‘Torn Hearts’ Director Brea Grant Discusses Big Hair, Rhinestones, and the Horrors of the Patriarchy
"When women get pitted against each other, the person that wins is a mediocre, male country singer."
Hagsploitation is back! And this time it’s hitting us with a li’l country twang. Torn Hearts, the new horror flick from Blumhouse Films, stars Katey Sagal as Harper Dutch, an aging country star-turned-recluse with some skeletons in her closet and murder on her mind. The film begins when a young musical duo, Jordan and Leigh, (played by Abby Quinn and Alexxis Lemire) hungry for fame, shows up on her doorstep hoping to get her to record a song with them. Unfortunately for them, Harper has a series of increasingly violent and brutal tests they have to compete in, to prove they really have what it takes to make it in the music industry.
I had the opportunity to speak with Brea Grant, the director of Torn Hearts, and we went deep on her Texas roots, the rebellious nature of country music, and perhaps most importantly, the ways that our patriarchal systems continue to thrive by forcing women to commodify and dissect themselves while also attacking each other, and how that became the central theme of the film. Grant, having being an actor as well as a writer and director, has firsthand experience with all the ways that Hollywood (and the entertainment industry in general) turns women into body parts to be sold, and so, was super excited to not only mix horror and country music, but to use it as a platform for discussing a social issue that still plagues us today.
Brittany Knupper (TMS): Hi! Thank you for taking the time to chat! Let’s start off with the big and the basic: How did you discover Torn Hearts? How did it get going?
Brea Grant: Blumhouse found the script. I had directed a movie called 12 Hour Shift that went to Tribeca in 2020, and I met with Blumhouse after they saw that movie. So, they kind of knew my sensibility and they knew what I wanted to do. And then they started their slate with Epix, and this was one of their scripts for their slate. So they brought it to me and I went through the normal pitching process and told them what I want to do with it. And I was down in Louisiana, like less than a week later.
TMS: What was it in the script for Torn Hearts that got you excited about it? Aside from Blumhouse bringing it to you, that is.
Grant (Laughing): Yeah, yeah. That is helpful. Having Blumhouse say, “we want you to make this movie” is great. I really love all the stuff that they do. And I like that they’re giving a lot of filmmakers who haven’t had a shot yet opportunities and a bigger budget. I think that’s very cool.
But the script itself, I thought it was really unique. I’m from Texas. I love stories about complicated, messy women. I love horror that is about women. And I felt like the script had a lot to say. I feel like Rachel (Koller Croft) was trying to do something really interesting in a world that I had never seen in a horror movie. And that felt like something I could really sink my teeth into.
TMS: As I was watching it, I couldn’t help but think of classics like: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Sunset Boulevard, and even Grey Gardens—but country western. And so I was wondering if those were influences, and what else you drew inspiration from?
Grant: Yeah, those are excellent references,and are actually ones that I used as well.
I also looked at Misery, which I think like, if you had to do a double feature. I think it should be Torn Hearts and Misery, because they are both sort of psychological fan-based horror. But yeah, those are definitely the ones.
And also I grew up in Texas. So just having that sort of background, knowing about country music and a little bit about the country music world, that was an influence. I listened to country music when I was a teenager, so I was kind of already familiar with that world.
And then there were some other non-horror movies that I thought were inspiring. There’s a movie called Wild Rose with Jessie Buckley. It’s really heartbreaking and made me think a lot about what country music means to people. And the relationship a lot of people have with it, because it’s such an art form. It’s all about having your heart on your sleeve. And that combined with horror, which is having your heart removed from your body, seems like such a great, great mix.
TMS: Because you have mentioned growing up in Texas … So I grew up in a small, rural town where country music was inescapable. And I reached a point where I rebelled against it, hated it, and didn’t come around on it until college. And now I really love some of it. Did you grow up loving it? Or did you have a similar journey and come around to it later in life?
Grant: There was definitely a time in my life when people would have asked “what kind of music do you like?” and I would have said “anything but country!” But, I did grow up with a dad who liked old country, so I knew I knew a lot of those songs and have always liked them.
There’s a certain level of creepiness and weirdness to that old country from the 50s. But yeah, I mean, I have a soft spot for it. I listened to it when I was younger, and then I got into punk rock when I was a teenager, so I abandoned anything that wasn’t punk for many years. But I do have a soft spot for it. And when I was prepping this movie, I made a playlist that I kept sharing with the crew and they … were not liking it. (Laughing.)
