How Old Were Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed in ‘Thirteen’?
Thirteen is a provocative movie about middle school kids with a wild side who realize they’re in too deep after suffering severe consequences. The controversial premise left some viewers impressed by the audacity and others horrified by the portrayal of young people in crisis. The aftermath also affected the relationship between Thirteen‘s young leads — Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed — who didn’t speak for years following the movie’s release. The actors’ young age undoubtedly played a part in their rift.
‘Thirteen’ follows preteens on the brink of self-destruction
Tracy Freeland (Evan Rachel Wood) is a timid and depressed honors student in a Los Angeles middle school. On the first day of seventh grade, she meets Evie Zamora (Nikki Reed), who introduces her to a world of drug use, underage sex, and crime. Tracy’s mother, Melanie (Holly Hunter), is desperate to help her daughter but is ill-equipped to do so.
Thirteen belongs to a lineage of media about the inner pain and misadventures of teenagers who put themselves in dangerous scenarios due to a combination of mental health issues (Tracy cuts herself to deal with stress), a morbid curiosity about new experiences, and a lack of understanding about where certain paths might lead.
Critics largely praised the film. Thirteen has an 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Hunter received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. But the serious subject matter also turned off some reviewers, who deemed the movie exploitative or melodramatic.
As much as some detractors don’t want to admit it, the events of Thirteen were based in reality. Reed co-wrote the screenplay with director Catherine Hardwicke, who was dating Reed’s father at the time, over six days in January 2002. Reed’s portions of the script were inspired by her friends getting arrested for dealing meth when she was 13.
Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed didn’t speak for a decade after ‘Thirteen’ came out
One of the main reasons Thirteen is so jarring is that child actors portray the characters. Wood and Reed were only 14 when they began making the movie (Reed turned 15 during filming). They used some of their own clothes for the film’s wardrobe, and child labor laws dictated the kids could spend only nine and a half hours on set a day, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Reed and Wood grew close during the production, but after Thirteen premiered, the two stars stopped talking to each other for years. During an appearance on the Story + Rain podcast, Reed attributed their breakup to misogynistic tendencies in the entertainment industry.
“We were too young to realize this at the time, but there were a lot of people that were kind of pitting us against each other and making it a competitive atmosphere,” the Twilight actor said. “Which, now, in hindsight, I’m like, ‘Of course, because isn’t that the recipe for how [to] treat all young women in this industry?'”
Reed reached out to Wood in their 20s and quickly rekindled their friendship.
“We sat down together, and we had two hours of just, like, vomiting up all of our feelings and emotions about the process,” Reed recalled. “We really connected the dots and moved past it in that one sit-down.”
Nikki Reed’s husband, Ian Somerhalder, refused to discuss the movie during an interview
Reed married The Vampire Diaries star Ian Somerhalder in 2015 and gave birth to their daughter, Bodhi Soleil Reed Somerhalder, in 2017. The two have been comfortable discussing their relationship publicly, but Somerhalder set firm boundaries when discussing Thirteen during an interview.
In 2019, he appeared in an episode of Elle’s Thirst Trap series to answer questions about his life and career. When he read the prompt, “Does it make you uncomfortable to watch Nikki’s film Thirteen, considering the content and her age at the time of filming?” Somerhalder refused to give a real response.
“That is a whole can of worms that I just … you’d have to open with a jackhammer,” the actor replied, preferring to drink a shot of liquor than reveal how he really felt about the movie.
