Stephenie Meyer created a stir worldwide with her "Twilight" franchise. Now she takes the next step with release of the film adaptation of "The Host." Meyer and cast members Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Jake Abel, and Diane Kruger met with the New York Media on Tuesday March 26 to talk about the film.
"The Host" is the first novel that Meyer published after the "Twilight" series. After the phenomenal success of the Vampire/Werewolf series the author decided to write something on her own terms. She wrote "The Host" but had no plans of publishing it until her agent convinced to do otherwise. The film adaptation of the book takes place in a world where a group of aliens called Souls inhabit human bodies in order to create a peaceful environment on earth. The plot centers on Melanie (Saoirse Ronan), a human who has been inhabited by the alien Wanda. The two battle early on for control over Melanie's body but Wanda slowly learns what it means to be human.
Inhabiting the story are Melanie's former lover Jared (Max Irons) and Ian (Jake Abel), a human who falls for Wanda. Like the "Twilight" films, romance plays a central role in the story's narrative as Jared and Ian deal with the complicated situation of loving two different entities stuck in one body.
"I do like writing about relationship that have serious difficulties. Sometimes I get frustrated with real life and how we let stupid things cause big problems in our relationships. It's just kind of frustrating to watch people not be able to make things work when a couple of good conversation would solve it. I like to write about problems that are a lot bigger than that," Meyer said. "It's interesting to write about problems that people don't actually have because then you get to find a new solution that hasn't been found before."
SPOILER ALERT
The film features a romantic scene in which Jared and Ian take turns kissing Melanie's body to bring back Melanie's seemingly lost voice. "We had a lot of time together before we got to those intimate scenes. That makes it a lot easier," revealed Abel. "We were able to make friends and have a laugh between each take."
The "competition" between the two males has understated parallels with the competition between Jacob and Edward in Meyer's "Twilight" books/films, but it does not seem like the rivalry will turn into a similar phenomenon. "I think the first book signing we ever did we had a little chart on the desk of team Ian and team Jared. But that stopped very quickly because team Ian was winning every time," admitted Irons. Why was Ian the first choice? "Ian's a big softie," replied Abel. "Jared just hits people."
Abel did reveal that an interesting theme that was building was the battle between Team Human and Team Alien. "Do we deserve this wonderful planet? Do we deserve to do what we do to each other? Should we have our black monolith come down and say this is the path, this is the way. I think that's the greater question [that the film asks]," he explained regarding the major theme that dominates the film.
The movie is directed by Andrew Niccol, known for helming Gattaca. Every single cast member mentioned Niccol's attention to detail and expressed tremendous affinity for his work.
"He was responsible every single thing you see on the screen. Every prop he designed and revised. Every extra he cast personally. And you never get that," said Irons.
Meyer even noted that during one scene, Niccol spent a great deal of time adjusting the position of an actor's finger. "With Andrew you know that you are going to get a slick look. I never worked with a director that had more attention to detail," she explained. "Every rock that's in the scene, he's probably touched at some point. There are no short cuts with him."
One of those short cuts that Niccol avoided was with contact lenses. In the story, the aliens are identified by a bright glow in their eyes. Instead of doing the effects in post-production, Niccol had his cast members wear contact lenses. Neither Ronan nor Kruger had worn contact lenses before and admitted to struggling with them.
"I remember trying them on and hating them. It is very much tunnel vision the entire time," revealed Ronan. "[However], my eyes adjusted and I got used to it. Kruger, who plays the "villainous" Seeker, added that she had assistant on hand to help her put them on.
Aside from the contact lenses, another characteristic of the alien characters played by Kruger and Ronan is that they both have voices inside their heads. In order to achieve believable performances, production decided that the actors would pre-record the dialogue of the inner voice and then wear earpieces during the scenes.
"[Saoirse] actually did all of her scenes with an earpiece. So she literally had someone screaming at her all the time," Kruger stated. However when it came to doing her own scenes with the earpiece, the German actress admitted that she eventually stopped using it because it was too much for her. "It made for interesting moments while trying to do a scene," she added.
How did Ronan fare with the earpieces? "It was a very natural thing and I really enjoyed doing it," Ronan said.
Ronan was asked how she felt about headlining Meyer's follow-up to the "Twilight" series. Did she feel the pressure of potentially having to carry another major franchise?
"I don't think this is going to be [a phenomenon like 'Twilight']. I think it will be a long time before something reaches such a high level," she replied. "It's a different film. It's the next step."
Even though Ronan has reservations of the franchise reaching such major success, Meyer seems to have confidence in the story's potential for growth as she is hard at work on a sequel. The author remained mum about where she plans to go with the story, but at least one cast member had his own ideas for whether the plot should go.
"I want Jared to run away from the cave with Melanie and go on the road," said Irons.
Abel was a bit more reserved and responded, "I hate to even speculate because I would hate to figure it out." However, "I have a hunch and I don't want to spoil it."
"The Host" launches in theaters on March 29, 2013.