Q & A : Teeth
By Sarah Keenlyside
Mitchell Lichtenstein’s film Teeth gives new meaning to the term “love bite.” The movie explores the myth of the “vagina dentata” (which means exactly what you think it means) and takes male castration anxiety to a gruesomely tangible level.
Actress Jess Weixler and Director Matthew Saville, Teeth. -- Photo By Laura Lamando, Wireimage.com |
“When we made selections for the Festival, we watched Teeth and it came up at one point that, ‘Oh, this could play in the Midnight section, but you know, I just keep seeing that at Eccles Theater. It’s a high school, how perverse is that?”
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Director of Programming John Cooper |
Jess Weixler plays Dawn, a pretty, perky high schooler who is “holding out” until marriage. But her vow of chastity is not necessarily fueled by prudishness, Dawn has a deep, dark secret – what lurks between her legs is a set of chompers not unlike the ones belonging to the creature from Aliens. When Dawn finds herself in a compromising situation with a randy young virgin, the only thing he looses is his, er, manhood.
This is definitely not a movie for John Wayne Bobbit.
Watching the film was like witnessing the bloody birth of a cult classic, which may be why Director of Programming John Cooper was so clearly tickled to present the screening at the Eccles Theater. “When we made selections for the Festival, we watched Teeth and it came up at one point that, ‘Oh, this could play in the Midnight section, but you know, I just keep seeing that at Eccles Theater,” he said. “It’s a high school, how perverse is that?”
Director Mitchell Lichtenstein and actors Weixler, John Hensley, Josh Pais, Hale Appleman, and Ashley Springer inspired a few more cackles from the audience at the Q&A after the screening.
Q: Have you ever considered showing the film at Brigham Young University?
Lichtenstein: If you can take it over there…
Q: Where did you get the initial idea for the film?
Lichtenstein: I knew about the myth about the vagina dentata from one of my favorite teachers back in college – [cultural theorist] Camille Paglia. It had just been brewing as something that would be good used in a tongue-in-cheek way.
Q: There seemed to be a lot of homage to Reefer Madness, did you intend to do that?
Lichtenstein: Uh, no. I did see it years ago but I didn’t think of it.
Q: What city did you shoot in?
Lichtenstein: We shot in Austin, Texas. They had great locations for us and a great crew – some of who are here.
Q: How did the actors respond when they read the script?
Weixler: I was totally freaked out when I read the script, and then I started to think of her as a superhero. It was a blast and it just kept making me laugh and Mitchell’s vision and the pictures he showed me got me really excited. It was awesome.
Hensley: Kind of like Jess, the script had a cover sheet on it and the cover sheet had a one-sentence tagline of what the movie was about and I looked at it and I thought, ‘What?’ I remember, I made a few phone calls to friends and said, ‘You’ve got to listen to this!’ And I thought there was no way – I didn’t desire to do anything like that – but I try not to have too much contempt about something before I check it out, so I started reading and halfway through it I was laughing out loud and then I got to meet Mitchell. As soon as I stepped in the room it was clear that I was meeting somebody who was a much smarter man than I. So, I’m happy to be a part of it after all.
Pais: After I auditioned, there was a pause and Mitchell went, ‘You’re really sick.’ And I said, ‘You wrote it, dude.’
Q: Can the actors talk about what was the most difficult scene to shoot.
Appleman: What do you think? The cave scene. I was the first to get the uh… [makes a scissor motion with his fingers]. There were some prototypes of the apparatus that we had to wear and on the day of the shoot, the fake pubic hair hadn’t been added yet, so we were curling it with our hands. And it was difficult for other reasons also.
Springer: It was the penile stump apparatus, as they were calling it, was a fun little thing to work with. The story my dad tells whenever he tells anyone about what I’m doing with my life, is that I was sitting there in this giant pool of caro syrup [fake blood] trying to get the blood to spurt out of it, instead of dropping down the testicles and right off camera there’s some big dude with a pump, trying to get the caro syrup to come out right. It was pretty fun.
Q: Do you think Jess will be able to have sex again?
Weixler: A+! |
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