Chloe Sevigny describes being sexually harassed by various directors
Here are some photos of Chloe Sevigny in Cannes this week. She’s been promoting various projects, plus she’s just been attending premieres and having fun. On the red carpet, she’s been wearing all Chanel, and many of the pieces are things that she owns, not borrowed. I was going to write about Chloe earlier this week when I read her Guardian interview, but other stuff came up and I sort of forgot about it. Her Guardian piece was good – go here. She talks about how long she’s been working, and how she’s grown to loathe “auteur” directors and the preciousness that comes with working with self-described artistic geniuses. It seems like Chloe is feeling particularly gossipy these days, because in her sit-down with Variety, she ended up talking about all of the times directors sexually harassed her or said inappropriate, unprofessional things to her. Some assorted quotes:
Directors crossing the line: “I’ve had the ‘what are you doing after this?’ conversation. I’ve also had the ‘do you want to go shopping and try on some clothes and, like, I can buy you something in the dressing room’ [conversation]. Just like crossing the line weirdness.” At another point, the actress remembered, a director told her, “‘You should show your body off more. You shouldn’t wait until you’re as old as this certain actress who had just been naked in a film, you should be naked on screen now….If you know my career, I’ve been naked in every movie.”
Other actresses might have had different reactions: “If you’re young and impressionable and really want the part, it might be a tempting avenue, but I hope not…”
Was it sexual harassment? “I would consider it Hollywood. Was it sexual harassment? It’s such a fine line.”
Men vs women: “When women on set become a little emotional, or impassioned even, they’re labeled as hysterical or crazy and have a hard time getting hired again. The double standard of the man being the wild, crazy, mad director is so embraced. We have to allow women to act out… and just be ourselves.”
She believes actresses are saddled with inferior material, and name-checks the flop ‘The Huntsman’: “It has those three great actresses and then the male lead [Chris Hemsworth], but I was just like they should have had better material for those ladies. Now that movie probably, I don’t think is performing well, and then will they make another movie with three great powerful women after that?”
She still stands by The Brown Bunny: “I’d probably still do it today. I believe in Vincent [Gallo] as an artist and I stand by the film. It was a subversive act. It was a risk. And I think it was a way of me staying outside the business in a weird way, but also doing what I want to do in the business.”
One could probably write a master’s thesis on the sexism around The Brown Bunny – while Vincent Gallo’s career never really recovered, Sevingy is the one still getting questions about the film all of these years later. Gallo seemed like a pervert who used his “art” to take advantage of women, and yet… Chloe has always maintained that she went into the project with her eyes wide open, and those were her choices as an actress. It’s legitimately complicated.
As for the rest of it… I think some of her stories do constitute sexual harassment, but I also understand what she means about the fine line. While there’s an inherent power inequality with a director hitting on a young actress, some of the time it might just be considered “flirtation” or genuine interest/attraction by both parties, and it’s a mutual choice. But the whole “I’ll buy you clothes” thing… gross.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmbXBmaIF0e8Kho6idj6iyt7XGp7CYnJWosLO1wZ6qmJqVnruoq9Ker66ZnKHGoLTAq5isq5WZrKPFvq%2BYq6GfqsCgsMirnJysn6fAoHs%3D