Teeth is a confounding movie, as the Screengrab learned for itself when it caught a late fall screening. The movie is notable for its premise alone. As Ken Mondschein puts it in his History of Single Life essay “A Legend With Teeth” up on Nerve today, it’s no wonder that vagina dentata is a universal motif. It handily embodies sexual anxiety, and that subject is always a crowd pleaser on screen. Part Sam Raimi inspired schlock horror and part feminist-hero fantasy, Mitchell Lichtenstein’s filmic debut doesn’t wholly succeed thanks to some wonky pacing and an even wonkier script. Newcomer Jess Weixler’s star turn as Dawn is easily the best part of the film.
How’d you get involved with Teeth?
I auditioned for the best friend but they wanted me to read for Dawn. I got the part but said, no, I’m not going to do it. I was initially freaked out because there were a lot of sex scenes, and I’d never done sex scenes. I had to really have a good conversation with myself about whether I was ready for it. Mitchell met with me and talked to me about it. I realized he wasn’t trying to make a bad B-horror movie. He was trying to make a good dark comedy. I took it because it’s an awesome part that’s never been played before. It’s kind of a superhero role. She has an anatomical uniqueness. She has to discover it and learn how to use it for good.
How did you get yourself prepped for the role? How did you get into Dawn?
I was fortunate enough to have a month to prepare. I don’t know how people are given a script and are supposed to shoot in a few days. I had a month to think about where she starts and where she ends. She changes so much through the course of the movie. She goes from being a shut down, innocent little girl to being a sexual beast and a woman. I think she thinks she’s sexy by the end of the movie. Whereas before she didn’t want anything to do with her body.
What did you pull from your own life experience as a teenager and your first experiences with sex when approaching Dawn?
I think that it’s overwhelming for a young girl to think of herself as a sexual body. I think guys come into it much faster. Guys are quicker to make the most of it. So I saw myself through a male’s eyes to find myself pretty. Like ‘do they think I’m pretty?’ instead of finding myself pretty. Something important for anybody, not just a woman, is to think they are beautiful, sexy, and strong. Then you give that to somebody instead of just trying to please them. I relate to learning how to be sexual in a way that I enjoy, you know, not just trying to make someone else happy.
Outside of Dawn’s father in the movie, you have four, arguably five different males in the story and all of them are predatory.
This isn’t a realistic movie on any level. Mitchell created a world filled with archetypes for this situation and he put Dawn in circumstances that would help her on the journey of discovering what she and how to use it. I think he set it up to aid Dawn’s story, not because he thinks all guys are bad.
All guys are bad. You should know that.
Everybody’s a little rotten, I guess, right? Not everybody deserves to be dismembered.
They don’t deserve to be eaten?
Much better term.
What do you make of Dawn’s sexual empowerment coming out of her having a drug experience?
Well she wakes up enough while drugged to realize she likes the guy. She doesn’t, I think, know how drugged she is. She likes the guy at the time, has a good time, likes having sex. She’s enjoying it. When it comes out he was being predatory though, he gets it.
That’s what you would call it, getting it?
He gets it. He gets it taken. He gets eaten, you said it right. And spit back out.
When you hear the premise of Teeth, you have to think going in, ‘Well, that’s bound to happen.’
Yeah, you can imagine what may be going on. I know a lot of people, when they saw it at Sundance, didn’t know that she could even have sex. When she did have sex and nothing bad happened, everybody clapped. It’s an important moment.
What do you think Dawn is going off to do at the end of the movie? Is she going to become a superhero, a vigilante? Where is she headed?
I think she’s just going to get away from it all. I don’t think she’s going to go hunt down guys. I think she’s going to try to live her life and if she needs to protect herself she will.
What do you think Teeth is? What would you classify it as?
I would classify it as a dark comedy. It’s being marketed a little as a horror film. It has horror aspects to it but I wouldn’t say it’s a horror movie. I understand it’s going to be complicated for people to understand what it is they’re about to see because we send it up. It’s definitely larger than life.
That’s an understatement.
