Floria Sigismondi is the director of one of the most anticipated rock biopics in recent memory: The Runaways, which stars Kristen Stewart (as vocalist/guitarist Joan Jett) and Dakota Fanning (as frontwoman Cherie Currie). Known for her trademark hyper-surreal style (as seen in the music videos shes directed for Marilyn Manson, Fiona Apple, David Bowie, Christina Aguilera, and The White Stripes), the challenge for Floria with The Runaways was to create an authentic representation of the trailblazing all-girl band and the era they exploded (and imploded) in. Though a seasoned photographer and video director, this is the first time Floria has helmed a feature film project. Its also the first time shes worked as a writer, having taken on the formidable task of transforming Cheries excellent biography, Neon Angel, a definitive account of the life (and death) of the band into a screenplay. During a press day held at a Los Angeles hotel, SuicideGirls sat down with Floria to find out how she set about capturing the essence of The Runaways on film.
Nicole Powers: What attracted you to The Runaways' story?
Floria Sigismondi: One of the aspects I loved was how young the girls were and that they were girls doing things they weren't supposed to do. That kind of really calls to the rebel in me...It's interesting because they were obviously up against it all the time, being girls, playing more aggressive music, you know.
NP: When you came to the project, Cherie Currie's Neon Angel book had been optioned, but then you set about turning that book into a screenplay. How did you approach that process?
FS: I'd interviewed [Runaways manager and producer] Kim Fowley, I'd interviewed Joan and Cherie, and then some people around them in the scene. Then I'd done a lot of research finding interviews of the time. There was a lot of material actually. It just kind of reminded me how explosive they were. I started to see what was important to everybody and how they remembered it, and then tried to make that into something.
NP: You had a lot of input from Cherie through her book, and Joan, who is one of the movie's producers, but did you talk with any of the other band members?
FS: No, because the contracts and everything were in place before I came on board, so I focused on the two of them.
NP: Kim has some amazing dialog in the movie. I understand a lot of that was directly lifted from tapes that you listened to.
FS: Tapes, mostly interviews...It was quite specific, he was talking about the girls. He's just got an amazing way with words doesn't he?
NP: He certainly does. He asked me if I was a sex worker in the corridor downstairs.
FS: Yes, he asked her [indicating an assistant who was also in the room] if she knew where the heroin was, even though he doesn't do drugs. [laughs]
NP: I guess it's the way he likes to mix things up with provocative questions. Kristen was saying how when she asked Joan about how she'd react to that kind stuff, Joan told her she'd just laugh it off. But with Cherie, she just took Kim's comments very much to heart and internalized them.
FS: I think that being plucked out of her family at such a young age - both of them come from broken families...That's what I was drawn to, how different they reacted, you know. They called them salt and pepper, they were so different. Joan also comes from a broken family but her reactions to things are very different than Cherie's. Cherie's reaction to Kim, maybe looking at him as a father figure because she was plucked out of the family early on, but Joan didn't look at him as this father figure but more as a friend. So their reactions to those kind of aggressive comments or things that would come out of his mouth, they reacted completely different.
NP: That's one of the things I enjoy from the film. It's this great illustration of how people can go though the same things and can be affected by them in entirely different ways. So much of that is how you choose to let things affect you, and you really see that in the movie, how Joan let Kim's words motivate her, while Cherie allows him to hurt her.
FS: That's what [Joan and Kim] would do, they would get each other excited, where I think Cherie's perspective was from a more sensitive place.
NP: An insecure place.
FS: Yeah. Because I think her family breaking up, it really affected her deeply.
NP: Also, Cherie had only just started singing, so she was insecure, whereas Joan had been playing guitar for a lot longer.
FS: But imagine, Cherie's plucked out of this club because of what she looks likes. So how can you have confidence if you're singing for the first time?
NP: Yeah. It's completely understandable insecurity.
FS: That's what I thought was a fascinating story too, how she gets chosen to be the forefront figure of this band. It's amazing actually.
NP: How did you pick what aspects of The Runaways story to include? Obviously it's such a complicated story and you can't put everything in a movie. Were there any vignettes that you would have loved to have included but just couldn't work into the thread of the story you wanted to tell?
FS: Yeah there were. I can't remember what they were, but there were a lot. What I did is I picked moments that drew me. It was almost like making a collage. I figured out that it really was about Cherie and Joan, this parallel story. It starts as you get to meet them - as they get their identity. You realize what's important to them.