TMS: I was going to ask if you made a playlist! Please tell me what’s on it!
Grant: So I’ll share it with you. It’s a mixture of old country, ’90s country—which is the era I’m the most familiar with—like Reba McIntyre and Trisha Yearwood, and then new indie/alt country. With alt country there’s some really interesting things happening there and it’s not as one note as people think it might be.
TMS: I’m glad you mentioned the outlaw country of the 50s because there’s a really interesting connection in Torn Hearts. A lot of it comes from a super dark, violent place – like a lot of those songs were about men murdering their wives and girlfriends. So I think it’s super interesting to see this woman (Harper Dutch), a female country star, who’s out there doing what all these men brag about doing in their songs.
Grant: Yeah, Country does tend to exalt this. The weirdos, the outlaws, the people who are breaking the rules. I think about “Harper Valley PTA,” a song from my youth, all the time. It’s such a brilliant song, because it’s just about this woman who didn’t quite fit into this town. It’s not about being perfect. I think that country music really embraces the “friends in low places” sort of thing. Yes. I’m going to just quote country music songs to you now.
TMS: Yes, please do! I’m still amazed at how much I’ve come full circle on embracing my country western roots.
Grant: Yes! It’s happened to me too. It’s funny, I feel like I moved to LA and I did a lot to make sure people were aware that I was something more than a girl from a small town in Texas. And then, as the deeper I’ve gotten into being a filmmaker, the more I try to put that stuff in movies, because I realized I cannot escape it.
TMS: And speaking of music! The score! And the original songs! What was it like working with Brittany Allen?
Grant: The score is all Brittany. And she is amazing. I’ve been wanting to work with Brittany for a while. She also has an acting background, like myself. And she’s really interesting. And she goes with her gut in a way that I really like. So for this one, I was like, “we have these poppy catchy songs that turn weird and dark – go!” And she did. She even used her own vocalization.
And then the songs. The lyrics are actually written by Rachel, who wrote the script.
TMS: Oh wow!
Grant: So this is wild, I haven’t read that many musical scripts. There’s just not that many floating around. But Rachel had the songs mentioned in the script and then at the end were the lyrics.
And when I first saw it, I was like, “wow, will we use these lyrics?” Like I couldn’t even wrap my head around how we could possibly do it. But it worked out great. We use the lyrics and everything. We hired a producer out of Nashville, named Alan Ett, and Alan helped arrange the songs we made. I basically went to him and said “here is what I think Torn Hearts sounds like, here’s what the Dutchess Sisters sound like, etc” I gave him the influences and inspirations and because we started shooting less than a month from when I signed on, he had to write them and turn them around so fast.
TMS: Will we potentially get a Torn Hearts soundtrack, because I think that would be excellent.
Grant: I would love it! On the second day of shooting we were recording the opening song that Torn Hearts is playing, and it’s playing over and over and over again. And a script supervisor came up to me at some point and I was like, “Oh, she’s gonna say how annoyed she is with having to hear this over and over” but she was like, “Oh, I love the song! This song is great. Are you going to release it?”
TMS: They’re all so catchy! I would be so down for an album by Torn Hearts or like the Dutchess Sisters or something.
Grant: I know! We have to get that! (Laughing) Talk to Blumhouse!
TMS: I have to ask about the costuming. Which I thought was fantastic. I was wondering if you could talk about your approach to the authenticity of the design, especially Harper’s various costumes, like her Nudie jacket and all of those nods to 80s and 90s Country Western?
Grant: We had a lot of fun. The costuming team was amazing. And they loved this movie, because anytime I would see something I would be like, “you could go bigger.” And they loved that because it was like… it was maximalist feminine. That’s the aesthetic of the movie. And the costume designer, (Eulyn Colette Hufkie) handmade that Nudie suit. She designed it specifically for Harper, and handmade a lot of those clothing. Designed specifically for them. There’s the boots that Jordan is wearing at the end. The dress that Leigh is wearing. A lot of that stuff is hand hand sewn. We just put way, way, way more rhinestones on it. We just kept adding rhinestones. Because I was like, “if you’re gonna do a movie about the country music world, like why would I not have a lot of fun with these costumes?”
