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While the tale of overnight stardom is commonplace in Hollywood, none was as unexpected from the role that Jess Weixler performed to catapult her career. Playing the lead character in Mitchell Lichtenstein's TEETH, Jess Weixler played the unique and challenging role of Dawn, a pro-abstinence teenager who discovers that her vagina has teeth and has a tendency to bite when provoked, sparking fear in men everywhere. The challenging, funny, and offbeat role earned Weixler a Special Award for Acting at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. With TEETH being released theatrically later this month, Weixler took part in a special roundtable with the Crypt and others to discuss her breakthrough role, what the future holds for her, and winning the award at Sundance. The following are highlights from this discussion.
What was your reaction to the script the first time you read it? JESS WEIXLER: I didn’t even make it all the way through the script the first time. I read half of it enclosed and I’m not prepared to do that many sex scenes. I’ve never done a sex scene before and I’m not sure if I am ready for it. I auditioned for the role of the best friend and then they had me read for Dawn while I was in there and they offered me the part. I finished reading the script and found it funny. The first time I think I was so shocked I didn’t latch on to it, and then I met Mitchell Lichtenstein, who is so totally adorable, non-threatening and has this giggly, sincere sense of humor, I got that this was a dark comedy and not a bad, B horror movie. Talk about that first day when you had to shoot your first scene ever in your career. JW: I really got launched into it because the first one I had to do was the rape scene. I wasn’t like “Yay, we’re just gonna get to know each other,” I had to fight someone off of me in the middle of being vulnerable. Hale Appleman, the guy I did it with, I became great friends with and we still hang out here in Manhattan. Every single guy on this project were awesome. We all joked around in between takes and made it as safe as possible so that when time came we could be brave about it. What were some of the jokes on set? JW: People just say the word vagina and it sort of makes people smile. There’s even something online where someone was singing (singing in the tune of HAKUNA MATATA) “Vagina Dentata, what a wonderful phrase; Vagina Dentata,” so there was that and it was just not necessarily jokes about the movie but playing around with each other. One of the games was to say vagina and finding movie titles and putting vagina in them. In what unusual ways were the prosthetics handled? JW: No, we didn’t play with the prosthetics, the prosthetics just played with themselves because they didn’t always work. That was a bit of a disaster. What happened? JW: They would fall apart and the blood would squirt out the sides. The pubic hair would get all messy. Things would happen with the prosthetics and the private parts I guess. Were you overwhelmed in terms of how much information there was on this myth when you started to research the role? JW: I started to find it really exciting that this was that deep of a concept; that it really had gone cross culture and it meant something to ancient tribes. Usually it was men making women monsters and I thought Mitchell was very smart to have flipped it around and have made it about a woman being able to protect herself like a superhero. There was something anatomically unique and she learned how to hone it and use it for good. I love that it’s mythic and over the top and ridiculous and a little out of this world There’s an overlapping of genres dealing with revenge and castration and you referred yourself to Dawn as a superhero. How do you view the film if you had to choose one genre? JW: I would say mostly it’s a dark comedy because it’s kind of satire. I see that there are elements of horror movies. Tim Burton recently said in an interview that monster movies are not usually horrors, they’re movies about outsiders. They’re not there for the effect of being there like SAW or anything, it’s just not the same genre. We did heighten it to make it a little bit more ridiculous than a monster movie. I don’t think she’s a monster, I think she’s more of a superhero. It combines and the tone flops around, and I had to make her human enough that people care about her. She had to be real and relatable in order for people to care and the rest can be ridiculous because it is. Do you find it funny that the MPAA gave it a thumbs up as a cautionary tale for teenagers? JW: I have no idea what that means. I don’t think that it’s in any way promoting abstinence, I think it’s saying that if you don’t educate yourself, your emotions are going to overwhelm you. The statistics on abstinence say that if you aren’t educated than you don’t have safe sex and you wind up having a baby too young. Where did you grow up? JW: Louisville, Kentucky. So this must have some interesting implications in light of where you grew up? JW: Kentucky is very conservative and I have cousins who are very conservative. They don’t learn about evolution and they don’t have sex education and they aren’t allowed to have science magazines. So did you do research on that side of it? JW: I looked online and saw the silver ring thing, the groups that have these rallies to keep everyone on track. What did you remember about your own sex education classes? JW: I don’t remember them that well, they were very basic. I took Chinese in