Both of them grab onto a musical icon. Joan to Suzi Quatro, she sees something in her that feels like a kindred spirit, something that she identifies with. And Cherie with Bowie. He's more androgynous, with a more way out there kind of look. Then they come together and there's this really great explosion that happens with the forming of this band. Like in any [successful] band, there's some chemistry that works. Then they come apart.
Once I found that, that it was about this relationship coming apart and the breaking-up of the band, everything kind of lined up with that and if it didn't it went out. Once I grabbed that, once I found that and thought I'm going to go on that ride, then it was easy for me to go, what do I need, and what doesn't work now because it's a sidestory.
NP: You begin the movie in a very gritty way. You depict Cherie's character as starting her period on the way to a David Bowie concert. Though Cherie talks about going to the Bowie concert in her book, and how life-changing it was for her, the whole period thing is not lifted from there. Why did you choose to open the film in such a way?
FS: Because it was about girls, and it's a coming of age story, and it's about finding your identity. It's at a time when I think women start to pay attention to their bodies, and how people react them. You're coming into a confused but exciting time in their lives. I kind of wanted to say all that, and to say it's just a girls' story.
NP: Obviously Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning are very familiar names, but the cast also includes an intriguing newcomer to acting, Riley Keough, Lisa Marie Presley's daughter (by Danny Keough) who plays Cherie's sister Marie.
FS: I think she did a phenomenal job. She hadn't acted before in anything and I had to force her to do it. I had this feeling. I saw a picture of her, and although they don't look identical, the photographer in me could see something. It was that side profile that really was similar. There was a real genuine intuition because she's not schooled. It felt very real to me. Obviously it was a gamble but I wanted to take it, and it paid off. I thought she did a great job.
NP: You just saw her photo in a magazine?
FS: Yeah. Forced her to come and meet me. I had her come by and meet Dakota in my studio in my garage. I was just playing with their faces, and playing with their hair and playing with their complexion. Because in two separate photographs you don't know what that's going to be like until you put them together. So I just got them in a room and played with them a little bit.
NP: How much did you rehearse the cast when you were getting ready to film?
FS: I didn't do too much. I really love having magic happen on the set and I didn't want it to feel too old. I found I wanted to do not so much rehearsal but just throw knowledge at them - the history, what the girls were like, and their personalities. Joan's more, "I want to keep the band together," and Cherie's more, "This doesn't feel good." Those kinds of things I fed them constantly.
I'd collected books and books, 4-inch binders, maybe ten of them. I had three years just of research. I covered a wall about the size of this room with photographs from the beginning of the script to the end of the script, and how the transformation would take place. So you can see the innocent girl going through the steps, and then Cherie Currie at the end of her rope, the wear and tear of her experience on her.
NP: Did you do a similar thing with story cards, to help clarify the arc while you were writing the script?
FS: Yeah I did do that, I did do that for a while. Seeing what went with what, what stuck and what didn't. I'm a very visual person so I would always have an image with the headline.
NP: You're known for your music videos and for your photography, so the writing was kind of a new foray for you.
FS: Yeah, it was very new. I hadn't done it before. The producers asked me if I wanted to write, [or] if I wanted to somebody else to write it. And I thought, I'll write it.
NP: So you had your own Cherie Currie moment there.
FS: I did, I had my own Cherie Currie moment. That's fantastic! There's a lot of parallels, when you really start going into things...It's funny. I did have my own Cherie Currie moment, but what it did for me is it made me really know the story. I did my own research, so once I got on the set I kind of knew these characters inside out, what motivated them. It really was just part of my homework the writing part of it.
NP: What's the next project that you're working on?
FS: I don't know. I'm kind of drawn to fiction, just something different that doesn't maybe revolve around real happenings.
NP: I can imagine making films of true stories are much harder, since there's real people, real facts and real feelings involved.
FS: Real feelings -- and they're alive. I guess that comes with the real feelings. Yes, it is difficult, because your mind thinks, "I can take care of that problem by doing this." But that's saying a lot about that person that's not necessarily [true]. So it's about trying to find that line that works with you as a creative person telling the story, and works with the real happenings. It's about trying to find the true essence. That's why I call it the true essence, it's not necessarily a biographical documentary, it's a movie.
