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the Director of Boys Don't Cry
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By Francesca Miller
Peirce and co-screenwriter Andy Bienen based their work on the true story of Brandon Teena, the transgendered youth who entranced a small-town community of Falls City, Nebraska, with his charm and charisma. Brandon Teena was eventually brutally murdered by two friends who discovered Teena's true identity as a female. The murder spawned a very real controversy that is still very much alive today. Boys Don't Cry, which has recently been released on video and DVD by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, continues to have an astounding resonance because it reflects the sense of gender duality that affects some people. I caught up with Ms. Peirce in the Lone Star State, where she was accepting an award from the Texas Film Commission. Peirce is the kind of filmmaker journalists adore. She is gracious, erudite, passionate about her work, incredibly articulate about film, and very much in love with the film making process. It's exciting to realize that this provocative filmmaker might one day be a leading voice in American cinema Francesca Miller: Brandon Teena's murder became such a cause celeb among gay activists around the world. Do you consider Boys Don't Cry a gay film?
Everybody identifies with Brandon as a reflection of themselves. If people who are gay look at my film and consider it a gay film, that's fine because that's what they see. Let everyone absorb it and put it in their own words. Francesca Miller: Do you identify as a gay filmmaker? Kimberly Peirce: Are you planning on outing me? I've discussed my sexuality in several interviews and in several publications. I identify as queer rather than straight, lesbian or gay. The appellation "queer" gives me the freedom to express all aspects of my personality including the male and the female without limiting myself by a label. Francesca Miller: When did you come to this project? Kimberly Peirce: I had been working on a script. It was a true story about a woman who passed as a man during the Civil War. In April 1994, I saw an article in The Village Voice about a young woman named Teena Brandon who had fully reinvented herself as a boy named Brandon Teena, and was largely successful as a boy.
Kimberly Peirce: Besides the research I had on the actual Brandon, I used a number of film influences including the young Brando, Clyde Barrow from Bonnie and Clyde, James Dean, Cool Hand Luke, and Jimmy Stewart, the wonderful iconic gentleman of Hollywood films. Francesca Miller: The film's visual palette is also astonishing especially when one realizes that you emerged from nowhere. What is your background and what filmmakers were your influences? Kimberly Peirce: I studied English and Japanese at the University of Chicago, attended graduate school at Columbia for film, and worked as a photographer in Japan. . My influences? I loved the neo-realistic works of Pasolini, Robert Bresson, the "French New Wave", early Cassavettes, and young Scorsese. I loved them because of their rough intensity and the poetry of realism. I was also moved by the surrealism of Michael Powell and Black Narcissus, Carol Reed, Japanese cinema, film noire, and early Disney because it was important for me to create a visual. Francesca Miller: Given the tremendous interest in this story and the fact that there was a competing Brandon Teena film with Drew Barrymore and Diane Keaton attached, why do you think it took so long to get this low budget ($2 million) story on screen? Kimberly Peirce: I just wasn't ready, the film community wasn't ready, the culture wasn't ready and I didn't have my skills as a filmmaker up to speed yet. Besides, when Brandon's story first occurred, the culture had not fully embraced the proliferation of violence in this culture, the reality of how fragile a thing masculinity is, and the fact that everyone has a gender issue. Finally, after the violence swept through the country, people woke up, the time became right, and I got the financing to make the film. Francesca Miller: What was the search for Brandon like? Kimberly Peirce: Many young female actors passed on the material, so I auditioned every butch lesbian I could find. Unfortunately, none of them could pull it off on the screen because actors are a very special breed. Luckily in 1998, after Ellen came out, we were inundated with a flood of actors interested in the part, but none of them were right. We pulled out all the stops but still couldn't find our Brandon. One day a tape came in from a young actress named Hilary Swank. Hilary opened a door and smiled, and I then realized that after three years, I had my Brandon.
Meanwhile, Chloe was petitioning for the role but was afraid to audition. The ironic thing is that in 1996 when I met the real Lana, I mentioned that I could only think of two actresses to play her in the film; Jodie Foster 10 years ago and a girl named Chloe Sevigny who was too young for the part. Then, I saw a film called Last Days of Disco and there was a part where Chloe pulled her face away then looked back into the camera. At that point, I realized I found my Lana. Of course, I couldn't have been more thrilled when both women were nominated for Academy Awards. Obviously my intensive search for just the right actresses to play Brandon and Lana was validated when they received the nominations and awards at the Golden Globes and Academy Awards. Francesca Miller: It was fascinating that you didn't portray the two killers into villains, but as victims as much as Brandon was a victim. Kimberly Peirce: John was a role model to Brandon and it was essential for me to present John through Brandon's eyes. If I had demonized the two boys from the very beginning, I wouldn't have any place to go with them. They would have been two brutal characters that the audience could distance itself from; yet both were just as tragic in their own ways as Brandon. Francesca Miller: One of the boys who murdered Brandon, John Loder, may be executed soon. Are you following it? Kimberly Peirce: No, I have absolutely no interest in his death. Francesca Miller: Can you talk about your next project? Kimberly Peirce: No. I'm not at liberty to talk about it now but I'll be making the announcement next week. Let's just say I have studio backing and another script written with my writing partner (Andy Bienen). It would be another film based on an actual event, but with a female protagonist. I love working more than life itself. I'm deeply invested in my way of working. I write to direct and I live to direct because directing gives me the deepest pleasure of all, bringing characters to life. Francesca Miller: Oh God, Kim, are you going Hollywood on us? Kimberly Peirce: I still live in New York [she laughs]. Boys Don't Cry is currently available on VHS and DVD from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. |
Anyone who believes that women directors are only capable of bringing
light-weight fare to the screen will have their illusions shattered
instantly by one screening of Boys Don't Cry. This dark, brooding film
is the freshman effort of a previously unknown film director named Kimberly
Peirce. The 33 year-old visionary labored five years to bring her film to
fruition.
Hillary Swank won the Best Actress Oscar of her portrayl of Brandon Teena 
Chloe Sevigny and Hillary Swank 
© 1997-2000 BEI