Dare Director Wants You to Expose Yourself

Dare follows three angsty high school seniors in love, lust and complete confusion as they prepare to graduate and leave all they’ve ever known behind. There’s the overachiever (Emmy Rossum), the outsider (Ashley Springer) and the bad boy (Zach Gilford). But these are merely the masks they wear, and Adam’s out to show us what’s hiding behind them.

What’s your favorite awkward teen moment in film?
My number one awkward moment in film is from Cant Buy Me Love, when Patrick Dempsey gets exposed at the party. He’s a total nerd in high school and he makes a deal to score the most popular girl at school. She’s in trouble and he agrees to save her ass if she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend. She thinks it’s ridiculous but goes along with it. Of course it changes him, having her on his arm; he’s able to become one of the cool guys. In the end, all the things he thought he wanted end up corrupting him, and she gets really drunk at a party and exposes that--destroys him in front of everyone. That’s my number one awkward moment.

Did that girl exist in your high school?
I remember there was one girl who I had a huge crush on. At the time I didn’t have the confidence or the ability to make a move on her. So instead I became her friend--that was my big strategy. It turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. I remember hanging out with her, and in my mind just sort of plotting how I could kiss her. She thought we were hanging out as friends while I was thinking about how I could make a move. But through being friends with her I kind of realized I didn’t like her that much as a person. I remember the aha moment. I found out who she really was and it turned me off. I think this is what Dare is about—the idea of perception.

How were you perceived?
I think about this all the time—it’s so hard to know. I think people perceived me as a pretty confident person in high school but that couldn’t have been further from the truth at the time. But I could be totally wrong. Maybe that’s just my gigantic ego speaking.

Who would play your high school self?
Well we can say it wouldn’t be Sean Penn’s representation of Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. That wouldn’t be me. I feel like—he doesn’t have an iconic high school role—but I think Mark Ruffalo could do a good impression.

Do you have a favorite scene from Fast Times?
Yes, the sex scene between Jennifer Jason Leigh and Robert Romanus. I thought it was handled very honestly and matter-of-factly. That was something I strove for in the sex scenes in Dare. I just wanted to put it out there without judgment. Especially the gay sexual subject matter in the film—it was very important to me that it was handled matter of factly. In some ways, the sex scenes in Dare are--to me--the ideal. I don’t think that stuff should be such a big deal in our society. But of course it is.

What life lessons did you learn in high school?
I think that in retrospect, the most important thing I learned—and this is exactly what I think the characters in Dare learn throughout the course of the movie—is that you have to grow. And in order to grow you have to take risks. And sometimes that doesn’t turn out so well.

Any wrongs you’d like to right?
Yes, you know...definitely. There was one friendship in particular that did not survive high school. I’ve actually recently been in touch with that person and that felt really good.