The Hitcher
In the original Hitcher, C. Thomas Howell was the hero and poor Jennifer Jason Leigh was just a damsel in distress. In the new millennium, Sophia Bush is the hero and the boyfriend, Zachary Knighton, is at best a sidekick.
Sophia Bush on The Hitcher
"I think that was a big thing for me and something we definitely looked into in a lot of moments in filming, because I don’t want to be that girl running around whining and irritating, but at the same time I don’t want to come out like Lara Croft with guns blazing, because that’s not quite right either," said Bush. "I think that it’s something that made it great, or greater for me rather, was a lot of what Zach and I got to do together."
Bush and Knighton play Grace and Jim, college lovers on their way to a spring break vacation, when terrorizing hitcher John Ryder (Sean Bean) enters their lives. "We spent weeks just working on the chemistry of our relationship and how Jim and Grace behaved and reacted and the ways we kind of messed with one another and the ways partners in a long standing relationship sort of do. So, what we had, I think this gave me some license to go on the emotional roller coaster. Instead of just being one kind of woman or another, when Grace wasn’t going to make it Jim pulled her up and when Jim wasn’t going to make it, Grace pulled him up. And it was a very symbiotic relationship, so it allowed me to show both sides. And it allowed me to flip the scales from her being kind of happy go lucky to her being stripped down and very animalistic. It let me do that slowly more in a see saw than in one quick flip and I think that’s a more accurate of how people change and how people sort of tap into their strengths."
Sophia Bush in The Hitcher
The Hitcher
The Hitcher
On their two day road trip to hell, the characters stay in the same bloody outfits. That made for some unpleasantness on the set. "There definitely got to a point where what did they have? Six? For continuity sake they had to keep a couple of pairs of all that clothes. There were a couple of days when we’d be in the same clothes and he looked at me one day and was like, ‘We smell.’ And I’m like, ‘I know.’ It was interesting, but then again we were covered in dirt, blood and filth so we probably would have smelled anyway. I don’t think anyone noticed, except for us."
Bush did not expect to do another horror movie after Stay Alive, but The Hitcher was a one of a kind opportunity. "As I was going through it, I realized that there was something special here because not only did that tomboy side of me get to completely freak out like in my stunt junkie way and do all of these amazing things and watch cars get blown up and watch helicopters fly over our faces and ride around the desert with guns, but there was such a development for this character and a sort of slope for this girl to fall down. It was something just really very exciting. And to be working with Sean and it was like, ‘Yeah, I want to make a movie with Sean Bean. Totally scary!’ And it’s so great, because we had a moment in that first sequence, barely knowing each other and we’re fighting and I’m like, ‘God, this guy is so strong and he has my face in his hand and this is great, this is great.’ And I made some noise that worried him and he looked at me and was like, ‘Are you alright?’ And I was like, ‘OK.’ And he was like, ‘OK!’ And I was like, ‘OK, we’re back in the scene. Beat me up some more.’"
The Hitcher opens to theatres on January 19th, 2007.
For the trailer, poster, movie stills and more movie info, go to The Hitcher Movie
Page.
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