"Sex and Death 101"

[CHRIS B]

Daniel Waters on "Sex and Death 101"
Wednesday, April 2, 2008 | 11:25 AM
By Stephen Saito



For once, timing is in the favor of Daniel Waters, the prodigiously talented writer behind "Heathers" who admits to "taking forever to write a script." Waters's latest film, "Sex and Death 101," opens in theaters April 4th, but the dark comedy actually begins on April 2nd, when a playboy (Simon Baker) is accidentally e-mailed a list of all his future sexual conquests before dying. While a life of musical lap dances and "an embarrassment of bitches" await Baker's Mr. Roderick Blank, so does a sense of mortality and ennui.

It's a bit reassuring to see Waters's second directorial effort arrive in theaters a week after many pondered the disappearance of John Hughes, whose earnest '80s teen classics were redefined by Waters's sardonic satire of high school life. In the years since "Heathers" was released in 1989, Waters turned a development deal with producer Joel Silver in the early 1990s into perhaps the strangest and most subversive run of studio action movies ever ("Hudson Hawk," "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane" and "Demolition Man") before returning to teen territory with the underrated "Happy Campers" in 2002, a film he never intended to direct. That isn't the case with "Sex and Death 101," a film that bears Waters's trademark wit as well as his "Heathers" star Winona Ryder as a feminist death dealer named Death Nell. I recently sat down to Waters to discuss his reunion with Ryder, his writing process and how originality became a dirty word.

When you get a clever line in your head, is that something that lingers in your head long before it finds its way into the script?

I'll do anything to not write — like I won't open up my computer. I have to write everything by hand. I call it collecting acorns, writing these scribbles..."embarrassment of bitches!" It ends up collecting over time, and then when I sit down to actually start to put my little scraps of paper in order, I have this dialogue. To me, it's worth cooking the chili that much slower in order to get that extra flavor. I think it's funny that a lot of books about how to write a screenplay [teach] the importance of structure. That's like a book about horseback riding that says you need a horse. You shouldn't even start anything until you have the structure down. But these little individual bits [are] what's fun for me to write and makes [my movies] unique.

But unique can be used as a pejorative too. "It was unique. It was original." I find that people, especially in the world of independent film, like originality as long as it's an originality they're comfortable and familiar with. "What's this real originality thing going on?" "Wait, you have like five different tones. That's against the law."

How did this movie come together?

Obviously, it's a long journey, this 15 years away I call the "island of misfit toys" part of my life — I was working on bigger movies doing rewrites, and I ended up inadvertently being hired to put giraffes' heads on rhinoceroses' bodies. I had to force myself to break away from the studio films, which are kind of like having sex wearing 50 condoms. "Sex and Death 101" is this conscious thing of going back to the basics, to my Ralph Nader side where I open up the newspaper and say, well, as a consumer advocate, what movie's not out there that I'm not seeing? With "Heathers," it was like a high school movie that didn't end with them saying when you grow older, your heart dies... because your heart dies way before then. (laughs)

I wanted to do a movie about sexuality, because there was a realm in the '70s that I think is missing now. Independent films seem to be very punishing about sexuality — nobody seems to be enjoying themselves, it's like "Oh my God, I've had sex with my daughter!" or something like that. On the other end of the scale, you've got these immature ejaculation movies about boobies that have nothing to do with actual sex. Mainstream comedies, they don't even have sex. They just run after a cab at the end and the sex happens during the closing credits.

I wanted to go back to "Shampoo" and "Carnal Knowledge" and "Bob, Ted, Carol and Alice," popular movies that dealt with sexuality, but in a way that was still humorous. I liked the idea of that kind of movie, but it was important that I update the zeitgeist of it all. Back in the '60s and the '70s, the men were still playing offense and now, I think we're playing defense. The world has overwhelmed the typical male. The one realm of sexuality I didn't mention [is] Judd Apatow's. I think they're terrific films, but he's got a very comforting thesis that men are these sex-obsessed beasts, but if you just scratch the surface, they're warm and fuzzy inside. I've got a less popular dictum in my film that a man can be well-adjusted, mature, and remembers Valentine's Day and to complement your haircut, but you scratch the surface and he's still a sex-obsessed beast.

