“Weirdo teenagers”: Chloë Sevigny’s favourite album by The Smiths
Starting out as a model, Chloë Sevigny became one of the most coveted music and cinema sensations alongside Sonic Youth and the Lemonheads before appearing in the coming-of-age drama Kids. Afterwards, her work with Mary Harron on American Psycho and then The Brown Bunny reaffirmed her position as the coolest figure in the business and a significant muse for countless creatives.
Although she gained widespread recognition in the 1990s, Sevigny always exuded the type of icy-cool edginess that spawned from the New York underground scene. It was her unconventional style and casual disposition that also drew the attention of some of the best fashion designers before some of her early film ventures further solidified her as a true figure of the city’s youth culture.
However, none of Sevigny’s authenticity was ever a pretence; she always approached her art with a somewhat gritty realism, even if it meant blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality. This was best evidenced by her work on The Brown Bunny, which saw her performing actual sex acts on filmmaker Vincent Gallo, which, of course, caused a major media frenzy after its debut.
Nonetheless, Sevigny defended her choices, claiming the negativity to be “a shame” that some audiences don’t understand or appreciate the infamous scene, arguing that “it’s an art film” and that it “should be playing in museums” because “it’s like an Andy Warhol movie.” Even years later, with a hint of somewhat remorseful self-reflection, she said: “The film is tragic and beautiful, and I’m proud of it and my performance. I’m sad that people think one way of the movie, but what can you do?”
Still, Sevigny became a massive cultural touchpoint and significant figure, especially for female audiences and women in the industry, who appreciated and found solace in her unapologetic honesty and fearless individuality, which became a major point of reference across all avenues of artistic expression. This came across in her first video for Sonic Youth and has never faltered since.
In music, Sevigny is as influential as those she appreciates herself, and enjoys any other artist or band who matches her calibre of boundary-pushing fearlessness. Even the way she listens to music is set to high standards, as she admitted to Pitchfork: “I have a hard time even going out and listening to music if I don’t like the sound system now, it’s really awful.”
That said, many of the things she listens to are driven by her profound love for nostalgia and the longing for a simpler time, even if life felt a little more complicated. This is why her favourite album by The Smiths is their compilation record Louder Than Bombs; it takes her back to a specific moment in time when she would do little else than hang out with her friends.
Discussing the album, she said it reminds her of the first time she discovered it after watching Pretty In Pink, “and that just became the soundtrack to my life.” Recalling her life at the time, she added: “I didn’t have a car yet, but I was sitting in my friend’s Volvo sedan at the beach and smoking cigarettes and being fake-miserable. That’s where all the weirdo teenagers hung out. They would go down there and skate and smoke weed and drink 40s, and the alternative girls would be there with their black Alice headbands, Docs, and baby doll dresses. It was more of an innocent time.”
