The life and times of Chloë Sevigny from 1974 to now, as chronicled by Chloë Sevigny Online.

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Chloe Stevens Sevigny (without the umlaut) was born November 18 1974 in Darien, Connecticut, US, as the second child of French-born David Sevigny, an insurance-accountant-turned-interior-designer, and the Polish-American elementary school teacher, Janine Sevigny (née Malinovski). Although the Sevigny family were considered “poor” in the wealthy Darien neighborhood, the early years of Chloë and her older brother Paul (today a well-known DJ) were still relatively agreeable, if also religious, the Sevigny children having been raised strict Catholics. But, as she told the New York Post in 2003, though she rebelled against the family religion in her youth, Chloë is to this day a practicing Catholic:

She tells me she’s a practising Catholic, for instance, a stance that may seem all of a piece with her decision to “go straight”. Then she explains why, having rebelled against the church as a teen growing up in ultra-conservative suburb of Darien, Connecticut, she came back to the fold. In 1998, she starred in a play, based on a true story, called Hazelwood Jr. High. Her character was a Pentecostal killer. “I had to murder this girl every night on stage, and you know, sodomise her and light her on fire and I got really disturbed. I started like having nightmares and thinking horrible things.” Somewhat ironically, given that the character she was playing was intensely religious, church came to provide “some sort of safe house”. “Also …” she says, biting her lip, “I think because my father had passed away, it was just sort of comforting. Receiving communion makes me feel better about myself, for some reason. It makes me feel good.”

I’m about to joke that she makes wafers sound like the perfect E. But don’t, because I can tell from her expression how seriously she takes this. “People always say that you turn to the church in times of need, but it wasn’t only that – the hurting. It was more than that.” In fact, she became so devout that her Polish mother (Janine Sevigny, née Malinowski) began to fret. ” She said, ‘Don’t become one of those crazies.’ But you know to be a good Catholic is really just to be a good person. That’s the core of it – to do unto others…” (The New York Post, August 2003)

She further describes her childhood in the September 2006 issue of Paper magazine…

“My parents didn’t have a lot of friends in town. We never had as much money as everybody else, so we were never members of any of the clubs or anything like that. I didn’t have many girlfriends, either. In elementary school the girls were really nasty. They would say, ‘Your mom shops at Stop & Shop because you’re poor,’ or ‘Your dad drives a Volkswagen, you’re poor.’ I remember from day one not buying that and not being part of the clique.” (Paper, September 2006)

… and more recently in the October 2010 and January 2011 issues of the UK Guardian supplement, The Observer Magazine, and The Darien Times:

“Aryan Darien,” Sevigny likes to call it, where everyone was white, where it was frowned upon to sell a house to Jews, and where nothing ever happened. When she goes home to see her mother (her father died of cancer in 1996), she says it makes her melancholy. ‘There are so many memories there for me,’ she explains, her voice, like her laugh, deep and odd. ‘So many memories. I know every rock, every tree. I always feel… despondent when I arrive, like the place has an aura of sadness.’ [...] As a child though, she found the blandness and safety ‘freeing’, if a little dull. (The Observer Magazine, October 3 2010)

Sevigny, who was born in the mid-70s, described her Darien childhood as idyllic, and her parents as “open-minded.” “[...] We had a unconventional household in a conventional town,” she said. [...] “My childhood was idyllic. We were young, sheltered and carefree,” she said. She said her father and mother, Janine, tried to keep her and her older brother, Paul, kids as long as possible, and worked hard to raise them in a town like Darien. (The Darien Times, January 22 2011

Already as a child, Chloë interested herself in both acting and personal style, sewing her own clothes, auditioning for kids’ commercials (which she “was really into” at the time) and attending annual summer theater camps with another Darien graduate, the would-be That ’70s Show star Topher Grace (whom she also reportedly babysat from time to time).