You have a great foil for your leading man in the character of Death Nell. Did you write the part for Winona Ryder?

When I started writing the script, she was going through her troubles, so I did think it was a great idea because people didn't know where she was coming from and I liked that. It dovetailed into the character quite nicely because it's a character that you think is one way, but is really another. I didn't want the man-eating Angelina Jolie femme fatale that would eat you up and spit you out. I wanted to have that threat out there looming, but then when you actually meet the character and there's this sweet wobbly human being playing it, you know there's no more femme fatale out there. It's like a role she's feebly trying to take on, just like he tries to take on his role of the guy that's got it all together.

Besides Ryder, how did you attract such a strong supporting cast?

It didn't hit me until I was actually filming that, except for Mindy [Cohn], there are no supporting characters in the movie. When an actress shows up on the set, she's the lead of the movie — it is almost like ten different movies, [each] with a new female lead, so they bring their A-game because they don't feel that they're scenery. Obviously, I made the movie before "Good Luck Chuck" [which has a similar premise about a womanizer] came out, but I knew there was going to be a movie like that, and I didn't want to make it. I didn't want that montage sequence, the dreary cavalcade of Maxim whores. I wanted it not to be a movie about a guy who just bam, bam, bam, $%#@s a lot of women, that the women are $%#@ing him as much as he's $%#@ing them.

Was it actually a conscious decision on your part to direct your own scripts at a certain point or did it just work out that way?

I was very obstinate about [it] — "Oh, don't worry. I'm not the guy that wants to direct" — when I was starting out, and it was great because I'd been so prepared that they always ignored the writer. But "Heathers" is one of the few movies where they put a spotlight on me and taped sparklers to me, so I was getting credit. It's funny that what you think is the most simple, littlest detail that you put in a script — and my scripts are very thick and dense — gets lost in translation, and it can be one stroke if the writer is also the director. I'm never going to be quite comfortable directing — I think I did a good job this time around. I had a $12 million film school course called "Happy Campers," but I still think the writing process and the editing process are the warm cave, and that directing is like me with a spear trying to kill a woolly mammoth. But it's exciting, and it is where the movie gets made, and so if you really want to be a filmmaker, you can't kid yourself that you're going to have this pristine [experience], because nothing goes through a gang bang more than a script, so it's just good to be there.

[Photos: Simon Baker and Winona Ryder in "Sex and Death 101"; Daniel Waters, Simon Baker and Sophie Monk; Anchor Bay Entertainment, 2007]

"Sex and Death 101" opens in New York and Los Angeles on April 4th.

http://www.ifc.com/film/f...ters-on-sex-and-death.php

[vulcannonibird]

"Sex and Death 101" opens in New York and Los Angeles on April 4th.

no comment....

[CHRIS B]

Here is a really, really lengthy interview with Dan Waters. It was too long to post it all here so I just quoted the Winona parts. Click the link to read the rest.

http://thehollywoodinterv...-hollywood-interview.html

Winona Ryder as Death Nell.

Had you kept up with Winona over the years since Heathers?

Yeah, her mad desire for a Heathers sequel kept us in touch. We’ve had a bit of a “Hello, Newman!” relationship [laughs], where she’ll see me somewhere and cross her arms and give me a pouty smile, because I haven’t written Heathers II yet.

She’d actually want to do a Heathers II?

She’s desperate to do a Heathers II. To me, we’re even way past Two Jakes land now though [laughs] ! I don’t understand why anybody would care about a Heathers sequel. But I definitely kept that carrot in front of the rabbit when I asked her to do this.


Have you come up with any ideas for a Heathers sequel though?