high school so my health course, because it put me in the wrong time slot, I took on my own. I took the book home and filled out my own paperwork, and that’s where I learned sex education and everything in middle school is very basic. Would you do THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES if asked? JW: I need to read it. I’m sure there’s something interesting about it. For having been closed off as a first reaction, I feel blessed that I got to play the part of a girl with teeth in her vagina. It’s never been done before, it’s an awesome acting role that required some bravery and some courage that I never knew I had. This was Mitchell’s first film as well. How did you two work together to develop the comfort level with each other? JW: It had to be very personal because it wasn’t like I could look at his work and say “I know that you’re good,” and he couldn’t look at mine and say “I know you’re good,” so we just got along and were able to talk through things so when we started shooting, he had a way of watching what I was gonna do and see where I was going to take it and he was tweaking it. He wasn’t uber controlling and I wasn’t diva like, I don’t think, so it was open dialogue all the time. We tried to have a good time because we didn’t know how it would turn out. Would you give an example of where you guys had a specific breakthrough? JW: We had a lot of dialogue of when she chooses to bite, because with the rape it’s just instinct. If your body can protect itself, it just does. Her body just protects itself and then she spends a while freaking out about what happened and trying to figure it out. Then she discovers that when she has sex with somebody she likes that it doesn’t happen all the time; that it’s something that happens out of fear. Then she realizes she can control it the third time around and that’s when it feels to me like a superhero movie, like the superhero who throws the web too far and can’t hit the mark, like how do you gauge what to do with this. In terms of being embraced by Sundance, what was it like to hear about winning the award at that specific time and also your fears of facing a festival audience that can be so critical and loving at once? JW: I was totally scared going into Sundance and I think our first audience were filled with critics because it was kind of quiet although I think they kind of liked it, but they weren’t very vocal about it. Not everybody has liked it, of course a lot of people haven’t liked it. When we showed it to a Park City crowd which was just audience, they went nuts and that was so gratifying to just see a crowd of people who had no give or take from it, they just went on this ride and loved it. When we showed it to the Eckels Theater with 1500 people, it was like a rock show, people were so vocal and had fun, which was what we wanted to show with the movie. That made me feel great to see that people were really into it. When I got the award, I went out of my mind because I am such a fan of so many people that were at Sundance, I thought that “You’re kidding, you’re going to give me the award for acting.” I didn’t know what was happening and I was probably on some crazy adrenaline rush for a week. I was so exciting, it was a little fairy tale moment. When you’re playing this woman, were you thinking about your ultimate revenge fantasy? JW: I have not encountered sexual abuse thankfully so I don’t have any sort of direct reference for it but I think every woman can imagine being abused. Most of the time a man can be stronger than a woman and that can be scary so you have to learn as a woman you’re trying not to please something that’s stronger than you. In that way I was able to visualize that and there are guys that I’ve totally hated so you can reference like “I hate you” and use that if you want. How has the year been for you since Sundance? JW: It’s been great because since the award people do know who I am now and it legitimized me to an extent and it did put me out there more. It didn’t automatically bring work because the movie hasn’t come out so a lot of people haven’t seen it or know what it was. I have worked on independent films and I have one that I just finished called PETER & VANDY where I think if they edit it well than it will be something special. It’s also good to see that I’m getting other jobs. Hopefully people aren’t going to limit me to being the toothy vagina girl. Have you found men purposefully avoiding you after seeing the film? JW: No, I’ve had guys come after me after seeing it half joking that I’m the scariest person alive, which I take as a compliment and that’s cool. I have a boyfriend now but for anything like that I think people would know the difference between fantasy and reality. What were the challenges of making a film where you are in your mid twenties and you play a fairly young teenager? JW: It was a challenge and it was one of the reasons where I felt that I couldn’t play Dawn because I’m not 18 anymore. Mitchell told me think of it like HEATHERS. None of those kids were in high school but you buy it for what it is and it’s not trying to be totally realistic anyway. That’s the bonus of calling it a dark comedy because you can get away with more. Tell us about PETER & VANDY. JW: It’s a love story between me and Jason Ritter. There are other things I’ve shot where I was shooting them and I felt they could turn out but this was one film where I felt there was something special and unique and I think it’s true with any actor that you get better as you do it more. I hope I am. What