“I went to summer theater camp every year and was in a lot of plays with Topher Grace, who is four years younger than I am and also from Darien. He says he has tapes of those shows, which makes sense because he is very organized and type A. When I was eight or nine I did a couple of local commercials and catalog modeling. Acting was something I aspired to, but in high school I lost all aspiration. I took drama, but I didn’t get along with the teacher. Senior year they were doing West Side Story, and I had a shaved head at the time so I auditioned to play one of the gang boys. I didn’t get a part, so I was just like, whatever.” (Playboy, January 2011)

But when the teenage Chloë began attending Darien High School, a well-situated school dominated by the offspring of well-off and influential parents, she quickly began losing interest in both acting and education, often skipping school to hang out with her skateboarding brother’s skater friends. As she told Page Six magazine in 2008, Chloë found the drama “kids were pretty geeky — they just weren’t my crowd. I hung out more with, like, the delinquents.” (Page Six, February 3 2008)

Further describing her teenage years…

“I was kind of a depressed teenager. I pierced my nose, and my parents thought, Why is she desecrating her body? But they encouraged me to go into Manhattan, make my own clothes, dress the way I wanted and do all the weirdo things I was into. My mom found my bong, which she and my father confiscated and strongly discouraged. There was regular teenage drama at home but nothing extraordinary. I was into hippie culture, but I was pretty responsible and open with my parents.”

How big into hippiedom were you?
“Enough to have a Volkswagen bus decorated with batik curtains, which is so embarrassing. I’d drive it with my girlfriends up to Burlington, Vermont for the weekend. Looking back, I can’t believe my dad let me do that, but he was so sweet, always saying there is much more good in the world than bad. I was pretty smart and could read people easily, but I had friends who were attracted to skeevy bad boys. I’d always say, ‘No, he’s not coming in the bus with us. He’s got to sleep outside.’ I was the voice of reason.” (Playboy, January 2011)

Sevigny started to look at Darien a bit more closely as she got into her teenage years, she said. Her father would go into New York City and bring her along with him, so she spent a lot of time there. “I started to see a diversity in my surroundings, and not see diversity, ethnically, culturally or what-not, in Darien. But that’s just the way it is,” she said.

She began to rebel against her parents as she got into her later teens, and idolizing her brother, who she described as the “coolest guy in school.” “Whatever he was into, skateboarding, punk rock, I was into. And I had so many great friends who were just not into these sorts of things,” she said. Sevigny said she and her brother discovered a small percentage of fellow teenagers with the same interests in the Fairfield County area, and locations where those kids would hang out. She said it created a “best of both worlds” scenario. (The Darien Times, January 22 2011)

Growing up with her “outsider” friends, teenage Chloë was also inevitably introduced to drugs, but says she was never very big on them. As she told The Face in 1997,…

“I was never a really big drug taker. I was always too paranoid, always afraid the high would never stop. I did valium, stuff like that. I’ve never liked people on uppers, coke and speed. It scares me, they’re… exploding. I haven’t smoked pot in years now; I just didn’t like the high any more. My heart would beat really fast and I’d feel like I was moving in slow-motion frames. I don’t like those altered states.” (The Face, February 1997)

But throughout high school, Chloë would continue to sneak from school to hang out in the City, and graduating at 18, quickly acquired her first apartment in Brooklyn, where she soon blended in with the local rave scene. Taking a job at the Liquid Sky boutique on Lafayette Street, the downtown rave headquarters, she quickly came to know everyone around, and it was through these friends that she would eventually meet Harmony Korine.

Hanging out with her skater friends in Manhattan’s East Village per her usual style, Chloë was one day unexpectedly spotted by Sassy magazine’s fashion editor Andrea Lee Linett. Impressed with Chloë’s nonpareil street style, Linett immediately wanted to put her unique look to use.

[...] Chloe was seventeen. She was standing at a newsstand on Sixth Avenue, in the Village, when she was approached by Andrea Lee Linett, the fashion editor at Sassy. Linett was styling a commercial for the short-lived “Jane” show. “I saw Chloe,” she says, “and I thought, Oh, we have to put her in the shot, but the producers said, ‘No, she’s really weird-looking.’ ” Linett stuck her in the commercial anyway and then asked her to do a shoot for the magazine. (The New Yorker, November 7 1994)

Encouraged by Linett, Chloë agreed to appear in a photoshoot for Sassy magazine wearing her own clothes and creations, and also interned for the magazine that summer. Her photo spread was eventually published in the November 1992 issue of the magazine.

