Joe Wright: Hanna

Will girls look up to Hanna?

I hope so. I hope so because she does not conform to the contemporary kind of conditioning of beauty or idea of femininity. She kind of exists outside the realms of the objectification of women and she’s kind of a free spirit.

Besides beauty and the physical, should she be a role model for handling life?

I don't know about handling life but certainly looking at life. She doesn’t judge anyone, has not been conditioned to see the world as we’re forced to see it. She’s like an alien who’s been dropped onto the planet and sees the world through very clear eyes.

Were you resistant to the action genre?

No, I saw it as a real challenge really. I thought it would be really fun to do those sequences, to try and do those sequences. I imagined that I would learn and grow as a director so no, I was not put off by it at all. In fact it was one of the reasons why I was interested in it.

Are action movies our fairy tales these days?

Certainly more so than Disney fairy tales are, yeah. I think probably the horror film is closest to the fairy tale because they’re generally about young people leaving the safety of their family home, embarking on some kind of journey where they encounter evil or
dark forces and are required to overcome those forces. So I think that’s kind of the structure of a lot of fairy tales.

I was thinking Die Hard, Indiana Jones and James Bond are the stories I remember from childhood.

In that sense, yeah. There’s certainly a nostalgia for the action film but I’m not sure if they are as archetypal as real fairy tales.

How is Hanna a fairy tale?

Well, it adheres to the original structure as I just described. That’s the way.

Does Hanna’s interaction with Sophie reflect any of your thoughts about society?

Very much so, yeah. I think that Sophie, the character Sophie symbolizes for me contemporary culture’s obsession with the superficial. So I thought that was an interesting character to expose Hanna to and to see what Hanna would think of such a person.

Could the existence of characters like Hanna get people to reexamine their values?

I hope so. I think that’s what storytelling is for really. Storytelling for me is about seeing the world from someone else’s point of view. I find that can be a very useful emotional tool.

After Pride & Prejudice and Atonement, did people bring you all the period dramas they had?

Yeah, obviously people like to categorize you as a director and so people assumed that I’d be interested. They’d assumed that was the point of the films I made rather than understanding that actually the point of those films was not the period they were set in but really the themes and stories that were held within that period.

Do you expect to get all action scripts after this?

I don't know, it’ll be interesting to see what happens. I like action movies. I just don’t like kind of testosterone driven misogynist right wing ones. I like films with a social and moral conscience so the conditions would have to be right for me to do another one.

I understand the testosterone aspect. What would make something right wing or misogynistic?

Well, I think that when I say right wing I mean kind of center right wing. I’m not talking about fascist groups but I’m talking about kind of Fox News. I think that women in a lot of action movies are sexually objectified and I think that’s a misogynistic view because it negates the woman as an individual. It forgets the fact that she’s a person basically and just sees her as a sex object.

Is that why you dressed Hanna in baggy clothes or big furs?

Yeah, I wasn’t interested in dressing her in skimpy tops or any of that crap. That’s not who she is and I certainly wasn’t interested in making her sexy or anything like that. That’s not what it’s about.

As far as a political perspective, do you notice that in recent action movies or going back to the ‘80s?

Certainly back in the ‘80s but there’s still a strain of it through modern action genre as well.

Are you talking about a pro-military perspective?

Yes, of course. I mean, it’s deeper than that but it’s a pro-military perspective. I think it supports a political status quo that I’m not quite sure I believe in.

Even Die Hard, even if it’s just stopping the terrorists and saving the day?

It depends where those terrorists are from, really, doesn’t it?

How important are the Erik and Marissa characters?

Obviously they’re like her surrogate parents almost. I like the kind of matricide aspect of this movie. I think there’s a lot of representations of the oedipal myth in culture, the son killing the father but it’s rare that you see the daughter killing the mother. I watch my girlfriends’ relationships with their mothers and it’s a very difficult relationship often. I think there’s as much of a battle to overcome your mother as a daughter as there is to overcome your father as a son. So I was interested in that kind of relationship. Obviously Erik is the only person she’s ever known up until the age of 16 so he’s vital to the story and another wonderful archetypal character.

Are you still doing Anna Karenina?

I hope so, yeah. We’ll know hopefully by the end of April.

When you have a screenplay and a novel, what do you relate to first?

The novel. I have been thinking about the idea of making Anna Karenina for some time but felt that the only person who could really do it justice was Tom Stoppard and so I went to Tom Stoppard and he agreed to write it. It’s worked like that really.

Does the audience get when it’s about universal themes or is there a target audiences that just loves the historical costumes?

I hope that the films always have a kind of emotional truth and certainly I think Pride & Prejudice, the themes of pride and prejudice, of falling in love, these are things that people still do. I’m not trying to update them or make them relevant to an audience. I’m just trying to stay true to the core human emotions which I don't think have really changed or perhaps will ever change.

Is that the same approach when you do a contemporary story?

Yeah, very much so. You look for the core emotional truth of the thing.

How did you discover the films you like?

I don't know actually. I guess you kind of just come across them. I talk about film a lot. I talk about film with people who’s tastes I admire and people suggest stuff or I read books about film. I love film so I’ll find a film in a book that I haven’t seen or a director who’s work I don’t know very well and I’ll go and investigate. It’s like a wonderful detective mystery.

How much time are you able to spend watching movies?

Not enough.

I feel that way too! I can never watch enough, even if I see five a day.

No, not nearly enough. When I was a kid, I used to watch probably six hours of television a day and that was lovely. I could certainly do with seeing more films at the moment.

What would you say to parents who worry their kids are spending too much time watching movies or TV? Can you assure them it’s creative?

I’d engage them in a conversation about the artistic creative merits of what they’re watching. I think there’s a big difference between watching something for the purpose of understanding something or educating yourself regarding something and just fucking watching shit for the sake of zoning out. All this reality TV and stuff, I would certainly question my child watching too much of that, but if they suddenly take on an avid interest in Howard Hawks or the French New Wave I would certainly encourage that. It depends what you’re watching and why you’re watching it.

But if the kid comes up with a great analysis of Jersey Shore, then you'd have to accept that.

Yeah, if they came up with a good reason, then absolutely.

Who is your creative group that you discuss movies with?

Just friends really. A lot of actors. Unfortunately not so many directors. Writers, artists generally. I love London. It was interesting, when I came and made The Soloist in this town, I was very excited because I was told that everyone here talked about film the whole time. But what I discovered when I got here was actually everyone talked about the industry the whole time. They didn’t actually talk about film, the aesthetic language of film. So they talked about who was in what or how much any given film had made at the box office, all of this kind of crap. So I left L.A. after a year having made The Soloist and practically went straight from here to Tblisi, the capital of Georgia, former Soviet Union. It was a film festival and there were all these filmmakers from Turkey and Poland and Russia, former Yugoslavia, Croatia, Bosnia, Iran, Albania and it was the most thrilling environment because people were really discussing film language and grammar. You’d go to a screening of a silent Russian movie and there wouldn’t be a seat in the house. The aisles would be packed with people sitting on the stairs, students often sitting on the stairs watching these movies. I just found that to be so refreshing and rewarding. That’s heaven to me.

I would settle for talking about the industry. I find people here won’t mention film at all, like it’s a dirty word.

Well, maybe they feel like they’d be a cliché if they did. You should go to the festival in Tblisi if you ever get a chance. It’s a really fascinating festival because you feel like it’s really on the front line of life. It’s a really interesting festival. You should certainly do some of the European festivals and other parts of the world because you get a completely different perspective. There are festivals in practically every country in the world. Try going to Tblisi. The London festival is very good now as well. The Edinburgh festival is great.

Hanna opens April 8.