Wicked is a twisted tale of murder and incest with noir sensibilities and a biting dark wit. The story follows a troubled teen, Ellie Christianson (Julia Stiles), whose obsession with her father has disastrous consequences for their family and friends. It’s an ambitious film with no margin for error, blending horror, mystery, and dark comedy simultaneously. It’s a project that required a director with nuanced sensibilities, cohesive vision, and firm control of their craft. Ultimately, South Dakota native Michael Steinberg was tapped to helm the film.  

Steinberg first fell in love with movies when his father took him to see Bonnie and Clyde, the mixture of adult humor and chaotic violence sparked his imagination. A collection of 60s-70s classics like The Graduate, Dog Day Afternoon, and Badlands fueled that flame but it was Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc and F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise that inspired him to become a director. 

After graduating from UCLA’s acclaimed film school, Steinberg teamed with former classmate Neal Jimenez to direct The Waterdance, which stars Eric Stoltz as a writer forced to accept life in a wheelchair after an accident. Produced by Gale Anne Hurd, The Waterdance wowed critics, winning the Audience Award at Sundance and Best First Feature and Best Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards. The film’s success led to Steinberg’s first solo effort, Bodies, Rest & Motion, a romantic drama that was the runner-up for the Sundance Audience Award and screened in the “Un Certain Regard” section at Cannes. Both The Waterdance and Bodies, Rest & Motion showed Steinberg’s instinct for character and his ability to draw strong performances from his actors, two qualities that were central to his work on Wicked.

In this exclusive interview, taken from recently digitized onset footage, Steinberg discussed his approach to helming Wicked, working with Julia Stiles, and tackling the film’s stylistic demands.

*Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Story and Tone of Wicked

It’s a murder story. The mother of the family is killed and there are a host of suspects, including the father and the next-door neighbor, who the mother was having an affair with. There’s also the au pair and the eldest daughter. On the surface, that’s what it’s about. But it becomes about something else that happens inside the house with the family, which is really a gothic horror film. 

The movie is constantly throwing curves at you. As soon as you think you’re set in comes this other story element and this other tone that completely takes it in a different direction. Then you think, “Okay it’s going to be the teenage daughter from hell and then it throws in something else completely different.” I like movies that take you on a ride. I think too many movies are streamlined from beginning to end and you pretty much know in the first five minutes everything that’s going to happen. This person is going to get together with this person by the end and it’s just a matter of when and how. I don’t think you can tell that from this movie. I don’t think it lets you settle in and be comfortable. It’s constantly pulling the rug out from under you, which I think makes it fun.

What Attracted Him to the Script

I never read anything quite like it. It’s a combination of genres that I’m really interested in. It’s a thriller, a horror film, and has elements of black comedy. I grew up in suburbia and I thought I knew some of the nightmares that come with that. I thought Ellie was a really unique character. I hadn’t seen a young girl who had that kind of power over men. I thought that was interesting and I wanted to explore it.

How Wicked Compares to His Earlier Work

What’s different about Wicked from the other films I’ve done is it’s much more about the style and tone and the genre elements. Those other films were much more about the performance and the basic story. They were very naturalistic while this is a stylized movie. This is something I hadn’t done before.

Working with the Cast

Julia Stiles is a phenomenon. She’d somehow read the script on her own and sent an audition tape from New York that she did in her apartment with her mother. I was really intrigued by it. She wrote me a letter and I couldn’t believe a 15-year-old had written this letter because it was so smart and insightful about the character and the story. I called her immediately to find out who this girl was and could tell right away that she was incredibly intelligent and had a good grasp of what we were trying to do. So she came out and auditioned and she basically was Ellie. She had that character inside her, which is kind of frightening. For a young actress, it’s rare you can find something this complex where you’re really carrying the movie and you’re the dominant force behind everything that happens. So this is a great role for her. 

I’m in love with Michael Parks. He’s amazing as Boland the detective. It’s not really a detective story but there is this murder mystery element where the detective is trying to uncover the murderer. I think we paid the least attention to that part in the script but Michael came in and brought this character with him that was really specific and something that he really came up with on his own. He’s been a lot of fun to work with.

I had seen Linda Hart do small parts in big movies and was really curious about her. I thought she was really funny and perfect for the part but I didn’t think she’d be interested in a low-budget movie. I wrote her a letter telling her why I thought she’d be great and, to my surprise, she wanted to do it. I didn’t even know about her whole singing career. She’s an amazing gospel singer and comes from a family with this whole tradition of gospel singing. As it turns out, her character Mrs. Potter sings a song at a wedding reception so I was completely thrilled she could do that. She was great.

When Billy Moses came in and auditioned for Ben he just blew me away and completely stole this part from every other actor who wanted it. He’s done an amazing job. He’s very funny, which is hard to do in this role. It’s walking through a fine edge of playing real but understanding the comedy. 

Chelsea Field came in for Karen Christianson and we just talked about the script. A lot of people had no clue from reading the script what kind of movie this was going to be. Ten percent of those who read it got it from the beginning the same way we did and Chelsea was one of those people. I felt great having her in the movie and she was really fun to work with. She did her own stunts and she’s a lot of fun on the set.

Patrick Muldoon was a revelation because the part had been written for somebody older and we’d heard about Patrick and became really interested in him and had to talk him into doing it. Once we did, we realized the part had to be rewritten and it was fortunate for us that we did because it turned out so much better once we sat down and rewrote it specifically for him. It actually changed the story and became much better with his participation. 

Louise Myrback came in and auditioned for Lena. We fell in love with her in the audition. It’s her first movie, the first of many. The character was supposed to be French and there were many fine French actresses we were looking at but Louise had a spark and a playfulness that really worked well for the part. 

The Technical Side of Wicked

That stuff is easy. The camera angles, the lighting, and the other technical things are easy. What’s always hard is telling the story well and getting a performance from the actors. In that respect, it’s been the same as what I’ve done before. It’s been more fun, stylistically, with some of the things we’re doing. I’ve enjoyed that. 

Watch Wicked on the following streaming platforms: Amazon, YouTube, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu, Plex, and Tubi.