And only a few months after Chloë’s Sassy shoot, it happened again. Hanging out a stone’s throw from Washington Square, she was suddenly approached by a woman who introduced herself to Chloë as a photographer for the British i-D magazine, offering her a chance to appear in what “just happened to be one of Chloe’s all-time favorite publications.” (The New Yorker, November 7 1994) This was soon followed by a modeling gig for Sonic Youth-vocalist Kim Gordon’s “X-Girl” label in spring 1994, and appearances in e.g. Paper magazine and on the album cover of power pop band Gigolo Aunts’ 1994 record Flippin’ Out. She would also later appear in Juergen Teller-photographed ads for Miu Miu’s Spring/Summer 1996 collection.

But despite landing surprise modeling gigs here and there, Chloë didn’t seem particularly interested in promoting herself for more work. As Paper magazine writer Walter Cessna told The New Yorker in 1994…

He also tried to represent her for modeling assignments, but found her curiously indifferent to being marketed. “I came up with serious stuff, like Steven Meisel for Italian Vogue, and she never showed up. It was kind of a fuck-you thing. At the time I was pissed, but now I kind of admire it.” [...] Chloe cheerfully admits to blowing off Meisel, one of the most important fashion photographers alive. (The New Yorker, November 7 1994)

However, it was not until Jay McInerney’s 7-page profile “Chloe’s Scene” in the November 7, 1994 issue of The New Yorker, famously branding her the “it girl” and “the coolest girl in the world”, that would really put Chloë on the map. Her style icon status was instantly gilded.

Some of Chloë’s thoughts on the article and its impact on her life in retrospect…

“I guess [the article] helped me more than anything else. I’m glad I grew up during the last vestige of cool, in the 1990s, when everything wasn’t blogged and on the Interwebs, when things were more on the downlow and underground. [...]Anyway, the term It girl gets used too loosely. [...] Today the term is used to describe, say, Peaches Geldof — a girl who doesn’t do anything but is just sort of around. The original It girl was the 1920s movie star Clara Bow; then, in the 1960s, with Edie Sedgwick and Warhol, It girls turned into socialites, ladies of leisure — people who had ‘it’ just for being ‘fabulous.’ But Edie was just a rich drug addict, and when I got called the It girl everyone thought I was that too. I looked like a junkie because it was the 1990s and grunge was the fashion. But I felt I was doing stuff, not just being a socialite.” (Playboy, January 2011)

She already, she says, knew ‘who she was’ by the time the New Yorker decided to profile her as America’s ‘It Girl’ in 1992. How did the publicity affect her life? ‘To be honest? Not at all. In retrospect, people seem to find more in it, more enjoyment, more cuteness. On set the crew were handing a copy of the thing round the other day, but it barely registered with me at the time. I got two things from it — a lifetime subscription to the magazine, and a rubber Helmut Lang dress.’ (The Observer Magazine, October 3 2010)

But even this wasn’t the last Chloë’s customary East Village hangout would land her.

Spending time with her skater friends in New York in the mid-’90s, Chloë would eventually become acquainted with one Harmony Korine, another skater and an aspiring screenwriter who was trying to acquire financing for his script Kids at the time. Korine soon insisted on casting her in the lead, and in the finished 1995 film directed by Larry Clark Chloë appears as Jennie, a 14-year-old girl who ends up losing her virginity to an HIV-positive skater. Finding out about her HIV, Jennie tries to track the guy down to stop him from spreading the disease to anyone else, only to end up getting raped by one of his mates at hazy house party. Surprisingly, this small but arresting indie production ended up gaining some attention and Chloë’s 1995 acting debut was hailed by critics, her memorable and touching portrayal of Jennie earning her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Female in 1996. Not bad for a debut performance.

And the acting bug stuck.

