Jamie Babbit first made herself a favorite of SuicideGirls when she directed the cult film But I'm a Cheerleader. Since then shes become a television staple, directing such shows as Alias, Gilmore Girls, Nip/Tuck and many more. But her second feature, The Quiet, is much different than anything shes done before. The Quiet stars Camilla Belle as Dot, a mute teenager, whose parents have died. She goes to live with a seemingly normal upper middle class family, but it turns out that the family is far from normal--with a father [played by Martin Donovan] who has an incestuous relationship with his cheerleader daughter [played by Elisha Cuthbert].
Check out the official website for The Quiet
Daniel Robert Epstein: The Quiet looks much different than your previous feature [But Im a Cheerleader]. Did doing all that television work in between help advance you?
Jamie Babbit: Well, But Im a Cheerleader was very specific because it was about exploring the paradigm of Barbie and the way that our culture makes girls, girls and boys, boys. I just had a kid and I go to the toy store and all the girls toys are pink and all the blue stuff is for the boys. Its ridiculous and that was what that movie was about. This movie was about people who are suffocating and who cant escape this suburban malaise and dysfunction of their families. The production design is still all about color and I kept red out of The Quiet until blood is shed in the movie. I just tried to give it a underwater feeling so those colors were much different than But Im a Cheerleader.
DRE: Why has it taken you so long to do a second feature?
JB: I wanted to do another independent film after But Im a Cheerleader so I had a bunch of projects that I was trying to get going. In the meantime I directed TV and also wrote and directed a short film called Stuck. Then the financing came through for The Quiet. As an independent filmmaker, youre at the mercy of when the money comes. Then coincidentally a week after we made The Quiet I got the money for my next film, Itty Bitty Titty Committee, which Im editing now.
DRE: How did the script come to you?
JB: A friend of mine gave it to me. His friends had written it, two gay guys who had developed it at the Sundance Screenwriters Guild. They were looking for a director and I met with them and I really liked the script. I asked them if I could be part of it and they said sure. So we then got it out to agents and actors. Elisha Cuthbert was the first actor to come on board. She got a producer credit on the movie because with her name we took it to the University of Texas and they financed it.
DRE: What made you think of Martin Donovan for this film?
JB: I love Martin Donovan. I loved him from all the Hal Hartley movies, I loved him from Saved, I loved him from The Opposite of Sex. He had been a part of a lot of movies that I really liked. I love how he has intelligence to him and I love how hes good looking in a Ken doll way but theres also something a little off about him. I begged him to be in the movie and convinced him that everyone wasnt going to hate his guts.
DRE: Were scenes more or less explicit in the script?
JB: The script was actually less explicit. In the script, all the scenes between Daddy and daughter were off-screen. So when I told Elisha that we were actually going to be filming them, she was surprised but open to it. I said Dot has to see something and the audience has to see something. The hardest day of shooting was the day I had to shoot Daddy/daughter love scenes in the bed because Elisha is a very strong person who would never let herself be victimized by her father. She has a lot of rage which worked really well for the character but it was really hard for her to go to the place of vulnerability and do Daddy love me, Daddy love me, which is basically what the sex scenes were about for her. She had to keep reminding herself that this is a character who doesnt know any better. That was tough for her because shes so not that person. So I scheduled it the last day of the shoot with her because I thought if it goes badly, at least it will be the last day. She later told me that she went to the bathroom, cried and had to face herself in the mirror and say this is not real, this is not real. But she was very professional so we got through it. I think it was hard for Martin as well because I think its nerve wracking for a guy to be in a bed with a girl whos much younger. The insecurity of Does she hate me?, especially when her character does secretly hate him. There was a lot of conflicting emotions going on.
DRE: How was directing those scenes?
JB: Since actors are insecure about sex scenes, the more specific you are the better. They like to have a map to follow and keep it professional. I explain what the overall intent and emotional arc of the scene is. I think that helps actors remember its a job but its always awkward for them because there are people around. Its not very intimate, so I just keep reminding them whats supposed to be going on in the scene so they can stop thinking how nervous they are.
DRE: How do you get actors to trust you?
JB: Just by who you are. I would hope that women feel that they could trust me but I keep reminding them what the scenes about and once again just being professional. With But Im a Cheerleader, the sex scene was so important because it was about these two women finally revealing themselves to each other. When Cleas character says I would love to see you cheer thats the end of the movie so it was an important scene. As far as The Quiet, it was really important to see the vulnerability of Elishas character with her father and that this is where she gets her love and that love/hate relationship thats going on. I didnt want to make a movie about sexual abuse where its all one sided and she absolutely hates every second that shes with her dad. So much of sexual abuse is about women needing the love and enjoying it. Then at the same time hating themselves and detesting it. I really wanted that push/pull to be part of the film.
