THE HOST Q&A With SAOIRSE RONAN, ANDREW NICCOL, And DIANE KRUGER

What if everything you love was taken from you in the blink of an eye? “The Host” is the next epic love story from the creator of the “Twilight Saga,” worldwide bestselling author, Stephenie Meyer.  Last week they held a press day with cast members Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, and director Andrew Niccol. Check out highlights from the day below.

When an unseen enemy threatens mankind by taking over their bodies and erasing their memories, Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan) will risk everything to protect thepeople she cares most about — Jared (Max Irons), Ian (Jake Abel), her brother Jamie (Chandler Canterbury) and her Uncle Jeb (William Hurt) , proving that love can conquer all in a dangerous new world.

I was curious, when you’re making a movie like this, how do you plot out leaving in enough time for the voiceover lines when you’re having conversations with yourself?

Saoirse Ronan: I think a lot of it was down to the sound department, because they would sort of operate when the lines were being fed to me. So no one on set could hear what was being said into my earwig that I had, but they would kind of control it. I think between them and Andrew… I don’t even know because I’d never be looking in that direction, but I think Andrew might have cued them to give me the next line. But yeah, that was a big question for me when I was going into it was how we were going to do this. How were we going to cue it? Were they going to have someone on set? We were trying to figure that out. But it worked out a lot better, I think, than any of us anticipated.

So you were the only one who could hear that?

Saoirse Ronan: Yeah, me and Andrew, we were the only ones.

You didn’t feel like you were going crazy at one point, did you?

Saoirse Ronan: I talk to myself so much anyway that it was just like a normal day for me. So it was a very natural thing for me to talk to myself.

Mr. Niccol, the producers said you personally approved every extra in the movie.

Andrew Niccol: I try to if I can. They’re just as important — those faces have to havea story. You can look at them and go, “Yeah, I kinda know who that guy is.” They’re important to me. Everything’s important to me.

How do you find that spine in a book as massive as The Host to adapt it into a
screenplay?

Andrew Niccol: I’d never adapted a novel before, much less on that is 650 pages that I have to get down to 120. I remember getting it down to 200 and change, and went, “This can’t be done.” Eventually it got down there. I used tricks where I would make composite characters. I’d repurpose dialogue from one into another.

No matter how many times we talk to the “Twilight” cast, they talked about the priceless way that having Stephenie Meyer on the set was for helping them. How did Stephenie help you in the process of making this film?

Saoirse Ronan: She’s very, very supportive in a way that… She never kind of imposes herself too much. She was always on set, and I think more than anything, for me anyway, because I became so close to her personally and consider her a friend, I felt like I could go to her and talk to her about the characters and about the film or even just talk to her about any worries that I had. She was very much there for me as a friend, and that was wonderful. And I’m sure she was like that for the “Twilight” guys as well. She’s not your typical author who either just hands their book over and steps back completely or is never happy with anything that the film production do. She understands film production, she understands that sacrifices need to be made when a book is being adapted to a script, and she knows all that already, she’s been doing it for five years with “Twilight,” so she already has that kind of understanding. And now she’s a film producer, so she’s kind of… she’s more than just the author of the book, you know? She’s very much there to support the whole filming process.

Collaborating with Stephenie, how was that dynamic?

Andrew Niccol: Like I said, I’ve never adapted anything before, so I had no idea what to expect. I was a little anxious because she’s had so much success, it would be easy for her to not be normal. But she turned out to be really down to Earth. She was very soul like, in many ways because she would be very agreeable even if she disagreed. She says in the novel that the Seekers wear black. And I thought if they have pure motifs, I didn’t think I had a chance in hell she’d accept it, but I thought they should wear white. And she said,

And how much did you turn to the book for inspiration when you’re actually creating the character? Or was it more about the words on the page of the script? How do you balance that?

Saoirse Ronan: It was more the script for me. I mean, I read the book before we started shooting, but I found that whenever I — it may not always be this way, but with the films that I’ve done that have been adapted from books, when it’s come down to it I’ll refer to the script obviously before I’ll refer to the book. And that’s what I did with this. I mean, it was great to read the book because, I’m sure as you’ve seen, it’s huge, and so there’s a lot of detail packed into that story and a lot of backstory for the characters, the world, all that kind of stuff. So I think that really helped all of us before we began actually kind of creating who the characters were going to be.

Talk about casting and how you came to cast the different characters.

Andrew Niccol: Saoirse was first because when you have a character who is an alien who is going to insert themselves into your body, that’s not generally a much loved character, but you have to love this character. You need someone like Saoirse who is really likable. She’s impossible not to like. There’s an inherent goodness to her. Then you have to find, for the guys, you can change the anatomy of a movie – you can change the skeletal structure of a movie, but you can’t change chemistry. That’s why it was an extensive process to make sure those two felt the electricity.

Was there something in particular you were looking for when it came to casting these guys?

