Evan Rachel Wood and Nikki Reed’s 2003 film Thirteen is shocking even as an adult, but nothing compares to the experience of watching the R-rated film as an actual teenager.
Wood starred as Tracy Freeland, who is an innocent 13-year-old when the movie begins. Tracy’s life isn’t perfect — her dad, Travis, (D.W. Moffett) rarely makes good on his promises to see her and her well-intentioned but scattered single mom, Melanie, (Holly Hunter) keeps getting back together with her druggie boyfriend, Brady (Jeremy Sisto) — but she gets good grades, writes poetry and mostly pals around with her wholesome, longtime friend Noel (Vanessa Hudgens).
Everything begins to change for Tracy when she befriends the coolest girl in school, Evie Zamora (Reed). Desperate to fit in with Evie and seem more grown up, Tracy begins shoplifting, icing out her old friends, smoking weed and drinking. If this sounds like an after-school special or an anti-marijuana PSA from the early 2000s, trust Us, it gets so much more intense than that.
What occurs over Thirteen’s 100-minute run time is one of the most unflinching and upsetting examinations of adolescence out there. It makes Euphoria seem tame, especially considering the fact that Wood and Reed were both 14 when shooting began.
For those of Us who didn’t do whippets or try to have threesomes with adult men during seventh grade, Thirteen might seem unrealistic, but the film is based on the personal experiences of Reed, who cowrote the film with director Catherine Hardwicke.
“I was hanging out with a fast crowd, I was hanging out with a really seductive crowd,” Reed told NPR’s Jacki Lyden in August 2003. “I just got really caught up in the less important things in life, and my priorities changed.”
Reed convincingly played the reckless and manipulative Evie, but she actually inspired the character of Tracy.
“Because I played Evie, who is very wild and rebellious, I was associated with that character for a very long time, when the truth is I was actually a very shy kid, and that was definitely a performance,” the actress told Rolling Stone in August 2023.
If you were among those who watched Thirteen as a relatively innocent and impressionable teen, Tracy and Evie’s story will be with you for life. 21 years after its premiere, let’s take a look at Thirteen’s legacy and why it shook Us to our core:
What Happened:
Thirteen took teen angst to a whole new level. Not only does Tracy scream at her mother, get her tongue pierced and miss curfew, she also self-harms using a pair of scissors, gives a blow job and gets so high from inhalants that she can’t feel Evie punching her in the face at her own request.
Tracy gets progressively more out of control throughout the film, and her mom feels powerless to stop it. In one scene, Tracy memorably taunts her mother by saying, “No bra, no panties. No bra, no panties,” while gesturing to herself. It doesn’t help that Evie starts spending more and more time at the Freelands’ and eventually asks to move in, citing her own troubled home life.
One of the strongest parts of Thirteen is that despite being an untrustworthy bad influence on Tracy, Evie is still a deeply sympathetic character. After seeming positively unbothered by everything for the majority of the movie, Evie breaks down crying when Mel decides not to let her move in. It’s a genuinely heartbreaking scene and a testament to Reed’s talent.
Even though the details of Thirteen are shocking, the themes are familiar; Tracy is ultimately just a teenage girl who loses herself in her attempts to grow up and pushes her mom away when she needs her the most.
Why It Was a Big Deal:
There are so many disturbing moments from Thirteen that scarred Us for life. You’re not alone if you can’t un-hear Evie’s guardian, Brooke, saying, “They cut off my ears” after she gets bad plastic surgery, or if the revelations about what Evie’s uncle did to her made you see the world in a whole new, ugly light.
Experiencing Thirteen when you were close to the same age as the protagonists was a core memory. It was hard to watch, yet you couldn’t look away. You probably recall everything about the family computer room or finished basement you were in at the time. You laughed, you gasped, you cried and you were never the same.
What People Said:
The Los Angeles Times’ Manohla Dargis called Thirteen an “arty exploitation flick” in a 2003 review, and said “only audiences that have been locked inside a bomb shelter for the last 50 years will be shocked by what happens” in the film.
Roger Ebert, however, was moved, and wrote that he hopes “the horrors in this movie are worse than those found in the lives of most” teenagers. He added that the film is not for 13-year-olds (although that didn’t stop Us from watching at that tender young age).
“The R rating is richly deserved, no matter how much of a lark the poster promises. Maybe the film is simply for those who admire fine, focused acting and writing,” Ebert wrote. “Thirteen sets a technical problem that seems insoluble, and meets it brilliantly, finding convincing performances from its teenage stars. showing a parent who is clueless but not uncaring, and a world outside that bedroom window that has big bad wolves, and worse.”
The Washington Post’s Laura Sessions Stepp warned that Thirteen would make parents with young daughters “want to run home, hold [them] tightly for a few minutes and then lock [them] up while you struggle with all the questions the film raises but doesn’t answer.”
What Happened Next:
Both Hunter and Wood received Golden Globe nominations for Thirteen, for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress in a Motion Picture, respectively. In addition to its staying power with those who watched the film in the early 2000s, Thirteen has also found a new, younger audience.
During a 2023 interview with Rolling Stone, Reed said a 15-year-old girl had recently told her that Thirteen inspired her to write her first screenplay.
“I don’t even think she was alive when we made that movie,” Reed said. “And here she is saying she’s written a screenplay because she was so inspired by me writing at such a young age.”
Hardwicke added that the movie is also popular on social media.
“Last I saw, there were 1.8. billion engagements with Thirteen on TikTok,” she said. “People show a little clip, ‘This happened to me last week with my mom,’ and act out a scene. It still has relevance because how often do people really make a raw movie like that?”
Where They Stand Now:
Reed went on to appear in the Twilight Saga while Wood starred in films including Pretty Persuasion and Across the Universe and on the HBO series Westworld. The actresses are both moms now; Reed shares daughter Bodhi, born in 2017, and a son, born in 2023, with husband Ian Somerhalder, while Wood shares son Jack, born in 2013, with ex-husband Jamie Bell.
During a June 2021 appearance on the “Story + Rain Talks” podcast, Reed said that there were people “pitting” her and Wood “against each other” when they made Thirteen. Luckily, the duo reconnected years later.
“I loved Evan from the moment I met her,” Reed told Rolling Stone in 2023. “She is a very special person in my life. When we were teenagers, life got busy and we lost touch for a few years, but in our early 20s, we reconnected on a level I can’t even explain. I love her like a sister.”
