Cuthbert recently spoke to IGN about her experiences as a first-time leading lady, making the move from television to movies, and forging a career in Hollywood amidst so many ambitious starlets. The actress indicated she had initial reservations about joining the cast of a comedy that could easily turn into a next-generation Porky's if the subject matter weren't handled properly. "When I first read it, I had my apprehensions about it. It was just like, what are we going to do with this?" She was aware of the potential in the material, but it was eventually conversations with director Luke Greenfield (The Animal) that convinced her this was going to be her first lead film role. "This film could be really, really great, but depending on who directs it, and who's in it, you could do something completely different, so the collaborations with the director made me feel really confident going in to shoot it."
Cuthbert was hardly a novice to the big screen, but she explained that Girl Next Door marked a significant change from her earlier silver screen performances. "I had come off of doing Old School and Love Actually – small parts that didn't have the weight of the film riding on my shoulders. I wanted something to kind of showcase more of a range of emotions." Though she doesn't consider herself particularly similar to the character she plays, the challenge of finding common ground and understanding where Danielle was coming from gave her confidence as she undertook the role. "I'm trying to pick projects that I feel somewhat connected to, and I didn't feel like I was anything like this character, but I read the script going, I know what I want to do with this scene, I know what I want to do with that scene."
Her exploration of this world did require some research into the adult film business – the result of which left her with a discernibly different perspective of that business than one might expect. "I had spoken to a few of the girls from Wicked Pictures and Vivid and got a take of what they were like, and was surprised that I had this stereotype in my mind that these girls were like the two girls that were my friends in the film," referring to a pair of surgically-enhanced starlets who contribute their, ahem, skills to the film's climax. "And they're not. They're really into fashion, normal girls, and so I was pretty impressed. It was pretty wild."
Cuthbert also realized there were a number of similarities to the industry she usually traffics in: "These girls are entrepreneurs, [but] there is somewhat of a cutthroat nature to that business. I mean, there's a lot of girls, and there's a lot of producers, and it's pretty wild."
Regardless of her comfort with her character's background, Cuthbert's ease with revealing all of herself to a mainstream audience was something that was heavily debated prior to shooting. "It was a huge [discussion]. I mean, the studio was like, 'We're gonna have an 'R' rating and our lead girl's not gonna want to go there?' So I had to have a lot of conversations and a lot of discussions about why, my reasoning for it, and thank god they believed me and were okay with it." Though the young actress is quickly becoming one of Hollywood's hottest properties, Cuthbert indicated that she felt it was a bit too early in her career to reveal all of her assets, so to speak. "Right now in my career, I don't feel the need to go there. Maybe down the line I will, I really don't know. But at this point in time in my career I don't feel like it's necessary."
"I didn't feel the pressure of having to do it for the public, [but] personally for myself, I had a place where I felt like I had to stop, which was full nudity. I push it to a certain point, obviously, in the opening," referring to a striptease the actress unwittingly performs for her onscreen admirer, "but Luke and I kind of talked about it, and I had a strong opinion that we could make a teen comedy and not have to do full nudity."
Once the decisions about how far the film would go were resolved, Cuthbert and the producers faced another difficult challenge – finding the right actor to play Matthew, her would-be boyfriend. Their extensive search revealed Hirsch, who was discernibly different from the other actors who auditioned, and who pushed his co-star further than she expected to go. "The one thing that set him apart from the other people," explained Cuthbert, "was that he [lent] this vulnerability to the character. I mean, I had to try and bring out this kind of confidence to persuade him and kind of intimidate him throughout the film – at least in the beginning. And Emile had a vulnerability where he had to believe all that and be intimidated, but it's hard for a confident person like Emile to kind of [downplay that]. It's not really him I suppose. It never would have worked if I would have been like, 'What are we gonna do now?' [and he said,] 'I don't know, what?'" Her demonstration of Hirsch's potential resolve suggested how poorly the film might have gone with a different, less sensitive approach to his character. "And it's like, wait, I'm supposed to intimidate you. Stop."
The couple's climactic tryst took place in a location not exactly unfamiliar to moviegoers (or even prom dates), but one that was hardly conducive to intimacy from a filmmaking standpoint. As Cuthbert described, it was anything but special. "The sex scene took place separately actually. Because of the nature of the scene, it was shot in a limo, so we had to cut out the back of the limo and a camera was basically where the trunk is. Because of the positioning of us, they shot Emile separately, and me separately, so we were never actually together." When she was asked how the experience was, Cuthbert replied, "You mean making love to a box? (laughs) Because that's exactly what it was. I don't know. You do the best you can, I guess. I think the love aspect of it all was the drawing point for me, I mean, just the chemistry and all that."
As the film spirals into theatres, Cuthbert just hopes that the energy the cast and crew felt behind the scenes translates easily to audiences across the country. "It was every day, sitting down, rewriting scenes with Luke, and telling him, well what about this movie, remember that idea, and I remember seeing this, and I know a friend who does that, and with everyone it was just a collaboration. We were so excited to get this film going." Though Elisha is hardly the expected audience for a randy teen romp such as this, she was insistent that The Girl Next Door is not a film just for adolescents, much less adolescent boys. "I think there will be people who have already graduated and can look back and watch the movie and go 'I remember that' or 'I remember this' and then I think people like my sister who are graduating this year can go, 'Yeah, what are my memories?' I want to sit here and say it's a teen comedy, but that would be a lie. It's a lot more than that. It's romantic, it's real, it's got a great soundtrack, it's fun, it's a comedy, and it's for teens but I think more people can relate to this."
Check back tomorrow to check out IGN's Girl Next Door mini-site and find out if your girlfriend is a porn star.