Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing,
Speaker 1: My chance to talk with artists, policymakers and performers, to
Speaker 1: hear their stories, What inspires their creations, what decisions change
Speaker 1: their careers, what relationships influenced their work. To be the
Speaker 1: offspring of filmmaking genius Francis Ford Coppola is to eat, sleep,
Speaker 1: and breathe cinema. Sofia Coppola should know. His youngest child
Speaker 1: and only daughter, appeared on screen before she could talk,
Speaker 1: playing an infant in his nineteen seventy two masterpiece The
Speaker 1: Godfather as Hollywood Royalty. Coppola's success may have been predestined,
Speaker 1: but her path to greatness was far from paved in gold.
Speaker 1: Before turning twenty, she endured the sudden death of her
Speaker 1: oldest brother, followed by a vicious media storm from critics
Speaker 1: regard her performance in The Godfather Part three, and then
Speaker 1: things changed. Now an Academy Award winning filmmaker in her
Speaker 1: own right, it's safe to say Sofia Coppola has found
Speaker 1: her stride. Her movies are extraordinary, arresting, and elegant these days,
Speaker 1: the critics agree. At forty six, she's taken home more
Speaker 1: rewards than some get in a lifetime, including an Oscar
Speaker 1: for Best Original Screenplay and a Golden Lion Award for
Speaker 1: Best Picture for My personal favorite Somewhere. This March, she
Speaker 1: made history again as the second female filmmaker to win
Speaker 1: Best Director at can. Finishing her most recent film, The Beguiled,
Speaker 1: has sent Coppola into a familiar space wondering what's next.
Speaker 1: I wait until I finished a film, and then there's
Speaker 1: always kind of a panic I'm ever going to do
Speaker 1: anything ever again? And then somehow something you know, sparked
Speaker 1: some interest, but then you never know if that's really
Speaker 1: what you're going to focus on. So yeah, usually after
Speaker 1: I finished a project, I sort of think about what
Speaker 1: I'm interested in and then and trying to be open
Speaker 1: to different things. And then finally something keep snagging at
Speaker 1: you that wants attention. And did that work with this
Speaker 1: last film? Was that the case with The Lastime? Yeah?
Speaker 1: This one was my my friend and Ross, who was
Speaker 1: my production designer. She we were working on a commercials
Speaker 1: after a film, and I didn't know what I was doing,
Speaker 1: and she just said in passing, like you have to
Speaker 1: see this Don Siegel film. The beguiled. I think you
Speaker 1: need to remake it. And I was like, what, I
Speaker 1: would never remake a movie. And I knew that people
Speaker 1: I never saw the film. I didn't know about the film,
Speaker 1: but people that really know, like Cinophiles, you know, love
Speaker 1: that movie. It's it's a classic in that genre. And
Speaker 1: I watched it and it was so not what I expected.
Speaker 1: It takes a turn, and I just it just stayed
Speaker 1: in my mind. It was so weird and just to
Speaker 1: my mind. And then I kept thinking about how I
Speaker 1: would do it this way, and I it's it's it's
Speaker 1: you know, a story about the household of women, but
Speaker 1: told from a real kind of macho guys point of view.
Speaker 1: I thought it would be interesting kind of to tell
Speaker 1: the same story, kind of flip it intil a different version.
Speaker 1: So I found the book, which is out of print,
Speaker 1: and it's told by the story of all the different characters.
Speaker 1: But who wrote the book, Thomas Culligan? When did that
Speaker 1: come out? How long ago? It looked like a kind
Speaker 1: of pulp fiction of the sixties, not it's not quite
Speaker 1: classic literature, and you know, very like genre. And then
Speaker 1: I try to forget about the film. But had I
Speaker 1: always hear people say that, and then I forget about
Speaker 1: the film. Yeah, yeah, because you have things in the
Speaker 1: back of your mind. I tried. I didn't watch it
Speaker 1: again for you know, a few years, but it still
Speaker 1: stays in the back of your mind, kind of like
Speaker 1: a dream. I don't know if it's a memory, how
Speaker 1: much is my imagination or what I remember from the
Speaker 1: other film. But but yeah, I feel like it's always
Speaker 1: different how you end up starting a project. Now, for
Speaker 1: the uh, the film you shot? What was the location?
Speaker 1: We shot in New Orleans, New Orleans. Yeah, we shot
Speaker 1: in town one for the in two years and then
Speaker 1: we shot at a plantation which one Madewood Plantation in
Speaker 1: Napoleonville shot down that one Hampton and you know, we
Speaker 1: were at the what's that famous hotel than the better one.
Speaker 1: I don't know, there's something it will come to me.
Speaker 1: But we shot at a place called not Away Plantation
Speaker 1: which was out there and you'd have to uh, there
Speaker 1: was a bit of a drive and when then we
Speaker 1: we created a set of buy you Home in City
Speaker 1: Park in the middle of town park one day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's pretty amazing that that's in the middle of the city.
Speaker 1: We shot like our wood scenes in City Park there.
Speaker 1: You know, you've made how many films now is at
Speaker 1: eight or nine or um? I think it was my
Speaker 1: six six And when you make one, when you're there,
Speaker 1: it's an exhausting process. And you have little kids. So
Speaker 1: there's your life with your children mirror your childhood because
Speaker 1: I read where you weren't parked in northern California going
Speaker 1: to school and dad was in the Philippines for a year.