I do give it some thought sometimes because I have this great actress after me to do it. Maybe a couple of years after Heathers came out, I was drunk at a party and threw out this idea that Winona would be working in a senator’s office, for a senator named Heather [laughs]. The senator would be a Hillary Clinton type…I think this was even before Hillary Clinton came to prominence, and she'd played by Meryl Streep. And Winona’s character, her implication to the previous high school murders would be found out. So the government would use her to investigate Senator Heather and all this stuff would happen, and she’d end up assassinating the President. This whole wild flight of fancy. And, maybe like two years later, Winona comes up to me and says, “I’ve talked to Meryl. She’s in!” I’m like, “What? Are you kidding me?” But recently, I’ve been kind of having the idea of doing a parody of those Dangerous Minds-types of films, where the teacher comes in and tries to save the high school. So maybe Winona is a teacher who sees the same dynamics that were in place when she was in high school, and she tries to cure everything. But it becomes this big school massacre. For laughs.

Was it difficult to get her on board for Sex and Death?

God love her, but everything with Winona is a little difficult [laughs]. Especially like getting her on the phone. I think of her as kind of a dark fairy, and in fairy terms, Tinkerbell doesn’t have a cell phone. You’ve just got to let the gods sort of blow her in your way. My producers weren’t as crazy as I was about casting her in the movie, so I had to wear them down a bit. But everybody couldn’t be happier about the final performance.

They didn’t see the built-in marketing hook of your reunion with her?

I think their first concern was about actually filming. Because Winona is a true eccentric. In a good way. I think it definitely helps with this role, because she’s a lovable psychotic. She’s got this raw and wonderful humanity. I didn’t want the crazy, dark femme fatale character. I wanted somebody who was kind of playing at being the dark femme fatale.

She’s able to turn on the sweetness and that definitely works well for the role.

Yeah, there was a lot of stuff that she brought to the role. There’s a great moment in the movie that was totally her, where Simon’s line is “Did he hit you?” [in reference to Winona’s ex] and she goes, “Awww!” Like it’s so sweet that he would ask that.

[lainy]

"Sex and Death 101" opens in New York and Los Angeles on April 4th.

no comment....

I'm sorry, Vulcan I know how frustrated you must feel about all of the limited releases lately, especially since you don't live in the U.S. I don't live tooooo far from the city, but even I can't really make the trip out there just to see her movie, lol. I mean, I could if I had more time/$$, but I will wait until the DVD comes out.

[lainy]

Here is a really, really lengthy interview with Dan Waters. It was too long to post it all here so I just quoted the Winona parts. Click the link to read the rest.

http://thehollywoodinterv...-hollywood-interview.html

Winona Ryder as Death Nell.

Had you kept up with Winona over the years since Heathers?

Yeah, her mad desire for a Heathers sequel kept us in touch. We’ve had a bit of a “Hello, Newman!” relationship [laughs], where she’ll see me somewhere and cross her arms and give me a pouty smile, because I haven’t written Heathers II yet.

She’d actually want to do a Heathers II?

She’s desperate to do a Heathers II. To me, we’re even way past Two Jakes land now though [laughs] ! I don’t understand why anybody would care about a Heathers sequel. But I definitely kept that carrot in front of the rabbit when I asked her to do this.


Have you come up with any ideas for a Heathers sequel though?

I do give it some thought sometimes because I have this great actress after me to do it. Maybe a couple of years after Heathers came out, I was drunk at a party and threw out this idea that Winona would be working in a senator’s office, for a senator named Heather [laughs]. The senator would be a Hillary Clinton type…I think this was even before Hillary Clinton came to prominence, and she'd played by Meryl Streep. And Winona’s character, her implication to the previous high school murders would be found out. So the government would use her to investigate Senator Heather and all this stuff would happen, and she’d end up assassinating the President. This whole wild flight of fancy. And, maybe like two years later, Winona comes up to me and says, “I’ve talked to Meryl. She’s in!” I’m like, “What? Are you kidding me?” But recently, I’ve been kind of having the idea of doing a parody of those Dangerous Minds-types of films, where the teacher comes in and tries to save the high school. So maybe Winona is a teacher who sees the same dynamics that were in place when she was in high school, and she tries to cure everything. But it becomes this big school massacre. For laughs.

Was it difficult to get her on board for Sex and Death?

God love her, but everything with Winona is a little difficult [laughs]. Especially like getting her on the phone. I think of her as kind of a dark fairy, and in fairy terms, Tinkerbell doesn’t have a cell phone. You’ve just got to let the gods sort of blow her in your way. My producers weren’t as crazy as I was about casting her in the movie, so I had to wear them down a bit. But everybody couldn’t be happier about the final performance.

