let me see, Calraigh, if I understand your points: 1) Movies suck because people (like me) express their disdain for filmmakers whose opinion of themselves is so inflated that they equate making a high-school horror film with existential philosophy. And 2)You believe that Megan Fox's abundant physical beauty is NOT the reason for the publicity surrounding this movie. And when exactly was the last time you heard folks in line at Safeway buzzing about "the latest Kusama film"?
Karyn is a very down to earth person, she's just trying to make Hollywood a better place for women to be in which it ain't.
My point is, ''Dave'', if that is, in fact, your real name, that you're so far up your own arse it'd probably take eating an entire box of microwave popcorn, a giant sack of pre-popped corn and large troughs of unrefined cruditès in order to further your passage out of it.
Make a film, have at it. When your opus is headlining festivals and getting gobshites like ourselves slinging idiocy in comments sections, come back to us and talk about filmmakers being ''pretentious''.
Until then , stick to categorizing processed maize. You're pretty good at it, all told.
Did not realize that making a movie was a prerequisite for commenting on one. This rule is going to put a lot of people out of work, not to mention all of us laymen who like to bitch about things we can't do. What about sports? I can't play baseball; am I permitted to complain about the Mets?
"Gobshites"? You've lost me there. I do know what it means, but what's it got to do with commenting on bad movies? I haven't called you any names or inferred anything about your personal life.
And what's the deal about popcorn? I like it. A lot of people do. Why all the abuse? I'm not angry at you, and it doesn't change my life one way or the other if you're angry at me, but...sheesh.
My name is actually David. I feel so embarrassed, thinking I could get away with the deception.