Where did this idea come from?<\/strong><\/p>\nI was raised Mormon \u2013 the family in the film are meant to be a version of fundamentalist Mormons. My extended family lived in Utah so I would always visit and see these people dressed up funny at the store. That\u2019s where the idea sprung from: that there\u2019s a boy and a girl that left one of the colonies and went to Las Vegas, which is a hop, skip and a jump from southern Utah. <\/p>\n
Why did you choose \u2018Hanging on the Telephone\u2019 as the song that got Rachel (Julia Garner) pregnant?<\/strong><\/p>\nI had this list and it was called \u2018Songs that could get a girl pregnant\u2019 \u2013 it\u2019s a very embarrassing list! I haven\u2019t told anybody the list but there was some like Led Zeppelin on it.
\nBut I needed a song that could bridge the gap between 2011 when the movie took place and the 1950s\/60s where I felt the characters were in terms of their ideology. \u2018Hanging on the Telephone\u2019 bridged that gap. It just seemed perfect and got stuck in my head for 3 months straight.<\/p>\n
What about Julia Garder, how did you cast her?<\/strong><\/p>\nShe came on the week before production started. I\u2019d gone through a mess of casting different actresses for the role and then firing them. I needed to find somebody who was virginal, innocent, na\u00efve but bold. Julia looks like an angel and has an emotional depth. This was her first film as a lead, so she has an emotional depth that she doesn\u2019t have total control over yet, which I felt was very teen-like. <\/p>\n
Weren\u2019t you nervous about casting someone who\u2019d never been a lead before?<\/strong><\/p>\nYeah, definitely. But Julia took it above and beyond. Without her the film wouldn\u2019t have the sparkle that it has.<\/p>\n