They didn’t see the built-in marketing hook of your reunion with her?

I think their first concern was about actually filming. Because Winona is a true eccentric. In a good way. I think it definitely helps with this role, because she’s a lovable psychotic. She’s got this raw and wonderful humanity. I didn’t want the crazy, dark femme fatale character. I wanted somebody who was kind of playing at being the dark femme fatale.

She’s able to turn on the sweetness and that definitely works well for the role.

Yeah, there was a lot of stuff that she brought to the role. There’s a great moment in the movie that was totally her, where Simon’s line is “Did he hit you?” [in reference to Winona’s ex] and she goes, “Awww!” Like it’s so sweet that he would ask that.

This was a really great interview!

This part is kind of disconcerting, though:
"My producers weren’t as crazy as I was about casting her in the movie, so I had to wear them down a bit."

Do you think it's because people see her as difficult to work with, because of her "incident," or because they don't necessarily like her acting? It just makes me think...

This is the second time I've heard that Winona is difficult to work with. When I met a photographer who did a photo shoot with Winona in the '90s, he said the same thing (and by his tone and comments, it was evident that he was not at all happy to have worked with her). I know these are only two comments, but I just... hate thinking that she might be stuck up in real life or something because I've admired her for so many years now (for her acting and for who she is).

I hope this isn't a common opinion shared by most producers in the business.

I love the idea of spoofing Dangerous Minds.... while that movie is touching and what not, it just seems so cornball (even though it was based on a true story). I would love to see that version of Heathers II.  He should just make the film already! Winona seems stuck on it getting made, so he might as well just do it. Heathers fans will surely go see it, and it would catch new viewers' attention as well, I'm sure.


"Yeah, there was a lot of stuff that she brought to the role. There’s a great moment in the movie that was totally her, where Simon’s line is “Did he hit you?” [in reference to Winona’s ex] and she goes, 'Awww!' Like it’s so sweet that he would ask that."

I like this part =)

[CHRIS B]

Sex and Death 101 (Anchor Bay) made just $2,820 per-screen at five locations, despite the presence of Winona Ryder, Leslie Bibb, Julie Bowen, and Sophie Monk. (Oh, and Simon Baker.) Veteran screenwriter Daniel Waters wrote and directed; when it played at Fantastic Fest last fall, Scott Weinberg wrote that his "latest represents his very best work in a very long time ... The movie juggles romantic comedy, dark humor, sex farce and slight slapstick with seldom a misstep, resulting in a surprisingly unpredictable flick that works on a small variety of levels."

http://www.cinematical.co...e-red-balloon-soars-abov/

[CHRIS B]

Starz Home Entertainment has announced that they will bring the Simon Baker and Winona Ryder film ‘Sex and Death 101' to Blu-ray on July 1st, day and date with the DVD release. The film come from Daniel Waters, the writer of the cult classic film ‘Heathers'. No technical specs have been announced at this time. Special features include audio commentary and a making-of featurette.

[vulcannonibird]

Was last week in NYC and according to the only cinema which showed it there, it was only there for one week....

[ILoveWinona]

According to Amazon.com "Sex and Death 101" will be released on region one DVD July 1st. ----- I would still love to see the movie in a theater, there's nothing better that watching Winona on the big screen. ---- Rusty

[CHRIS B]

BlackBook magazine interview with Dan Waters.

When the movie Heathers came out in 1989, it was a eureka moment for many teen fans—finally, a dark comedy about high school! Because, let’s face it, high school is dark. Heathers catapulted Winona Ryder’s acting career, and Daniel Waters became one of the most sought-after screenwriters in Hollywood. He went on to write many big budget studio movies like Batman Returns, Demolition Man, and the “loved in Denmark and Spain” Hudson Hawk. Waters’ refers to this chapter in his career as the “failing-upwards-montage.” “I got involved in doing rewrites for big action movies,” said Waters. “I was creating movies that didn’t appeal to the people who liked Heathers and didn’t appeal to action movie fans either. I felt like it was more of a job than actual writing. I said to myself that I had to stop and get back to that warm place of naiveté where I wrote Heathers.” The result: the devilishly dark and wickedly funny Sex and Death 101.


