From the Archives: Chloë Sevigny
"I don't want to be stuck in [arthouse movies]. I wouldn't mind doing some bigger films. I want people to see my films."- Chloë Sevigny
She has been called a New York Doll, a Cosmic Girl, the Girl of the Moment, and Perennial Coolest Chick of the Universe. As Chloë Sevigny, who wears all these titles well, puts it, "The whole downtown It Girl indie whatever."
Sevigny was already a bit of a legend in New York's downtown scene before she was discovered. First, by photographer Nina Schultz, then by Sassy magazine's Andrea Linett who featured her in the magazine and hired her as a summer intern. Sevigny was soon appearing in music videos for Sonic Youth and the Lemonheads and modelling for X-Girl, Miu Miu and Belgian deconstructionist designer Martin Margiela. Her unique sense of style and self led novelist Jay McInerney to write a seven page profile of her for The New Yorker. Even the establishment acknowledged her underground reputation.
"It was nice," Sevigny remarks of the article, though it's clear she's lived with its consequences long enough. "It was flattering but I can't sort of live that down now. It made quite an impact on the press. . .and now the press focuses on what I'm wearing. I'll do this interview and they always want to talk about fashion and style and what's hip and what's not and what's cool in music and what's not. What about my acting, you know?" she laughs.
Before we get to the fashion and the acting, let's linger on the laugh. It sounds something like strangled hiccups. One article described it as thus: "And she laughs. . .and you wonder who stood on the dog." It is an alarming laugh and convulses Sevigny's matchstick frame but her face fills with such mirthful rouge that you can't help but smile and laugh along with her. When Peter Sarsgaard, her costar in Boys Don't Cry, hears laughter emanating from the other room as he's doing his roundtable interviews, he stops and remarks with affection, "It's a Chloë laugh." At the mention of Sarsgaard's name, Sevigny gives a whistle then erupts in giggles. She's a lot of fun, this girl clad in black winter boots, flared blue leather skirt and a sweater that looks like it was made in Bavaria. With sunglasses perched on her mussed-up blond hair, she comes off as Heidi Golightly.
Onscreen, she's just as natural and engaging. She made her debut in Larry Clark's controversial Kids. Her role as the AIDS-infected rape victim who serves as the film's conscience landed her on the cover of Interview magazine and set the image of her as indie cinema's white-trash portrayer par excellence. Of her subsequent roles (Gummo, Trees Lounge, Palmetto), only Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco dared to exploit her preppy birthright. "Oh, yeah, they totally think of me as a gritty street girl." Sevigny extends "girl" into a purr of a growl. "And I'm from Connecticut! It's so conservative! My parents are Republicans," she laughs.
Her latest role as Lana Tisdel in the superlative Boys Don't Cry takes her back to her white-trash ways but with a new level of depth. The film chronicles Lana's romance with Brandon Teena (Hilary Swank), who is actually a young woman masquerading as a male. Brandon is subsequently raped and murdered by Lana's surrogate father/lover figure (Sarsgaard) and his self-mutilating pal (Brendan Sexton III). It is a true story.
The project had been knocking around Hollywood for a while. Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton had optioned Aphrodite Jones' book All She Wanted with Drew Barrymore set to star as Brandon Teena. "Nobody else would touch it if Drew was going to do it," says Sevigny who readily laughs at the notion of the ultra-feminine sunshine star disguised as a lanky androgyne. But Sevigny wanted to be involved in the telling of the tragedy and even approached Barrymore about playing Lana in her version.
Somehow Barrymore's version never got off the ground and there was renewed interest by other filmmakers in the project. Even Harmony Korine, Sevigny's on and off boyfriend who scripted Kids and directed her in Gummo, eyed the film. "When Harmony was interested in doing it, they said there was no way to get the rights and impossible and la-dee-da-dee-da-dee." Sevigny also appears in Korine's latest, julien donkey-boy. As with Gummo, she also serves as the film's costume designer. Their collaborations have led to them being pegged as their generation's John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands. Or Josef von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich.
Revered indie producer Christine Vachon got the ball rolling on Boys Don't Cry by financing first-time director Kimberly Peirce's script. Once Sevigny secured the part, she had to confront the complexities of essaying a character who was still very much alive. "It's easier and tougher at the same time," Sevigny observes. "Easier because I don't have to come up with a look or anything on my own. But at the same time, there was a lot of pressure. I feel guilty a lot of the time."
The guilt may stem from her lack of training, a suggestion Sevigny somewhat agrees with. "I don't like actors giving me pointers. It really pisses me off. It happened on this a lot. Not a lot, but a few times. 'Don't you think Chloë should be reminded of the circumstances?'" Sevigny pauses for another laugh. "Why don't you take care of your own ass, alright? I am doing a very fine job."
