“It’s very strong, very deep”: why Chloë Sevigny has a “total disdain” for directors
Sporting a boyish trim, Chloë Sevigny emerged in the 1990s as the ultimate vision of androgynous cool, appearing in a Sonic Youth music video and even modelling for Kim Gordon’s clothing line, before getting her film debut with a role in the controversial Harmony Korine-penned hit Kids.
In pictures, Sevigny often harnessed a kind of insouciance, seemingly unbothered by the fact that people thought she was the latest ‘It Girl’, her authenticity keeping her grounded, and with her role in Gummo, her bleached eyebrows, blonde hair, and animal print swimsuit, further cemented her place in the alternative sphere as not only an indie darling but a style icon too.
It’s with this reputation that she made a career out of appearing in many unconventional movies that didn’t exactly hold mainstream appeal, and this saw her collaborating with the likes of Whit Stillman, Lars von Trier, Olivier Assayas, Jim Jarmusch, Korine, and Vincent Gallo, demonstrating an interest in the kinds of filmmakers who you might call auteurs, their divisive artistic choices and signature styles often causing controversy, particularly Gallo.
Sevigny starred in his 2003 film The Brown Bunny, which saw her perform genuine oral sex on him, which raised the question of whether the work was a filmmaker taking advantage of his position of power to get a woman to do something in the name of art. It was all consensual, but many viewers were torn on the morality of the scene; Gallo isn’t exactly a nice guy, after all.
In a 2001 interview with The Guardian, Sevigny admitted, “I don’t want to continue on this independent American streak, but it’s difficult to find good parts in mainstream films”. It seems like her dedication to making films that are real, boundary-pushing, and reflective of her own interest in alternative culture has led her to some contentious auteurs, some brilliant, others much more challenging, and this has left her struggling to reckon with her place as an actor.
Talking to the same publication in 2016, the actor revealed her “disdain for directors”, which has made her much more selective with the projects she takes on: “What I would say is that the most damaging thing about working with so-called auteurs is that I now have a total disdain for directors. And it’s very strong, very deep. It’s made me not enjoy acting so much any more.”
Sevigny draws special attention to the kinds of controlling filmmakers who seem to forget the importance of collaboration when it comes to making a piece of art, explaining, “Writer-directors, in particular, are really hard to work with. And for so many years, that’s who I worked with”.
It was actually in 2016 that she decided to try directing herself, making the short film Kitty, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, perhaps a welcome change to being directed by a male auteur, although by the following year, Sevigny had thrown herself back into acting.
It must be hard to exist in an industry where most filmmakers are powerful men with very specific visions that they’ll go to extreme lengths to bring to life, and Sevigny has had to consistently find ways to navigate this challenging landscape over the past few decades.