DRE: How was it working with Camilla Belle?
JB: Originally the part of Dot was to be played by Thora Birch but a week before we started shooting, she pulled out. So I needed to find an actress and luckily I had seen The Ballad of Jack and Rose and in many ways Camillas character in that is very similar to Dot. She has a weird relationship with her father and at the very end of the movie, he dies. At the beginning of this movie, her father has just died and shes going to live with a foster family. So when I saw that film I thought, Wow, she can play this role. She has great, amazing, subtle face and that was the type of girl that I needed. You can tell shes intelligent, shes beautiful, shes subtle, shes quiet, so the hardest things was when I actually met her in person in Texas. I was like Wow, she looks like a supermodel, so how do I get her to look as invisible as possible.
DRE: I didnt recognize her at first.
JB: Good, because she wore no makeup and we shagged her hair and changed her demeanor. She just tried to play it as quiet as possible.
DRE: But Im a Cheerleader and The Quiet share certain themes with one of them being that the main characters are in very dysfunctional families. Did you have messed up parents?
JB: I didnt have messed up parents but my mother was a therapist and she ran a rehab for drug addicts and alcoholics so I definitely knew a lot of messed up people growing up. So at a young age I was keenly aware of the underbelly of suburbia. I grew up in suburban Ohio and Ive always been interested in suburban horror. But Im a Cheerleader in some ways is about the underbelly of whats really going on in suburbia. Yes, some of those girls that are cheerleaders are also lesbians and some of them are being sexually abused. Though Im also interested in the paradigm of femininity of being a cheerleader in the way that Ang Lee explored that with the cowboy in Brokeback Mountain. I tried to explore that with the cheerleader by showing theres another side to it.
DRE: How do you think femininity comes into play in The Quiet?
JB: I think when you are first introduced to Elishas character, Nina, shes everything that a girl would want to be. They say that in the opening scene, you have everything, youre dads hot, youre moms a babe, youre the prettiest girl in school, youve got everything, and shes wearing a cheerleader outfit and shes gorgeous and all the guys want her. Then as the movie unfolds you realize that shes in a really empty fucked up place. I think the brilliant thing about Elisha and I think the thing people really like about the movie is that she embodies the underbelly of what people expect in a girl and how shes got a lot more layers.
DRE: I grew up in the suburbs on Long Island. Has suburbia changed that much in the past 20 years or do you think its always been fucked up?
JB: My mother grew up in a household that was riddled with addiction and sexual abuse and her brother had problems with arson. That was in the 50s so I think this shit has always been going on but now it comes to light more. Social services wasnt what it was back in the day. When I think about it now my mom probably would have been taken away. People are screwed up all over the world.
DRE: Would you want to create a television show?
JB: I would love to create a television show and I would love to make another film. I would love to keep working and just doing things that Im interested in even a studio movie. But I would never do any of those things unless it was a subject matter that I was interested in exploring because all of that stuff takes a lot out of you.
DRE: Whats Itty Bitty Titty Committee about?
JB: Itty Bitty Titty Committee is a re-imagining of Born in Flames.
DRE: Thats so funny, I just watched that film for the first time this past week.
JB: I was really inspired when I first saw that movie. Itty Bitty Titty Committee is about a girl who is aimless so she doesnt really know what shes doing with her life and she comes in contact with a group of revolutionary feminists and she changes the world.
DRE: Is it an independent film?
JB: Its an independent film. The star is a girl named Melonie Diaz who was in a movie named Raising Victor Vargas. Shes a young Rosario Dawson. Clea DuVall has a small part. Melanie Mayron and Jenny Shimizu are in it as well.
DRE: How did you first hear of Born in Flames?
JB: I had been told about it and read about it in womens study classes. I went to Barnard College in New York City which has a very strong feminist tradition and it was a movie that kept coming up in my Feminism 101 classes. I saw the movie and was really inspired by it because I loved that it was a movie about revolutionary feminists. It was not scared to talk about politics, not scared to talk about revolutionary politics and to now see the last frame of the film with the World Trade Center blowing up makes it extremely relevant. It really captured the lesbian scene at that time. There are a lot of non-actors in that movie so not all of the acting is very good but you can feel those women are real butch lesbians from the underground scene. What I loved about Lizzies movie is she really found these butch black and white, young lesbians and captured them on film forever.
DRE: Do you think Natasha Lyonne can bounce back?
