Screenwriter Diablo Cody’s greatest achievement with her latest project, Young Adult, is to bring her audience to a point where they sympathize and empathize with the film’s in many ways distinctly unlikable central character. Mavis Gary (played by Charlize Theron) is the seemingly successful author of a series of Young Adult novels, who on the page has everything going for her. Yet, despite being blessed in both the looks and career department, happiness eludes her.
When an invitation arrives in her inbox to the Christening of the daughter of her high school sweetheart, Buddy (Patrick Wilson), Mavis decides to return to her hometown to reclaim her former glory – and her former boyfriend. Blinded by her own narcissism, Mavis chooses to ignore the fact that Buddy is now happily married as she obsessively engages in the shameless pursuit of her unavailable ex.
A chance meeting with a former classmate she barely remembers, Matt Freehauf (Patton Oswalt), provides Mavis with a drinking buddy, and a voice of reason. However, despite forming an unlikely bond with Matt, who in the wake of a high school beating is left as physically challenged and she is mentally, Mavis is unwilling and unable to retreat from the comfort of her self-delusions to see her world as it really is.
As with Cody’s Academy Award-winning screenplay for Juno, Young Adult combines subtle storytelling with unconventional choices. An exercise in nuance and tone, which sees Cody reunited with her Juno cohort, director Jason Reitman (Up In The Air), the film features award-worthy performances from both Theron and Oswalt that – as with the script – are remarkable for their realness.
SuicideGirls sat down with Cody in New York to talk about the film.
NP: How much of
Young Adult is autobiographical?
DC: I would not call this movie autobiographical, I would call it personal because I don’t really relate to Mavis and I do see her as a person whose deserving of criticism. At the same time, I see aspects of myself in her, if that makes any sense.
I think it all started with the fact that I had written a couple of movies about teenagers and a lot of people had asked me, “Why do you write about teenagers so much? What’s the appeal?” I didn’t really know how to answer that but I thought, what if there was a woman who was a young adult novelist and she truly was living vicariously through her teenage characters, and she was truly unable to let go of the triumphs of her youth, and it got to the point where she was just trying to recreate her adolescence and trying to get her high school sweetheart back. Then I thought that’s a fun character and that’s a great role for an actress, and I just ran with it.
NP: I’m one of these people that’s blessed with a huge capacity for happiness, but I saw this film with a friend for whom it’s more elusive. Mavis really resonated with him, her depression and the role alcohol plays in her life. [Full disclosure, much of the proceeding line of questioning is a result of our post-film discussion.] Is that an element of your character, or someone that you know, because it seemed so authentic?
DC: Certainly I’ve met other people that have those tendencies and there are times in my life where I have as well. I can be self-destructive. And I really relate to her neurotic behaviors, like the hair pulling and the gorging on unhealthy food. I can relate to that. Definitely, the alcoholism, not to the degree that we see with Mavis, but I do tend to have an addictive personality and I have gone through bouts of depression in my life and so I did feel qualified to write about someone who was in the throws of that.
NP: This is a movie that’s full of brave choices. The protagonist, Mavis, she’s honest and true to herself but she’s not necessarily likeable, and that’s a tough choice of character to build a movie around. Did you have any qualms about whether she was likeable enough?
DC: Yeah, I was absolutely worried. I was especially worried when I started to try and get the film made because that was a reaction that a lot of people had; this is a good story, this is a good role, but she has to redeem herself somehow at the end, or you have to soften her up a little bit, because people don’t want to spend two hours in the dark with a bitchy woman. And I think I was tempted to acquiesce. I thought, all right, we can do a slightly cuddlier version of the young adult I had in mind. Then
Jason Reitman came on as a director and he said, “I’m not touching the script. I want to shoot this as is.”
NP: Good man.
DC: He’s wonderful. It wouldn’t have happened otherwise, because he has the clout to get something like that done. I couldn’t have done it by myself.
NP: I’m so glad that you did keep it so true to your vision.