NP: It's a movie and not a documentary, but at the same time, this is the biggest representation of their legacy, which is a huge responsibility.
FS: Yeah...It's like a puzzle, you know, you're putting things in and taking them out...Like you said, it represents other people's lives so it was definitely a fine line to dance.
NP: So now you're ready for a nice easy work of fiction.
FS: Yes!
The Runaways movie hits theaters on limited release March 19, and is slated to go on wide release April 9.
Nicole Powers: What attracted you to The Runaways' story?
Floria Sigismondi: One of the aspects I loved was how young the girls were and that they were girls doing things they weren't supposed to do. That kind of really calls to the rebel in me...It's interesting because they were obviously up against it all the time, being girls, playing more aggressive music, you know.
NP: When you came to the project, Cherie Currie's Neon Angel book had been optioned, but then you set about turning that book into a screenplay. How did you approach that process?
FS: I'd interviewed [Runaways manager and producer] Kim Fowley, I'd interviewed Joan and Cherie, and then some people around them in the scene. Then I'd done a lot of research finding interviews of the time. There was a lot of material actually. It just kind of reminded me how explosive they were. I started to see what was important to everybody and how they remembered it, and then tried to make that into something.
NP: You had a lot of input from Cherie through her book, and Joan, who is one of the movie's producers, but did you talk with any of the other band members?
FS: No, because the contracts and everything were in place before I came on board, so I focused on the two of them.
NP: Kim has some amazing dialog in the movie. I understand a lot of that was directly lifted from tapes that you listened to.
FS: Tapes, mostly interviews...It was quite specific, he was talking about the girls. He's just got an amazing way with words doesn't he?
NP: He certainly does. He asked me if I was a sex worker in the corridor downstairs.
FS: Yes, he asked her [indicating an assistant who was also in the room] if she knew where the heroin was, even though he doesn't do drugs. [laughs]
NP: I guess it's the way he likes to mix things up with provocative questions. Kristen was saying how when she asked Joan about how she'd react to that kind stuff, Joan told her she'd just laugh it off. But with Cherie, she just took Kim's comments very much to heart and internalized them.
FS: I think that being plucked out of her family at such a young age - both of them come from broken families...That's what I was drawn to, how different they reacted, you know. They called them salt and pepper, they were so different. Joan also comes from a broken family but her reactions to things are very different than Cherie's. Cherie's reaction to Kim, maybe looking at him as a father figure because she was plucked out of the family early on, but Joan didn't look at him as this father figure but more as a friend. So their reactions to those kind of aggressive comments or things that would come out of his mouth, they reacted completely different.
NP: That's one of the things I enjoy from the film. It's this great illustration of how people can go though the same things and can be affected by them in entirely different ways. So much of that is how you choose to let things affect you, and you really see that in the movie, how Joan let Kim's words motivate her, while Cherie allows him to hurt her.
FS: That's what [Joan and Kim] would do, they would get each other excited, where I think Cherie's perspective was from a more sensitive place.
NP: An insecure place.
FS: Yeah. Because I think her family breaking up, it really affected her deeply.
NP: Also, Cherie had only just started singing, so she was insecure, whereas Joan had been playing guitar for a lot longer.
FS: But imagine, Cherie's plucked out of this club because of what she looks likes. So how can you have confidence if you're singing for the first time?
NP: Yeah. It's completely understandable insecurity.
FS: That's what I thought was a fascinating story too, how she gets chosen to be the forefront figure of this band. It's amazing actually.
NP: How did you pick what aspects of The Runaways story to include? Obviously it's such a complicated story and you can't put everything in a movie. Were there any vignettes that you would have loved to have included but just couldn't work into the thread of the story you wanted to tell?
FS: Yeah there were. I can't remember what they were, but there were a lot. What I did is I picked moments that drew me. It was almost like making a collage. I figured out that it really was about Cherie and Joan, this parallel story. It starts as you get to meet them - as they get their identity. You realize what's important to them.
Both of them grab onto a musical icon. Joan to Suzi Quatro, she sees something in her that feels like a kindred spirit, something that she identifies with. And Cherie with Bowie. He's more androgynous, with a more way out there kind of look. Then they come together and there's this really great explosion that happens with the forming of this band. Like in any [successful] band, there's some chemistry that works. Then they come apart.
