She grew up amid the perfectly fertilized lawns of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania – one of the ritziest neighbourhoods in the United States, and namesake of the women’s college that once hosted Katharine Hepburn’s colourful scholastic interlude.
A hint of Hepburn rattles around behind the big eyes and unspoken strength of Kat Dennings: She’s smart with a hint of playful mischief. It’s a compelling blend, and it’s on full display in the new movie Daydream Nation – the first feature film from Childstar co-writer Michael Goldbach.
The story of a high-school siren who seduces teachers and students with equal skill, the Vancouver-shot feature stars Dennings as Caroline Wexler, a junior version of Madame Bovary.
“I found her really fascinating,” says Dennings of her character. “She’s mysterious and seems really mature, but she’s deeply complicated and doesn’t know who she is at all. She’s trying to figure it out, but she’s not doing it in a very smart way.”
As Caroline spins her sexual wheels in all kinds of masculine mud, things start to get very messy in this frequently surreal little coming-of-age movie that also stars Vancouver’s Reece Thompson and the resurging Josh Lucas.
“The whole high-school genre has typically been focused on the male coming-of-age experience, to the point where they were almost a genre unto themselves. I think in the male mind, those rites of passage are just so huge that they eclipse the female experience,” she says.
“What I liked about Michael’s script and his approach is that it was very much a story about both sexes moving through a very confusing time. Caroline actually has a real role in this story.”
Dennings says as a 24-year-old actress, it’s hard finding parts with any dimension or depth. “There are so many things actresses my age can do, but being the age we are, we’re never really given the opportunity to be interesting. Most of it comes down to a physical presence.”
Despite the overall shallow quality to Hollywood casting, Dennings has been able to land some of the prize roles of her demographic in such films as Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and House Bunny.
“Look, I just want a job that’s interesting. That’s the most you can really hope for, and so far, I’ve been lucky.”
Dennings says she’s got a soft spot for Canadian projects, because they often offer a longer creative leash, and so she has played the hooker with the heart of gold in the Hamilton-shot Defendor, as well as her latest turn in Daydream Nation.
“I really look at the quality of writing first, not the location. And as far as the Canadian thing goes, I think Michael (Goldbach) is a very Canadian guy. But I don’t see this movie as essentially Canadian. For me, the most important thing is that the movie finds the universal, and doesn’t alienate anyone. There were a few more Canadian elements in Caroline, but I toned them down, because I wanted to make her more for everyone.”
Dennings says she even learned a few things from Caroline after living in her mind for months, and creating a whole backstory, as well as an iPod playlist for her alter ego.
“I had a great time on this movie. The group was fun, and we’d all go into the city on the weekends and go dancing. We celebrated a birthday – one where you turn legal – and that was a blast.”
Dennings says she’s never had much of a problem walking around town, regardless of where she is. “When I’m not working, I don’t really dress up or anything. I don’t get noticed and I don’t need to get noticed.”
In fact, Dennings says while she’s entirely comfortable losing control on camera while in character, she finds it painfully awkward to be herself in front of the mechanical eye.
“You know what I was telling my manager on the plane here? I said that I could be on-set, half-naked, covered in cocaine and screaming at someone, and never have an ounce of nervousness, but being myself in front of a camera makes me insane.”
Dennings says acting helps her make sense of her own life, and every time she works on a project, she learns a little something new about her deeper self.
“I asked my parents to do this since I was two,” she says. “There’s a part of me that seems to need this. One of my best friends is an actor, too, and it seems we really need it. It satisfies a part of us nothing else can, and when I’m not doing a movie, I actually get antsy,” she says.
“On this movie, I isolated myself on purpose. I looked at a lot of photography and latched on to themes that felt like Caroline. I wanted to see the world through her eyes – and that’s how the playlist with Billie Holiday and Radiohead came together.”
When the voyage finally wrapped, Dennings realized she’d taken a little bit of Caroline home – but only so she could appreciate her own life more.
“Look, my reality is very different from hers. I still have both parents, thank god. I couldn’t really relate to her sense of isolation, but I did understand being alone, and that’s where I stayed in my head,” she says.
“That wasteland of relationships (in Daydream Nation) is an interesting place to visit,” she says. “But really, you don’t want to live there.”
Daydream Nation opens theatrically in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver April 15.
