2 of 3

As you made your way into "secular" films, was there any concern about your Christian background? Did you have to hide that, or skirt around that?

Edwards: I read some Internet chatter that maybe the reason Hoodwinked was No. 1 was because churches came out to support it like The Passion of The Christ. There's all these Christian conspiracy theories. I don't hide it, but I am uncomfortable being a poster child or banner waver. I don't want to play the Christian card the way that some minorities might play the minority card as a filmmaker. I don't want to lean on that or exploit that, and frankly I think it's dangerous because I don't want to put myself on a pedestal as a Christian filmmaker. I am a filmmaker who is a Christian, which I feel is different, the same way that Ralph Winter is a producer who is a Christian. It is incredibly freeing to not have to make every film with an evangelical message. When I realized that I might get to do any film I wanted, subject-wise, it was incredibly freeing—and I think my films will tell people where my beliefs lie. I don't trumpet it, but I'm not going to be ashamed of it.

Your first feature film, Chillicothe, has a few bad words . . .

Edwards: Yes it does.

… so it's rated R. How was your church when they saw that?

Edwards: We were a little concerned with it, and it was Todd's story to tell, and I think how he would put it is, "I have to be honest with these characters, and this character is jaded and lives in this world where he's angry; he would say these words." So it was a decision he made that I supported, and I have a couple of scripts where characters use profanity, but I'm really careful about how I do it.

But having said all that, I've worked in the Christian television and media industry for a long time, and I frankly just got tired of walking on eggshells. There was a project we were putting together that some Christian investors were interested in, but we wanted to make a film that involved some rough characters, and certain Christian investors couldn't even get on board because the characters were smoking, or a couple of characters were at a bar. And I got to a point where I was like, I don't have time for this.

One of the most Christian films I've ever seen in my life is Dead Man Walking, and I know some Christian people who will never see it because they have a blanket statement of "I don't see rated R films," but that film could not be made without rated-R content. Of course families with children make different decisions about what they go to, and they should. But I can't always promise I'm always going to make rated-G films, because I want to tell all kinds of stories.

Hoodwinked was actually rated PG, wasn't it?

Edwards: I know, and I was very surprised by that!

'Hoodwinked' is a funny twist on the old Red Riding Hood story

What was that about?

Edwards: I think it was the rolling pin across the head! We never got a specific. There was that, and there was the talk that the [villain] was going to put addictive ingredients into the cookies. And there were a couple of explosions, too, so I think maybe that was it.

It was funny to me because the Wallace & Gromit feature film had quite a bit of sexual innuendo, and it somehow got away with a G rating.

Edwards: Yeah, well, after all this talk of content, I'm pretty proud that we have a family film that doesn't have any innuendo, doesn't have anybody getting kicked in the crotch, doesn't have any fart jokes, because I see those as the easiest kind of jokes to do, and I think they're inappropriate if you're going to make a film that kids can go see. It's the same as with an R-rated film. Who's your audience? So if my audience is a family audience, why put that stuff in there? And I've had even secular parents say to me, "Thank you for not putting anything in this film, like in the Shrek movies, that I've got to explain to my kids on the way home." So I'm pretty proud of that.

next page... |  2 of 3