The comedy director reunites with her Clueless star Alicia Silverstone and Apt. 23 leading lady Krysten Ritter for Vamps, a indie comedy that explores the ups and downs of life as a vampire living in New York City. Movie-going audiences have seen a fair share of bloodsuckers in the past few years, but none quite like the ladies of Vamps. That's because instead of dwelling on the plot details, Heckerling spent years letting her imagination run wild over what she herself would do if she gained supernatural powers. Mixing elements of old school vampire movies with the hurdles of today's rapidly evolving social scenes, Heckerling examines nostalgia with her signature wit.
We sunk our teeth into Vamps with the director, whose off-the-cuff style is even more apparent when discussing her films:
Instead of throwing every scenario or joke at the wall, Vamps has a very structured set of rules. It's well thought out vampire mythology. How did you flesh out this particular vampire universe?
Amy Heckerling: I started with the Bram Stoker. That was, for me, the first book from Western Civilization that really spelled it out. But that was much smellier, more decrepit, much like the Max Schreck. Not so much of the Bella Legosi, with the classiness, with the capes and the medals. The sexy guys.
But I always said, 'I'd love to be a vampire. Imagine all these people staying up all night and never getting older. You [can] go to a movie every night, go to clubs, go to night school — all these wonderful things. That would be a lifestyle I like but I don't want to hurt anybody.' So when Ann Rice's Interview with a Vampire came out, I heard they were eating just animals. So I thought, 'There you go.' That's no worse than people who eat meat all the time. If I could do that, and that was the only trade-off, drinking animal blood and not being able to eat food — food really is a big part of life [laughs] — but if you burn your mouth or can't taste or smell for awhile, you realize how miserable it is to not enjoy food. But all these other things would make it a great trade-off.
The only thing I was thinking of, it wouldn't really mathematically make sense, the way the vampires kill people or turn people. Let's say the infection started 2,000 years ago. There wouldn't be any people left! The whole world would be vampires. Where would the blood come from? So I thought, there has to be some sort of an infection. One person gets it and can spread to others, but the entire universe doesn't get it at once. And only the stronger one, the "stems," would be able to turn people. That seems manageable to me.
Why do you think there aren't as many successful vampire comedies?
Heckerling: Mel Brooks did a wonderful one [Dead and Loving It], but it was kind of a satire of the Coppola movie with a few other things thrown in. I love Mel, he's the greatest guy and an inspiration to everyone in comedy. But maybe had the Coppola movie been a bigger hit, people would have gotten the references more. I don't think people know Nosfuratu.And he had a wonderful thing that I wanted to do in my version. The vampire had a daydream and it was sunny, flowers — and Leslie Nielsen is so funny — that was hilarious. I wanted to do a dream sequence, like a day-mare, which would be an Annette Fontecello beach movie as her nightmare. People playing volleyball, surfing, having fun — that would be horrifying thing for her.
I think that might be a horrifying thing for some non-vampires.
Heckerling: It is for me! We just didn't have enough money.
But that's the advantage of this movie. You get to make this movie without restraint.
Heckerling: We didn't have the restraints of the studio saying, 'You need to use this actor,' but we didn't have the money to get a song, or a day to shoot, or certain scenes. It's a trade-off.
Have your sensibilities always aligned with studios? Was it easy to work with them in the past?
Heckerling: At the present time, there is a video of someone reenacting my pitch of Look Who's Talking to a studio and them telling me why it's not going to work. And there's a girl playing me who is pretty damn close, she's got the insecurity and the messy hair. I'm going, 'Oh my God, I didn't know anyone saw me or could imitate me.
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