Director Michael Lehmann on the enduring legacy of Heathers

Michael Lehmann made an astounding debut with the subversive high school satire 'Heathers' back in 1988, and 30 years later it's as relevant and cutting as ever.

Can you describe the moment you knew you had to make Heathers? 

It all began in the mind of Daniel Waters, the man who wrote it, and he was a good friend of mine. I knew he was writing a script, an amazing script: he worked in a video store and went home at night and wrote. He doesn’t work on a computer, he would write by hand. But our friend called and said that Dan was looking for an agent for his script, and I had just signed with one and so I said I would give the script to my agent. I was given this 150 page script, and I read it and it was just so funny. I couldn’t believe no one so far wanted to represent it, so I took it to Bobby Thompson my agent at the time, and she got it immediately. I read the script and I just wanted to get Dan some representation, he was a friend so I wanted to help him out, but secretly I wanted to be the director. It was only after when Bobby took the script, and started showing it to people in Hollywood, but it was too out of mainstream to be picked up by major studios. I mean Dan was hoping that Stanley Kubrick would direct it, but he wasn’t available or whatever (laughs). So here I am.

Was it considered controversial by anyone you brought it to?

Yes by just about everyone (laughs). There was an executive at New World who read the script and immediately got what it was, he got the humour and was able to green light the movie at a certain budget. We took it to a few other places, and the only other that was interested was New Line Cinema, which focused mainly on horror movies but they said we would have to change it into a genre film, so they weren’t really interested in the humour. As we tried to put the movie together and get it cast, I wanted to cast actual teenagers which meant we had to get parental permission. A bunch of parents said no.

How did that lead you to Winona Ryder and Christian Slater?

Winona’s family were quite a bit different from the typical Hollywood family (laughs), so they were all in favour of the script. It was actually lucky because Bobby Thompson represented the team from Beetlejuice which was being shot at the time, and so Bobby showed a copy of the script to Michael McDowell and said this girl in Beetlejuice would be perfect for Veronica. So she read it at just 15 years old, and she wanted the role and said she’d do it no matter what.

Did you see something special in the pair after working with them?

Yeah definitely. We were lucky we were working in a place where we didn’t have to cast ready-made ‘movie stars’, we were ok with working with rising actors. When you’re working with those sort of young people, you do get the feeling that you might be about to really discover somebody. I auditioned a tonne of actors for Heathers, girls and guys, and some of them you could really tell in their reading if they understood it or not. You could hear it in how they said the lingo or said the punchlines, or got the rhythm and language, some of them were so off base. Winona was so right for that part, it was pretty clear the first time she came in and met with us, she didn’t even audition, we got it from just talking to her. Christian came in and auditioned, and it was the best actor who had gone for the role, and when we brought him in to read with Winona they just clicked. We could see immediately that they worked together.

What do you think it is about Heathers that has given it it’s cult status?

I think that the humour is so original, it is very dark, and unapologetically so. Not many movies can go to such dark places in that way, which I think is one reason its given it this longevity. Also, high school is high school. Everything that is true about high school in the 80s is pretty much true today, that kind of adolescent behaviour in that community is so rich for that sort of thing. This movie hits that subject matter in a manner is quite rare.

It’s somewhat of a twisted reality of American high school, how do you think the film would resonate now?

I think it’s interesting because people relate to it because of how high school is. High school is pretty tough, there’s a lot of mean behaviour, a lot of cliquey behaviour, people identify themselves and they identify the other groups. It’s a majorly exaggerated version of how humans are. When you take this dark perspective on it, I think it resonates really well, and that feeling sort of stands the test of time.

It’s still such a cult film for fashion too, how did you perceive the style at the time? 

I remember thinking the clothing was completely ridiculous even then. But we weren’t trying to make fun of it so much, we were just trying to do a slight exaggeration of the current styles. It was how people dressed, their hair really was like that. We were being realistic but we were pushing reality through the colour coding of characters, which was in the script – a yellow Heather, a red Heather – that element was played with and very deliberately stylized. It is bizarre that it’s still a thing though, I think I would’ve only thought that people would be laughing at how silly everybody looked.

Did you and Daniel have any major influences that you were looking to when you made Heathers?

We were looking back to some of the more sophisticated darker movies that were made back in the 60s, from Kubrick and Polanski. That was the aim, to bring in some other cinematic elements that they wouldn’t touch, and switch up the genre. I mean if you look at most high school movies from the 80s and before, the production was low, it wasn’t very cinematic. Dan and I both felt that you could make a cinematic film set in high school.

If you were to make a modern-set Heathers, how would it change?

 It’s so hard, things have changed so much in some ways but in others not at all. It’s great that there’s been a push for acceptance of different types of people, there’s a more sophisticated approach to high school. To allow people to be who they are, to stop bullying – I mean bullying wasn’t referenced in an official capacity until about 10 years ago. It became a recognised a form of behaviour that needed to be called out, and that changes things a bit. Back in the ‘80s it was just “you’re being mean”, so I feel like nowadays it’s hard to find your footing.

What do you make of the television reboot?

I haven’t seen it, so I can’t comment on whether it’s successful or whatever. I think they were ready to put it out in the States and another school shooting happened, so they pulled it. Over the years there have been a number of attempts to create a Heathers TV show, and I’ve rolled my eyes every time (laughs), like “Ok good luck!”. But Dan Waters, Denise and I pitched it to Fox Television Network in the ‘90s when that part first started out, but they said that they were choosing between ours and another, and they chose the other. Which turned out to be Beverly Hills 90210, which funnily enough had Shannon Doherty in. So it goes way back.

Where do you see the legacy of Heathers going now after the re-release? 

I’m really curious to see how it plays for a contemporary younger audience, I’m figuring they’ll be some amusement at the 80s nostalgia, I’m curious to see if it goes beyond that with the material, because it’s still very satirical and dark. I’m so happy that it’s coming out again, I’m very surprised.

Do you think you’ll direct a feature film again?

I am definitely interested in it. I really enjoy everything I’ve been doing in television, I think there’s some great stuff going on in that industry right now so I’m not unhappy at all doing that. But there’s a difference, the role of a director in making films than making an episode or a show. It’s hard though because Hollywood is a very different place now, there are crazy big budget studio films, and then there are tiny little independent movies, that are very difficult to putt ogether. I can’t tell you how many of my friends have made amazing independent movies and they can’t get distribution on them. The realm in which most of my movies were made doesn’t really exist now, it’s not really being done in Hollywood anymore. But maybe with streaming services like Netflix making feature length films, I’ll look to revisit that.

What’s next for you? 

At the moment, I’m still doing all my television work. I’ve just directed an episode of Jessica Jones for Netflix, then I’m going to take a little time and see what else there is I can do outside of the pattern I’ve fallen into.

HEATHERS 30th Anniversary will be re-released back in cinemas from 8th August and comes to Digital & On Demand 20th August.

words
Kitty Robson
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Courtesy of Arrow Films