Speaker 1: You went with your father and you guys were all together. Correct. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we always went on location, which which I thought was
Speaker 1: fun because it was exciting to go to set. And yeah,
Speaker 1: my education is a little patchy. Yeah, yeah, I can't multiply,
Speaker 1: but but yeah, but it was always exciting to live
Speaker 1: in all these places. And we lived, you know, in Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: and you know, but I would go to the local
Speaker 1: schools everywhere. So it was a fun adventure. But you're
Speaker 1: the same with your kids. They come with you. When
Speaker 1: they were smaller, I brought them everywhere. But now the
Speaker 1: older ones in fourth grade, it's harder to leave school
Speaker 1: for them. So this it was a short shoot is
Speaker 1: six weeks. So they just came and visited over Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: and um, they stayed in New York with my husband
Speaker 1: whom he's a musician, and he was now he's on tour,
Speaker 1: so somehow it worked out that he could be here.
Speaker 1: But they will come and visit, but they will come
Speaker 1: to set. And they're older now little seven, seven and ten,
Speaker 1: but they like being on set and and it's funny
Speaker 1: because I remember, Yeah, it was always fun to hang
Speaker 1: out on on set. Craft service is probably the most exciting. Well,
Speaker 1: I was wanting to do any of them where they
Speaker 1: like you like, do you see yourself? Whether they get
Speaker 1: the bug and like you turn around, there's your You
Speaker 1: have a boy and a girl. I have two girls.
Speaker 1: And one of the girls got like an eyepiece and
Speaker 1: they're looking through the lens and find the little one
Speaker 1: was into looking through the lens and and her school
Speaker 1: they did a little project and she was a cinematographer.
Speaker 1: So um, the photography is extraordinary. And then film is
Speaker 1: a beautiful film. You're a film the big guild. And
Speaker 1: who's the cinematographer. His name's Felippe Lassore. He's a French cinematographer.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I loved working with him. He's a real artist.
Speaker 1: I think the last film he did was the Grand
Speaker 1: Master with One car Y and he has a lot
Speaker 1: of commercials in between. But he's been great and you
Speaker 1: hadn't worked with him before. No, we shot a few
Speaker 1: commercials and I knew about him from another cinematographer friend,
Speaker 1: but it's the first time we did to film together.
Speaker 1: Do you find for a director that as you grow
Speaker 1: and as you change, you need to have your staff
Speaker 1: change with you need to change partners in certain I
Speaker 1: can't think of any more important than that cinematographer relationship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of my crew we've worked together on a
Speaker 1: lot of projects and it's great to work together and
Speaker 1: have that shorthand and they really know me. But with
Speaker 1: a cinematographer, No, I think it's nice to have his
Speaker 1: ongoing relationships. I had a cinematographer, Harris VDS that I
Speaker 1: did a few films with, who the one I did
Speaker 1: in New Orleans He did no way. Harris was a
Speaker 1: cinematograment I loved Roco with Harris, so when I met him,
Speaker 1: I felt like, Oh, he's my guy, and he really
Speaker 1: helped me so much. And then he passed away. UM,
Speaker 1: so sorry to lose him as a friend and as
Speaker 1: a collaborator, but he introduced me to Philip so Um,
Speaker 1: and I really trusted him because because he was an
Speaker 1: artist and and Philip really is about being, you know,
Speaker 1: his priority is to make a beautiful being an artist.
Speaker 1: You acted in a film, in one of your dad's films,
Speaker 1: and how did that experience. Did that have any impact
Speaker 1: on the way you deal with actors? And beyond that,
Speaker 1: how do you deal with actors when you You've got
Speaker 1: some pretty famous movie stars in this movie, and how
Speaker 1: what does that experience like for you? Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I think, um, having acted in a movie, it was
Speaker 1: not my thing at all. Wasn't comfortable doing it, but
Speaker 1: I was kind of an age We're like, oh, I'll
Speaker 1: try anything. But now I feel like when I must said,
Speaker 1: I know, I think I'm I know how vulnerable an
Speaker 1: actor could be. Or I feel protective because I feel
Speaker 1: like they have to try to make it as comfortable
Speaker 1: as I can, because I feel like it's you have
Speaker 1: to be comfortable to reveal yourself. And I don't know,
Speaker 1: I try to make the atmosphere as much in the
Speaker 1: feeling of the way you want the scene to be
Speaker 1: and the tone of the room. Yeah, yeah, the whole
Speaker 1: the whole, I think, the whole feeling on set and
Speaker 1: where you are. I was fun it easier to shoot
Speaker 1: on location than in a stage because you sort of
Speaker 1: get the atmosphere of the real place. And I'm very collaborative.
Speaker 1: I'm open to like I never like to plan out
Speaker 1: how the scene is going to look before the actors
Speaker 1: block it, because you don't know what the actors are
Speaker 1: going to do and work ins from them. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: I could never storyboard before doing the scene because I
Speaker 1: really it really starts from me when I see the
Speaker 1: actors block the scene and you get ideas of, um,
Speaker 1: you know what feels right, but working with them, it's
Speaker 1: just from my experience, it is kind of an either war.