The transformation in this movie is very subtle too, which, again, is another brave choice. At the end there’s maybe a hint of greater degree of self-awareness and enlightenment, but it’s not a huge progression. Obviously the cheesy Hollywood choice would be for her to ride off into the sunset with Patton Oswalt’s character, Matt.
DC: I know. And it was tempting because they are two misanthropes and the idea of the two of them together is appealing. I’m glad that they at the very least…had their moment together. But I just knew that I wanted to keep this movie grounded in reality more than any other thing than I had ever done. The reality of it was so important to me and I just truly feel that in real life people don’t change radically - particularly not in a short period of time. I think people tend to repeat their mistakes, just like she keeps rewinding that tape, so that was something we both wanted to drive home.
NP: It’s a movie that’s comprised of a series of really beautifully fucked up moments. One that I love is when she confesses to her parents that she’s an alcoholic and they just laugh it off, and then the moment is gone. It’s like for a fleeting second she wants to change but then she gets let off when her mom dismisses it.
DC: Yeah. That to me was like a classic Midwestern American tableau. I love my family, but they’re big into denial, and honestly, I could confess something like that, that was just deeply upsetting and deeply personal, and they would say, “Oh, pass the carrots.” Because it’s uncomfortable to talk about things like that so it’s better to pretend it didn’t happen than to confront that darkness. And I just thought that that should be where she comes from too. Maybe that’s where some of her [issues come from]. Although, Charlize has said that she likes that we don’t really know why Mavis is the way she is. That it’s not really explicitly shown, and her home life scene is relatively normal. So I don’t know, you can go either way.
NP: I thought it was probably because it’s the popular kids that had the easy childhoods that have problems dealing with tougher times later in life.
DC: It’s kind of true right?
NP: Yeah. I’m glad I had a really shitty time at school.
DC: Yeah.
NP: It’s paying off now. Another beautifully fucked up scene is the one in the woods where Mavis is being brutal about Matt’s disability because she wants to have her own pity party and doesn’t want anyone to have a greater right to pity than she does. That must have been tough to write, but it’s absolutely brilliant. You actually have so much sympathy for her in that moment, despite what’s coming out of her mouth, because you understand how distressed she must be to be in denial of his pain.
DC: Yeah, and I think in a way it’s a trap to be that narcissistic. It’s not a happy existence. I do feel pity for her. She is pathetic standing there in the woods wearing Buddy’s sweatshirt, when Matt is somebody whose entire life was destroyed by this attack, and she can’t even give him a moment. Even leading up to that scene as they’re walking to the woods, he’s trying to keep up with her with his cane and she’s just charging forward, being totally insensitive. I shouldn’t laugh but some of those moments are funny to me.
NP: Patton and Charlize together, they’re in a way so unlikely, but they work so damn well. For example in the love scene, they’re both so physically vulnerable for different reasons, and it’s such a wonderful, real moment. There’s this dance they do where she’s covering up her chicken cutlets and he’s covering up his man boobs, and then she drops hers arms down by her side and in response he does too.
DC: Yeah.
NP: Was that on the page?
DC: The cutlets were Charlize’s idea. In fact, the cutlets make an appearance earlier in the movie as well. I had said in the script that it was really important to me that Mavis had all these complicated grooming rituals, that we see her putting on makeup and putting on spanks - she works really hard at maintaining this flawless image.
I think Charlize suggested that she have the chicken cutlets because she was saying how embarrassing it can be when you get caught wearing them. Then Jason I think said, “What if she actually has the cutlets on during that love scene?” Because it is just so asexual and embarrassing. And then they reveal themselves, which is something that I’ve always imagined.
NP: The end is very symbolic. She gets into her car, it’s beaten up and broken but it still goes which is kind of the triumphant thing. What were you seeing in that?
DC: Well, in a more obvious sense the car, her Mini, was her trying to subconsciously recreate her red Cabriolet that she had in high school. And then, yeah, we use the word trainwreck to describe people like Mavis, and she’s literally a wreck. Like she’s actually crashed her car, and yet somehow at the end, just when you think that car has been laid to rest, she manages to get it going…I always say it reminds me a little bit of the ending of a horror movie, where it’s “The End” - or is it? Has something been resolved here or is the monster still on the loose?
