Beware the Mothers of Child Actors

May 7th, 2010 11:46 PM

The controversy over the movie Kick-Ass didn't start with whether the film would be cool enough to tempt underage kids to sneak in, but with the 11-year-old actress getting beat up and saying the foulest curse words. On the site Comicbookmovie.com, Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn said it was the actress Chloe Moretz's mother who pushed for her daughter to use the C-word demeaning women:

"We didn’t want to look gratuitous. We didn’t want to look like we were trying to be shocking for the hell of it." Vaughn went on to reveal that the line featuring the C-word had actually been changed to instead to "a--holes" but it was Moretz’s chaperone and mother, Teri, who approached Vaughn and said, "Maybe we should do a take like the comic?" The take, with the C-word intact, Vaughn says, "Was like a mini atomic bomb had exploded. Even later on, in the edit, we looked at all the other takes, and nothing had the same impact."

At least Vaughn was honest that they were looking to shock-bomb audiences with the profane little-girl assassin. Of course, Vaughn had contempt for "some people" who objected:

When asked about the reaction to Chloe Moretz using the C-word in the movie, Vaughn isnt bothered about the negative reaction that some people have had after a clip of the scene was recently released on the internet. "It’s pretty amazing that four letters can have such a powerful effect on people...I would not condone a normal little girl killing people or swearing." He went on to explain that Hit-Girl is like an SAS soldier taking out terrorists and saying, "OK, you c***s! Bam! Bam! Bam! You know taboos have to be broken. And then we move on, and God knows what the next one will be."

The article began with a much stronger statement for conservatives who might object to the film's themes:

"F*** them all!" says the director when asked how he feels about the self-appointed moral watchdogs who are calling Kick-Ass obscene, irresponsible and reprehensible. Seriously. It will ruin any creativity in this country, if we have to be answerable to them. It’s a free country, and you don’t have to watch it. But there are enough people who like this film to warrant it being made in the first place."