Ian (Jake Abel) competes for the attention of one of the entities inhabiting Saoirse Ronan's body in "The Host". Photo by Alan Markfield.
Having dazzled legions of readers and moviegoers with The Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer takes her supernatural teen romance formula to new realms with The Host. Based on the book of the same name, the film revolves around Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan), whose body becomes inhabited by an alien entity known as Wanderer. Melanie’s love interest is Jared (Max Irons), but Ian (Jake Abel) is attracted to the Wanderer, which creates a rather extraterrestrial love triangle. With the movie in theaters today, Irons and Abel talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about on-set dynamics, working with writer/director Andrew Niccol and their attraction to the fantasy and sci-fi genres.
You’ve both done fantasy and sci-fi genre films previously, but when you work on something based on a Stephenie Meyer book you never know just how popular it might become. Did the massive hype and possibility for a cult-like following factor in to your decision to do this movie?
Abel: No, not at all. It’s all about the work and it’s all about the material. Any film you decide to do, it’s always about the script, the director and the filmmakers. This one was special and unique; Andrew Niccol’s a fantastic director and writer, Saoirse Ronan’s an incredible actress and there’s something to be said about the way Stephenie Meyer’s able to touch a massive audience. It’s fantastic.
Jared (Max Irons) stuggles with his love for Melanie (Saoirse Ronan) in "The Host".
Irons: Also, there was such a hype around the Twilight books. I heard a story about Robert Pattinson being chased through the streets by loads and loads of girls before he even started filming the first one. That hasn’t happened to either of us, thank God. I know there’s a number of people who love The Host, which is great. But it’s not quite on the same scale.
Abel: It’s a little more grown up in the right ways. It’s a sci-fi flick with obvious romantic undertones, which are important. But I don’t think it’s pigeonholed itself into just being a Twilight crossover. I would completely, in full confidence, recommend this movie to my brother, who’s a 32-year-old guy. I really think he’ll enjoy it, besides having his brother in it. I think that’s great for Stephenie and great for all of us because it broadens the demographic.
Having both done fantasy films previously and now venturing into sci-fi, are these genres you are particularly attracted to or is it just a coincidence that you’ve worked mostly on genre films?
Irons: I personally am much more into science fiction than fantasy. And working with the guy who did Gattaca was kind of a dream and was very cool.
Photo by Alan Markfield.
Abel: I haven’t hunted out the genre films solely, that’s just kind of what’s being made right now for young actors. We’re both very picky about what we do, and what’s happening is there’s a shift in these young adult adaptations where they’re not just these cheesy, quick, slap-it-together, throw-it-out-there things, They’re now hiring people like William Hurt for these movies. I think Kate Winslet’s about to do one, so they’re now surrounding these films with talented actors and really great directors and sort of changing the face of what it means to be a young adult adaptation. That makes a lot of sense to me right now, being a young actor and being able to work with someone like William Hurt, who I may not have ever had an opportunity to work with.
Irons: I think Christopher Nolan’s probably got a lot for us to be thankful for in regard to reminding people that audiences actually want to be challenged and want to see beautiful pictures as opposed to just another title out a year later.
Abel: I’m glad that you mentioned that, actually. Thank you, Christopher Nolan.
What was it like working with Hurt. Like you said, that’s not an everyday opportunity and he brings some serious weight to that set that a hungry young actor would want to feed off of.
William Hurt (right) provided leadership for young actors like Max Irons (left) in "The Host". Photo by Alan Markfield.
Irons: That was sort of it. We were all there together, day in and day out, and William was like our spiritual leader and a professional tutor, for lack of a better word.
Abel: I’ve never seen someone stand up for the actors as much as he does. His ways may be a bit peculiar sometimes, but in the end we were the most protected people on the set because if a scene wasn’t going right he would put his foot down and say, “This is not going right.” He would demand that we did whatever it took to get it right. It would be frustrating and hard, but by the end of it we’d be thanking him. There’s a method to his madness, completely. He was the one that requested two weeks of rehearsal beforehand, which was integral to making this film. It would not have been the same film without that. I really stand by this film and I think that’s from the two weeks of rehearsal and William, as he called it, interrogating the script for the truth. That really stuck with me.
This being a sci-fi film, what other dimensions of the film do you think will attract viewers aside from the sci-fi elements?
