Cuthbert Not 'Quiet' About Sexual Abuse

Actress researched the complex psychology of abuse victims

LOS ANGELES -- Elisha Cuthbert, who played an ex-porn star in "The Girl Next Door," is once again playing a young woman with a sexual secret in Jamie Babbit's "The Quiet."

In the film, teenager Nina Deer (Cuthbert) becomes angry and defensive when the deaf, orphaned Dot (Camilla Belle) moves in and becomes her foster sister. Dad Paul (Martin Donovan) just wants everyone to get along, while mom Olivia (Edie Falco) is caught up in her career as an interior designer. Because of Dot's apparent handicap, however, she becomes the family's reluctant confessor of their darkest, most disturbing secret: Nina's incestuous affair with her father.

"I loved the idea of not judging a book by its cover and that's sort of an underlying theme in the film," says Cuthbert. "[Nina] comes across as the together, popular cheerleader, but behind closed doors her life is chaotic and sad and crumbling. She realizes as she gets older that her situation is intense and probably not healthy. This is a suburban family that is really in trouble, but from the outside looks completely normal."

The actress found it difficult to get inside her character's head since she couldn't personally identify with the situation.

"I had a healthy childhood. That was a conflict for me because I had nothing to draw on for this character," she admits. "Everything about this character made no sense in some ways. Everything about me wanted to defend myself and stand up for myself, but I couldn't do that for the character because this is all she knows. It was challenging."

Instead, Cuthbert researched sexual abuse victims, specifically girls abused by their fathers, and discovered that many of the girls used their sexuality as a tool even though they were reluctant participants in the relationship.

"As a person you crave that attention even though it's coming from the wrong place," the actress explains. "In the research we dove into we realized that was very common, which is sad."

Paul doesn't physically force his daughter, but woos her with compliments and gifts, such as giving her an expensive purse she's been wanting.

"Jamie approached [Martin] in the beginning and suggested he play this as a love story," reveals Cuthbert. "Many people would have found it easier to deal with the movie if the father had been physically [as well as] sexually abusive because then it would have been easier to hate him. But because he was so loving, it made it very awkward and very true to these situations."

And in many real-life cases, the mother is aware of the molestation, but is in denial or ignores it. In the film, Falco's character retreats from reality by abusing prescription painkillers, conveniently falling deeply asleep when her husband leaves their bed each night. To maintain the characters' emotional dynamic, the cast members found themselves falling into their respective roles even when the camera wasn't rolling.

"With Martin playing my father in the film, I wanted to give him some space and I didn't want him to know I had these awkward feelings towards him," says Cuthbert. "I didn't want that to distract him from his performance. Edie Falco is very Method in a way and was kind of passed out on the floor half the time we were filming, seriously. It was really cool to see us all passionate about the movie and really going there."

When Dot arrives, she breaks into this fragile and tense family triangle, shining light on all the hidden flaws.

"I don't think we could have portrayed this family honestly without the soundboard that Dot allowed us to have," says Cuthbert. "She's someone coming in who seems innocent, but gives us an opportunity to unleash all of our deep, dark secrets."

It's difficult to determine if Dot understands that Nina is a victim or a willing participant, and Nina alternately confides and lashes out at her new housemate.

"A lot of the scenes between the two of us were about testing the waters and exchanging secrets," she adds. "Every time Dot backs away, [Nina] becomes defensive. I had all these things going through my mind, assuming the hate came from a very vulnerable place. Sometimes the most confident person in the world is the most insecure person in the world."

By Hanh Nguyen