Speaker 1: You know, there's people who walk in and in the
Speaker 1: sense that someone has to decide what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: A director will walk in and be very hands on
Speaker 1: in terms of what you do. I have an idea before,
Speaker 1: and the difference is how they sell it and how
Speaker 1: they convey it. Some people will walk in and be
Speaker 1: very precious about it and very polite about it and deferential.
Speaker 1: Go well, I thought maybe, And there's other people were like, okay,
Speaker 1: you walk over here and you do this, there's always
Speaker 1: like a puppetry, which wouldn't makes sense. It's uh, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of exciting when someone is that clear. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I always have to work really fast because it's low budget.
Speaker 1: We don't have a lot of time to mess around.
Speaker 1: So I felt we had to get in there and
Speaker 1: block it. And then you see right away you can
Speaker 1: tell what works. Did you have to luxuriate the most
Speaker 1: in the schedule, Wi, I don't think I ever had,
Speaker 1: I know, yeah, never. Now, when you cast, did someone
Speaker 1: have a different title? It was always where? Yeah, but
Speaker 1: that was probably we meandered the most in that because
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of plots. Thank you. We were
Speaker 1: being really indulgent. But when you cast, I mean that
Speaker 1: was dorif uh and uh, you've got Nicole and Colin Farrell.
Speaker 1: I mean you have these people in these films and
Speaker 1: Kirsten Dunst. I would assume that an independent film this
Speaker 1: cast consciousness has become suffocating. Yeah, yeah, I know it's
Speaker 1: still like that. No, it's definitely like if you want this,
Speaker 1: then you get this, And what is the words going
Speaker 1: to do? Is there a vein of investors and financiers
Speaker 1: who are in the Sofia couple of business, and you
Speaker 1: go back to them to that well again and again.
Speaker 1: I do have a few distributors that I always go
Speaker 1: to and and um, and luckily they've supported what I've done.
Speaker 1: But this film, the story was owned by Universal from
Speaker 1: the previous film, so um, I asked him if they
Speaker 1: would take it out of their library and let me
Speaker 1: reinterpret it, and so I was really beholden to them,
Speaker 1: and Focus as part of Universal came on board, and
Speaker 1: I was happy that they let me do it. But um,
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of odd project. So you know,
Speaker 1: they was, you know, a small production. It's odd in
Speaker 1: your mind, it's odd. Why why is it odd? Oh?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, I guessing I want to
Speaker 1: redo this on Seagull Movie. Just the premise is pretty
Speaker 1: I don't know on paper. Yeah. Yeah, and then that genre,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's entertaining, and now when I
Speaker 1: see it, I don't think it's but I think the
Speaker 1: idea of pitching it was was sort of out there.
Speaker 1: I think it's a conservative time right now for it wasn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's no Cathy Bates hobbling moment. Forever. It just wakes
Speaker 1: up and it's bad news. Yeah for me, there's a
Speaker 1: more gore than I've ever done with a little bit
Speaker 1: of blood. But yeah, no, it's pretty discreet. So your
Speaker 1: father was very kind and very gracious. I did this
Speaker 1: documentary film about ken. Remember that we had fun. We
Speaker 1: had fun. We did this movie Seduced An Abandon, and
Speaker 1: we shot your dad. And I'm wondering for you as
Speaker 1: your child was film watching film going both ordinary and extraordinary,
Speaker 1: like did you watch the movies at all? The girls
Speaker 1: your age did and go see movies and or were
Speaker 1: you heavily influenced by your dad or both? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I remember the first movie. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it was Greece or bugsy Malone, but so I did
Speaker 1: see some movies that were part of kid culture. But
Speaker 1: my dad was a screening room and he was always
Speaker 1: there's always movies being shown and we were always around,
Speaker 1: and you know, so I remember they're watching Kurasawa or
Speaker 1: you know, some movie that kids would normally watch, but
Speaker 1: they were just around. So I feel like we were
Speaker 1: exposed two interesting films. But then I would also go
Speaker 1: to the local movie. Yeah, I remember Purple Rain was
Speaker 1: my really seeing that in the theater when I was twelve,
Speaker 1: like blew my mind. So I had a mix. What
Speaker 1: was the first moment that when you were watching the
Speaker 1: Kurasawa that that stable the film you sat there and said,
Speaker 1: wait a second, there is cinema. Yeah, I don't, but
Speaker 1: I feel we were. He was always watching all these
Speaker 1: movies and I don't think it really registered. And then
Speaker 1: somewhere has to have had lateness like that. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: don't remember the time, you know, but remember him like
Speaker 1: being on the I think on the porch watching you Jimbo.
Speaker 1: Our dog was called Yo Jimbo after that movie. But um,
Speaker 1: and and then like really weird, um there was this
Speaker 1: movie like hitler Manamore. There was there was some really
Speaker 1: weird German art film that was like it was creepy
Speaker 1: and I remember seeing this a little kid, But there
Speaker 1: was there was always he was watching cinema while we
Speaker 1: were Um, so we were doing yeah exactly, so we
Speaker 1: were kind of half watching it. And was there ever
Speaker 1: a film that I'm not assuming your father was in
Speaker 1: openess or was there ever a film that you turned
Speaker 1: your father onto? Was there like a whole continent of
Speaker 1: films your father wouldn't get near and you probably said, oh,
Speaker 1: you gotta watch this, and he watched. He was like, hey,
Speaker 1: that's not you know, it's really funny. Like years ago,
Speaker 1: did you ever se this R Kelly hip hopera called
Speaker 1: Trapped in the Closet? You know what that is? It's
Speaker 1: so far out it's him doing this kind of Yeah,
Speaker 1: trapped in the Closet R Kelly, it's really out there.
