Paradise is Diablo Cody's fourth full-length feature film, but her first as both a writer and director, and is perhaps her most gloriously entertaining endeavor to date. The film tells the story of Lamb Mannerheim (played by Julianne Hough), a young girl from a highly religious small town in Montana who has a crisis of faith after she loses her fiancé and is badly burned in a horrific plane crash. Scarred inside and out, she denounces her belief in God in the most spectacular of ways - in front of her parents (Holly Hunter and Nick Offerman), family, friends, neighbors, and entire community - from the pulpit of her local church during a sermon in which she was supposed to announce a substantial gift from her multi-million dollar settlement check. Instead, she takes herself and her money off to the Devil's playground, otherwise known as Las Vegas. On a mission to seek out the worldly pleasures she's missed out on, she befriends a lascivious and licentious barman named William (Russell Brand) and his cohort, a nightclub singer named Loray (Octavia Spencer). Though running away from God and the narrow-minded morals of her hometown, Lamb's spiritual journey through Paradise, Nevada (where the Las Vegas Strip technically resides) ultimately helps her find herself. But this is no heavy-handed morality/immorality tale. Thanks to Cody's wonderfully witty script, intelligent observations, and sharp direction, and the comedic talents of her incredible cast, Paradise is enlightening in more ways than one. We caught up with Cody recently to talk about the film.
Nicole Powers: I have to say I loved this film.
Diablo Cody: Oh, thank you.
NP: Everything was perfect. The script, the cast, and I know it was your directorial debut...
DC: It was.
NP: When I said "directorial debut" there was a micro-expression, your eyes flicked up and to your left. What was going through your mind?
DC: It's still surreal to me to call myself a director. I still don't think of myself as a director. I feel like I am a writer who got the opportunity to direct. It was my first time doing anything behind a camera. I sometimes think maybe I should have practiced with a short or something and it wouldn't have been such a shock to the system. But it was probably the most educational experience of my entire life.
NP: You say a shock to the system - what was so shocking about directing?
DC: Ordinarily I'm alone. I do my job alone. I'm in sweatpants and I'm snacking and I'm just making up stories. It's really the most frivolous job ever. I don't have to answer to anybody, and nobody answers to me. On a set, suddenly, I'm the boss. I was the leader of all these people. They're relying on me for work, they're relying on me to further their careers, and the pressure was just crushing. It was impossible for me to forget about that everyday. So I did my job the best I could, but... I feel like I've spent a lot of my career rebelling against people in power and I had to become the person in power, and that was weird.
NP: With normal interpersonal skills you want to become someone's friend.
DC: Exactly.
NP: But as a director, it's not your job to be their friend, it's your job to tell them what to do.
DC: Well, yeah. But at the same time I was really lucky because the cast were incredible. I think we really forged some strong bonds. They were always incredibly patient with me and taught me so much about acting, and I think we all had a really good time.
NP: Do you think the experience of directing will change you as a writer? Will you write through a director's eyes?
DC: One hundred percent - and I've been told that that's a bad thing. Other directors have said to me, you have to continue to write freely. You can't sit and think about the budget and think about logistics while you're writing or it's going to hamper the script. But it's going to be hard not to. It's like, even now, even the things I've written since then, I feel like I've had a directorial perspective.
NP: The film has a lot of small details that tell me you've spent a lot of time in Vegas hanging out with the locals.
DC: Yes. I love Las Vegas so much. It's my favorite place. I love any city that exists to give people an excuse to act insane. I mean, it's truly just a playground for adults, and I have spent a lot of time there. Although, I have to say, working there is not the same. I have a different perspective on The Strip now that I was there shooting at four in the morning...But I have a lot of affection for Vegas. I know some people hate it but I love it.
NP: I always have a great time there, and a radically different experience every time I go, because there are so many facets to Las Vegas.
DC: That's the thing, a lot of people who love it there have never even been Downtown. There's this weird restaurant I love to go to called The Peppermill.
NP: I've been there.
DC: Isn't it great? It's like my favorite place on earth.
NP: You have to have the seat by the fire pit.
DC: Yes, there's a crazy fire pit and weird videos blaring in your face and the waitresses are in these prom gowns, and there's hookers and Johns, you know, meeting for the first time at the next table. I love it.
NP: I was at DefCon and I dragged all my friends down to the The Peppermill and we had a massive pillow.
DC: Amazing.
NP: Then we started fighting with straws. And instead of being snooty about it, the waitresses were supplying me with more straws, because they kept getting knocked out of my hand.
DC: That's what's so amazing; only in Vegas are they going to facilitate your straw fight instead of kicking you out.
NP: Lamb [played by Julianne Hough] goes to Vegas because she's running away from God and it's the nearest place she can find to hell. However, ultimately, she discovers that she can run away from God, but she can't run away from herself.
