Go Ask "Phoebe in Wonderland"
Appeared in Sundance Daily Insider, 2008It’s widely known that movies take time to get made, sometimes a lot of time. Phoebe in Wonderland is no exception; director/writer Daniel Barnz explained to the audience before the screening that its lead actress – 9-year-old Elle Fanning – wasn’t even born when the first draft of the script was written.
The movie tells the story of Phoebe, a little girl suffering from Tourrette’s Syndrome, and her family’s struggle to come to terms with it. Phoebe ends up trying out for a school production of Alice in Wonderland and soon her real life and the imaginary one she plays on stage start to merge as one in her imagination.
After the emotional screening, cast and crew took to the stage to answer questions and find out the real reason why Elle was especially quiet one day on set.
Q: That was a remarkable film. What took you so long to get it made?
Barnz: It’s an extremely execution-dependent film. It’s not high concept, so I first had to find a remarkable cast that would agree to be a part of it with a first-time filmmaker, which these cast members did and they will have my gratitude forever. And then I had to find producers who were willing to take a leap of faith.
Quentin Tarantino: There’s a few different film and TV versions of Alice in Wonderland, what’s your favorite?
Barnz: It’s actually a film that my remarkable design team introduced me to, called Alice by Jan Svankmajer who did these really wonderfully bizarre films with puppets and things.
Q: What made you choose to make a film about Tourette’s Syndrome?
Barnz: I was definitely the weird kid growing up and I wanted to make a film that was about a child who was different and might learn to value difference – not just that it’s okay to be different but in some ways it can make you stronger. And Tourette’s interested me because you’re biologically unable to control your inhibitions, and that was fascinating to me as a storyteller.
Q: Elle, how did you learn to portray someone with Tourette’s?
Fanning: Well, me and Daniel met with some kids that had Tourette’s and we just asked them some questions about what it’s like to have it. So that’s how I sort of knew how to portray it.
Q: The highly emotional scene in the bedroom with Phoebe and her mom, aside from the acting, what did you do as a director to make that scene so effective?
Barnz: Honestly, I cast well. It was Felicity and Elle. I will tell you one funny story about that day. Elle came to the set and she was a little quieter and a little more introspective than usual. Her grandmother Mary Jane who was taking care of her, said to me, “Elle hopes people won’t be offended if she’s not being quite friendly today, she just feels like she has to be in the mood to do that scene.” Felicity quipped that it took her most of her adult life to learn how to do that.
Fanning: That day, as Daniel said, I was just more quiet and then afterward, Felicity noticed I was all energized up because after being so quiet all day I was just laughing and more normal.