Chloe Sevigny Zodiac Interview

SEVIGNY GOES MAINSTREAM.

EXCLUSIVE by Paul Fischer in Los Angeles

Chloe Sevigny has been part of the Hollywood Indie scene for almost two decades. Beginning with an auspicious but controversial debut in Kids and scoewd rave reviews in the Oscar winning Boys Don't Cry and more recently in Woody Allen's Melinda Melinda. Sevigny is currently scoring rave reviews in the acclaimed TV series Big Love which returns for its second series later this year. The actress currently co-stars in the thriller Zodiac and taled exclusively to Paul Fischer.

Paul Fischer: You dont do these kinds of big movies very often, if at all, and so first of all what did you think you could do with this character when it was offered to you?

Chloe Sevigny: I agreed to do the movie not so much as a character as just more so to serve the greater good of the movie and to work with David Fincher, because I think that he has a very distinct vision amongst all of these kinds of mediocre filmmakers working today in the business. Then I thought the character was interesting in that shes not this kind of girly girl but shes very practical, smart and kind of tough with her husband and I like that about her in that aspect of their relationship. Also she was very respectful of him and kind of let him run his course with this whole Zodiac mess that he had gotten himself into.


Paul Fischer: Now I mean in your case you didnt really need to do any research on this because I assume that in terms of your character, its pretty much whats on the page. Did you allow yourself to do anything, did you meet with the real character?

Chloe Sevigny: I read most of Zodiac Unmasked. I didnt get through it because I found all of the insane detailing into all of the investigations just a little too much for my taste and a little hard to get through and the violence was definitely hard for me to read. It was very disturbing and I met with the real wife of Robert Graysmith. She came to the set with her daughter, briefly. But we didnt really get too in depth into their relationship or her life or anything.


Paul Fischer: Is it hard to make a character like this stand out?

Chloe Sevigny: I found it was very hard and I was afraid that she was going to be very one note. I felt like they should have had some more tenderness somewhere in there and a little more intimacy or something, you know. Even if it was just a hand on the shoulder or something between them.


Paul Fischer: Because theres no real glimpse of their relationship. One minute they were dating and the next minute they were married with children. It was like you didnt really know ....

Chloe Sevigny: Well he actually had two children ....


Paul Fischer: I was kind of surprised when I heard that you had decided to do a television series but then I saw Big Love. Why do you think the time was right for you to do this?

Chloe Sevigny: I think when I turned thirty. Ive working consistently in film but not to the extent that I was really making enough of a living to buy a house or things like that Ive always worked in independent films so ….


Paul Fischer: Yeah I guess the Bunny movie didnt really pay off a house and mortgage….

Chloe Sevigny: Neither did Boys Dont Cry, you know or American Psycho or Woody Allen or Shattered Glass. All those movies were made just a little over scale. So I just felt like the time was right to maybe do something that would be consistent. Of course with Big Love I loved the story and the character and Id been actually flirting with the idea of trying to do something with HBO because I love their programming and, so it just seemed right. I was blown away by the pilot and then met with the producers and the creators and they told me a little bit about where they wanted it to go and a bit about this character and where she comes from and I was just fascinated.


Paul Fischer: You must have known right from the outset that it was going to be controversial in certain regards.

Chloe Sevigny: I dont really feel like it has been.


Paul Fischer: Has anybody come out and said This is not really what its like?

Chloe Sevigny: No, not at all. The Mormon church hasnt said anything because it didnt want to draw any more attention, and I feel like the second season weve shown a lot more of the distinctions between LDS and FDLS, you know, where any concern came from from any sort of religious group if they heard anything at all is they wanted to make sure there was distinct separation between the two.


Paul Fischer: Despite this relationship that shes in, shes also the most conservative of the three women and that is exemplified by her physicality as well as by her attitudes towards the younger member of the trio. You dont strike me as being particularly conservative.

Chloe Sevigny: Im much more conservative in my life than I am in my films that Ive made. I think Ive played out a lot more of my fantasies or whatever I might want to be on the screen than in my life.


Paul Fischer: Is this woman in some ways closer to you than women you've played?

Chloe Sevigny: Oh I guess so. I think I am quite old fashioned in the way that Nicki is. You know, not that Im, you know, not to the extreme that she is but I do think we share a lot of similar values.


Paul Fischer: What is the second season going to take us to?

Chloe Sevigny: Wheres it going to take us to? Well its a much faster pace. Everything moves along really quickly in the second season. Its pretty shocking to see the turnaround from the first season, because the first season kind of began very slowly where you had to establish all these characters. So I think that was part of why the first season was kind of slow. And you see a lot more of Barb and her being exiled from her family because they are LDS and they cant condone her living this lifestyle at all and you see a lot more of Rhonda and what happens to her and Margene becomes a lot more uppity which I find very annoying but ...


Paul Fischer: You personally or the character?

Chloe Sevigny: The character.


Paul Fischer: Its interesting that you were saying that you kind of felt that you were - I dont know if you were in a rut as an actress, but that you were dissatisfied by the fact that your career had been limited to quote unquote independent world. And Im just wondering why you think that was and do you regret in some ways establishing yourself as an independent actress.

