Movies
Zac Efron On Why He Wanted to Play Ted Bundy in ‘Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile’
Last week, the trailer for Joe Berlinger’s Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile paved the way for the film’s premiere at Sundance (read Meredith’s review), and both trailer and movie proved quite polarizing. Of particular note, the trailer was cut together with an odd tone, one that seemed to present Zac Efron‘s Ted Bundy in a positive, charming light.
What does Efron himself have to say about all that? In a chat with Variety, Efron touched upon why he took on the role, while also sharing thoughts on the controversial tone.
“Initially, I had reservations about playing a serial killer,” Efron told the site.
“This movie was really about a human being, somebody that perhaps I would have been friends with. And a love story from a very unique perspective. I’ve never seen that before. It’s intriguing to me. I think it’s more psychological and even more kind of a mindfuck.”
Efron continued, “I feel a responsibility to make sure that this movie is not a celebration of Ted Bundy. Or a glorification of him. But, definitely, a psychological study of who this person was. In that, there’s honesty.”
Speaking about his transformation from Zac Efron into Ted Bundy, the former Disney star noted during the interview, “Something clicked pretty early on, and it was kind of scary. It was that Ted and I had quite a bit in common in the way we carried ourselves. There are a few mannerisms. You can tell he’s a bit bashful. He’s kind of shy. He’s a well-spoken guy, but he hides his anxiety with a bit of a smile. I didn’t want to do too much of an impersonation.”
The film is told from the point of view of Bundy’s former girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer (Lily Collins), set during the multi-year period that Bundy hid his murder spree from her.
Two things that have proven to be pretty dependable at the box office in recent years are horror movies and Christopher Nolan movies. With Nolan’s The Odyssey absolutely dominating the box office this past weekend, many fans of Nolan’s work have been left hungry for a Nolan-directed horror movie. After all, The Odyssey does whet the appetite for Nolan nightmare fuel.
Christopher Nolan has brushed up against the horror genre in the past with 2002 thriller Insomnia, but does he have any interest in someday making a full-on horror movie?
Nolan tells the Empire Podcast in a new chat, “I’ve always been interested in doing a horror film.”
“But horror is most successful when the conceptual framework of whatever the story is is just so undeniable. I think there are very few really great horror movies,” Nolan continues.
So why hasn’t Christopher Nolan directed a horror movie yet?
He explains to Empire, “I’ve never clicked with a particular idea or concept that worked for me. I love the genre. Of all genres, it’s the most visceral. Where the direct response to the audience is the most important. That is to say, you’re trying to make people literally feel something in their bones about what’s going on on-screen.”
Nolan calls horror “a genre in which experimentation is demanded.” He explains, “I go to see a lot of horror films with my kids these days, and you’ll see things in the first half an hour, 45 minutes of any horror film that you’d never see in another genre. Risks that are taken. Dangerous approaches to things. Admittedly, a lot of movies can’t sustain that to the end. But in the horror genre, that kind of innovation is not just respected – it’s really demanded.”
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is now playing in theaters.
Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
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