Profile: Teen Filmmaker Emily Hagins, Director of 'My Sucky Teen Romance'

				By Jimmy Aquino, Pop Culture Contributing Editor Emily Hagins has three feature films under her belt and is currently working on a fourth. Did I mention she just turned 20 last October? And that her first stint as writer/director was at the tender age of 12? Indeed, her love of film goes way back to her much younger years, when her classmates labeled her “the movie girl.” This interviewer would also call her “slow-down-and-stop-making-us-older-folk-look-lazy-girl.” Her three films, Pathogen (zombies), The Retelling (ghosts), and My Sucky Teen Romance (vampires,) cover her love of horror but also highlight her sharp wit. (“For reals,” follow that girl on Twitter and you will laugh often.) Her new film, Grow Up, Tony Phillips, steps away from the horror and showcases her humor (which audiences started seeing more of in MSTR) in a coming-of-age story. I chatted with her back in September while she was premiering MSTR in NYC. She’s smart, funny, talented, charming, friendly…and 20. Remember where you were when you read this article in about five years when she accepts her first Oscar—especially because she’s promised to thank me, stated, and all of you lovely readers. It could happen.
	BEING AN ARTIST IS…?			Uhh…this is like Mad Libs! Oh, this could go anywhere… Being an artist is…fun. I don’t know! I don’t know! Being an artist is Mad Libs. It’s…funky, fuzzy, green toothpick.
	WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON TODAY?			Not throwing up before my screening tonight… It plays differently for different audiences, and I’m always nervous when the audience is older because I don’t think it resonates so well…[with older audiences]. I don’t know. In Chicago it was like 70 percent people that were older. I mean, just like senior age. But they really enjoyed it, so I felt good, but we had one in Austin where it was like lots of older people and they only asked me about my budget in the Q&A and it made me feel like they didn’t enjoy the movie.
				(Trailer for My Sucky Teen Romance)
	WHAT INFLUENCES YOUR WORK?			I’m inspired by anybody who’s passionate, whether it’s artistic or not. I feel passionate, but to see other people that are equally as into what they do makes me feel like I’m on the right path.
				(On the My Sucky Teen Romance red carpet)
	OF WHAT PROJECT ARE YOU MOST PROUD?			Proud… I always freeze up on the “proud” question, ‘cus I’m like, “I shouldn’t be proud!” Ok. I’m proud of this one shot in Pathogen where…we shot another scene like six months later. And I didn’t set up anything. I didn’t try to match cut it or anything, it just happened that the lighting outside was exactly the same, the kids stood in the exact same order… It was just happenstance. It turned out the cut—six months later—was exactly the same. I’m very proud of it.
				(On the set of My Sucky Teen Romance)
	WHAT IS YOUR DREAM PROJECT?			I think something where I don’t feel rushed or like I have to make compromises and it’s a story that I feel… I think it’s always important for directors and storytellers to feel, in a sense, that they’re the only person who can tell that story. Then that’s how you can get your crew and cast to feel like they’re a part of something, ya know? Then they feel like they’re the only people who can be a part of it. So something where everyone feels very special and important and like we’re telling a great story and at the same time, we don’t feel rushed and like we have to make compromises to make it.
				(Kickstarter pitch for Emily’s latest project, Grow Up, Tony Phillips)
	TO WHOM DO YOU LOOK FOR INSPIRATION?			Well, some of my favorite directors are Danny Boyle and Edgar Wright. Again, anybody who’s very passionate and has stories to tell… Peter Jackson.
				(On the set of My Sucky Teen Romance)
	IS THERE ANYONE FAMOUS YOU WOULD LIKE TO WORK WITH AND WHY?			I never know how to answer this question. These are all the difficult ones! I don’t know…it has to be the right people, or the right person. I started thinking of special effects people… Maybe like K.N.B.? That would be cool to work with them on something gore-related. But as far as actors go, I’m just so used to writing for people that I know how to write for, so I don’t really think about famous actors when I write. But yeah, maybe a cool effects company. But the effects people on Sucky Teen Romance were amazing. They did stuff for like Machete and Friday the 13th. They blew my mind. For very little money.
				(Poster for the Zombie Girl documentary about Emily and her first film, Pathogen)
	IF YOU COULD LIVE/WORK ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, WHERE WOULD IT BE ?			Wow. I think it’d be cool to make something in Europe. It would be a different experience, but I wouldn’t know what I was doing at all! But you learn as you live, right? I would love to get out of Texas and try something new. I feel like I know Austin very well, and where to film, but Europe would be cool.
				(Artwork for My Sucky Teen Romance)			(Artwork for Emily’s first film, Pathogen)
	WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST NON-ART JOB? HAVE YOU HAD ONE?			Kind of… I… Well, we’ll talk about a specific part of this job. I worked for this company called Rooster Teeth. They do the Red vs. Blue web series? So I did some writing and editing and filming for them. So I worked part time, but one day I assembled furniture. And I got paid to do that. I could put that on my resume! One time on a short film I dug dirt on the set, and I wanted them to credit me as dirt digger. But they didn’t.
				(Speaking at South By Southwest 2011)
	WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT?			Last week I was staying in hotel room 237, and that kept me up! And when I went to another the hotel the following week, they asked me, “What hotel room do you want?” I said, “Anything but 237.” And they were like, “Why? Do you want it…?” And I was like, “NO. You never…? The Shining?!” So that keeps me up.
	WHAT GETS YOU UP IN THE MORNING ?			I think sometimes it’s just feeling like I’m another step closer to making another movie. Or like today I was excited to be getting ready for the showing tonight. I think I just love what I do so much, and I wanna get up and continue it!
	DESCRIBE YOUR WORK IN THREE WORDS.			Hmm…another Mad Libs. My work as in my body of work? Or like how I work? Wow, this is open. I guess genuine…awkward…funny.
	IF THERE WERE A MOVIE OF YOUR LIFE, WHO WOULD WRITE, DIRECT, AND STAR IN IT ?			Movie of my LIFE?! What if I pick something really outlandish? I should pick somebody totally out there, like Cronenberg. I mean, hopefully it’s goofy, so maybe someone like Edgar Wright, because I look up to him. But I wouldn’t want to put him up to that job. That would be sad. Star in…? Probably someone who hasn’t even been born yet, because I have to finish living my life! So that’ll be cool—they’ll look just like me! They’ll be named…Shymelie! Write it…? Again, I just want to throw in somebody that writes really weird stuff, like… I said, “Shymelie,” so maybe…Shyamalan. That would be cool. I’d have a twist and everything would be red. I’m a ghost! Who lives in the water.
				Visit Emily Hagins… www.cheesynuggets.com @CheesyNuggets