As the director behind films such as “Twilight,” “Lords of Dogtown” and “Thirteen,” director Catherine Hardwicke has a strong eye for poignant and differing ways in telling the coming of age story. Her latest venture finds her in the home of Quibi, the very niche streaming service that has seen big talent but little critical buzz so far in its tenure. With “Madeline’s Madeline” star Helena Howard at its center, Hardwicke’s series “Don’t Look Deeper” is given a greater allure as fans of the Jospehine Decker film eagerly look forward to whatever project Howard does next. “Don’t Look Deeper” focuses on a student who begins to wonder if she’s truly human and what happens when she begins to put together the pieces.
We spoke to Hardwicke and discussed the benefits of a streaming service like Quibi, working with Howard and her knack for discovering fresh talent.
How did you get involved with “Don’t Look Deeper”?
I had about 2 years ago worked with Jeffery Lieber on another project and loved his energy and how he was always pushing for excellence and innovation. I was hooked by the script, which wasn’t the final version of what we shot, but as I was paging it I was hit by the feeling of “oh shit, what’s happening” and got really drawn into it. I was wowed by the almost allegorical way it tried to explore this teenage coming of age story and the quest to find your identity, learning what you want to be going all the way back to “Thirteen” and diving into that confusion of wanting to be the popular girl and to be sexy, doing drugs and steal things versus wanting to be the good girl writing poetry and hanging out with my mom, all these things that everybody goes through became a lot of fun to explore in a different context where the stakes are very high for our protagonist Aisha. I love this idea of the love-hate relationship we all have with technology and if it’s frustrating or liberating and the passion that Emily Mortimer’s character has with creating and pushing the boundaries of science and creating something new.
Over the course of your career you have tackled coming of age stories often, is there something about that time of life that you are naturally drawn to?
Absolutely, because even if you just look at it statistically that is the time of the most unwanted pregnancies, DUIs and other brash decisions; it’s the most dramatic time where everything is changing, your oddest self discoveries are coming out for the first time and you are experimenting. You can drink for the first time, kissing a boy or kissing a girl! All these decisions are momentous and every experience feels like so much, each day becomes the most important day of your life. We actually had that in “Thirteen”, when they’re at the mall back to school shopping and Evan Rachel Wood literally says that it’s the most important day of her life and I first thought that was something of its own story but no, everybody feels that, the intensity of that time.
What was the experience of working within the Quibi format for you?
Well that was great, you know they say that every five years you should do something like learn a new language, try new vegetables or learn the oboe, and with this it felt like I got to learn a new language AND learn an instrument doing this project. I had to figure out technically and artistically composing in a vertical and horizontal format while at the same time trying to tell stories that would not normally last more than one frame into ten minutes to having something that would happen at the beginning of the episode to compel you to keep watching and then something at the end to get you to come back. So these are all things in a new skill set that I haven’t done before so yeah, it was a fun challenge.
Was there a most difficult aspect of this new forced curve?
I would say that both of those things were really tricky, because as an artist I had to learn to look at how to paint portraits in a vertical format, but this style is more narrow and skinnier than a classic renaissance portrait, which usually have one person in them and don’t have interactions, fights or love scenes in that vertical format, and that was a new way to think about composition and storytelling while learning how to keep it dynamic. If you have a fight scene between two people, like between Aisha and her father played by Don Cheadle, I’d love to do the fight or an argument where I can see the effects of one person’s words and how they land on the other in real time instead of having to cut and say “here’s your signal and here’s their signal” and that takes away from the immediate and the rawness of emotion. How do you do that in the vertical format, moving the camera in a way that’s not obnoxious or moving the camera too much, there’s just a lot of new things to consider.
Was it at all comparable to the work you’ve done in TV and film in the past, or was it all a completely new toolbox to work with?
Everything builds, because of course there are basic boxes of storytelling in both aspects of film and tv, and I used lessons from both. For example, we filmed it as if we were making a film because we had all the episodes written before we started, so we could film in blocks. In other words, when we did something like shoot a school scene we could do all our school scenes instead of going back and forth like an episodic show where you get the scripts the day or week before. We knew the full arc of the characters, all the scenes we were going to film, and the full breakdown of the plot, so that made it possible to shoot it like a film.
