Jason Ritter Interview, Sept. 28, 2008, Part 2

Reelscene : I guess you'll have to speak for the screenwriter at this point. Do you know, and I'll have to take this with a grain of salt if you make a mistakes, what was her background and exactly how did she develop the character? .

Jason Ritter : Her background, she grew up, she has a very interesting background because she grew up in Scotland and she, for various family reasons, from age, from when she was born to when she was about eight her father had this business that was going very well. So she lived a life where she didn't have to constantly think about money. They were very comfortable. And then for all these various reasons all of the money was lost and by the time she was thirteen or fourteen she was living in sort of the very working class city in Glasgow, Mary Hill. So she'd always had really great dual perspective, not only about that but just in general about people and what she thought the world was up until she was eight and then her sort of awakening to the darker side of the world and the struggles that people have. When she was writing,... and also as a woman,... as a woman in Hollywood where you can have all different types of male actors with different types of bodies and looks and things like that but as far as females you better have this body and you better look like and better be very attractive unless you're the top one or two percent of working female actresses. So she started getting obsess with this idea of what is sexy. I've heard her talk about this. This is one of the big things that made her write this script is because these things that Hollywood put out as 'hey this is sexy, look at this actor' he has like washboard abs and he's tanned and has bleached teeth and plucked eyebrows, whatever it is, whatever it is, this sold ideal is actually... she didn't find, she doesn't find that sexy. So the idea is that if you don't find that sexy it doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you, it's that it's different for everybody. And so she wanted to explore a different kind of masculinity and a different kind of femininity and then and find a new... what's sexy to her is something that's real. So as long as there's reality intertwined she finds it sexy, And I have to say it bothers me too in movies where the character is not a bodybuilder or personal trainer. He has a regular job like everybody else and he takes off his shirt and he's totally cut. It's just like these things that don't strike anyone as real. You don't recognize that as someone who might live next door to you, and if you did you probably wouldn't trust that person.

Reelscene : Well, it was interesting that the, and I didn't catch the character's name due to the sound system, what was the character's name?

Jason Ritter : Well, actually no, the character’s names were never mentioned.

Reelscene : I'll just have to say the girl or the woman.

Jason Ritter : Yes.

Reelscene : Her character was still trying to have some sort of sexual identity...

Jason Ritter : Yes.

Reelscene : ...even though this bad thing which we actually found out about later in the movie.

Jason Ritter : Yes, absolutely.

Reelscene : This bad thing had happened but she's still trying to have some what of sexual identity and it was unusual that she had picked out the erotic, pornographic videos.

Jason Ritter :Yeah she's trying to, her character is trying to discover... what it is because she had such a traumatic experience in her youth that she doesn't feel like she connects to other human beings in the same way that she does in her room, by herself when no one is looking at her and it's this solitary experience for her. But yeah, it's her trying to discover what do I like. Does anything excite me? It's like she's trying to figure it out... and she has one but she thinks that there's no way that any man or any person will ever accept her for who she is which is why a lot of times we go around trying to hide all of our bizarre qualities and we all have them, no one had a perfect family life. I've never met anyone who came from the perfect family.

Reelscene : And everybody has their own sense of sexual identity, it's just part of our normal makeup.

Jason Ritter : Yes, everyone has their own sexual identity, everyone has their own demons, everyone has their own likes and dislikes and so we go around hiding all of the things that make us unique for fear of feeling strange or not being normal. So the interesting thing about this script was that her character decides right up front, no explanation, I'm going to show you how messed up I am because I know that after I say this to you or do this to you, you'll run, 'cause that's what's anyone else has done, that much more subtle signals. The thing about this character is he's not swayed, he's sees exactly what she's doing. He sees that those actions are based in fear of whatever, of intimacy or any kind of honesty or openness.

Reelscene : Well also like, she couldn't have a normal relationship with somebody so she turns around and attacks...

Jason Ritter : Yes, exactly, exactly. It’s the pre-emptive strike. You don't often see that in relationships, usually you see people tend to live in fear for a long time. And only are truthful with each other when push comes to shove and a lot of times at that point the truth will break up a relationship because the lie has been created, the lie has what created the relationship

Reelscene : Well like I said, you were speaking for the scriptwriter on that.

Jason Ritter : Exactly, exactly.

Reelscene : If you get anything wrong it's just because of being translated.

Jason Ritter : Yes, exactly certain things that are lost.