At the age of 13, Nikki Reed (the Rosalie from “Twilight”) co-wrote a film with Catherine Hardwicke (the director of “Twilight”) that became one of the most cult teen dramas on the big screen : we rewind…
And no, Twilight is not Catherine Hardwicke and Nikki Reed’s first collaboration. The one who plays the vampire Rosalie Cullen in the successful saga met the director when she was just a child. They then collaborated to offer an entire generation of adolescents a drama that will not leave them indifferent.
Two decades after its release, Thirteen (2003) remains relevant today and continues to present a raw and realistic portrait of the difficulties of adolescence. Directed by Catherine Hardwickewho was then making her debut as a director, the feature film explores this “unfulfilling age” as it is called, this period of life made of roller coasters, through the eyes of a devoted and responsible young girl who ends up by finding herself plunged into a whirlwind of drugs, sex and petty theft when she befriends one of the most popular girls at her school.
In the cast, we find teenagers Evan Rachel Wood, in the skin of the innocent Tracy, and Nikki Reedwho played the troubled Evie – the same Nikki Reed who co-wrote the screenplay and who Catherine Hardwicke will choose again to play in one of his films five years later: the first chapter of a certain saga called Twilight…
Fox Searchlight Pictures Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed in “Thirteen” (2003)
THE LIFE OF NIKKI REED ON SCREEN
When Nikki Reed wrote Thirteen, which can be considered a semi-biographical work about her own life, she was only 13 years old, just like her character. But the young girl then succeeded in developing a film which, until today, has retained all its strength and still resonates with young spectators.
“Thirteen is my favorite movie in the world”, declared a young woman to Nikki Reed one day at the beach, as the actress recounted in an interview with Rolling Stone on the occasion of the film’s 20th anniversary last summer. “It made me want to write and I wrote my first screenplay.”
“I don’t even think she was alive when we made this movie“, added Nikki Reed, shocked. “And she says she wrote a screenplay because she was so inspired by the fact that I was writing at such a young age.”
Catherine Hardwicke herself told Rolling Stone how she ended up co-writing her first film with a 13-year-old girl. She had in fact known Nikki since the age of 5 because she had been her father’s girlfriend and her mother’s friend.
When she finished her film studies and was looking for her first opportunities, she was shocked by the changes the little girl had undergone: “She had completely changed. Before she was an adorable little girl who rode a bike, climbed trees and wore overalls and now she was a mini J-Lo. I saw a real dark cloud above her.”
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed in “Thirteen” (2003)
Nikki Reed never hid it, his family was problematic. SO Catherine Hardwicke decided to become a kind of godmother to her and offer her new opportunities. “She was like a fun older sister, a kind of aunt who brought me closer to cool experiences”, said the actress. Catherine Hardwicke then had the idea of making a film together. She remembers telling him: “We’re going to have to write our own movie. You will play the lead role and I will direct. I think this will be our therapy to help you do something creative.”
6 DAYS OF WRITING AND THAT’S DONE
And the result is a drama that they wrote in just six days and in which Nikki Reed featured her own recent experiences as a teenager. Once the script was finished, finding financing for the project was not easy and they came up against scandalized producers who did not dare to give them a chance. Thirteen was ultimately produced on a budget of two million dollars and was shot in 24 days.
However, years later, Nikki Reed will regret the way he portrayed his family: “I wrote this film about them, their flaws and imperfections and what it was like growing up”, she told Zooey Magazine in 2012. “You get older and you think, ‘How dare I describe my father as a carefree, completely empty idiot?’”
Having grossed $10.1 million at the box office, Thirteen met its audience in 2003 – and visibly continues to inspire new generations – and was praised by critics, propelling the career of Catherine Hardwicke and its two young actresses.
Thirteen can be rediscovered in streaming on Disney+.