First person
05 September 2010 By Nadine O’Regan Floria Sigismondi, film director, 44, Los Angeles
Having supportive parents gave me my edge on not having fear. My friends were like, ‘What mall are you going to work at?’ I’d be like, ‘No, I’m an artist.’
I’m married to a musician and come from opera-singing parents. I love costumes and the creation of surreal images.
Marilyn Manson and I got on very well. My debut music video for him, The Beautiful People, gave me the ability to trust myself as an artist.
David Bowie inspired me. His enthusiasm is incredible and his never-dying quest for new things. He’s incredibly open and trusting. He, and Leonard Cohen, encouraged me to look into myself and do as I saw.
Female directors are, unfortunately, a rare breed. It was a bigger problem when I was younger, when it was always a little bit of a fight. But eventually the work speaks for itself.
I put it out there that I wanted to work with the best, the most talented teenage actors for my debut film, The Runaways. I was lucky as Kristen Stewart really wanted to be in my film. She and Dakota [Fanning] were so incredibly dedicated.
We closed Kristen’s deal the day the first Twilight film opened in cinemas. So we didn’t know about all the hupla till afterwards.
Kristen is a physical actress. I saw her evolve and completely transform into the main character [real-life rock guitarist], Joan Jett.
It was important that the actors could actually play guitar, so I put them through lessons. Their fingers had to be in the right places on the instruments when the camera hit them.
In depicting real lives, you have to pick and choose. There may have been some exciting things that happened that I couldn’t show, because you have to stay focused.
Film budgets have gotten smaller and smaller because of what’s happened to the industry. Directors have fewer toys to play with.
Directors can be just as creative as in the past, because cameras are cheaper and you get to edit on your laptop and shoot everything digitally. It’s a different way of approaching things, but it’s just as exciting.
You’d think veteran directors would be more protective, but that’s what makes them so special. They believe in their own creative process and they encourage it in other people in turn, and hire them for what they do.
I don’t watch television. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m kind of in my own little world. I just know if it feels right and if it doesn’t.
My five-year-old daughter, Tosca, keeps me in the present. Just when I think things are getting out of control, I look at her and she does some little crazy thing, and nothing matters any more.
The Runaways opens in cinemas on September 10. See review in The Guide
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