Warning: Major Lisa Frankenstein spoilers ahead! Read this interview only after you’ve seen the movie.
Diablo Cody always knew that Lisa Frankenstein would end with a dick joke. “I was very dedicated to that vision,” she told Decider in a recent Zoom interview.
The new horror comedy, which opens in theaters nationwide today, has been proudly advertised as a new film from “the writer of Jennifer’s Body.” It lives up to that promise, with plenty of dark, zany, sexual humor. Kathryn Newton stars as a death-obsessed ’80s goth teen, Lisa. Lisa recently lost her mother, and she doesn’t exactly fit in with her rancorous new stepmother (Carla Gugino) or preppy new step-sister (Liza Soberano). She spends her days at the gravestone of a Victorian man named Frankenstein, telling him her secrets and dreaming of sleeping beside his desecrated corpse.
Then, miraculously, a jolt of electricity revives that corpse. Suddenly, Lisa finds herself the proud owner of a decaying, but very loyal, undead boyfriend, played by a near-silent, but very expressive, Cole Sprouse. He’s missing a few body parts, but Lisa soon discovers those can be re-attached with a quick jolt of electricity from a faulty tanning bed. Now she just needs to find some donors willing (or not) to part with appendages. After equipping the Creature with a new hand and new ear, there’s still one crucial piece missing.
Maybe you can see where this is headed. Decider spoke to Cody and Lisa Frankenstein director Zelda Williams—daughter of actor Robin Williams, making her directorial debut—about the Lisa Frankenstein ending, and how, exactly, they pulled off the perfect dick joke in a PG-13 comedy.
DECIDER: Diablo, could you walk me through writing this brilliant—for the lack of a better term—dick joke that ends the movie? And Zelda, if you could talk me through filming those sequences—from the chopping and the sewing of back on?
DIABLO CODY: From the beginning, when I was writing this movie, I knew that she was going to be acquiring different parts for Cole and repurposing them. She has the hand from a boy who’s hurt her, and she gives the hand to Cole. She has the ear of her stepmom who doesn’t listen to her. And then, finally, at the end, it’s like—she must acquire this penis from this guy who she feels has dismissed her. I don’t know why, but I just I always knew it had to end with her sewing a penis onto The Creature. I was very dedicated to that vision. And I’m really fortunate that Zelda was able to make it come to life, because it was a real dream come true.
ZELDA WILLIAMS: That scene was one of the ways I was fond of pitching this movie to people, for lack of a better term. [There’s] the silliness of the fact that yes, he’s clearly jealous of Michael, and attacks him in her honor—but at the same time, she doesn’t know yet that he doesn’t have a penis, because they have that conversation later. I love that, too, that he’s being self-serving.
DC: You’re right, he is!
ZW: For me, it’s like bringing a girl roses. He keeps [the penis], and later on, she goes, “You cut it off for me?” That genuinely informed a lot of how I wanted to approach that scene, was how she responds to it later. So I desperately love that scene so much.
Was there any pushback from the studio on the raunchiness of that joke? Did you have alternate endings, just in case?
DC: I don’t think we ever allowed ourselves to fear the outcome where there would be not that ending. It was very important to us, and we were supported in it.
ZW: The only thing that didn’t wind up in the film is, actually, that prosthetic does exist. It’s a perfectly painted prosthetic. But it’s not shown on camera now, because we are PG-13. That’s the only thing that didn’t wind up [in the film.] You used to see it go into the trash can.
Was there a chance of the movie being rated R?
ZW: Yes, at one point.
DC: There was, but I have to say, this is an “All’s well that ends well” for me. I’m actually glad that it got changed to PG-13. Now that the interest in the movie is growing, and my teenage son and his friends are talking about it—I’m glad that that audience is going to get to come.
ZW: Yeah, it didn’t change the tone at all. It just changed a couple of jokes, and a large penis gag.
How did you both balance the serious note of Lisa taking her own life with the movie’s campy tone?
DC: Well, it is a serious note, and at the same time she’s like putting herself in a tanning bed to like self-immolate. [Laughs.] It’s dark, but I feel like that absurdity is still there.
ZW: Especially in a world where death’s not permanent. I think there is a difference in the things that we’re talking about. She knows that, basically, [killing herself] is so that people stop hunting them down, in a Bonnie and Clyde kind of way. But that doesn’t mean she won’t be back. It’s why that note I think was so important. We threw around a couple versions of the note, but I really liked, “Death is temporary. I’ll love you forever.” That was very much the vibe of where she was at. She’s like, “This is just for a moment. I’ll see you in a bit. I’ll see you later.”
What films did you both draw on for inspiration for the tone? I know there are a lot of references in the movie to various films.
DC: Yeah, there’s definitely a lot of references. In terms of direct inspiration for me writing— Weird Science was a catalyst for this. Thinking about when I was a kid and how that movie affected me, and how I’d always wondered “Well, what if it was a girl? What would her perfect creation look like?” All the films of John Hughes, who I love. Basically, the ’80s cinema that I grew up with.
ZW: Eileen, Death Becomes Her, [Pedro] Almodóvar’s Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, John Waters. There’s certainly a bit of a George Romero heart and soul, for me as well, as the godfather of zombies. [Day of the Dead zombie] Bub was a huge inspiration for me, I’m so floored that there’s actually a frame of him in the movie. But yes, that was a lot of where I came from.
Lisa Frankenstein is now playing in theaters. You can check showtimes and purchase tickets here.