 The movie stars Simon Baker and Winona Ryder and is not only written by Waters but directed by him, as well. The premise: A man gets emailed a mysterious list of all the women he’s had sex with and all the women he ever will have sex with – a grand total of 101 names (thankfully not two because that would be tragedy, not comedy). I sat down with Waters to talk about Sex and Death 101, re-teaming with Winona Ryder, living in Orson Welles’ old house, and surviving in Los Angeles without a driver’s license. 

Let’s reflect on Heathers for a moment.

I had an opportunity to reflect on it recently. They had a salute to Heathers in Seattle that I flew up for. Right off the bat when the man who interviewed me announced it had been twenty years since the movie came out, the whole audience gasped. And I gasped back stage. I had to come out and explain that I wrote the movie when I was twelve.

[Laughing] How does it feel to have created a cult classic?

I like the fact that I made a movie where people come up to me and tell me that they like Heathers and then they say that the first time they saw it they hated it. That’s an interesting response because I’ve never seen a movie that I hated and then loved. The key to most of what I write and the key to what makes a cult classic is what comes out in a repeat viewing. I think a lot of movies that are made today you kind of get it in the first ten minutes and never have to see it again. Maybe it was the fact that Heathers was my first script and I kind of packed everything I could into it. So there’s a lot to unpack when you watch it over and over again. 

I read that you wrote Heathers because you “had to.” What did you mean by that?

I was watching movies in the ‘80s and remember something being missing. They weren’t engaging my mind like the movies of the 70s did. I thought of darker films, Stanley Kubrick films. I thought, where is that version of the teen film? I felt that that kind of high school movie had to be created. So instead of waiting around for it and being disappointed, I took the bull by the horns and wrote the movie myself. 

Is that why you wrote your new movie Sex and Death 101?

Yes. Exactly. I opened up the newspaper and felt that I wasn’t seeing adult films about sexuality. Movies in the ‘70s, like The Graduate and Shampoo, were movies not just for the art house. They were for a mass audience because they connected with the audience. This was the kind of movie that I wanted to see. Again, instead of waiting around for it, I got to be the guy to write it.

 
From the witty dialogue to the hilarious situations to the countless gorgeous women, most actors would jump at the opportunity to play the lead role of Roderick Blank.

You would think. Male actors are very freaked out about sexuality. They’re almost more uncomfortable with their sexuality than women are. Although women are probably used to reading more parts that are more sexual. I think actors like the premise of this movie if it was real life, but there’s a certain awkwardness that comes in when you know you’re going be the guy that people will be watching who’ll have his shirt off with all these different women in different scenes, in different complications. But, the great thing about Simon Baker is that Australians don’t have the same hang-ups as Americans. They’re walking around naked at age three and they never stop. Even Sophie Monk, who’s also Australian and has a major part in the movie, was more worried about her air hockey playing than her nude scene.

Most men would be totally psyched to find a list of the names of all the women they will ever have sex with. However, I didn’t get the feeling that Roderick Blank was all that excited about it.

It’s funny you say that, because I’ve always said that finding a list of all the women you’ll ever have sex with is a premise that if you think about for five minutes it’s awesome. You think about it for ten minutes …Oh, $%#@. The plus side is obvious – all the money you could save and the emotional stress you can avoid if you just knew ahead of time what would happen with the relationship. The irony is that when you lose that thrill of pursuit, finding this list is all of a sudden not the greatest thing in the world. Once Roderick Blank starts racking up his numbers there’s a sadness behind it.

 
There has been a lot of hype surrounding Sex and Death 101 because of your re-teaming with Heathers star Winona Ryder. How was it to work with her again?

Let’s face it, I come at things as a writer from an intellectual smart-ass side. The great thing about Winona is that she will read my intellectual smart-ass stuff, bring out the emotion and give it heart. So when I conceived this part of a femme fatale “Death Nell” who puts men into comas, it could have easily been played as a kind of a wicked Kathleen Turner Body Heat film noir kind of villainous girl. But, I knew that if Winona were doing the role she wouldn’t do it like that. She would show you that this character has humanity and that’s very important for the movie. Winona as a person and as an actress can take the heavy and find the lightness in it, which is invaluable.