DC: Yeah, she's just totally lost her belief that there could be any benevolent being looking out for her because she's been disfigured in this way. She's been raised to believe that all of her worth is in her physical purity, and now she feels she has nothing more to offer the world. And I don't blame her for feeling the way that she does. But I think that when she goes to Vegas she realizes, oh, you know, I'm not a bad girl. I'm not a worldly person. I'm actually a good, wholesome, pious person, but I need to figure out what my own definition of that is - and for her it's generosity.
NP: I also think she finds comfort in the people she meets in Vegas. Because at home, she's the only person that's scarred amongst a community that have had really perfect lives, and it's really hard to be around perfect people when you've had an extreme experience. She goes to Vegas and she realizes she's not alone, and that everyone's scarred in some way.
DC: Exactly. For her to meet somebody like Loray [played by Octavia Spencer], who's like, what's the big deal? You're a beautiful blonde girl that has a couple of scars, quit feeling sorry for yourself.
NP: I love that line: I've got a skin condition - it's called being black.
DC: Exactly. If you and I go out together, I'm going to get starred at just as much as you. Loray's like the reality check for her. And William [played by Russell Brand] is just a skank. He's a bad boy, he's a bartender, he's one of those Vegas lost souls. He's been through a lot more than she has and so I think she actually feels like she belongs with them.
NP: But he's not a skank, because she brings out the best of him.
DC: That's true, she brings out the best in him.
NP: As we follow Lamb, instead of her getting sucked into Vegas, she almost sucks the people she meets into her world. The people around her become the best people they can be.
DC: Yeah, Lamb has an interesting quality. She does tend to bring out the best in people. It's no accident that her name is Lamb, people want to protect her.
NP: I understand the original name of the film was going to be Lamb of God.
DC: Yeah, that was the title of the movie. We had a couple of problems with it so we couldn't keep it. Then, for the entire shoot, we would sit around and try to think of new titles for the movie, because we had no idea what we were going to call it. It was the untitled Diablo Cody project forever. I was so happy that we were actually able to get Paradise...It's the perfect title for the movie. Like the Christian version of heaven is referred to in The Bible as Paradise; They're in the city of Paradise, Nevada; In the movie they talk about how the Vegas strip is actually in Paradise, it's not in Vegas; And she's also pursuing her own personal version of Paradise, you know, trying to find happiness. So it works.
NP: I was very concerned for her when she started giving all her money away.
DC: You know what's so crazy, you know the rapper The Game? In the last month or so, he's started this project where he's just giving away a million dollars. He's doing it over the course of a year and he's just doing it in bits and pieces. He takes a picture of every person he gives money to, and it reminds me of what Lamb's doing. He's just giving for the sake of giving. I think Lamb feels that it's wrong of her to profit from this misery, that she would rather take that money and help improve other peoples' lives.
NP: I love the line when she explains to the prostitute why she's giving her the money. That "everyone's scarred" and that she lucked out and got all this money, but there's people that are just as scarred as her that don't get compensated.
DC: Exactly, where's her reward? You know, everyone wants to help the sweet church-going girl who got burned in the plane crash, but nobody wants to help the hooker.
NP: I also love the idea of the kindness of strangers. And unexpected gives means so much more than one you expect at a birthday or Christmas from someone you know.
DC: I think so too. I love that scene that she has with the hooker. It's probably one of my favorite scenes in the movie. Then she comes downstairs and this transformative snow starts falling and you realize that she's had an epiphany.
NP: Working with Russell Brand, he's quite a force of nature, how much of what came out of his mouth was you and how much was him improvising?
DC: Weirdly enough, he did not want to improvise a lot in this movie. Our very first meeting, he told me, I know I'm known for improvising and doing these Judd Apatow movies where I'm constantly coming up with new punch lines, and in this movie I would actually like to stay true to the script as much as I possibly can. I said, that's awesome! However, he's so funny that there were so many times that I wanted him to play, and he did. So there's a few moments in the movie that are definitely improvised, but he was really dedicated to the script and he really took the role seriously. He's a lot of fun, there's no getting around that. When he's on set there just a lot of energy, and a lot of laughter - he's great.
NP: And, as the ultimate bad boy, he was the perfect juxtaposition for Julianne, who's perceived as the ultimate good girl.
DC: Yeah, but it's funny, Julianne - and I don't know whether it's because of the roles she's chosen or because of what she looks like - she really is perceived by the public as being a very all-American, wholesome, good girl, when, in fact, she's a really sophisticated, really interesting person.
NP: So what's next for you?
DC: I did write another movie, and I have no idea what's going to happen with that, but my goal at the moment is to try and get back into series TV. Because I want to stay in Los Angeles and I want to have a more consistent schedule. I have two really little kids...I need to put down roots, so I'm hoping I can get a TV show going. We'll see...
Paradise opens in theaters on October 18 and will be available on DVD on November 12.