NP: I know that you and Jason have been wanting to work together since
Juno. How did it actually happen that he came on board with this film?
DC: I couldn’t wait to work with him again. I was really excited. I had such a good time with
Juno. So when I finished the script I sent it to him first, in the hopes that maybe he would want to direct it. But also just as a friend to get his opinion on the material. He read it and he liked it, but it wasn’t like, “Let’s go make this movie.” He had another film that he was ready to do called
Labor Day. Then I worked on the script a little more and I heard from Jason about it again and I sensed his interest growing. Then, one day he called me and said, “I really want to make this movie. I want to do it in like a month. I want to do it now, and I’m asking Charlize Theron to play Mavis.”
I was speechless, because, first of all, as a writer you dream of the day…Scripts can just languish in development for years, so to have somebody say, I’m going to go make this right away, and this A-list, Oscar wining actress is going to play Mavis, and I’m your favorite director, and I’m putting off my project to do this - I was on cloud nine. I was so happy. And sure enough, I think six weeks after that phone call they were shooting this movie. I had a baby, so I was at home.
NP: You weren’t on set for this one?
DC: I came for a couple days but I was in a very weird new mom place, so I couldn’t really focus on what was going on.
NP: Patton’s performance in this movie, I feel like its going to really take him to the next level.
DC: I hope so. I’ve worked with him as an actor for a couple years because he was on the show that I wrote that unfortunately got cancelled. Everybody knows that he’s probably the best comic working today, but not a lot of people know what a brilliant actor he is. I love that they’re going to see this now. He was amazing in
Big Fan too, but I feel like this could be an even bigger chance for him.
NP: With most films, you walk out of the cinema and leave the characters behind, but these characters definitely stay with you.
DC: I like to hear that. Thanks.
NP: You said you submitted an initial script, and then a subsequent re-worked one to Jason. What were the differences between the two?
DC: Well, I would say the subtext about her being a young adult novelist and the metaphor therein wasn’t employed as heavily in the beginning.
NP: Was it even called
Young Adult?
DC: No, it was actually called
My Buddy.
NP: Ah,
My Buddy, referring to Mavis’ love interest.
DC: Yeah. That was always meant as just a working title…It was Jason I think who said you should run with this, the fact that she writes these teenage books, a little bit more. There were little strange things that changed. Like Mavis’ parents were originally kind of mean, and it was Jason who said, I think you should tone down the parents because it’s more interesting if they’re just nice people.
NP: Right.
DC: Like, we don’t need to have a lesson about why Mavis behaves the way that she does. It’s just more interesting to have her come home and…
NP: I love that moment where her mom tracks her down. She doesn’t make a big deal of the fact that Mavis hasn’t even told her she’s in town, she just reaches over, opens the passenger seat door, and tells her to get in the car. The way you throw it in, it’s just so matter of fact — that’s just the way it happens in that family.
DC: Exactly.
NP: That speaks volumes. Rather than trying to make it a big moment, it was a throwaway moment because that’s just how that family functions.
DC: Absolutely. I’m glad you liked that. That was always there. I think that was in the first draft. The scene at the end, which is now becoming a scene that people always want to talk about, where Mavis is at the table with Matt’s sister. That scene was always there but Jason asked me to make it even longer because he thought that it was really important. He recognized very early on that that was a scene that people were going to respond to, and they really have.
NP: And again, you want them to have their
Thelma & Louis moment.
DC: Yeah. You want them to get in the car together and…
NP: I guess that’s part of the charm. At every juncture in this movie, you take the unobvious route.
DC: Yeah, or the risky choice, I don’t know. But I’m glad that you think so, because we’re proud of those choices. They were not always easy to make
NP: Well I’m very glad that you didn’t succumb to studio pressure in any way.
DC: Me too.
Young Adult opens in select cities this Friday, December 9. 