Do you think these platforms and streaming sites are a good place for filmmakers whose voices aren’t as often heard in Hollywood? There still seems to be a bit of this old guard mentality of things like these nontraditional releases through Netflix or Quibi being valued differently.
I think of course that’s changing, with things like Martin Scorsese doing things like “The Irishman” on a streaming platform, the boundaries are beginning to break down. It may not be that way for all people or filmmakers who still want to see things in a cinema but most people are a little more flexible and excited by these new opportunities.
Throughout your career you’ve had a keen eye for finding fresh and new talent who go on to have these tremendous careers. Is there something particular you look for during casting or is it something that you just know when you see them that they have that “it” factor.
Well you know there are multiple levels to that one, because with my casting process I really like to have chemistry reads as a major part of it, something that will be interesting now in the age of social distancing. Up until three months ago, I would like that if the two characters are supposed to have that chemistry like in “Thirteen”, I had Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed come over to my house and had them together in a room or hanging out in the same bed, and I did something similar with Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart for “Twilight”. I look for electricity and life, and to see if these people can ping off of each other, and I try and be in the same room as it happens while also recording it and I hold off my judgment until I actually see the video to make sure that it translates to the screen as well as being great in the room. I like to workshop with people, we like to play and before casting a lot people will do a few little workshops and try things and see if we can all improvise together.
A: Can you speak a bit about working with Helena Howard on this? Was “Madeline’s Madeline” your introduction to her?
Yes, that was I suppose the world’s introduction to her. I heard that the director happened to hear her speak at a reading and was drawn to how powerful she was, and I think she was a bit inspired by “Thirteen,” which was kind of a fun circular thing because I found Nikki and then made a whole story around her and then cast her. Here was something that was pretty much done the same way, where they made the story similar to Helena’s life and found out what a wonderful creative collaboration they had, and that came through so wonderfully in the film, which I loved and found raw, powerful and beautiful, so I was very happy to get the chance to work with her. We had nice conversations on the phone and everything felt like it fell into place.
Throughout the years you’ve worked in a variety of mediums and across many different genres, so I was wondering if there was a type of platform or particular genre you’ve been drawn to more than others?
Well I like to say that I’m a vegetarian in my diet and an omnivore in my films. I’ve been drawn into pretty much any kind of film if it’s a powerful story. I mean I love action movies and original character dramas, I love even big crazy outrageous things like “Deadpool!” There are so many things I love and I think we need that kind of variety in our lives and need to be open to mix it up with all kinds of things. For me those kinds of films are something I’d love to do if the story is right and all the stars align I would love to jump into that world; I love to learn about the new worlds of film, and each time with a film you have to learn something about that specific piece of the world, like how if you do something like “1917” you have to completely immerse yourself into that time to speak its language and that comes across in the completed work.
Are you able to talk about any upcoming projects, or is it difficult right now to even know with everything going on?
Not really, because I think a lot of creative people in the world are kind of like putting everything else out of our minds at least for a portion of the day and maybe not watch the news all day long and try and do something creative or at least positive to put out into the world. But then to do something creative too, it definitely depends on the person, but right now can be a good time to be making things. I’m writing two different screenplays, I’m developing several different television series and pitching them and looking for homes for them. People are sending me projects from writers I’ve loved over the years and trying to get behind things they’ve always wanted to do. It’s kind of exciting, it feels like I’m working on something for ten hours every day.
Lastly, do you have any advice you would like to give to young female directors?
Oh absolutely, we have now a lot of very neat programs at Sundance, REFRAME at Film Independent. Women in film have definitely started a lot of programs where we mentor people and do classes, so that’s all become available. To get chosen for one of those programs hopefully people are writing their own screenplays or shooting their own films, even if it’s something just shot on an iphone, anything you can do to improve your skill set. Now is kind of a great time to take some master classes or listen to some cool podcasts of filmmakers trying to explain their techniques, so there are lots of ways people can update their skills and when the filmmaking world opens up again there will be a lot of opportunities for people to become indie filmmakers and then we can jump on their projects and develop new communities. Mainly the thing I think is to try and understand what kind of stories you want to tell and to develop your own feeling and perspective and then doing things as simple as writing down notes, capturing images, developing concepts or writing screenplays. Send them to your friends and be willing to get negative comments back and try and work on how you can make it better and make a more excellent product.