Speaker 1: And we had the video and we were watching it
Speaker 1: and my dad started watching it with us, and he's like,
Speaker 1: this is really creative, but it's really this like it's
Speaker 1: like a long hip hop video, but it's so everything's
Speaker 1: really acted out and it's really out there. So it's
Speaker 1: funny to see him get get into this. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: feel like he would have never seen that, but he
Speaker 1: watched it and he really appreciate it. And I remember
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, we um for the screen
Speaker 1: when we could pick movies we wanted to see. And
Speaker 1: I had read about Prick Up Your Ears with and
Speaker 1: so my favorite Yeah, And I was like, I don't know, teenager,
Speaker 1: and I didn't really know what it was about, but
Speaker 1: I had read about it and some of London it
Speaker 1: was cool. So he got the movie, and then everyone
Speaker 1: was like, Sophia, what is this movie? But he I
Speaker 1: ended up knowing about Gary Oldman and appreciated him for
Speaker 1: when he was casting Um Dracula. So Oldman is my
Speaker 1: favorite actor. Oh he's great, He's amazing. He can do anything.
Speaker 1: If you ever wanted to write something, did you write
Speaker 1: Lost in Translation for Murray? I? Did? You did? I did?
Speaker 1: It helps me a lot to picture an actor when
Speaker 1: I'm when I'm writing, and I was picturing Bill and
Speaker 1: and so then I was determined that it had to be.
Speaker 1: Had you met him before? No, I had never met him.
Speaker 1: I'd never met him, and I spent like a year
Speaker 1: trying to track him down, and anyone I met as like,
Speaker 1: do you know Bill Murray? And yeah? So but I
Speaker 1: had I really had him in mind. I wasn't going
Speaker 1: to make it unless he was doing it. So and
Speaker 1: then what happened? How did you? Well? Mitch Glazer helped me.
Speaker 1: He had showed it to him and I knew he
Speaker 1: worked together. Yeah, he's a writer, and so I and
Speaker 1: I was. I showed him something early drafts as a writer,
Speaker 1: and then I said, you know, I want to get
Speaker 1: Bill first. What do you think, and I think he
Speaker 1: was impressed that I saw this kind of side a
Speaker 1: Bill or He thought it was worthwhile and finally asked
Speaker 1: Bill to to meet me. But it was a long process.
Speaker 1: But thanks too much, I got. When you met him,
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. He was wearing a Sear Sucker suit
Speaker 1: and I think they were like El continor that restaurant.
Speaker 1: Mitch called me, said you know, I'm here with Bill.
Speaker 1: He says, come over, and I've been trying to meet
Speaker 1: him me after a year. And I went over and yes,
Speaker 1: and I remember he was in sure Sucker. He was very,
Speaker 1: very gentlemanly, and we were walking out after and I
Speaker 1: turned to Bill and there's a moment in sixteen Candles
Speaker 1: where she's with the guy that she likes and she
Speaker 1: sees her dad and she's like, Moles, that's the one.
Speaker 1: And I had that moment with him, like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: to Mitch about Bill. But I was thrilled for him
Speaker 1: to even, you know, look at it, because it was
Speaker 1: so hard to track him down, and it was a
Speaker 1: tough to convince him to do the movie. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's not the easiest person to corral. He's just not
Speaker 1: comme at all. And like he didn't have an agent
Speaker 1: or anything. And I was just trying an eight hundred
Speaker 1: number and leave a message. Yes, I was leaving messages
Speaker 1: on that eight hundred number and um for luck a
Speaker 1: year and and then finally the NT he looked at
Speaker 1: it and he said, yah, yeah, yeah, I might be
Speaker 1: inclined to do it, but he never would say for sure.
Speaker 1: And so we went to Japan, just like hoping he
Speaker 1: would show up, and luckily he did desire wracking, but
Speaker 1: didn't have a backup. Coming up, Sophia Coppola reveals her
Speaker 1: father's advice for getting actors to do their best. In
Speaker 1: her early days, Coppola struggled to find funding for her movies.
Speaker 1: I talked with Jimmy Toback, with whom I co produced
Speaker 1: Seduced and Abandoned, about just that. I found myself with
Speaker 1: two million dollars cash, which I won in Vegas. By
Speaker 1: the way, less the I R S be listening, my
Speaker 1: net figure with Vegas is about minus fifty millions, so
Speaker 1: please don't tell me I made money that way, as
Speaker 1: anyone in Vegas will vouch. But in any event, I
Speaker 1: had that two million. This is one and I thought,
Speaker 1: christ I'm not going to hang around here anymore, pounding
Speaker 1: on doors, chasing money. I'll just bribe Bagelman and get
Speaker 1: the movie done. To hear more about Jimmy Toback's story,
Speaker 1: go to Here's the Thing dot org. This is Alec Baldwin,
Speaker 1: and you're listening to Here's the Thing. Sophia Coppola's Academy
Speaker 1: Award in two thousand three made her the second ever
Speaker 1: third generation Oscar winner, alongside Angelica Houston. But while the
Speaker 1: soft spoken New Yorker caught the filmmaking bug early, her
Speaker 1: mother didn't. After making a few documentaries, Eleanor Coppola released
Speaker 1: her first feature of film last year, a movie titled
Speaker 1: Paris Can Wait, in which I Appear for Sophia. Her
Speaker 1: mother's new passion is a happy, albeit unexpected turn of events.
