If you missed it in theaters, the dark, modernized remake of the classic tale RED RIDING HOOD is available on DVD/Blu-Ray today! We got the chance to speak with director Catherine Hardwicke back at its theatrical release. Here’s what she had to say about casting Amanda Seyfried, the music in the film, and other fairy tales she’d love to do…
Did you come up with the idea to do a modern version of Red Riding Hood or were you approached with the idea?
Leonardo DiCaprio and his company came up with the idea of go ing back to the old, old story – even before the Brothers Grimm – and putting a werewolf, because they had a werewolf in it ages ago in the 1500’s who’s after Little Red Riding Hood. So they got a writer, David Leslie Johnson, and I got a copy of his script and I’m reading it like “Oh, I’m getting intrigued”. I fel t this could be really cool, I saw all of these images, so when I went to meet with him I brought all of these visuals of photos and paintings I had collected and I was like “I want to do it!” But, I said, I wanted to c hange a few things in the script. The granny was old and wagging her finger and telling the girls to do this and this, and I’m like, no, no, no, this is going to be a badass granny who’s out in the woods, she’s tough, sexy, she has to live by herself so she can’t be too much like [an elderly lady]. They liked all the idea’s and they were like “OK, let’s do it”, so I started working with the writer and artist and drawing the world.
With music, why did you find it so important to have such a modern score to the film?
To get the studio to like the movie, I did drawings. I also did like a little teaser trailer and I used the band Fever Ray. So Karen [of Fever Ray] is like a Swedish, crazy, incredible person and we used that soundtrack when we showed them what the movie could be like and I thought, “Oh, this is a good excuse for me not to have just old orchestra music”. I said to the studio, this is what I sold you on: hip, radical music. So we got Fever Ray to write a song for the festival, and then the composer is this guy Brian Reitzell, he did all of Sofia Coppola’s first three movies, and he was in a punk band, so he just really likes to collaborate with new music and engineering new sounds. But, we did use old sounds and new sounds, because it still feels kind of tribal, like we got a hurdy-gurdy which is an ancient instrument. He made it; he recorded it, put it through a synthesizer, put it back onto an electronic keyboard, played it, and then looped it back through pedals and reverbs and then had the orchestra play along with it, so we did this full on mix.
What’s your favourite scene of the whole movie?
There are two: I love the festival because I love the music, I love the dance, the sexy dancing, but I also love the scene “What big eyes you have”. I just love the outfitting shot; she’s just staring at her in bed like “Woah”… [it was done] with a lens that you could just draw in on one little thing and just focus in on that and the rest would go out of focus.
You were very adamant to have Amanda Seyfried for the role. What was it about her that made her so desirable to cast as Valerie?
She does look like you just turned the page of a fairy tale book and she just popped off. The eyes are out of control, and they’re beautiful, but they draw you in, like she’s so emotional… I always really admired her for a long time, like I couldn’t believe that this girl can be hilarious in MEAN GIRLS, she can be sexy in CHLOE, she can be very heartfelt in other movies, I mean, she can do everything. But I saw her at an autism benefit, actually, where she was just speaking and just reading something simple on the page and she just kind of leapt out at me. She just broke your heart, and I’m like “Oh my god”, she really draws you in.
Watching the film again, is there anything that you would do differently?
Well, you know, I’m a director. So, every director, we always wish we had more time. You have to want that or you wouldn’t be an artist. It’s like they pull the painting away from you, and you’re like “no, it’s not done!” So yeah, of course, when you have a very tight shooting schedule, like 42 days, and if you had more time, and there’s good and bad things about having a big budget – not that I’ve ever had one – but if you have big budget, you know, you can sometimes get lost or you don’t focus as much. But then, if you have a little more time, you could try things, like experiment a little more, so I would have done that.
How did you, or the writer, come up with the recurring line “All sorrows are less with bread”?
That’s a quote from [Miguel de] Cervantes (author of DON QUIXOTED). There was actually something a little more boring in the script, and Julie Christie [plays the Grandmother], she told me about that quote, it was her idea. We used it as a recurring theme so that you would believe the second time [that she said it], it was really her. It’s a bit creepy, but I like that. ‘All sorrows are less with bread’ works for disasters in Haiti or anything, really. If you feed people, they will feel a little bit better.
If you had the opportunity to do another fairy tale, what would it be?
I think I kind of like Cinderella. That’s kind of fun with a pumpkin and a glass slipper, I mean, there’s a lot of imaginative details in that, plus the whole sibling rivalry, I love that. That’s one thing that’s cool about fairy tales, they allow you – if you have a bad feeling or desire or fear – they don’t say no. They don’t say “you shouldn’t think that, you shouldn’t be jealous of your sister”, they let you have evil stepsisters and you can imagine how horrible they are and you can fight through your issues and come out on the other side happily ever after, which is one reason, I think, that they say fairy tales have endured. They let you get into the pretty weird, scary stuff and deal with it, you know?
Would you approach Cinderella with the same dark, edgy feel?
Definitely.
Thank you, Catherine Hardwicke!