13 Things You Didn't Know About The Movie 'Thirteen'
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Nikki Reed Regrets How She Depicts Her Father In The Movie
In a 2012 interview, Nikki Reed expressed some regrets about the movie, including the character Travis Freeland, who's based on her real-life father. In particular, she said she realized writing a script at age 13 didn't allow her to take a mature perspective on what he was going through.
"It was from one kid’s perspective and not a well rounded one," she said in 2012. "You get older and it’s like, how dare I portray my father as being a totally vacant careless schmuck?" She claims the situation was made worse by her 2003 claims about how the movie was totally autobiographical. "Parts were autobiographical, but everything was exaggerated. That’s not my Dad. My Dad is a man that for as long as I can remember has kept a book of favorite things his kids say."
Many Producers Were Too Scared To Make The Film Happen
Before writing Thirteen with Nikki Reed, Catherine Hardwicke was a successful production designer with the connections to pitch the movie to various Hollywood producers. However, when making the rounds, she found many were too scared of the film's subject matter.
"[Producers] were terrified to make the movie," Hardwicke explained in 2003. She eventually found a couple producers who were willing to take a chance, Michael London (Milk) and Jeffrey Levy-Hinte (Laurel Canyon).
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Only One Of The Stars Had A Real Tongue Piercing
Even people who haven't seen Thirteen probably recognize the poster where Tracy and Evie display their tongue piercings. For the actresses who played the parts, Evan Rachel Wood used a fake piercing, but Nikki Reed's was completely real.
Reed said she got the piercing at age 11 by playing her divorced parents against each other, convincing each of them the other one had already consented to it. "She knew how to work it," said Hardwicke.
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Director And Co-Writer Catherine Hardwicke Is Nikki Reed's Dad's Ex-Girlfriend
Catherine Hardwicke met Nikki Reed when she was five years old, as she was dating Reed's father at the time. They developed a close relationship, with Hardwicke even considering Reed a surrogate daughter.
When Hardwicke and Reed's dad broke up, she didn't want to lose touch. "Even as a 5-year-old, Nikki was so open and funny, totally willing to take risks," Hardwicke said in August 2003. Around then, she also told the LA Times, "I still planned to be in the kids' lives... so I started going to their mom to get my hair cut."
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Catherine Hardwicke Rushed The Movie So Nikki Reed Could Star In It
After Catherine Hardwicke and Nikki Reed wrote the Thirteen screenplay together, Hardwicke wanted Reed to play the part of Evie. However, this meant they were racing against the clock, since Reed was about to turn 14 and would not be able to convincingly portray a 13-year-old for much longer.
Hardwicke set a goal to make the movie by summer 2002, even if she had to mortgage her home to finance the project. Hardwicke got a $2 million budget for the film, with producer Jeffrey Levy-Hinte raising half the funds.
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Evan Rachel Wood's Belly-Piercing Expletive Was A Genuine, Unscripted Reaction
The movie features a scene where Evie gives Tracy a navel piercing. While Evie is attempting the procedure on Tracy's stomach, she has a moment where she exclaims, "What the f*ck did you do?"
As it turns out, that line was not scripted. Nikki Reed had inadvertently poked Evan Rachel Wood with the needle, giving her a scratch (with a lasting scar as a souvenir). In the moment, Wood blurted out the line, and it made the final cut.
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The Movie Made It Difficult For Nikki Reed To Repair Her Relationship With Her Mother
In the movie, Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) starts experimenting with a risky lifestyle in part because of a lack of attention from her mother, Melanie (Holly Hunter). Since this was inspired by Nikki Reed's real-life relationship with her mom, creating the film made rekindling their bond even more difficult.
"Religious people who we don't even know are calling my mom, telling her she should burn in Hell and that God hates her," Reed said after the movie came out in 2003. "My mom can't defend herself to the world. She is such an amazing woman, with such an open heart. It's a real hard line, and I crossed it."