JB: I think Natasha is one of the true talents of our time. Theyre so few women of her age group that are as funny and talented as she is and I just think its really sad. As I said I grew up with people who are in abusive relationships with drugs and alcohol and now this is a current example of how drugs can take over and consume your life and take everything away from you. I really hope she bounces back but Im afraid shes going to pass away because its such a horrible addiction.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official website for The Quiet
Daniel Robert Epstein: The Quiet looks much different than your previous feature [But Im a Cheerleader]. Did doing all that television work in between help advance you?
Jamie Babbit: Well, But Im a Cheerleader was very specific because it was about exploring the paradigm of Barbie and the way that our culture makes girls, girls and boys, boys. I just had a kid and I go to the toy store and all the girls toys are pink and all the blue stuff is for the boys. Its ridiculous and that was what that movie was about. This movie was about people who are suffocating and who cant escape this suburban malaise and dysfunction of their families. The production design is still all about color and I kept red out of The Quiet until blood is shed in the movie. I just tried to give it a underwater feeling so those colors were much different than But Im a Cheerleader.
DRE: Why has it taken you so long to do a second feature?
JB: I wanted to do another independent film after But Im a Cheerleader so I had a bunch of projects that I was trying to get going. In the meantime I directed TV and also wrote and directed a short film called Stuck. Then the financing came through for The Quiet. As an independent filmmaker, youre at the mercy of when the money comes. Then coincidentally a week after we made The Quiet I got the money for my next film, Itty Bitty Titty Committee, which Im editing now.
DRE: How did the script come to you?
JB: A friend of mine gave it to me. His friends had written it, two gay guys who had developed it at the Sundance Screenwriters Guild. They were looking for a director and I met with them and I really liked the script. I asked them if I could be part of it and they said sure. So we then got it out to agents and actors. Elisha Cuthbert was the first actor to come on board. She got a producer credit on the movie because with her name we took it to the University of Texas and they financed it.
DRE: What made you think of Martin Donovan for this film?
JB: I love Martin Donovan. I loved him from all the Hal Hartley movies, I loved him from Saved, I loved him from The Opposite of Sex. He had been a part of a lot of movies that I really liked. I love how he has intelligence to him and I love how hes good looking in a Ken doll way but theres also something a little off about him. I begged him to be in the movie and convinced him that everyone wasnt going to hate his guts.
DRE: Were scenes more or less explicit in the script?
JB: The script was actually less explicit. In the script, all the scenes between Daddy and daughter were off-screen. So when I told Elisha that we were actually going to be filming them, she was surprised but open to it. I said Dot has to see something and the audience has to see something. The hardest day of shooting was the day I had to shoot Daddy/daughter love scenes in the bed because Elisha is a very strong person who would never let herself be victimized by her father. She has a lot of rage which worked really well for the character but it was really hard for her to go to the place of vulnerability and do Daddy love me, Daddy love me, which is basically what the sex scenes were about for her. She had to keep reminding herself that this is a character who doesnt know any better. That was tough for her because shes so not that person. So I scheduled it the last day of the shoot with her because I thought if it goes badly, at least it will be the last day. She later told me that she went to the bathroom, cried and had to face herself in the mirror and say this is not real, this is not real. But she was very professional so we got through it. I think it was hard for Martin as well because I think its nerve wracking for a guy to be in a bed with a girl whos much younger. The insecurity of Does she hate me?, especially when her character does secretly hate him. There was a lot of conflicting emotions going on.
DRE: How was directing those scenes?
JB: Since actors are insecure about sex scenes, the more specific you are the better. They like to have a map to follow and keep it professional. I explain what the overall intent and emotional arc of the scene is. I think that helps actors remember its a job but its always awkward for them because there are people around. Its not very intimate, so I just keep reminding them whats supposed to be going on in the scene so they can stop thinking how nervous they are.
DRE: How do you get actors to trust you?
JB: Just by who you are. I would hope that women feel that they could trust me but I keep reminding them what the scenes about and once again just being professional. With But Im a Cheerleader, the sex scene was so important because it was about these two women finally revealing themselves to each other. When Cleas character says I would love to see you cheer thats the end of the movie so it was an important scene. As far as The Quiet, it was really important to see the vulnerability of Elishas character with her father and that this is where she gets her love and that love/hate relationship thats going on. I didnt want to make a movie about sexual abuse where its all one sided and she absolutely hates every second that shes with her dad. So much of sexual abuse is about women needing the love and enjoying it. Then at the same time hating themselves and detesting it. I really wanted that push/pull to be part of the film.
DRE: How was it working with Camilla Belle?
JB: Originally the part of Dot was to be played by Thora Birch but a week before we started shooting, she pulled out. So I needed to find an actress and luckily I had seen The Ballad of Jack and Rose and in many ways Camillas character in that is very similar to Dot. She has a weird relationship with her father and at the very end of the movie, he dies. At the beginning of this movie, her father has just died and shes going to live with a foster family. So when I saw that film I thought, Wow, she can play this role. She has great, amazing, subtle face and that was the type of girl that I needed. You can tell shes intelligent, shes beautiful, shes subtle, shes quiet, so the hardest things was when I actually met her in person in Texas. I was like Wow, she looks like a supermodel, so how do I get her to look as invisible as possible.
