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| Saturday, April 1, 2000 Chloe's encounters of the Hollywood kind Boys Don't Cry star Sevigny goes Psycho in next role By RANDALL KING Winnipeg Sun Toronto -- Thanks to her recent best supporting actress nomination for her work in Boys Don't Cry, Chloe Sevigny has been embraced by Hollywood. But it's debatable if she returns the affection. The actress has a decidedly East Coast edge, honed by stolen time spent in New York City. Instead of going to the mall, the teenaged Sevigny regularly played hooky in the Big Apple, her girlhood refuge from the conservative Connecticut town in which she grew up. Now 25, Sevigny remains a rebel compared to her more career-minded peers. How removed is she from the mainstream? Put it this way: She thinks her upcoming movie American Psycho represents her biggest shot at commercial success yet. "It was a commercial step for me to take," she says of the film based on the scandalously violent novel by Bret Easton Ellis. Sevigny, who plays secretary to Christian Bale's homicidal yuppie Patrick Bateman, mentions in passing that American Psycho is her brother's favourite book. But it was also the bedside reading of serial killer Paul Bernardo, a fact that prompted protests when the film was made in Toronto last summer. "They were trying to kick us out of Canada," she grimaces. But Sevigny says director Mary Harron's adaptation (due in Winnipeg theatres April 14) is nevertheless her most likely launching pad into the big time. "I think a lot of people are going to see that movie." Of course, Sevigny may have underestimated the success of Boys Don't Cry, a tough, depressing low-budget indie now playing at Portage Place. It's based on the true story of a girl named Teena Brandon who disguised herself as a boy named Brandon Teena. Sevigny plays Lana Tisdel, the young Nebraska woman with whom Brandon fell in love. Unlike her Oscar-winning co-star Hilary Swank, Sevigny had the chance to meet the woman she played, but she declined. "I never felt like I wanted to meet her," she says. "It's really horrifying enough portraying somebody who's still living. I think I would have felt more responsible if I had met her." It may be just as well. Tisdel eventually sued the filmmakers, though she signed a release permitting the use of her name. Unlike Tisdel, Sevigny apparently knew in advance the film would deviate occasionally from the events that led to Teena's rape and murder by a pair of ex-cons he had befriended. "I had to draw the line between the real story and the movie we were making because of all the differences," she says. (Director Kimberly Peirce admits she took narrative liberties, including the fact that the movie ends with two murders whereas three people were killed in reality.) Another potential problem for Sevigny were love scenes requiring nudity. "It's difficult exposing myself on screen," she says. "I'd never actually done a nude scene and I think that was more difficult than the sex act or the kissing. "In our culture, we're convinced that it's bad to show your breasts," she says. "But you know, we were having this intimate moment and it was a really tender love scene and I just don't think she would have kept her bra on for that." Anyway, her Oscar nomination surely demonstrated that Sevigny revealed more than just skin. "I think I did something in this movie that I hadn't done before. I touched on emotions and stuff and exposed myself like I hadn't before," she says. "I'm proudest of my work in this movie." |
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| april 1, 2000 |