But yeah, it was a really, really fun time. And we just kept going bigger and bigger. I really hope I get to work with that team again. I feel like we were all on the same page of just vomiting feminine stuff all over everywhere.
TMS: Country Western really is like its own form of drag, you know? Like the bigger the better. Were there any specific musicians that you were wanting to reference and pay homage to? I know you mentioned Reba and Trisha, but was there anyone else that you wanted to emulate?
Grant: Oh yes, definitely the Judds. Naomi and Wynonna. There’s a large photo of the young Duchess Sisters hanging in Harper’s mansion and we actually used a photo of the Judds to copy. There’s an old photo of them with their arms around each other and we just literally copied that photo for this giant portrait.
But we also kind of gave them their own thing. I mean, for Harper we wanted her to be a little bit more androgynous, not quite super girly. We didn’t want her wearing some big dress. We wanted something more like Bonnie Raitt. And we wanted her to feel messy.
TMS: So Katey Sagal is an icon. How did you approach getting her on board to play Harper? And what was it like working with her?
Grant: I mean, yeah, what a goddess. I knew she was a singer. And I had seen videos of her singing. She came up in one of our conversations with my producer, and we couldn’t leave it alone. Because she’s so perfect. She brings this gravitas and she has such presence. And, if she was Harper, you wouldn’t have to explain why the girls are fans. It would be obvious when she walked in.
So I sent her the script and I wrote her a very nice email about why I wanted her to do the movie, like what I thought the character was about, and what I thought she would bring to the role. And she responded!
I think in part it’s because she’d never done horror. And she’s done everything. She’s done comedy, we’ve seen her in different genres, but not horror. And I think that was of interest to her, to get to play this character in this particular kind of movie. But also to have this wide emotional range. Harper has some intense, dramatic monologues, and for me, I think you really need someone of Katey’s stature to pull that off.
TMS: Totally. Her charisma and her gravitas. And I also loved her little character quirks, like her finger tapping.
Grant: That’s all her. I can’t take credit for that. She’s really great at getting into a role and coming up with what that character would actually be doing. When she came in, we talked about things like: what does your character eat every day? Who does she see every week? And then she thought of this tapping that was sort of a nervous tic. And so everytime she would do it I would turn to my DP and say “I gotta get a shot of that finger.”
TMS: That’s so interesting! Because I eventually connected that finger tap to the severed finger we see later on as a little throughline.
Grant: When I signed on to do this, I had very little time to prep. So I made this big packet for everyone. And in it, I was like, “Here’s our themes.” And one of the themes was the commodification of women’s bodies, and body parts, and thinking about women as separate pieces and the way that we sell them in the industry. Which is very broad, but it ended up working because of the fingers. And because we ended up using all lf these mannequins and these feminine shapes. And so the finger just fell right in with all of that.
TMS: That’s a great segue, because one of the larger themes that the film is tackling is the way that the music industry, the entertainment industry, and our culture as a whole, pits women against each other. And in the end, it’s the men that benefit. And so I was wondering if you could talk a bit about that and why we are still stuck in this cycle in 2022.
Grant: Turns out, we’re all still living in a patriarchy. That was one of the things that drew me to the script. I think a lot about being a woman in the entertainment industry, obviously, I am one. And the things that I’ve been told over the years to survive, what I should do to get ahead, the things that I’ve seen people do to get ahead, and the ways that my female friends and I are pitted against each other. Even though there are so many women behind the camera right now, we’re all out for the same projects, and they’re not the projects that men are up for.
And so for me, the way in was that I identified with these characters and I really wanted people to walk away not judging them. I wanted people to see this was kind of their only option because they’re in this industry, and they’ve been told this is what they have to do to get ahead. They’ve been told that they have no other options. And you know, for Harper obviously, this has been ingrained. This has been in her head for many years and she’s had to put up with all the BS that comes with being a woman getting older within the entertainment industry.
And then with Leigh and Jordan, I felt like they had different approaches. But they’re both trying to find their way ahead in an industry that tells them that there’s only room for one. And so for me, it was just such a relevant theme. And, you know, it’s a horror movie. So it’s not necessarily a morality tale. It doesn’t end great for these women.
But I think, truthfully, when women get pitted against each other, the person that wins is a mediocre male country singer.
—
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Torn Hearts is now available for streaming on Epix.
(featured image: Blumhouse Films/Epix)
Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