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Co-Star And Co-Writer Nikki Reed Based The Movie On Her Life
Nikki Reed didn't just co-star as Tracy's troubled friend Evie, she also co-wrote the movie when she was 13 years old. The script is based on her relatively recent experience trying to fit in with a popular crowd, including a friend getting busted for selling crystal.
Around the time of the film's release, Reed said Thirteen is "80% true, or part-true." Of spending time with a dangerous crowd, she said, "When I was with them, I thought I had everything... I would walk down the hall like I was queen of the world. It was an invincible feeling... Then they were gone, and I had no friends. I was sitting home all day alone. I had no defense."
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Nikki Reed And Catherine Hardwicke Wrote The Movie Over Six Days At Hardwicke's Venice Beach Home
Catherine Hardwicke and Nikki Reed began collaborating on the screenplay in January 2002 at Hardwicke's home in Venice. They worked tirelessly on the script, breaking up long stretches of creation by running on the beach, surfing, and dancing to hip hop.
Six days later, the script was complete. "When (Reed) started changing from 12 to 13 years old, I saw her losing her joy," Hardwicke later explained. "She became so angry. It really freaked me out. I wanted her to get back to creative, rather than destructive, things."
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Nikki Reed And Her Father Mended Their Relationship Years After The Film's Release
Like the fictional relationship between Tracy and her father in Thirteen, Nikki Reed and her dad weren't on great terms for many years. "We weren’t close growing up and I guess it was both of our faults," Reed explained in 2012. "He was waiting for me to come around and I was bitter about him divorcing Mom."
However, Reed also said things have changed since the time depicted in the film:
I was shooting a movie in Sacramento and I called my Dad and said, 'We need to have a real talk. We went to Islands and I told him all these things that he had no idea I wanted. I said, ‘I want you to call me everyday and maybe five times a day and even if I say I’m fine I want you to say you don’t sound fine. I need you to dig deeper and tell me you love me every time you hang up the phone.’ There were all these things he didn’t understand about me. Things I wanted and needed.
Reed's father immediately accepted her appeal, and "From that day on my Dad did what I needed and he wasn’t awkward about it."
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Holly Hunter Agreed To The Movie Because The Script Was "Visceral"
After securing financing, director Catherine Hardwicke set about trying to get Holly Hunter to play the part of Tracy's mother, Melanie. "I read the script and it was a very visceral experience," Hunter said in a retrospective interview.
After Hunter suggested some changes, Hardwicke wrote in a few extra scenes to enrich Melanie's character, and Hunter agreed to take the part. "It's extremely raw, it was not a filled-in picture," Hunter explained. "It felt more like a feeling than anything else. And that's unusual for a script to communicate like that. It sort of declares itself, it comes at you."
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Before Signing On, Holly Hunter Asked For An Executive Producer Credit
When Holly Hunter agreed to star in Thirteen, she knew she wanted to give some creative input on the film. To this end, she requested an executive producer credit, and the other producers agreed having input from a former Oscar winner would be helpful.
"I wanted to be involved creatively," Hunter later said. "Putting the movie together creatively, with casting particularly, I didn't want to have consultation. I wanted to be in on it." She explained she wanted to have the freedom to give her thoughts while filming was going on without feeling like she needed to apologize for her insights. It appears to have worked out, as Hunter was nominated for another Oscar thanks to her performance.
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Child Labor Laws Limited The Stars' Shooting Time Each Day
Since Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed were both 14 when shooting the movie, they were subject to child labor laws restricting their work hours each day. This meant they could only shoot 9.5 hours per day, instead of the longer days often worked by adult actors. This time-frame had to fit everything, including getting the actors dressed for each scene and breaking to eat.
On top of this, the entire movie had to be finished in an incredibly fast 24-day schedule. To make it work, many scenes set on buses or public property were filmed guerrilla-style without the proper permits.
