Exclusive Interview with Sofia Coppola, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning from The Beguiled

I was invited to Los Angeles to interview Sofia Coppola, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning from The Beguiled.  The Beguiled opened in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on June 23rd and opens in additional theaters today.  It’s directed by Sofia Coppola, and stars Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Colin Farrell, and Elle Fanning.

Last week I shared a bit about The Beguiled and now I’m taking you inside to our exclusive interview with Sofia Coppola, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning. The atmospheric thriller set during the civil, a girl’s boarding school takes in a wounded soldier and all hell breaks loose. This second adaptation shows it from the women’s view…… or rather should I say #VengefulBitches!

The three of them seemed to have a jovial chemistry between them and you could image how much fun they had working together. They also showed their passion to make sure each scene was a piece of art that spoke to the audience. With this interview, you’ll learn

On Making The Movie

SC:  “I wanted to do something beautiful, but that’s all I knew. And then my friend told me about “The Beguiled” and said, “I think you need to see that and remake it. I thought I would never remake someone else’s film. But then when I saw it I knew what she was talking about, that it was right for reinterpretation and that it was, you know, a story about a group of women told from a ‘70s man point of view of the soldier finding them and I thought oh, I just kept thinking about it.”

It reminded me of “Virgin Suicides”. There was something about it that I could connect to that aesthetic of these women trapped in this house. I got the book, it was out of print, and it’s told from the female character’s point of view and I starting thinking about what it was like for them and to set up this world, this isolated world of these women living together and then this enemy soldier comes in. I love, the premise is so loaded, and to me, the story has so much about the power between men and women shifting back and forth and so heightened in this southern atmosphere. And I’ve always loved the south. It’s so exotic to me.

EF: “Besides working with Sofia again, this was a reason for me to be a part of The Beguiled: the women hold the power in this story – even though it is set in the Civil War.”

Tell us what it’s like to work with Colin Farrell

SC:  “I didn’t know who could be the man and, you know, he has to be really masculine and he has to be able to be intriguing and charming to, you know, a 12 year old and a woman in her 40’s and if he was just like a cute hunk, he had to be complicated and you’d believe that he could really captivate them.

I don’t know, it was a balance to find so many elements and when I met Colin he was just, he’s so charming, and the character in the book actually was an Irish immigrant so him and his natural accent makes him even more exotic and I just think because he’s so, he’s charming and charismatic and we want him to be sexy and really, you know, masculine in contrast to this feminine world. I felt he fit the bill. But yeah, to find someone that they could all relate and it wouldn’t be, yeah, too creepy.”

KD: “You know what I just remembered. He was the most concerned about, he was like, ‘I got to lose weight. I got to lose weight.’ He was like living off nuts and seeds and he had to get his weight down. Then then he drove to get a hamburger all the way back to New Orleans from the plantation just to get one hamburger because he hadn’t had any. He was the one that had to show his physique.”

How do you bring “Modernity” Into A Civil War Time Piece

SC: Oh, that’s a good question. I just imagine what it was like for the women at the that time and how they were raised to be these lovely ladies and the whole idea of etiquette and charm and catering to men was really how they were raised, and then all of a sudden, they were on their own and had to learn how to survive and just imagine that these characters had to find their strength, especially Miss Martha, to protect these women. I just thought about the human aspect of these women of what their lives were like and how they had to find strength to survive.

KD: I just felt like the whole house was so suffocating, you know. So by the time we bring this enemy in, there’s so many, for my character, there’s so much opposition inside of her because she’s trying to be a good Christian and a good example for the girls, and yet there’s this enemy. Then on top of it, she has so much repression, and then she’s under Miss Martha’s thumb. So Edwina’s just ready to explode.

Tell us about being a mother and a director

SC:They were so proud when I won the director award. They went and told everyone at school. I went to speak to my daughter, my ten year old’s class, and they were all, they were so proud and telling everyone like, “My mom won a director award.” So they had heard about it. It was really sweet. And I was so proud because they were, even my first grader was telling someone in the class said, “Oh she told the class.” I didn’t know that she even understood that. So that was sweet. I was lucky that my husband could watch our girls while were filming because I don’t want to take them out of school, but they came and visited.

The would visit the set a few times and they came by when I was editing. But I’m glad that he was able to be there to take them to school while I was in New Orleans filming and just to have the support of my mom.  She stayed with them one week when we couldn’t be there. I just appreciate all the support of the people that helped me so that I could do this. Because it’s so intense when you’re shooting a film and now I’m looking forward to getting the movie out and having a vacation and getting to be with my kids and focus on them.

What’s it like to work with Sofia

KD: I always looked up to Sofia like an older cool sister. As the years go on the gap closes as you get older, but I just remember a lot of the things in that movie [The Virgin Suicides], I’d never done in real life. I was a very innocent 16-year-old. So like having to jump on Josh in the car and doing these things, I was so nervous about, but I was also so lucky because it was in Sofia’s hands, and it was a transition movie for me, from being considered a child into more adult. So, people saw me in a different light that was so nice the way it was handled and I had Sofia as a role model from such a young girl. You’re so influenced at that time, I had a good role model at a young age.

Beyonce’s Lemonade was shot in this house!

EF: We saw that chair. The little girls, they saw the chair and then looked it up and then it was the exact same chair. And then we asked the owners, I was like mad that they didn’t tell us. I was like, “You didn’t tell us that they shot ‘Lemonade’ here?” And they were like, “Oh yeah, yeah, Beyoncé was here.” Like this is a way bigger deal then that!

Now you know you want to go check out Beyonce’s Lemonade!

How did they wind down in between shooting such a serious movie

Sofia: The story, I mean I hope when you’re watching it, it’s tense. But when we were filming we were having fun and we were enjoying being in New Orleans and it wasn’t tense the whole time on set.

Kirsten: No, we had so much fun. We did a little Girls Gone Wild – Civil War.

Elle: War edition.

Kirsten: Because the craft service table they have, you know, plastic cups and a lot of them red Solo cups, which makes it look like…

Elle: A kegger.

Kirsten: …these children are drinking beer or something. But we, Elle and I, were like running around flashing our ankle. It was all fun.

Of course we found the Girls Gone Wild (1860’s Edition)