Abel: There are the romantic undertones, but what will surprise audiences most is it’s really not about these two motherfuckers fighting over this girl. It is a bit, but there are more relationships than that. She has a relationship between herself and the alien in her head, which is really quite touching. There’s an end scene where she’s by herself, the camera’s on top of her, and she’s speaking out loud to the voice inside her head, which we hear through voice-over. I had to remind myself halfway through that she was doing a scene by herself. She also has a relationship with her little brother and with her uncle, played by William Hurt. So there’s a dramatic tale of loss and coping with loss and what it means to understand your enemy.
Irons: It’s also a story of survival. Everyone’s finding out and questioning the best way to survive and, indeed, should we survive as a species. I think that’s a question we can take away. Unlike most alien invasion films, which involve lasers and spaceships blowing up the White House, this is almost like an intervention – we’re destroying ourselves, they’re going to come to our rescue and, for the betterment of the planet and the whole species, take over. It’s an interesting question, but you’ve got to ask yourself, “If they did successfully take over, would the world be a better place.”
This was the first time you’ve shared a love interest with another actor. What was that relationship dynamic like on set?
Irons: The thing is, we’re all such good friends. So it was never too serious, there’s never too much tension or competition or anything like that.
Abel: Everyone was very professional about it. It’s always strange whether you’re sharing each other or not, that first time you go in and you know you’re going to kiss your co-star and be intimate in front of people, it’s always strange. But after you do it once or twice, you just kind of get a hold of it.
Irons: From an outside point of view, the whole thing is quite confusing and quite complex. But from our point of views it’s quite simple. They are different points of view and that causes us to have a bit of a feud, but they are sort of simple. To me she’s Melanie, who has been taken over, and to him she’s just the alien.
With Niccol writing the script and directing the film, do you think it was easier for him to make the film rather than worrying about someone else’s words? Could he give you more insight into what he wanted from the characters?
Abel: Andrew worked very closely with Stephenie, actually. We got very lucky because this is one of the first things that he’s adapted. Andrew has been so lucky he gets to write his own material and make his own material, but the film doesn’t deviate a lot from the book, which I think fans will like. It’s just a more condensed, tightened version of it. The characters are still as developed as they were in the book, the plot is still as developed as it was in the book; I think what really gave us the insight we needed was two weeks of rehearsal that was gifted to us in the beginning, which never happens.
Irons: And we were allowed to put ideas forward through Andrew to Stephenie, which would come back from Stephenie through Andrew to us, so it felt collaborative. That’s so rare because so often with the studio system practically all the ideas are coming from one direction, which is from above and down to you, and you just have to follow. Whereas this one was very democratic.
If there is a sequel, what would you like to see happen with your characters?
Photo by Alan Markfield.
Abel: I want to shoot a gun, I want to drive a car, I would like to do something a little bit more manly.
Irons: I heard a rumor about the sequel that Ian plays guitar and sings.
Abel: That’d be nice, too. And dancing. [Composer] Antonio Pinto actually wrote something for me to play in the film, I started to learn it and halfway through Stephenie [changed her mind]. It was a lovely score, too.
Did you have much interaction with Meyer? Did you get to ask her about the interesting subtexts she likes to infuse into her romances?
Irons: We did ask about the subtexts of our own characters, but she kind of trusted us and said, “You’re doing OK. If you’re not doing OK, I’ll tell you. But trust your instincts. You’re Jared now, you’re Ian now. Go with it, make him yours. Don’t take it from me, take it from yourself.”
Abel: I think she was probably surprised by the fact that, since the second book may technically not be finished written, and there’s a third book she wants to do, we, as actors, started to influence her visualization of these characters. With the Twilight series, they were already written, so the actors had no room to inspire her. But I think she said a couple of times, “I like to watch you guys because it’s giving me things I hadn’t thought about.” I imagine that was very interesting to her, too. She was very open to that, very collaborative.
Your father, Jeremy Irons, has likely been an influence and given you a lot of advice throughout your life. But now that he is sort of entering the young adult realm where you have more experience, has he, in turn, come to you for advice on any of his recent films?
Irons: He finds the idea of press and Twitter and Facebook and that kind of marketing very peculiar, so I have to explain that kind of thing to him. He can barely work his mobile phone, which is still from the ’90s. He can’t even turn the volume down. I’m his son, he’s my dad, so he doesn’t really give me advice too often because he sort of knows it irritates me, even though I probably should take it.
www.thehostthefilm.com
