Jared and Jerusha Hess: The Movieline Interview

Where did Héctor Jiménez's character of Lonnie come from? And what is he? I couldn't quite make out what sex, age, or planet that guy came from.

JERUSHA: I lived in Kansas for a while, in my freshman and sophomore year of high school. And there was this kid who was always making soap operas and thrillers on the weekends. He once called me and was like, "Jared. It's me. We're making my next thriller, and I'd love you to be the lead. We need you to bring a pair of silk pajamas, there will be a bedroom sequence." And I was like, "Uhhh -- I don't know if I'm allowed, man!" He was quite prolific. The look of Lonnie was directly inspired by him.

And what about that scene on the school bus where Michael Angarano gets a lotiony hand massage from Halley Feiffer, and Lonnie moans and chews potato chips in his ear?

JERUSHA: That happened to Jared.

JARED: That actually happened to me going down to a Shakespeare festival in Cedar City, UT when I was in high school. I had just moved to Idaho and was on this bus and was introduced to all these new kids. And this pair, a guy and a girl were sitting next to me doing this weird ear-blowing thing.

JERUSHA: She would bring not just a travel size thing of lotion to school, but a full-on supersized bottle of lotion every morning and squirt it full-on. The problem was that Jared was then associated with those weirdos.

Were you fans of this kind of pulp sci-fi fiction growing up?

JARED: I was a fan of the cover art. Even if I didn't read the book, I just liked looking at the cover art and having my mind blown. All my favorite films growing up were science fiction.As I got older and had more access to some of the more cult and low-budget films, I loved those just as much.

How do you respond to critics of your films who feel that you're not really making loving fun of your characters so much as laughing at them, and treating at them as oddities?

JARED: It's funny, because when Napoleon came out, a lot of people that didn't like the film didn't like it because they felt we were being condescending. But we have such affection and love for our characters for all their peculiarities. And yes, we are laughing at them throughout the film, but we also have a lot of hope and love for them, and want them to win in the end.

JERUSHA: And we don't want them to change, either. We want them to win on the basis of who they are.

JARED: And however bizarre their dreams are. And it's so autobiographical. Both of us moved around a lot growing up, and had to adapt and make new friends, and really kind of had that outsider point of view.

JERUSHA: We had to shop at thrift stores.

JARED: Our families weren't affluent by any means. So we identify very closely for the characters in our films.

Do the folks back home feel like you're spearheading a new movement of Utah Cinema?

JARED: Yeah. That's funny -- I never really thought of it that way.

JERUSHA: His grandpa says things like, "Well, that was a real interesting home video!"

JARED: When our mom saw Napoleon for the first time, she was like, "Well, that was a lot of embarrassing family material." But at the same time, I think they're kind of flattered that even though it's kind of an abstract reflection of their lives, it's our life too, and we enjoy seeing the goofiness in it all.

So you guys still live there. Any plans to move at all?

JARED: We do. We want to move to the country, and get even more rural than Salt Lake City.

JERUSHA: We want some land! We'll probably end up in Idaho.

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