Saoirse Ronan: Um… a good actor. (laughs) I mean, obviously it wasn’t just down to me, it was more Stephenie and Andrew’s decision and the producers’, but I was delighted they asked me to come in because it was important, I guess, that we had chemistry. One of the things that I was very adamant about was that, OK I know that they have to be attractive-looking guys and all, but the most important thing is that they’re able to play the characters fully and really bring to life and not just be someone who’s a good- looking guy, you know? And thank God we found that with Jake and Max. And I had met them a few years before we started the shoot. I met Max during an audition for something, and Jake was in “the Lovely Bones,” so I had met them both before and I knew they were both lovely, and when I heard they were coming in I was delighted because I knew at least, hopefully this all works out performance-wise, but they’re great guys and I knew we’d all have a great time together and everything.

Diane, this is actually your first time playing a bad person right?

Diane Kruger: Well the jury’s still ____ if she’s bad or not, right? That’s what I thought was interesting actually. Like who’s actually the bad person, the human or the alien, right? It was interesting to be pleasantly terrifying. I love the ark. I thought it was an interesting character to play.

It was a very controlled character anyways. Was that a challenge or…?

Diane Kruger: Yeah, it’s weird to say things without intention. But it was a real choice that I guess Andrew, Stephanie and I made together. ‘Cause in the book she’s described as relentless and all of that, but she looks very different like she’s described as I think short and dark hair and all that and Andrew really wanted the ___ to be super pure, sort of Arian looking I guess. You know very streamlined and very terrifying I guess. So that was definitely something that we created together.

I was curious if, you being so close with Stephenie, if you had talked to her at all about “Byzantium” or if she’d seen it yet.

Saoirse Ronan: She hasn’t seen it yet, actually. She wants to see it. I think she told me that she wants to see it, but I haven’t really talked to her too much about it. I mean, when I said to her it was a vampire film, she was like, “Really?” “It’s not ‘Twilight!’ It’s a different one.” Yeah, I think she’s excited about it. She’ll have to see it soon. It’s coming out soon.

Is it difficult when you’re playing essentially two characters and you’re not seeing one for a lot of the movie and it’s really two different characters? Can you talk about developing both of them? And was that hard for you kind of keeping straight the different personalities?

Saoirse Ronan: It wasn’t too difficult because they’re so different, the two of them. I mean, it’s very much set out in the book and in the script who these characters are and what they’re traits are, and I think it’s great that Melanie is so feisty and has such a mouth on her. She’s a real fighter. She’s very, very human and Wanda isn’t. She’s very kind of serene and positive about things, always keeps her composure. She just doesn’t have those kind of very impulsive human reactions that we would to things like being locked in a cell or being taken away from the creatures that you’re used to and all that kind of stuff. And I enjoyed playing Wanda a lot because of that. I mean, you really have to keep an eye on when naturally you would react in a certain way. You couldn’t with her, you had to keep everything controlled just because it’s not in her character to do that.

Did you come up with a term for what the relationship in this movie is? Because it’s not quite a love triangle.

Saoirse Ronan: I know. (laughs) We’re saying it’s a love square. Or a love rectangle, or I think a love parallelagram is another. I quite like that one. It’s kind of impressive. So yeah, you can take your pick. As long as it has four sides, you know.

As a young actress, I was just kind of curious what you took away from the experience of working with somebody like William Hurt.

Saoirse Ronan: I loved working with William so much, I really did. It was brilliant having him on set because he’s such an experienced actor and not only has he done amazing films but he’s also done a lot of theater as well, and I think because of that in his acting approach comes out a very, very supportive man who really wants to support his other actors and his company of actors, really respects the craft of acting and filmmaking. Having someone like that one set, that took it so seriously and cared about it so much and kind of really took the lead whenever he was around, was fantastic for all of us. Because there would be times where, like on every film, the schedule is pretty tight and you’re pushed to make the day, and I remember there was one day where we were doing this big scene where I bring in medicine to treat Melanie’s little brother because he’s dying, and there was about seven or eight of us in the scene. And we rehearsed it a few times and then just got straight into it, and it wasn’t really working. I mean, it was fine but it didn’t really feel right. And William sensed that, and he made the decision to say, “You know what? Let’s just stop for a minute and really rehearse this and go over it and think about it.” And we did for about half an hour, which is unheard of in the middle of the day. We did that and it made the world of difference because he sensed that and he made the decision to do that with us. I loved working him. And one of my favorite scenes to do what with him where he comes in to the cell and he apologizes for what they’ve done to the Souls and everything. And it was so simple, and for most of the time — I love scenes like this anyway — we didn’t really look at each other, we were just looking straight ahead. But it was great. I love him.

You’ve been through like several tumultuous relationships in one car ride.

Saoirse Ronan: Completely. I was in fits at the end of it. I was a mess. (laughs) I was not stable after that one.

Are you prepared for a franchise? Are you ready to get back and do another one?

Saoirse Ronan: I mean, if the script was right. I think that’s always the most important thing. I wouldn’t just want to do a sequel just for the sake of it, you know? If the script is good enough and the story is strong enough to carry on, then yeah. It would be great to carry on.

Andrew Niccol: Yeah, I was drawn to the story and I would love to keep working with Saoirse. Stephenie’s looking at it thinking, “Maybe I’ll change the second book because of the performance.” It’s that strange situation where the movie might be leading the novel because of her performance… it’s so startling. She’s a bit of a vault. Stephenie won’t tell me what’s going on in the second book. But, it’s supposed to be a trilogy.

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THE HOST hits theaters March 29