By Christina Radish
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Chloe Sevigny at the Louis Vuitton United Cancer Front Gala held at Universal Studios backlot in Universal City, Calif. on November 8, 2004. |
Based on the true story of a serial killer who terrified the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970's and taunted authorities in four jurisdictions with his ciphers and letters for decades, the Paramount Pictures thriller Zodiac follows the obsession of four men who attempted to hunt down a killer that was never caught. The ultimate bogeyman, the Zodiac killer catches the attention of shy editorial cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) when the first letter declaring his crimes arrives at the San Francisco Chronicle, where the seasoned and cynical Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.), the paper’s star crime reporter, also works. Through Avery, Graysmith meets Homicide Inspector Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and his low-key, meticulous partner, Inspector William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards), to whom he provides his insight on a possible suspect.
Playing Melanie, the wife of Robert Graysmith, Academy Award nominee Chloe Sevigny tells MediaBlvd Magazine that she watched the guys become as obsessed with the Zodiac as their characters were, without getting wrapped up in it herself. “Before I started the picture, a girlfriend of mine, who was obsessed with the Zodiac when she was a teenager, as a lot of alternative girls probably were, gave me a copy of her book. I thought, ‘I’ll read it and try to get where Jake’s character’s mind was, what he was obsessed with and what he was dealing with, day in and day out,’ but I couldn’t. I got through almost half of it and had to put it down. I just didn’t want to read about it anymore. That’s probably how my character was. She didn’t want to hear about it anymore. It’s a morbid subject. Her kids were threatened. She just wanted it out of her face. She didn’t even want to read the newspaper articles. I was truly disturbed reading it.”
Even so, the 32-year-old Connecticut native admits that she wanted to be involved with the project because she really wanted to work with director David Fincher (Fight Club). “Throughout my career, I’ve worked with Lars von Trier, Woody Allen and Jim Jarmusch, who I made a short film with. I haven’t necessarily always liked the parts, but it’s been more about the opportunity to work with them and be in one of their pictures. I like David Fincher. And, like in American Psycho, my character, Melanie, shows more of the human side to Zodiac, and I liked that.”
{quote_middle}Similar to the way the characters in the film become consumed with finding the Zodiac, Sevigny says that she noticed that Fincher is very obsessive, when it comes to filmmaking. “I’m quite obsessive compulsive myself, and to know that he is aware of every inch of the frame and what’s going on, I felt like I was in really safe hands. He was very friendly, warm and jokey. His little daughter, Phelix, would come to the set. It was a really nice set. But, he would get very angry and curse at the crew a lot, which I find sexy. He was just so in control.”
Playing a real character can be daunting for any actor, but it helps when the actor can spend time with the person that they’re playing. “She came to the set with one of her daughters and hung around for half a day. A set is boring, so she didn’t last that long. But, she was very spunky. I didn’t want to delve too deep. It’s always difficult, when you’re playing a real person. After Boys Don’t Cry, I actually vowed that I would never play another living person, even though I have done so twice, already. It’s always a little touchy.”
The period wardrobe, hair styles and make-up also helped Sevigny get a feel for her character. “I felt like they were trying to make me look frumpy, to make Jake look less attractive. He has this unattractive girlfriend, therefore you can believe he’s less attractive. That’s my own insecurities. But, I did like that she wasn’t glamorous, in any regard. She was a working mother, and she was very practical. I liked that she was this practical, sassy, no-nonsense lady.”
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Chloe Sevigny at the premiere of "Starter for 10" held at ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood, Calif. on February 6, 2007. |
Sevigny also really enjoyed the opportunity to rehearse with Gyllenhaal, so that they could explore the relationship of their characters. “We went through all of our scenes and talked through the dialogue. He was very active in rewriting or adjusting his dialogue. I’m not a writer. I’m happy with the lines you give me, to a certain extent. But, Jake would come with ideas for me and my lines. He was very boyish and funny. He kept the whole crew in stitches. They were all very charmed by him. He has so much energy, and is always bouncing off the walls. After 80 takes, he would get a little bit bored, especially when it was my coverage, so he’d switch up the lines. His mind is always very active.”
Currently at work on the second season of the HBO series Big Love (returning in June), in which she plays a woman who shares her polygamist husband (Bill Paxton) with two other wives (played by Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin), Sevigny says she thinks fans of the show will be really pleased. “It moves at a much faster pace this season. Last season, it was a little slow, especially in the beginning. It picked up towards the end. We’d have these problems that spread over seven episodes, and now there’s a problem and a resolve, almost every episode.”
Juggling both now, Sevigny admits to preferring the slower pacing of films to the sometimes frenetic pace of television. “As tedious as the 80 takes for Zodiac was, I liked it because you got to try so many more things and just experiment with it. The 80 takes weren’t just because of performance. Fincher is so technical that a lot of it had to do with camera moves and lighting or background. With the children, it was very difficult, so there were a lot takes for the scenes with the kids. The pace of Big Love is insane. What they make us do is unfair. There’s all this chaos, and then they’ll say, ‘Okay, we’re shooting now. Act!’ It’s very hard.”
{quote_bottom}During her last hiatus, Sevigny completed Zodiac, the indie Lying and a remake of Brian De Palma’s Sisters. Reading scripts in an attempt to find one great project to work on this time around, she says that her dream project would be to play Alla Nazimova in a film. “She was a Russian actress that came to America. She played Salome when she was 50, or something. She was the first woman to write, direct and produce a movie in Hollywood, and that was back in the ‘20's. She did silent films. She had a house with all these little bungalows, called the Garden of Alla. She had a pool shaped like the Black Sea, and all these panthers in the garden. She was very eccentric. I love stories of people coming to America because I still love this country and I believe it’s great. I think it’s good to show the positive aspects of it because certain things aren’t so great.”