Chloe Sevigny: I think a lot has to do with the fact that I live in New York City so I dont have the opportunities to meet on a lot of the projects, or any projects. I mean nobody meets in New York any more and nobody comes there for castings. Theres no auditions to be had, the industry is basically dead there except for Killer Films and they obviously know me very well. Ive worked with them on numerous occasions. So I think thats been difficult. Maybe I have dug my own hole or grave to a certain extent, you know. Being labelled as something. I think once youre labelled as something in the way that Parker was or Lilly Taylor was, then all of a sudden youre just that.


Paul Fischer: When you started out as an actress though, I mean youre obviously very passionate with a very strong, independent spirit. Is that what you wanted to do when you started out, being east coast?

Chloe Sevigny: I dont think it had anything to do with east coast. I think it had to do with my tastes and I think in the nineties it was, you know, the independent world was flourishing and I worked with Steve Buscemi in my second picture and worked with all these great character actors and I was just like, these are the kind of movies I want to make'. Then I worked with some bigger movie stars and it was rattling because of the control that they had on the set and the way they behaved and other things and I just thought I dont think I want to work with big movie stars so that had a big effect on me. Then I went back to making my little movies and just continued on them. Most movies Ive made Ive been lucky enough to have theyve called and been interested in me and like even with Zodiac, they called and said David Fincher is interested in Chloe for a part. Will she come in and read for him?


Paul Fischer: Thats flattering.

Chloe Sevigny: It was very flattering that he would think of me.


Paul Fischer: As a young woman in an industry that is so ferociously competitive is it frustrating?

Chloe Sevigny: It gets very frustrating and I hate to succumb to it but I do feel like its a lot to do with the way you look and then Im beating myself up, you know, not that I think Im unattractive. Im not Kate Bosworth or along the lines of one of those girls. So then I start do dissect myself in a way and Im thinking I feel like Im talented and you know, so what is it? Why am I not getting the part so then the only thing for me to turn and then beat myself up over is, you know, my looks or something. And thats why this town, not that Im fishing for any compliments or anything please, but Im just thats what does my head in. And thats what makes me hate the business. I think its that. But then I get in a mood and think maybe am I not talented? Like why isnt it happening? Am I just not ambitious enough? Am I not going out there enough? Am I not passionate enough? I dont know.


Paul Fischer: Why do you want to be an actress in the first place? What was it that drew you to this profession?

Chloe Sevigny: When I was five years old my mother brought me to see Annie on Broadway and after that, thats what I wanted to be. I saw these little girls up there acting in this other place in this other world when I was a kid and my favourite show was Little House on the Prairie and I wanted to live that. Not that I wasnt happy with my life but I just wanted to live in another time and another place and, I dont know, Ive always loved, when I was a teenager I drifted into all these different youth cultures and wore these different outfits as a way to express myself and I think its just to inhabit other kind of characters or people. And I love movies.


Paul Fischer: Did you ever know that it was a practical thing to do? I mean, theres a difference between little girl fantasies and the reality of working as an actress. When did you know that you could do this, possibly do this as profession.

Chloe Sevigny: After I made my first move, Kids, and people came to me and started offering me other movies and I thought well maybe I could make a living.


Paul Fischer: That would have been a very interesting debut. Looking back on that experience and presumably that wasnt without its controversy.

Chloe Sevigny: Oh no absolutely not, no.


Paul Fischer: What was that experience like? How old were you when you did that?

Chloe Sevigny: I was either eighteen or nineteen actually, yeah. There were very few of us underage even though people think that we were. Rosario was underage. She was like 16 or 15. I actually just read in Christine Vachon book A Killer Life she writes like ten pages about making the movie Kids.


Paul Fischer: Can you look back at that early ork of yours and be objective about it now?

Chloe Sevigny: I look at a scene and some scenes I think Oh I thought I actually did something there. I think I have a hard time watching myself overall but yeah, I havent seen Kids in so long, I dont know.


Paul Fischer: Do you hope that Big Love will give you the kind of exposure that youve been after to lead to other things or do you think its ...

Chloe Sevigny: I dont think exposure but I think maybe shows people my ability to inhabit other characters if I get the opportunity to. I think I have played a lot of smaller and more supporting parts. Since Boys Dont Cry I havent had that meaty of a role. I did this movie Three Needles which nobody see. It was a great part. And I actually inhabited that part and it was really well realised and same with Big Love and I feel like if people give me the opportunity to do something like that, I think I can really run with it.


Paul Fischer: Do you have anything thats coming up?..

Chloe Sevigny: I have two other features in the can and Im trying to find something for a hiatus.


Paul Fischer: What have you finished?

Chloe Sevigny: I finished a remake of Brian De Palmas Sisters produced by Ed Pressman who produced the original one.


Paul Fischer: Who was in the original Sisters.

Chloe Sevigny: Margot Kidder. Lou Doillon plays that part. I play the annoying journalist.


Paul Fischer: Oh was that easy for you?

Chloe Sevigny: It was very hard shooting that movie actually. Because I made, well we shot the first season of Big Love, shot Zodiac, shot this movie called Lying in upstate New York, it was in Cannes last year and the Directors Fortnight. So then I made Sisters so by the time I got to Sisters I was emotionally drained.


Paul Fischer: How close is this to the De Palma original?

Chloe Sevigny: Very close. Very close. He rewrote the script but its the same premise, you know, the same story. But yeah, its scary. Not as scary as Zodiac because its not based on reality.


Paul Fischer: And when do we see Big Love returning?

Chloe Sevigny: In June.


Paul Fischer: Thats a long time.

Chloe Sevigny: I know. They had a problem with the scripts. Thats what took so long.