Once I found that, that it was about this relationship coming apart and the breaking-up of the band, everything kind of lined up with that and if it didn't it went out. Once I grabbed that, once I found that and thought I'm going to go on that ride, then it was easy for me to go, what do I need, and what doesn't work now because it's a sidestory.
NP: You begin the movie in a very gritty way. You depict Cherie's character as starting her period on the way to a David Bowie concert. Though Cherie talks about going to the Bowie concert in her book, and how life-changing it was for her, the whole period thing is not lifted from there. Why did you choose to open the film in such a way?
FS: Because it was about girls, and it's a coming of age story, and it's about finding your identity. It's at a time when I think women start to pay attention to their bodies, and how people react them. You're coming into a confused but exciting time in their lives. I kind of wanted to say all that, and to say it's just a girls' story.
NP: Obviously Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning are very familiar names, but the cast also includes an intriguing newcomer to acting, Riley Keough, Lisa Marie Presley's daughter (by Danny Keough) who plays Cherie's sister Marie.
FS: I think she did a phenomenal job. She hadn't acted before in anything and I had to force her to do it. I had this feeling. I saw a picture of her, and although they don't look identical, the photographer in me could see something. It was that side profile that really was similar. There was a real genuine intuition because she's not schooled. It felt very real to me. Obviously it was a gamble but I wanted to take it, and it paid off. I thought she did a great job.
NP: You just saw her photo in a magazine?
FS: Yeah. Forced her to come and meet me. I had her come by and meet Dakota in my studio in my garage. I was just playing with their faces, and playing with their hair and playing with their complexion. Because in two separate photographs you don't know what that's going to be like until you put them together. So I just got them in a room and played with them a little bit.
NP: How much did you rehearse the cast when you were getting ready to film?
FS: I didn't do too much. I really love having magic happen on the set and I didn't want it to feel too old. I found I wanted to do not so much rehearsal but just throw knowledge at them - the history, what the girls were like, and their personalities. Joan's more, "I want to keep the band together," and Cherie's more, "This doesn't feel good." Those kinds of things I fed them constantly.
I'd collected books and books, 4-inch binders, maybe ten of them. I had three years just of research. I covered a wall about the size of this room with photographs from the beginning of the script to the end of the script, and how the transformation would take place. So you can see the innocent girl going through the steps, and then Cherie Currie at the end of her rope, the wear and tear of her experience on her.
NP: Did you do a similar thing with story cards, to help clarify the arc while you were writing the script?
FS: Yeah I did do that, I did do that for a while. Seeing what went with what, what stuck and what didn't. I'm a very visual person so I would always have an image with the headline.
NP: You're known for your music videos and for your photography, so the writing was kind of a new foray for you.
FS: Yeah, it was very new. I hadn't done it before. The producers asked me if I wanted to write, [or] if I wanted to somebody else to write it. And I thought, I'll write it.
NP: So you had your own Cherie Currie moment there.
FS: I did, I had my own Cherie Currie moment. That's fantastic! There's a lot of parallels, when you really start going into things...It's funny. I did have my own Cherie Currie moment, but what it did for me is it made me really know the story. I did my own research, so once I got on the set I kind of knew these characters inside out, what motivated them. It really was just part of my homework the writing part of it.
NP: What's the next project that you're working on?
FS: I don't know. I'm kind of drawn to fiction, just something different that doesn't maybe revolve around real happenings.
NP: I can imagine making films of true stories are much harder, since there's real people, real facts and real feelings involved.
FS: Real feelings -- and they're alive. I guess that comes with the real feelings. Yes, it is difficult, because your mind thinks, "I can take care of that problem by doing this." But that's saying a lot about that person that's not necessarily [true]. So it's about trying to find that line that works with you as a creative person telling the story, and works with the real happenings. It's about trying to find the true essence. That's why I call it the true essence, it's not necessarily a biographical documentary, it's a movie.
NP: It's a movie and not a documentary, but at the same time, this is the biggest representation of their legacy, which is a huge responsibility.
FS: Yeah...It's like a puzzle, you know, you're putting things in and taking them out...Like you said, it represents other people's lives so it was definitely a fine line to dance.
NP: So now you're ready for a nice easy work of fiction.
FS: Yes!
The Runaways movie hits theaters on limited release March 19, and is slated to go on wide release April 9.