Speaker 1: I was surprised. I mean, she was too kind of
Speaker 1: art projects and she made her documentary, but I never
Speaker 1: thought she would make this kind of film, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of a narrative, because she's because she's more avant
Speaker 1: garde with her art projects. So yeah, I was. I
Speaker 1: was really surprised. Yeah, it's funny. Does she want to
Speaker 1: make another one? I think now she's making the short
Speaker 1: phone and she's like, I've got the bug. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's fun. It's fun to see that, you know, in
Speaker 1: her early eighties, she's younger than all of us. She's
Speaker 1: very entertaged, she's in she just wanted Tokyo yesterday to
Speaker 1: her movie is coming out there. But but yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: it's it's fun to see. It's a total surprise. What
Speaker 1: I loved about her was that, and I don't not
Speaker 1: have just saying this because it's your mom. What I
Speaker 1: loved about her to be on the set with the
Speaker 1: director who doesn't transmit their attension. Pachino had a line
Speaker 1: once he said, we were shooting The Godfather's Funeral out
Speaker 1: in Queens of Brooklyn, wherever it was. That's perfect, and
Speaker 1: he said, I remember Francis was sitting on a slab
Speaker 1: and he was crying. And I said, Francis, we just
Speaker 1: had a great day and everything is fantastic. And I said,
Speaker 1: why you're crying. He said, they won't give me one
Speaker 1: more set up. I remember I've heard that start. And
Speaker 1: he said that's when I knew we were onto something.
Speaker 1: That Francis scared that much. And I thought to myself, wow,
Speaker 1: you know it was like I remember him telling me,
Speaker 1: and I don't know, I can't remember if it was
Speaker 1: a quote from like von Brando or our original that
Speaker 1: whenever I get the urge to act, I sit down
Speaker 1: and wait for it to pass. Is that a famous one?
Speaker 1: But I mean when you're when you're on a set,
Speaker 1: let's assume ideally that of the time people are doing
Speaker 1: basically what you want them to do. That's you know,
Speaker 1: casting is a big part of directing. But when they're not,
Speaker 1: what do you do? What's your technique? What do you do?
Speaker 1: That's such a good question because I'm always worried about that.
Speaker 1: I remember asking my dad, like, what do you do
Speaker 1: in that situation? And what do you say? He told
Speaker 1: me that he has them talk about their morning and
Speaker 1: forget the lines and just be themselves and then and
Speaker 1: then try it again to hope we try to kind
Speaker 1: of forget, get them to forget the scene and just
Speaker 1: be themselves again. But god, I don't know. I do
Speaker 1: all kinds of things. Uh, you know that there's always
Speaker 1: a panic, But I don't know. I've worked with such
Speaker 1: great actress that usually it's minimal. Yeah, yeah, not an issue.
Speaker 1: What about music in your films? Are you your husband
Speaker 1: as a musician. Are you very music centric in your work?
Speaker 1: I do. I listen. I listen to music and I'm
Speaker 1: writing and it's a big part of kind of finding
Speaker 1: the world or the atmosphere. And this. His band Phoenix
Speaker 1: did the score for the film, which is it's more minimal.
Speaker 1: It's not like their their music that they do as
Speaker 1: a band. Um. So yeah, I just enjoyed that part.
Speaker 1: That's what I love about film making it so visual,
Speaker 1: but then you get to also incorporate music. And where'd
Speaker 1: you cut the film? Here in New York? You kind
Speaker 1: of here in New York at Harbor Downtown. No going
Speaker 1: up to the family farm. No, No, my editor is
Speaker 1: based here. Sarah Black and um York. I think Sarah
Speaker 1: would have loved I know we used to we used
Speaker 1: to mix out there. But I have kids in school
Speaker 1: in New York. I'm in New York or now. But yeah,
Speaker 1: what do you want you here? Yeah? Yeah, I grew
Speaker 1: up in northern California, opening but no more Paris. We
Speaker 1: have a plast in Paris with my husband's French so
Speaker 1: we spent time there, but our kids are at school here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just fun to be there. But then I got home. Second,
Speaker 1: did you really know? I love being in Paris, But
Speaker 1: then it's nice too to be here and get to visit. Now,
Speaker 1: before you took the direction that you took, you were
Speaker 1: a girl most likely to what when you were young?
Speaker 1: But you was it understood you would do this? No,
Speaker 1: not at all. Um. Yeah, I definitely had a flaky
Speaker 1: period in my twenties. I'm very grateful that there were
Speaker 1: no no social media. Then there's no There are a
Speaker 1: lot of photos around at that time, but no. I
Speaker 1: went to art school. I wanted to be an artist.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a painter. I had so many interests.
