Dead And Loving It
Lisa Frankenstein writer Diablo Cody mines her teenage years to bring twisted teen lovers to life
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, DIRECTOR Karyn Kusama and BAFTA- and Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody disrupted the horror genre with their gory feminist romp Jennifer’s Body. On release, many audiences didn’t quite get the humour and subtext of their revenge fantasy starring Megan Fox. But in the years since, critics have re-evaluated the film as being delightfully subversive and underappreciated.
Now Cody has circled back to the genre with her original screenplay Lisa Frankenstein. Essentially a love letter to her goth youth in the ’80s, Cody’s script fuses together the DNA of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with Tim Burton’s oeuvre and a sprinkling of David Lynch’s Wild At Heart.
Cody tells Red Alert that the idea for Lisa Frankenstein was born out of the lockdowns of the pandemic. She had spent years working on the book for the Alanis Morissette musical Jagged Little Pill, and then life crushed their efforts. “The show opened on Broadway in December 2019 and then proceeded to shut down immediately due to the pandemic,” she sighs.
“So I’m sitting at home. I have three kids. At the time, I had a pretty fresh divorce and I didn’t really know what to do with myself. I went into Mary Shelley mode where I was feeling pretty goth. I started to write this script solely to occupy myself and to take my mind off things. I just thought Gen Z needs their Edward Scissorhands.”
The story centres on the semi-tragic tale of teen misfit Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton). After the death of her mother, Lisa’s life spirals when her dad quickly remarries a terrible woman (played by Carla Gugino), who labels her stepdaughter a screw-up. Lisa retreats into her fantasy life, mooning over romantic headstones in the graveyard, until a lightning storm suddenly brings her fantasy man (Cole Sprouse) to morbid life.
Entirely aware that the script would not be an easy sell, Cody found the right collaborator for it when a friend introduced her to up-and-coming filmmaker Zelda Williams, daughter of the late comedian Robin. “I was familiar with her work,” she says. “I had seen things she had directed, like her short films. There was just something about her vibe and
her sensibility that I thought, ‘I think this is going to work.‘”
Universal greenlit the film, with Williams making her theatrical directorial debut. “She was ready to go,” Cody says of Williams’s enthusiasm. “She reminded me of Karyn Kusama in that way, a real hit-the-groundrunning kind of director, and I thought, ‘Let’s do this!’”
Cody signed up as a producer on the film but she happily gave her script over to Williams’s vision. “I love working with directors in general. Many screenwriters do not feel this way, but I enjoy entrusting a script into the hands of the director and seeing what they do with it. Because when they elevate the material, that’s the best, because I could possibly be credited for this brilliant decision that I had nothing to do with,” she laughs.
Spending time in New Orleans during production, Cody says she was particularly happy with the casting of Newton and Sprouse, as Lisa and her paramour respectively.
“Both of them were almost giving these silent film performances that I really enjoyed,” Cody says. “Kathryn brought theatrical elements to the character that I had never even envisioned, and it’s so amazing to me. She reminds me of an old movie star with her body language.
“I was very excited when I heard Cole was going to play the role,” she continues. “I thought it would be very difficult to cast simply because I know from experience that actors want more lines. Not none. Every actor I’ve ever worked with has begged me for a monologue.
“But Cole was so onboard, taking mime lessons and doing mask work. He was excited about the possibility of giving that performance. I feel like he totally embodies that perfect, silent, romantic man of our dreams.”
With a monster at her side, Lisa gains the confidence to viciously go after those who have made her life miserable. “The thing I love about Lisa is that Lisa is not just a victim, or someone who is grieving,” Cody says of her alternative heroine.
“She also has an arrogance to her that is charming. She certainly sees herself as a victim, frequently, and so she is self-sabotaging in a lot of ways.”
Cody hopes that audiences embrace her soulmate freaks like she has. “I even have a movie [prop] headstone in my front yard now,” she laughs. “Everybody thinks I have a relative buried in front of my house. I love it!”
Lisa Frankenstein is in cinemas from 22 March.
Kathryn brought theatrical elements to the character that I had never even envisioned