Do you like directing better than writing?

No. Writing is my comfort zone. I am a natural born writer. It’s something I can do anywhere, because I write by hand and don’t type on computers. I also love writing and then taking a nap. If I go to sleep with a writing problem and think about that writing problem as I’m sleeping I’ll wake up and it’ll be solved. Now, unfortunately, imagine me on the set telling the first AD, “What a second, I know exactly where I’ll put the camera but let me take a nap first.” I enjoyed the hell out of directing, but there is not one relaxing moment for me. 

How did you end up buying Orson Welles’ old house?

When I was looking for a house, there were a lot of shinier and more expensive homes. But, this place has that strange old Hollywood feel and the fact that it was Orson Welles’ old house sealed the deal. I guess I was hoping that if I bought Orson Welles’ house, I was going to get those Citizen Kane vibes. But, because he died in the house, instead I’m getting those Orson Welles, end of his career vibes where it’s very hard to get a movie made. It’s also very funny that he died in the room that’s my feng shui career zone. When the greatest director who ever lived died in your career zone, you know you’ve got some obstacles.

Speaking of obstacles, how has it been living in Los Angeles without a driver’s license?

I’ve lived here for over twenty years and I still don’t have a driver’s license. And, no, I’m not one of those guys who takes the lucrative easy way out by taking cabs. I actually take public transportation. I daydream constantly and get a lot of great thinking done on the bus. I can read and write and don’t even have to look up. Unfortunately, it’s bad for dating. I am proud to say, or ashamed to say, I never had a one-night stand. It’s hard to go into a bar and say to a woman, “The number four bus is coming in ten minutes and I’ve got two transfers. Be on it.” It doesn’t work with the ladies. 

Inquiring minds all want to know … Heathers 2?

I like to keep the idea of Heathers 2 open so Winona will return my calls. They’re actually doing a Heathers musical. Maybe that will take care of the world’s Heathers needs.

http://images.google.com/...ZHY_enUS230US230%26sa%3DN

[Gary]

I'm glad this guy doesn't want a Heathers 2. Smart to leave well enough alone.

[CHRIS B]

DVD Cover Art.

[lainy]

I'm glad this guy doesn't want a Heathers 2. Smart to leave well enough alone.

I think he'd be able to make it great. But I do see your point since Heathers is so well done. I'm torn on this subject.

[oinone]

by the way.. we've forgotten it..

Top Ten Femme Fatales

1. Winona Ryder, Sex and Death 101: Last year, Ryder was number three on our list thanks to her trysts with a ventriloquist’s dummy in The Ten. In ’08, she moved to the head of the Femme Fatale class with an effective turn as vengeful “Death Knell,” a vigilante who hunts down and puts into comas men who have wronged the fairer sex. But only a dinner death scene was able to live up to the expectations engendered by the reteaming of Ryder with Heathers screenwriter Daniel Waters, who here also directs.

http://www.filmstew.com/s...icle.aspx?ContentID=17552

[CHRIS B]

by the way.. we've forgotten it..

Top Ten Femme Fatales

1. Winona Ryder, Sex and Death 101: Last year, Ryder was number three on our list thanks to her trysts with a ventriloquist’s dummy in The Ten. In ’08, she moved to the head of the Femme Fatale class with an effective turn as vengeful “Death Knell,” a vigilante who hunts down and puts into comas men who have wronged the fairer sex. But only a dinner death scene was able to live up to the expectations engendered by the reteaming of Ryder with Heathers screenwriter Daniel Waters, who here also directs.

http://www.filmstew.com/s...icle.aspx?ContentID=17552

Cool, top spot! I remember being so thirlled that Winona was going to play a femme fatale! I always wanted her to play one in a noir style film. With this film I was sort of let down- but I did enjoy her in it. I still hope one day she will be in film noir, like in the vein of "LA Confidential."  I wish "White Jazz" would've been made...