Speaker 1: It was really hard for me to figure out, um,
Speaker 1: what I was supposed to do. I never occurred to
Speaker 1: me to be a filmmaker. Yeah, it was really confused
Speaker 1: because I had so many you know, I love music
Speaker 1: and I loved photography and all the stuff I couldn't
Speaker 1: I couldn't kind of land on one thing. And then um,
Speaker 1: I made a short film which I enjoyed while I
Speaker 1: was in art school and so made me think, oh,
Speaker 1: I something. I was surprised that I kind of knew
Speaker 1: how to do it. I didn't realize that I was
Speaker 1: learning I spent a lot of time on my dad's
Speaker 1: sets with all of his team, my whole life. And
Speaker 1: then I read the book The Virgin Suicides and I
Speaker 1: heard they were making a film event. I felt very
Speaker 1: protective and I felt like, oh, I hope they don't
Speaker 1: mess up this book I love. I hope they do
Speaker 1: it this way. And I heard a guy was doing it,
Speaker 1: and to me, it was so much a girl's story.
Speaker 1: And um, so I started writing a working on the script,
Speaker 1: which I didn't have the rights too, and then um
Speaker 1: just kind of as an experiment to learn how to
Speaker 1: adapt a book into a screenplay. And then I finished
Speaker 1: it and I was very attached to it and I
Speaker 1: felt like I had to try to let I made
Speaker 1: it in nine. This was the late nineties. Um, I
Speaker 1: was like twenty eight. Yeah, and I just I love
Speaker 1: this book and I felt protective of it. So how
Speaker 1: did that happen? The mechanics of how you end up
Speaker 1: getting your hands on that and you get to direct
Speaker 1: that project. So I met this couple, the Handleys, that
Speaker 1: had the rights to it, and I said, we please
Speaker 1: read my script and consider it, and they had someone else.
Speaker 1: Somehow that fell apart and the script was the calling card.
Speaker 1: They read the script and loved it. Yeah, they've read
Speaker 1: the script and I had a real clear idea of
Speaker 1: how to make it. Interview wanted to paint, and you
Speaker 1: wanted to and you thought about photography and more visual things. Well,
Speaker 1: how did the writing part begin for you? About stories
Speaker 1: as a kid, And my dad always talked a lot
Speaker 1: about screenwriting. That was that was where he started, and
Speaker 1: so he was always talking about, you know, act structure
Speaker 1: and writing. So I guess it was something that I was,
Speaker 1: you know, he was talking about and I was learning about.
Speaker 1: But um, I don't know. I I wrote this my
Speaker 1: first script and somehow figuring out how to do it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: How many days was that shoot for your first movie?
Speaker 1: Regardless of your d n A for your first movie,
Speaker 1: and people kind of limit you in a certain way
Speaker 1: where the tight schedule, it was very, very very low budget. Um,
Speaker 1: I've never shot more than like thirty days. You know,
Speaker 1: it's always like twenty something days. You know. Actually, actually
Speaker 1: Marie and Toinette was a longer schedule, and I prefer
Speaker 1: a short schedule. I think it's so intensive. I'd just
Speaker 1: like to like get in there and get it done,
Speaker 1: and it's exhausting At a longer shoot. I feel like
Speaker 1: it's hard to do a long shoot and um and
Speaker 1: I let that schedule of having a problem solved quickly
Speaker 1: and you know, have to just figure it out and
Speaker 1: not you know, it's more intuitive or something to just
Speaker 1: you have some directors who I've worked with that moment
Speaker 1: when they're on the set directing the film, which is
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously is the pre production. There's the shooting
Speaker 1: and in the editing, and the preponderance of directors will
Speaker 1: say to me that the editing things is their favorite
Speaker 1: face because they're locked down and they're really making the movie. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I like being in the editing room. You do because
Speaker 1: it isn't the same amount of same time pressure and
Speaker 1: you can kind of play around. But being on set
Speaker 1: is exciting and fun because you have all your collaborators
Speaker 1: and you're making something. You don't have to answer this question.
Speaker 1: But so you ever where you show your father cuts
Speaker 1: off your film and he has some advice for you
Speaker 1: and you're like, no, you know, as your own point
Speaker 1: of view, and you like, I want to do this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And early on, you know, I wasn't as confident. He's
Speaker 1: the great master of films, So I would definitely take
Speaker 1: his opinion, but I always end up doing what I
Speaker 1: want in the end, because you know, you have to
Speaker 1: so and this one I waited till I was finished
Speaker 1: close to the end to show him. But you don't
Speaker 1: want to have too many opinions. So he's nice, he's
Speaker 1: he's always encouraging in support, but he definitely has ideas.
Speaker 1: And I remember when I was working on Rantoinette, he
Speaker 1: was talking a bit more about the characters of the husband,
Speaker 1: and I said, no, it's not about him. It's about her,
Speaker 1: you know, because I think about her. So everyone looks
Speaker 1: at it from their point of view. But and I
Speaker 1: feel like sometimes when I watched this last movie, there's
Speaker 1: a very kind of artistic I made everyone the girl
Speaker 1: walking down the lane with the weeping trees and the
Speaker 1: mist and the costumes, and there's a real cinematic reach
Speaker 1: you have. Now, Oh, I just I just love that.
Speaker 1: And it's such a beautiful location. And I it's a
Speaker 1: visual art forms of idea of making every frame the
Speaker 1: most like a painting. The Godfather is like a painting,
Speaker 1: and so many of the are so beautiful and and
Speaker 1: and and it's it's beautiful I we tell people watched
Speaker 1: the movie with a sound off. I saw the Radio
Speaker 1: City recently, both of them. Is incredible to see it.
