The director and 34-year-old English screenwriter is one of those rare original storytellers with daring things to say and the vision to do them justice. In other words, she is definitely not like everyone else. Glass’s first film, Saint Maud, was a chilling picture of faith and madness. Her second feature film, Love Lies Bleeding, which opens in the United States this weekend, is also about madness, but of different kinds: love, power and (literal) strength.
“I wanted to do something fun, sweaty and violent,” Glass said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Making movies can be a risk-averse business, but Glass and her collaborators are not. Set in the American West in the 1980s, Stewart plays Lou, an introverted gym manager and daughter of a local hustler (Ed Harris) who finds herself swept up in the fever dream of new love with an aspiring bodybuilder, Jackie. (Katy OBrian), who is passing through town.
“I loved that it felt a little bit like mythology, like a comic, a throwback to the ’80s,” Stewart said. I can’t finish any of these sentences, but the movie is good.
“(Rose) made this bold, singular and unique experience personal for us and allowed us to be ourselves and just walk through it all,” Stewart added. It’s a lot of fun to work with people who are like cuckoo birds, but who are also very determined.
Glass, Stewart and OBrian spoke to The Associated Press in an expletive-filled, slightly R-rated conversation about the shift to the idea of strong female characters, their aversion to oversimplifications and Showgirls.
Responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.
AP: What were some of the things that really excited you about Love Lies Bleeding?
STEWART: I guess in your dreams you don’t always do the right thing. And in the movies, girls are somehow expected to make everyone feel really comfortable. I think that’s a very default setting for women in general. And in this case, it was like, yeah, but what if I’m (expletive) and my rage is boiling and bubbling? And it also excites me a lot to share that with another person?
OBRIAN: It wasn’t just about resilience or one thing. There’s so much stuff you can read if you want, which I think is great. Or you can just watch it and have fun.
AP: Why do you think it is subversive to make a film about female power and bodybuilding?
GLASS: Maybe it’s something you haven’t seen. I don’t know many movies that feature female bodybuilders.
STEWART: You recently said something about looking at a female body like that, like there was something punk about it. Because when you think about feminine qualities, unfortunately, we think of something demure or soft or elegant or something languid. And you say, well, she’s a woman, so she’s inherently feminine. That’s just not the way you’re used to. But she is definitely feminine strength.
I also think it’s playing with toys that we’re not normally allowed to play with in a petulant way. It’s like looking at Rose and saying, because you’re a brat and you’re (expletive) funny, that’s why you wanted to do this.
The idea of strength must have come from the annoying conversations you had in theaters with people who finance movies. And maybe I’m wrong, but that’s my opinion.
GLASS: Like, Oh, do something with a strong female character? It will make her very muscular.
AP: It kind of makes me think of women who are described as (expletive), which always makes me cringe.
STEWART: Como una mala (improper).
OBRIAN: The words are a bad (expletive) together.
STEWART: We’ve been told that a lot today. And I don’t mean to belittle anyone who has used it, because it was very nice of them to say it and it came with good intentions. But it makes my toes curl so much into my body.
AP: Katy, how did Jackie come to life for you?
OBRIAN: What really helped me was everything else: the costumes, the hair and the makeup. Then seeing Jackie with Lou and seeing Jackie at the gym. Even the workout equipment you got in the ’80s is made for men because women didn’t exercise (that way). They did Jane Fonda type aerobics. You had to adjust your own height to try to figure out how to get the right muscle because it’s a bigger piece of equipment.
AP: I read that Rose had the cast and crew watch Cronenberg’s Crash, Paris, Texas, and Showgirls. Some of it was new to you, or you found different dimensions to it. ?
STEWART: I’ve never seen Showgirls. I saw her in the trailer halfway through the movie and I came out and said okay, I’m not big enough. Not exercising hard enough.
GLASS: You weren’t walking away in a dramatic enough way.
STEWART: So that’s why you wanted me to be bigger.
OBRIAN: I couldn’t find Crash in any language other than French, and I don’t speak it.
GLASS: That’s crazy!
STEWART: It wasn’t on MUBI.
AP: Your film has been presented at Sundance and Berlin and is now spreading throughout the United States. Do you feel that people are understanding you?
GLASS: It’s great to be out there with the audience, in particular, hearing people make involuntary gasping noises and laugh at all the moments you expect them to…
So far it’s been very nice and positive and to the people who don’t like it, I say okay! It is not for everybody.
STEWART: There’s a line in Chronology (Chronology of Water that Stewart is adapting) that says: I started eliminating my friends based on their reactions to Empire of the Senseless. It was like, the women who were disgusted and left the room, I stopped being friends with them. And the women who smiled in silence and touched each other were the friends he kept. This movie does the same thing… not to be alienating and sort of us and them about it. But it’s like, hey, I’m going to sell the movie, are you ready?: it’s not for everyone. But that’s why it should be for everyone actually!
FUENTE: AP
