Penn Vs. "The Stepfather"

In this frightening movie re-make, "Gossip Girl'"s Penn Badgley plays Michael, a rebel teen who has been away at military school for a year. Coming home, he is greeted by his mom's (Sela Ward) new fiance David (Dylan Walsh) who, on the surface, seems a little weird and uptight but upstanding. As time goes on, David's violent outbursts and other strange behavior increase and nobody but Michael and his girl Kelly (Amber Heard) think something is more than  a little "off" about stepdad.  They are about to find out just how evil the guy can be!

We got Penn to take a break from his TV show to fill us in on this scary, actioney flick, what, about the movie, was very new for him and some really tough nights on set.

TeenHollywood: So, when we visited you on the Easy A set earlier this year, you told us that this film was pretty brutal to shoot. Can you expand on that?

Penn: Yeah.  We spent three nights on a rooftop in thirty degree weather and I was just in a t-shirt and freezing rain was falling on me. The rain they made they have to keep very cold because if it were warmer than the air, you get steam. So it was a freezing water, and movie rain is like a sheet of water; the second you’re in it you’re absolutely drenched because in order for water to work on film, it has to be heavy. It’s a miracle I didn’t get some sort of illness. That was an intense shoot for me because we were shooting 'Gossip Girl' at the same time and I was flying back and forth. I did a lot of my own stunts. It was a very physical role. I was running around the basement set, running around outside in fake rain. I spent a lot of time alone doing that stuff and it’s very intense, so I was exhausted every day.

TeenHollywood: Had you seen the original movie? Is this very different?

Penn: I did not watch the original. I know in the original my character was a girl and there are enough differences that I didn’t want to have any preconceived ideas about it or have anything that would mess with what I wanted to do with the character. But this is a thriller.  It’s not straight-up horror.  It’s not a slasher the way that I think maybe the original was in 1987.  It’s a simpler, story-driven thriller.  It isn’t full of twists and turns.  I think for that reason, people might be pleasantly surprised.  

TeenHollywood: Michael has a girlfriend in the movie and now this weird new stepdad and his siblings. How do those relationships work?

Penn: Michael is a very troubled kid. He was on a downward spiral since his parents divorced and he’s been in military school for maybe a year, so when he comes back, the dynamic between his mother and his new stepfather and even his brother and sister is very awkward. He feels like an alien in his own family. So the scenes between Michael and Kelly, his girlfriend, I think that’s where you’re seeing Michael at his best. He smiles in most of those scenes. He’s the most comfortable with her. He feels like she is his confidant, they can really trust each other. Once he’s suspicious of David and the only one he can really talk to is Kelly, he doesn’t want to alienate her as well, because it sounds crazy. The whole time I’m balancing the absurdity of it. It was thinking 'what would I say and who would I tell?' And it has to be believable that he wouldn’t tell his mother, or his brother and sister, so the dynamic between the two of them has to be very close. I think they’ve been friends all their lives and then they started dating in high school.

TeenHollywood: What are some of your favorite horror movies or genre pictures?

Penn: My favorite horror film is a bit obscure. It's The Brood. I watched that a year and half ago, I was told to rent it by the guy in the video store, and I was blown away by it. It was a really incredible movie. I’m not a big horror film fan. This movie is a different type of thrill, and a different type of horror, it’s intense dread, you know who the killer is from the beginning, so rather than is he or isn’t he, and rather than the gore fest that a lot of films are now, it’s simple and I think it’s going to find its strength and something new that audiences haven’t seen in a bit.

TeenHollywood: If you aren't a big horror fan, did you enjoy making a horror film then?

Penn:  Everybody likes a scare, and around this time of year I’m always game.  I saw the first two Saw’s and then after that I thought it got kind of silly.  Yes, I think it’s really fun, and that’s the whole point of these movies.  Yes, you want to terrify the audience for a bit, but the whole reason that anybody does that is because it’s fun, especially during the time around Halloween.  In that sense, I’m a fan, but I think I’m more a fan of making them.  It’s just physically a very fun thing to do.  To make all this stuff real you have to dive in head first and really commit.  It was a very fun experience for me.

TeenHollywood: How is The Stepfather different from anything you've done in the past on TV or film?

Penn: It's a lead role in a film but I really didn’t have much to say even though I was a lead.  The character is fairly quiet and he’s borderline petulant. He’s sort of pissed off coming back from military reform school.  He’s partially reformed, but he’s definitely bitter a little bit from the whole experience and not sure how to approach his family.  So he’s quiet and he’s almost insolent.  Those things I tried to temper to make him relatable and to make him redeemable.  Also, the physicality of the role. Aside from getting in shape a little bit, I also was required to do some stunts which was really fun. I was doing pushups, pull-ups, screaming and letting the blood rush to my head, and drooling a little bit even.  I mean, I probably looked like an idiot in between takes, but I was just trying to exhaust myself to make those moments real.  I did a couple of my own stunts and I have the bruises and scrapes to prove it.  

 TeenHollywood: In "Gossip Girl" you play Dan who is alienated in his socioeconomic setting and in The Stepfather, Michael is kind of alienated in his own home. Can you compare the two characters?

Penn: I think Michael, who is the kid in The Stepfather, comes from a very different place I think mentally, emotionally than Dan. I think most of his life Michael's had the acceptance, he’s gotten the girl and things have sort of come easily to him, probably too easily, which is why he became disenchanted or whatever it was that drove him to act out and rebel and then they sent him off to military school.  Then at the present you find him coming back and he is alienated in his own family.  I think, actually, the main difference between he and Dan is, I think, the one place that Dan Humphrey has acceptance is in his family.  He has a very strong, comfortable family life.  I think, for that reason, he really knows who he is whereas this kid Michael, ironically, used to be the popular kid before he started getting into drugs and he’s less confident in his own skin, I think.  So the fact that he’s alienated even further by his own family in his own home, I think it throws him for a real loop.  That’s why immediately he’s kind of suspicious. Dan doesn't really want to be involved in the crazy goings on of the Upper East Side, although he is thrust into it every week.

TeenHollywood: Which guy do you relate to more?

Penn: I actually have a very strong relationship with my parents, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been strife in the past.  So I think the universal nature of Michael Harding, the kid in The Stepfather, I would relate to more.

TeenHollywood: How will teens relate to this movie?

Penn: Well, anybody who might have had any stressful relationship with their parents, which I think is to say everybody at one point in time, (will relate). And just the fact that he’s a teenager in general, he’s just sort of unsure who he is and how he fits into the world.  The thing that makes that even more difficult is his own family and then having to really work to have them accept him again.  

TeenHollywood: There is a big issue about bringing strangers into your home and kids having trouble adjusting.

Penn: You know, in my own life, my parents are separated and have been for a long time.  They both have had partners here and there.  For me, I’m a very relaxed person, a very casual person.  Sure, you bristle here and there if they’re not your cup of tea. People do react to it. I think a lot of people probably don’t respond to it so well, and for that reason.  It’s really going to resonate with a lot of kids, and a lot of adults, too.  

TeenHollywood: Is it easy for you to transition from television to film?

Penn: For me it was very natural.  Film is where I’ve wanted to be for years and film is where the people working for me, behind me have always imagined I would end up, so it was a very natural progression.  It was definitely exciting and definitely new territory, but I definitely took it in stride.  It was just really fun for me, you know? But, it's not that different. You read lines, you assess what’s going on and you go through it as naturally as that character might. it was seamless and it was fun.