Speaker 1: But I wonder if that's true with you? Which do
Speaker 1: you want to deepen the texture? Do you want to
Speaker 1: make your films you want to go further in terms
Speaker 1: of design and beauty in a kind of almost Cubrickian
Speaker 1: way of the sets and the costumes. Or are you
Speaker 1: gonna make a movie like two Chicks Are in a Car. Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: I like the visual part of it, and then how
Speaker 1: you tell the story visually. I think that's I don't know,
Speaker 1: that is exciting and interesting to me. This last one
Speaker 1: of yours was probably the most voluptuous, small in terms
Speaker 1: of the photography, the look of it. Yeah, and just
Speaker 1: being in the South and like it even trying to
Speaker 1: trying to feel the heat of it made it made
Speaker 1: you more uncomfortable to see those women doing their little
Speaker 1: modest field work and the little guarding in those full dresses. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wanted to fill them all buttoned up. Do you
Speaker 1: do you sit there and go, God, why are where
Speaker 1: are these these poor women? They must be like suffering
Speaker 1: to death in this thing and sexual attention underneath it.
Speaker 1: When you cast someone to play that part, what did
Speaker 1: you want in an actor who played the lead role
Speaker 1: that Farrell plays, What were you looking? Yeah, we had
Speaker 1: to have I wanted a really masculine guy that could, um,
Speaker 1: you know, handle all these women, but like charm at
Speaker 1: twelve year old, you know, a woman or forties kind
Speaker 1: of had to arrange. And I knew that he could
Speaker 1: be complex enough that he was, you know, he could
Speaker 1: be mysterious and complicated to them and really be a
Speaker 1: contrast to their kind of delicate, pale, feminine world. So
Speaker 1: he had to be, you know, have mystique and narcissistic. Yes,
Speaker 1: he's like underneath every scene. It's almost like a new Colin.
Speaker 1: Farrell obviously is a movie star. Is almost in every
Speaker 1: scene he's like, go ahead, admit it, you want me
Speaker 1: exactly want whatever age they were in the house, everyone
Speaker 1: in the house, just just let's tell me up front
Speaker 1: you want me, right? Yeah, he and he and he
Speaker 1: was I like that he's like the thinking woman's sex object.
Speaker 1: That he's just like they're you know, like the hunk.
Speaker 1: But but hopefully there's more going on. And in the
Speaker 1: book he was Irish immigrants. So when I'm at Colin.
Speaker 1: I thought that just adds to his exotic charm. Being
Speaker 1: in your family, would you say that there's been as
Speaker 1: much down as there's been up as it's been hard
Speaker 1: as well for you? Oh, definitely. I mean we've gone
Speaker 1: we've gone through our Yeah, every family. Um, I mean, well,
Speaker 1: my dad definitely had ups and downs in his career
Speaker 1: where he was successful and then could lose everything, and
Speaker 1: so yes, he's a gambler, but it was always exciting. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then we had a personal loss with my lost
Speaker 1: my brother as a teenager. So, um, you know I
Speaker 1: was of teen Yes, yes, so I think you had.
Speaker 1: I mean it had a big impact on her family,
Speaker 1: so um yeah. So I feel like we've been fortunate
Speaker 1: some ways, and then you know, you've experienced the worst
Speaker 1: moments of life. So I can't imagine now having children
Speaker 1: as a as a parent, because I may know how
Speaker 1: it affected us as a family, but um, you tell
Speaker 1: your children is the ultimate despair. Yeah, I know, I
Speaker 1: can't even picture it. Your mom, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: I mean your father, who I don't know well and
Speaker 1: and don't think I could because he's just so whenever
Speaker 1: you're around him, be so intimidating. Let's face it. I
Speaker 1: mean you, he's your father, so it's different. But your mom, though,
Speaker 1: is such a unique, speaking, very down to earth in
Speaker 1: that situation with your brother, that she seems like something
Speaker 1: that she she conquered that. Yeah, yeah, I know, I
Speaker 1: know it was obviously a huge struggle for them, but
Speaker 1: she she dealt with it in her personal ways and yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and here's to a lot of people fall apart and
Speaker 1: she was able to find some way to to go
Speaker 1: on with her. Yeah, so she's strong. But she seems
Speaker 1: petite and quiet, but she's strong. She's incredibly clear. That
Speaker 1: just might opinion the brief two days I was there,
Speaker 1: How would you say that for you? Beyond being a
Speaker 1: mom and your issues with your raising your kids while
Speaker 1: you're working and doing this very difficult work, how else
Speaker 1: does that affect your work? You being a woman, I
Speaker 1: don't know, because you put your personality, so I think
Speaker 1: women have different qualities. I don't know. People have said
Speaker 1: I'm like maternal on set or I don't know. I
Speaker 1: think I just have a different point of view as
Speaker 1: a as a guy, So I feel like that's an
Speaker 1: advantage to have a different point of view. I think
Speaker 1: I got that from my mom. When you said that
Speaker 1: she keeps it together on set. People think I'm so
Speaker 1: calm on set, and I think we're good at concealing
Speaker 1: our our stress because you've got to keep it together
Speaker 1: for your crew and everything. So yeah, I have a
Speaker 1: different demeanor. So I'm sure, Um, you have a very
Speaker 1: soothing demeanor. And the other person that I worked with
Speaker 1: once I didn't even work with you, but someone I
Speaker 1: worked with who had that come into mean is wouldy
Speaker 1: and when you work with them, but it's it's such
Speaker 1: a great it achieved such a great effect. That's if
Speaker 1: you relax people, you're more likely to get to something good.
