I was in the first audience to see White Bird in a Blizzard at its Sundance Film Festival premiere in January. Writer/director Gregg Araki adapted Laura Kasischke’s book, with Shailene Woodley starring as Kat Connors, a teenager in 1988 whose mother, Eve (Eva Green), disappears. While remembering her mother’s volatile moments in her childhood, Kat also begins to explore her own body with different men in her life. The morning after the Sundance premiere, I sat down with Araki to discuss his latest film. Magnolia Pictures will release White Bird in a Blizzard on VOD September 25, before a theatrical release on October 24.
CraveOnline: Did you want to do something a little more grounded in reality after Kaboom?
Gregg Araki: Yeah, the idea of this movie is, I think of all my movies, it’s the most classical movie I’ve ever done. The story, as I said last night in the intro, just really moved me and I just felt super connected to it.
But was Kaboom fun to do, something so way out there?
Oh yeah. I love Kaboom. It’s different and very specific, but it was such a fun movie to make. The premiere of that movie in Cannes was just awesome.
How did the adaptation of White Bird in a Blizzard differ from Mysterious Skin?
They’re similar in the sense that they’re both very faithful to the book. There’s a few changes. I changed the ending of White Bird. I broke the period a little bit, but a lot of Shai’s voiceover in the film is word for word straight out of the book. Part of the beauty of the book is its language and the way Laura puts words together and her beautiful metaphors. So a lot of that was just word for word, straight out of the book.
Does the book also have the surreal dream sequences?
Yes. The dreaminess, the poetic quality is all straight out of the book. All those dreams are almost image for image, shot for shot.
Would a woman like Eve be diagnosed today as depressed?
I do think that she’s definitely depressed.
Maybe even bipolar.
Yes, possibly bipolar. I just saw her character as being a very tragic figure in the sense that if you think about when she grew up, she grew up in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Her role models were Jackie O, etc. Eva Green and I talked about these old school Hitchcock movie star heroines that were always these glamorous, like the perfect wife, the perfect mother. Shai’s character talks about it a little bit in the film. That was her only option. She didn’t have an option of become a doctor, travel the world or do this. It was just you’re going to get married and have kids. He character itself to me was very tragic in the sense that she had no choices in life and so found herself in this existence that was for her, soul crushing.
How did you approach photographing Eva Green as the ‘80s homemaker?
She’s just the most amazing actress in the world. Eva was only 32 when we made this movie. In the film, there’s young Eve and there’s older Eve, so when we were casting, it was like we could cast an older actress and try to make her look younger for her younger scenes. Or we could cast a younger actress and try to make her look older. When you see Eva, when she’s young, the scene in the restaurant where she’s like this glamorous kind of movie star character, when she’s getting married and she’s like this radiant bride, that’s what Eva Green looks like. When she would show up on set, we did minimal makeup on her. No prosthetics, nothing. It was literally just all of her acting. She just showed up and she was this withered, sad, kind of tragic figure. She’s just amazing.
Was there a different sort of lighting scheme for the flashbacks?
Yes, the DP and I had a very specific aesthetic in mind as far as how the flashbacks had a certain golden, wonderful quality and then the house just be this dark, kind of gloomy place.
You must have a way of making actors very comfortable for the things you get them to do. What is it?
I just think as a director, it’s your job to make a set feel as safe and comfortable for the actors as possible because it’s their space. They need space to work. They need a space that’s quiet and doesn’t have static in it, doesn’t have crew members fighting or all this other stuff going on. For me, it’s always about creating a space for them to do their amazing thing.
Was that a working console television in their living room?
It didn’t actually work. Unfortunately.
Was Shailene the first one cast? Did you offer it or have her come in to audition?
She was actually the first. She read the script as soon as it was finished because I’d known her manager for years. I had a meeting with Shai before Descendants even came out. They said, “Shai’s really awesome. She loves your work. She really, really wants to do a movie with you.” It just so happened that that’s when my producer found this book for me. Circumstances came together.
It seems White Bird in a Blizzard is about a female character who does enjoy sex, which is not something we get to see very often. Was that something that stood out to you in the book?
Yeah, that was one of the things about Laura’s voice. It’s very from a female perspective and it’s very uninhibited about desire, female desire. I think that’s something that really struck a chord.
If people call her promiscuous, I’m going to punch them.
No, Juno [Temple] and I had this conversation about the London character in Kaboom because she slept with all these guys, had these three-ways and all this crazy stuff. I don’t think of her as a slut at all or a nymphomaniac or whatever. I think of her as a person who enjoys sex that’s finding out about herself. She’s an explorer. She’s experiencing things. At a young age, I think that’s just very natural.
We see so many movie about horny guys that are basically “conquering” women, it’s so healthy to see people, even though they’re young, that’s how you get experience. She’s in a safe place with her boyfriend.
Or not so safe place with the cop.
Yes, then she ventures out.
That’s one of the things I love about the film so much, it’s view on that and Shai’s performance and what she brings to that. Her sort of sexual awakening is really special.
At this point in your career, what would you like “A Gregg Araki Film” to mean to audiences?
I just do films I love and I’m passionate about. They’ve obviously traversed a wide spectrum in terms of these super edgy underground kind of movies to more like a star comedy like Smiley Face or a serious film like Mysterious Skin or this film, a wacky one like Kaboom. They’re kind of all over the place but I think I have a really specific vision and a specific voice. I just really go with whatever I love and whatever my passion is.
I saw The Doom Generation when it came out on VHS and I had no idea what I was in for. Now that indie culture has expanded and there are options like VOD everywhere, do you find it’s easier to find audiences who are on your wavelength?
I do think the internet helps. I think that’s cool. I remember when Kaboom came out, because Kaboom played theatrically but on VOD it seemed to [connect]. As a cinema person, I love people to watch a movie in a theater the way it’s supposed to be watched. At the same time, it was very exciting for me that some kid in Alaska could read about Kaboom online somewhere, go, “I want to see that” and watch it.
Do you know what you want to do next?
I have a few projects. I always work on a lot of things at the same time, so I have a few things. Hopefully I’ll be shooting something soon.
Another change of pace from White Bird in a Blizzard?
Probably. It’s looking that way.
Rose McGowan is directing her own movies now. Where is the rest of the Doom Generation cast?
They’re all still out there. I talk to Jimmy [Duval] all the time. He’s still making movies and still Jimmy. Jonathan’s writing a lot as well as acting a lot. So everybody’s out there and now Rose is directing.
Was was the genesis of Doom Generation? Was it I want to do a hardcore sexual road movie with lots of rape in it?
[Laughs] Pretty much. Where that movie came from, I just always was really interested in road movies. I just wanted to make this very dark underground extreme [movie] and I was younger, listening to Nine Inch Nails. The club scene in White Bird is almost like an homage to Doom Generation because Doom Generation begins in a club very similar to that.
How different was Sundance back in the ‘90s?
Not really that different at all. As a filmmaker, it’s like you come in, do your interviews, do your press, do your Q&A and go home. The parties are crazier and bigger.
But I don’t go to those.
I don’t either, so as far as the screenings, the audience, the press, it’s pretty much the same.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
