Interview: The Runaways Writer-Director Floria Sigismondi

Floria Sigismondi has a slew of music video credits to her name, but zero feature length films, but that didn’t stop her from uniting with two of Hollywood’s hottest young actresses, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, to bring the world first all-girl rock band back to life in The Runaways.

Not only did Sigismondi direct the film, but she adapted the script from Cherie Currie’s memoir Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway. With producers John and Art Linsons’ blessing, she went on to pick and choose from the extensive source material and shape a story of The Runaways that was film-appropriate and could deliver a proper depiction of the band and fitting message as well.

Sigismondi dished on familiarizing her young cast with the 70s music scene as well as helping Stewart and Fanning own their characters through new haircuts and sharing one-on-one time with the icons they were portraying.

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Review: The Runaways

In the words of Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon), “It’s press, not prestige. Get used to it.” Those words are directed to the members of his band in The Runaways, but they’re easily applicable to the film as well. The Runaways is certainly not prestigious, but it knows it and uses its flaws to provide the film with a fantastic degree of authenticity. Just because you don’t abide by the standards of perfection, doesn’t mean you can succeed. One of the best examples of the beautifully flawed is The Runaways and its film counterpart follows suit.

Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning star as Joan Jett and Cherie Currie respectively. The film begins with the young rebellious duo as mere nobodies. Jett is hanging out at clubs and terrorizing guitar teachers who doubt a girl’s ability to rock the electric guitar while Currie’s expressing her love for David Bowie at a school talent show to an intensely disapproving crowd. But all of that changes when Jett meets the influential and eccentric music producer, Kim Fowley, and he becomes determined to bring the world something it’s never seen before, an all girl rock band.

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