Speaker 1: If they're relaxed, then if you're yeah, tormenting that exactly.
Speaker 1: That's what a couple of directors were from the Torment school. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I never understood that, And I know there's a lot
Speaker 1: of hothead behavior, but you know, I feel like we
Speaker 1: want to put everyone at ease and so everyone can
Speaker 1: do their best. So did you ever get frustrated working
Speaker 1: where you really literally lost it? I never lost it,
Speaker 1: always keeping together. I've had frustrating moments for sure, But
Speaker 1: do you go home and lose it? Yeah? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: go home, Yes, I go home. Is it not not
Speaker 1: so much? But I've had moments with Yeah, what's the
Speaker 1: hardest part of it? I mean, I'm an actor who
Speaker 1: directed one film, and I found it so difficult because
Speaker 1: I wanted to map it out and I wanted to
Speaker 1: lay it all out and have at least have a
Speaker 1: plan which we could then deviate. Yeah, you have to
Speaker 1: have a vision in your mind, Like I see it
Speaker 1: all in my head beforehand, for sure, Like when I'm
Speaker 1: writing it and I'm picturing the actors exactly how they
Speaker 1: say it. Then you come on set and you see
Speaker 1: how they do it, and it's like how you imagine.
Speaker 1: But then they add something that you didn't expect. And
Speaker 1: I think you just have to be really flexible and
Speaker 1: and opened. Can you experience movies now with links and
Speaker 1: DVDs and and oscar material and privately? And how or
Speaker 1: do you go to the movies? I love going to
Speaker 1: the movie theater. I mean I imagine, Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: watch a lot of movies at home, but um, but
Speaker 1: whenever I go to theater. I live near Film Forum
Speaker 1: and and and just live in New York. Is so
Speaker 1: exciting to get to see all these revival old films.
Speaker 1: It's just such a different experience, especially nowadays with being
Speaker 1: in contact and having your phone around all the time.
Speaker 1: It's distracting at home to really get lost in a movie.
Speaker 1: So I am. I keep telling people I hope they
Speaker 1: go see it my theater. But I love going to
Speaker 1: a movie theater. It's such a different experience when you
Speaker 1: think about your nature, when you think about the time
Speaker 1: you live in now and you're making films now in
Speaker 1: our society now, are there films you look back on
Speaker 1: historically or even currently. I think I wish I'd made
Speaker 1: that film. That's a film I would make. That's funny.
Speaker 1: I've never thought about that old film and that that's
Speaker 1: a kind of movie I would make. No. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's movies that I admire and I love, but I've
Speaker 1: never movies are so personal. It's like your children or something.
Speaker 1: It's it comes from you. So I can't imagine looking
Speaker 1: another movie and thinking, not a female character in a
Speaker 1: film that you think reflects who you are and how
Speaker 1: you feel about life and your career and your family. No,
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't think of one. But of course
Speaker 1: there's there's so many that I admire, and love and um,
Speaker 1: but I can't think of one. But where are Where
Speaker 1: are you in your films? Are you in your films?
Speaker 1: You feel about life? Where are you in this current film?
Speaker 1: And all of them? This one I think it's a
Speaker 1: little bit maybe my devilish side or you know, like, um,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I was having fun with this. You
Speaker 1: don't need to you don't need to explicate that in
Speaker 1: this film. There's because there's there's al who's eighteen, and
Speaker 1: Kirsten and then Nicole there there. I feel like I've
Speaker 1: been each age of that woman in that kind of stage.
Speaker 1: I'm not like those characters, but I can kind of
Speaker 1: relate to kind of the girls of different stages. But
Speaker 1: I don't always find it. I always put things about
Speaker 1: myself and um um at that moment. But this is
Speaker 1: the idea that we're always questioning who we are. We're
Speaker 1: always questioning at least I am the life I have.
Speaker 1: I'm always thinking of alternatives, well what about this and
Speaker 1: what about this? Until you finally realize I'm doing precisely
Speaker 1: what I was meant to be doing. What you want
Speaker 1: to feel like you're doing precisely what you were meant
Speaker 1: to be doing. I do. I do. I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm doing what I well. I'm excited get to do
Speaker 1: what I want to be Sorry that you didn't become
Speaker 1: a painter. No, No, because I can always do I
Speaker 1: can always have hobbies, you can always I feel like
Speaker 1: you can do other things. But now I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm doing what I enjoyed. Yeah, what are you gonna
Speaker 1: do next? I don't know. I'm looking forward to summer
Speaker 1: vacation with my kids and decompressing and getting the movie
Speaker 1: out there. It's you know, it's that hustle, right, But
Speaker 1: for Yeah, do you have a lot of you put
Speaker 1: a lot of pots on the stove of things you
Speaker 1: might do or or No. No, I haven't had a
Speaker 1: few ideas when I was starting to think about this,
Speaker 1: So now I'm going to kind of revisit. But I don't.
Speaker 1: I have always heard that Woody Allen has a drawer
Speaker 1: full of ideas. I don't have that drawer. As luck
Speaker 1: would have it, she doesn't need one. This is Alec
Speaker 1: Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing