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"  Kristen Wiig&amp;#039;s latest film, Hateship Loveship, revolves around an Amish-like character who comes out of her shell when she meets the father of the teen girl she&amp;#039;s been hired to nanny. Wiig is known for her comedic roles, but this movie&amp;#039;s not a comedy. Ahead, director Liza Johnson chats about why she chose one of the most hilarious women around to portray such a serious character. Cosmo: So tell us, what turned you on to this project? Liza Johnson: The screenwriter brought the script to me, and I really, really, really loved the character of Johanna. She comes from a world where it doesn&amp;#039;t do her any good to have a lot of ambition or desire. But when the plot gets in motion, she has to put herself at risk for what she wants. \u2028\u2028Cosmo: This is such a different role for Kristen. What convinced you that she could do something dramatic when she&amp;#039;s best known for her comedic work? LJ: For one thing, it was clear to me that Kristen can create character. I think her SNL characters are really, really memorable and I thought she&amp;#039;d be interested in creating Johanna because even though the character is in a different register\u2014so restrained, so subtle\u2014I think it has so much in common thematically with the characters she&amp;#039;s created in her comic work. Cosmo: Do you have a Kristen Wiig character you love most? LJ: The first one that really meant something to me is that lady with the tiny baby hands. [laughs] Cosmo: There are comedic moments in the film. When you cast Johanna, did you know you wanted a comedienne for the role? LJ: Nope. I just wanted someone who had warmth. Because of the style of the movie, it&amp;#039;s not all played out in the dialogue or in the action\u2014there&amp;#039;s a lot that happens between the lines. Kristen is a very reactive person, and because Johanna doesn&amp;#039;t really say what she wants, I tried to cast actors who could convey something through this kind of reactive performance style.  Cosmo: Definitely! Her eyes, her mouth, her little movements\u2014you can tell what she&amp;#039;s thinking even if she&amp;#039;s not saying it.And how about Hailee Steinfeld\u2014she has such a crucial role in this film as Sabitha as well. Why did you select hert?  LJ: I had seen Hailee&amp;#039;s work in True Grit, and I just think she&amp;#039;s unbelievable. She&amp;#039;s such an earthy, grounded actress. She&amp;#039;s so natural that sometimes people think she&amp;#039;s not even acting. But then if you give her direction, she changes so much. Her technique and her skills are really refined. And I don&amp;#039;t know how that can be because she&amp;#039;s only 16! And she was 15 when we filmed. Cosmo: Even though Kristen&amp;#039;s character is older and at a different place in her life and Hailee&amp;#039;s character is a teen, it&amp;#039;s hard to tell who the more mature one is. LJ: Well, the original story is based on the girl&amp;#039;s game &amp;quot;Hateship, Loveship, Courtship, Marriage&amp;quot; where you count off the letters of a boy&amp;#039;s name, you know? And the way I interpreted that is, as young girls, we&amp;#039;re taught how our biography is supposed to go: hateship, courtship, loveship, marriage. But the way life really is, it has almost none of those steps in it. Like for me, it was more friendship, loveship, divorce-ship, sex-ship, nothing, nothing, nothing, you know? [laughs] The way our lives go does not go according to that game. So the way young girls are trained to become women and the way Johanna&amp;#039;s life evolves are really set against each other. It asks the questions: What do we want our lives to be like? Is this way right? Does that really happen? Is it even what we want?  Cosmo: So for women seeing this film, what do you hope they take away? LJ: Well, I don&amp;#039;t know if I knew this while shooting the film, but after we finished it, I realized maybe this is how falling in love really is. We all have had that experience where we first meet someone and we create the idea of a person and fall in love with that. Then as time goes on, you either like who that person actually is, or you don&amp;#039;t. You accommodate that person or you don&amp;#039;t. I don&amp;#039;t think that&amp;#039;s a lesson, but I do think it&amp;#039;s a point of contact women (and men) can have with the film.  Photo: Getty Images  Follow Cosmo editor Rose Walano on Twitter. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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