A Teacher was one of the Sundance movies I missed at the beginning of the year, but I got another chance to see it when Sundance put on NEXT Weekend in Los Angeles. Writer/director Hannah Fidell and star Lindsay Burdge came to L.A. to present the film at the weekend festival in August. Burdge stars a Diana, a high school teacher having an affair with her student Eric (Will Britain). The film follows her breakdown as the relationship intensifies. A Teacher is now available on VOD and opens in theaters this weekend.
CraveOnline: Were you in town for the NEXT Weekend?
Hannah Fidell: Yes.
Lindsay Burdge: Yes, well Hannah lives here now.
You do?
Hannah Fidell: Yes, I just moved here in May.
Was that as part of this whole process of becoming a filmmaker?
Hannah Fidell: Kind of. I just felt like it might be stupid and I might regret it forever if I didn’t try living here after making this film. I’ve been around several places. I grew up in Bethesda, MD., then I went to college in Indiana, then I moved to New York and then I went to Austin. Then I moved back to New York and now I’m here.
How did you end up in Austin?
Hannah Fidell: I went to Austin just to try something new, get out of New York for a little bit.
So watching A Teacher, the audience’s expectations are probably, like mine, that Diana might get caught for having this affair. Should we be more suspicious of Diana herself from the beginning that she could be the one to come unhinged?
Hannah Fidell: I don’t know if suspicious. I guess we both looked at the character as someone that was somewhat relatable, whether or not she’s the aggressor in the relationship or the victim. I think everyone’s kind of a victim in this situation.
Should Eric know that the type of woman who would engage in a relationship with a student would maybe be more complicated than he can handle at 17?
Lindsay Burdge: [Laughs] I think he’s a bit too young to understand that. And also he’s a boy. I’m not sure that boys ever figure that out until it’s too late.
I’m still working on it.
Lindsay Burdge: Just kind of ignore all the signs that they’re dealing with a crazy person.
Hannah Fidell: Blissfully ignore.
Were you inspired by any of the real cases we hear about teachers and students?
Hannah Fidell: No, in fact we looked at those, the Mary Kay Letourneaus and the Debra Lafaves, as women who really didn’t fit what we were trying to show which is those are very special extremes of this.
Lindsay Burdge: We were looking at a more sort of ordinary situation, if you can call it ordinary.
Hannah Fidell: It happens enough that it’s somewhat ordinary.
In the cases you mentioned, we often hear that they end up getting married after she’s out of jail.
Hannah Fidell: I actually think that’s only in Mary Kay Letourneau’s case.
Lindsay Burdge: Well, there’s one that just happened I think in L.A. where the woman got pregnant. I’ve actually had people come up to me and tell me about situations they know about where people have gotten married when this happened. Not all the time, but I think even maybe Will said that one of the teachers in his high school, maybe they got married.
Hannah Fidell: Yeah, maybe I’ve just been so tunnel visioned into trying to find instances of this where it doesn’t end happily and they don’t get married, so it’s not necessarily a pure love story.
Right, and some people might not say that the ex-con teacher marrying the former student is necessarily a happy ending either, but it could be. For all we know, it’s the real deal.
Lindsay Burdge: Whenever there’s wedding bells, it’s a happy ending, right? [Laughs] This is what I’ve been taught my whole life. Don’t tell me anything different.
The film is a lean 75 minutes. You didn’t need any more?
Hannah Fidell: No, I don’t think so. Not for this story. It’s meant to be really just in the realm of Last Days or Elephant or any of those films that are supposed to capture a very specific moment in time with no real backstory. It’s perfectly contained.
How long was the shoot to end up with 75 minutes?
Hannah Fidell: Total, I would say it was about a month.
Are there any deleted scenes?
Lindsay Burdge: Oh sure. There was a Skype conversation between me and a friend in New York City. Are there any others? I can’t think of another one.
Hannah Fidell: No, but we cut down the scenes a lot. There’s one where the teacher friend comes in.
Lindsay Burdge: We chat about how it’s my birthday and her husband or something. One where I pass her in the hallway.