DRE: I didnt recognize her at first.
JB: Good, because she wore no makeup and we shagged her hair and changed her demeanor. She just tried to play it as quiet as possible.
DRE: But Im a Cheerleader and The Quiet share certain themes with one of them being that the main characters are in very dysfunctional families. Did you have messed up parents?
JB: I didnt have messed up parents but my mother was a therapist and she ran a rehab for drug addicts and alcoholics so I definitely knew a lot of messed up people growing up. So at a young age I was keenly aware of the underbelly of suburbia. I grew up in suburban Ohio and Ive always been interested in suburban horror. But Im a Cheerleader in some ways is about the underbelly of whats really going on in suburbia. Yes, some of those girls that are cheerleaders are also lesbians and some of them are being sexually abused. Though Im also interested in the paradigm of femininity of being a cheerleader in the way that Ang Lee explored that with the cowboy in Brokeback Mountain. I tried to explore that with the cheerleader by showing theres another side to it.
DRE: How do you think femininity comes into play in The Quiet?
JB: I think when you are first introduced to Elishas character, Nina, shes everything that a girl would want to be. They say that in the opening scene, you have everything, youre dads hot, youre moms a babe, youre the prettiest girl in school, youve got everything, and shes wearing a cheerleader outfit and shes gorgeous and all the guys want her. Then as the movie unfolds you realize that shes in a really empty fucked up place. I think the brilliant thing about Elisha and I think the thing people really like about the movie is that she embodies the underbelly of what people expect in a girl and how shes got a lot more layers.
DRE: I grew up in the suburbs on Long Island. Has suburbia changed that much in the past 20 years or do you think its always been fucked up?
JB: My mother grew up in a household that was riddled with addiction and sexual abuse and her brother had problems with arson. That was in the 50s so I think this shit has always been going on but now it comes to light more. Social services wasnt what it was back in the day. When I think about it now my mom probably would have been taken away. People are screwed up all over the world.
DRE: Would you want to create a television show?
JB: I would love to create a television show and I would love to make another film. I would love to keep working and just doing things that Im interested in even a studio movie. But I would never do any of those things unless it was a subject matter that I was interested in exploring because all of that stuff takes a lot out of you.
DRE: Whats Itty Bitty Titty Committee about?
JB: Itty Bitty Titty Committee is a re-imagining of Born in Flames.
DRE: Thats so funny, I just watched that film for the first time this past week.
JB: I was really inspired when I first saw that movie. Itty Bitty Titty Committee is about a girl who is aimless so she doesnt really know what shes doing with her life and she comes in contact with a group of revolutionary feminists and she changes the world.
DRE: Is it an independent film?
JB: Its an independent film. The star is a girl named Melonie Diaz who was in a movie named Raising Victor Vargas. Shes a young Rosario Dawson. Clea DuVall has a small part. Melanie Mayron and Jenny Shimizu are in it as well.
DRE: How did you first hear of Born in Flames?
JB: I had been told about it and read about it in womens study classes. I went to Barnard College in New York City which has a very strong feminist tradition and it was a movie that kept coming up in my Feminism 101 classes. I saw the movie and was really inspired by it because I loved that it was a movie about revolutionary feminists. It was not scared to talk about politics, not scared to talk about revolutionary politics and to now see the last frame of the film with the World Trade Center blowing up makes it extremely relevant. It really captured the lesbian scene at that time. There are a lot of non-actors in that movie so not all of the acting is very good but you can feel those women are real butch lesbians from the underground scene. What I loved about Lizzies movie is she really found these butch black and white, young lesbians and captured them on film forever.
DRE: Do you think Natasha Lyonne can bounce back?
JB: I think Natasha is one of the true talents of our time. Theyre so few women of her age group that are as funny and talented as she is and I just think its really sad. As I said I grew up with people who are in abusive relationships with drugs and alcohol and now this is a current example of how drugs can take over and consume your life and take everything away from you. I really hope she bounces back but Im afraid shes going to pass away because its such a horrible addiction.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
courtneyriot:
Jamie Babbit first made herself a favorite of SuicideGirls when she directed the cult film But I'm a Cheerleader. Since then shes become a television staple, directing such shows as Alias, Gilmore Girls, Nip/Tuck and many more. But her second feature, The Quiet, is much different than anything shes...
argene:
I loved But I'm a Cheerleader. I'll def check her other movies out.