|
|
 
PART 1 OF 3 |
Roos' screenwriting credits include Single White Female, Boys On The Side and the remake of Diabolique. Roos wrote The Opposite Of Sex in addition to directing the film.
The Opposite Of Sex is a hilarious sex comedy starring Christina Ricci, Martin Donovan, Lisa Kudrow and Lyle Lovett. The wild young Deedee (Ricci) visits her half-brother Bill (Donovan) and immediately turns his world upside down. She seduces Bill's boyfriend. The film is true to its tagline of "You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be offended" -- except that the word 'laugh' needs to be underlined a couple of times.
Roos talks about his critically acclaimed first feature including the cast, the writing of the film, and what he wish he would have done differently during its making.
Hear excerpts of the Don Roos interview in RealAudio! Get the free Real player. [NOTE: SORRY, AUDIO CLIPS WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE UNTIL NEXT WEEK!]
Are you surprised by the
success of this movie?
Jane Vincent
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
DON ROOS:
I'm astonished. Astonished. When I wrote the movie, first of all I was writing it just for myself hoping that one day I might be able to direct it. But I would have understood it entirely if the picture hadn't found a studio home because it's very special. It's not the usual thing and I didn't know if there was a market even at the studio level for this picture.We did finally get it made. We did get a distributor and I've just been shocked by how many people and al types of people from young and old, gay and straight. Everybody seems to respond to the movie and it's been great. It's been a thrill. But completely unexpected.
Why did you choose the
narrative style for this movie?
Steve Hamm
Ogden, Utah
DON ROOS:
Well, I've been doing a lot of conventional scripts for years here in Hollywood. And I think one of the things that you're told as a writer, conventionally here in Hollywood, is avoid narration and avoid flashback and avoid unlikeable characters. So, all of my scripts until now had been like that.So, I got frustrated by all of those rules and by being a conventional writer and just decided to do something that I would like to see and take some chances and break a few rules and see if we could still make a movie where people cared about the characters even if you break that fourth wall. And that's why I did it. Just to see if I could.
What's the moral of the
story?
Ray George
Phoenix, Arizona
DON ROOS:
There's a big moral in the movie hidden underneath all the politically incorrect dialogue and the incidents and the unlikeable characters. It's basically that sex has consequences. Who you sleep with is important. It matters. It's not something you can do thoughtlessly.It's a very conservative moral. I think it's a post AIDS kind of tale. Until, I guess, form the late '50s when there was the pill until AIDS there was a feeling that sex was careless and free and inconsequential and this movie has a different point of view.
Christina
Ricci is definitely the star of this movie. How do you
assess her performance?
Holly Timmerly
Duluth, Minnesota
DON ROOS:
I think she did a great job. I think it was a very difficult job. First of all as an actress she has a lot of courage because where I was tempted to make the character more likeable Christina insisted that the character maintain her edge. She was very unyielding, as a character, DeeDee is very unyielding and Christina wanted to play that. And she said that the audience will care about her. They may not like her at every stage but they will care about her at the end of the movie.So I applaud her courage. Many actors would have said, 'Please can I be more likeable? And can I say something sweet here? Can you show me being compassionate?' Christina did not want to do that. I think it's due to her that that the character is as strong as it is.