did you learn the most about TEETH? JW: I learned most that I could work this hard, that I could carry a movie, play a lead and not be terrified that I was gonna have to wake up day after day to wake up and put the pieces together. I’ve never had to work that hard and never given the challenge before so it was very satisfying to get enough of it to know that there was a story there. How did you ultimately feel about the graphic nature left off screen as opposed to on screen? JW: I know when we were shooting it and it wasn’t a decision beforehand that it was interesting that no blood ever got on her which adds to the superhero part of it, that she’s always left spotless. She gets out, she’s in the clear so I like that. There’s also not a lot of nudity and explicit material in it. There’s severed members that you’re seeing which I’m sure is horrible for guys to see but I think it does get the point across. That’s part of the fun to get to scream at something awful. With the rape revenge fantasy aspect, playing Devil’s Advocate, do you think there is something else that she could’ve done? JW: I think there are a lot of films that work around something where not all the guys are bad, there’s always one good guy where she metaphorically emasculates him. This movie just decided to be more archetypal and mythic where in order to serve the story the guys all had to be bad so she could discover this about herself. It is a metaphor and this is the visual for it so I think the option is you take away the guy’s weapon because that’s the metaphor. Did you envision her further adventures as a crusading anti-rapist? JW: I haven’t yet because I don’t know how it would play out. I don’t think she would go out searching for bad guys to remove their weapons. I think she just protects herself if she has to. It is quite literal that if this is what someone is abusing you with that this is the place where they are making you vulnerable, that’s your sex so you take the sex out of it. The flip side of this movie could be that you encourage men to be nice, kind, and gentle. Do you feel that’s part of the message or is it just pure repression? JW: I don’t think the message is repression at all. I think the message is learn as much about sex as you can, get to know yourself sexually and be good to each other. When she enjoyed it, it wasn’t even like he was the one she was going to be with forever, but when she enjoyed it the teeth didn’t come out. It was only when he lied to her. Do you think Dawn can be a role model for teenagers? JW: I think she could be as somebody who can defend herself. I think by the end she thinks that she’s sexy so it’s nice that she starts out closed off and uneducated and then discovers her sex and likes it. There’s a very serious part of the movie where Dawn is gradually experience the loss of her mother. How did you read it as impacting the character? JW: I think it gave her something to fight for in that she fights for herself and that her brother constantly ignored her sick mother and eventually caused her to die because he didn’t get her help for hours on end after it happened. I think it served the story to show that she realized that this guy had been abusing his sexual power, so enough of that. Is there any implication in your mind about the idea of merging families being a cautionary tale in itself? JW: I don’t think so. I think the reason why Dawn and Brad are so different is because they grew up in the same household and as young children, this incident happened where she was freaked out by it and shut down so it would make sense that she would go into abstinence so she could learn as little about it and he became fascinated by it and went in the other direction where it was all sex all the time but a more violent, warped version of it. It makes sense that in the same household the two of them would do that off of that happening at an early age. How did your family feel about this role? JW: I grew up with my dad and he is extremely supportive, he came to Sundance. I told him when to turn away at which parts but he laughed through the whole thing. He was really proud of me, he thought it was a great movie. He has a great sense of humor. What scenes did you tell him to look away? JW: When I was going to be nude or certain parts like “I’m getting raped, turn around,” something like that, but for the most part he’s not too conservative. I have extended family members that won’t talk to me about it. I guess there’s a few of those in every bunch. In terms of understanding the family, were there things that you able to use from your own experiences? JW: Without getting too personal, I have experience with sickness so I know what it’s like to love somebody and be afraid of losing them. That’s just something human that people have to deal with. Sometimes people don’t make it so I could relate to that as Dawn. I think also being a goody two shoes because she wanted to do everything right to make her family as happy as possible and that happens to kids. Other than PETER & VANDY is there anything else coming up for you? JW: I have something that I’m going to shoot in April. My roommate owns a comic book store in Brooklyn which is why I like to talk about superheroes. Jeffrey Brown is a cult comic book artist and he wrote a script and I’m going to be doing that with the band of Montreal. The lead singer will be playing one of the guys so that will be a lot of fun. Thanks for your time Jess and good luck with TEETH. JW: Thanks everyone.
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