“I started acting when I was 18, which is pretty young. I kept pursuing it because the money was good and I enjoyed doing it –.” (Missbehave, Holiday 2008)

Next, Chloë appeared in writer-director Steve Buscemi’s feature film debut Trees Lounge (1996) opposite Buscemi, Samuel L. Jackson and Anthony LaPaglia, before moving on to portray Dot in Korine’s experimental and controversial directorial debut Gummo in 1997, and then Pearl in Korine’s equally challenging Julien Donkey-Boy in 1999. By this time, rumors of Chloë and Harmony’s relationship had already begun circulating, and according to an article on the two in the July 2000 issue of The Face, their relationship had begun already towards the end of filming Kids. As she described to the New York Times in March 2000, Chloë “was pretty in love with him from the start, but he saw me as a friend first. It took a while for him to want to be in a relationship with me.” The two continued seeing each other on and off for some years, until the end of their relationship sometime around or after the turn of the millennium.

While Chloë hasn’t been particularly vocal about her relationship with Korine and why it ended, an August 2003 article in The New York Post sheds some light on why things ended the way they did with the Gummo director:

According to Sevigny, it was Korine who changed. When she met him, she says, he was entirely “straight edge” – he didn’t smoke, didn’t drink coffee, showered two times a day and spent all his time writing and going to museums and “being inspired”. But then he discovered drugs, “and then slowly it all, um, fell apart. He was much less productive. It just depleted him of so many things”. She notes quietly that to her the best thing about life is relationships with people, or being in love. “But if you’re a drug addict it seems like that’s your only real love.” Addicts, she continues, generally aren’t interested in sex. And surround themselves with drug buddies, who they don’t even like. “And people on methadone,” she says in a sing-song voice, “will forever be on methadone…” I ask her if she was upset about Korine’s increasing dependency or whether she tried to stay laidback and she yelps, “No! I was judgmental, because he was my boyfriend and I was in love with him and he was a drug addict and it was a horrible thing to have to deal with. I mean, what do you do about it? You know, the lies, and everything else.” She takes a breath. “I mean, I have friends now that I think have problems. But I don’t have anybody that close to me, so it’s not as dire.”

Korine was never big on modesty. He once told a journalist that the more Chloë worked with other directors, the less interested in her he became. (The New York Post, August 2003)

Later, Chloë briefly touched on the subject in a February 2008 interview with The Guardian, in which she referred to the break-up as having been a “big messy one”, and asserted that she and Korine are “not in touch”.

Following Kids in 1995, however, Chloë also unfortunately experienced a tragic setback in her personal life when David Sevigny, Chloë’s father and a major influence and important figure in her life, sadly passed away of cancer in 1996. Describing her close relationship with her father…

“My father used to take me into the city, to Macy’s, or Saks, to go shopping — I was Daddy’s girl, so those were really important days. He’d been a military man, so all of his outfits were very crisp. And beyond that he had some serious style. Fedoras, trenchcoats — very classic. He even wore those straps [garters] that hold your socks up. There was just something about that generation. He used to tell me how much he liked women in hats, so I would wear hats more and more often, because I knew he liked me in them.” (BlackBook, February 2008)

“My dad had a vinyl collection. He was such a cool guy, and we had a unconventional household in a conventional town,” she said. [...] “I’d like to sit down and write a poem, or draw a picture — something on my own, that didn’t have to be a collective effort,” she said. Sevigny said her father was an artist, and has fond memories of him drawing outlines for her to color in.” (The Darien Times, January 22 2011)

Despite the post-Kids attention, Chloë would choose her next roles according to her own preference. In addition to appearances in Gummo, Trees Lounge and Julien Donkey-Boy, Chloë portrayed Alice Kinnon in Whit Stillman’s low-budget dramedy The Last Days of Disco (1998), co-starring Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Beals and Robert Sean Leonard, and appeared in the largely unnoticed 1998 crime thriller Palmetto, starring Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Shue, Gina Gershon, Michael Rapaport and Marc Macaulay.

In Chloë’s own words, her experience on Palmetto, her first ever commercial venture, wasn’t a positive one. As she told The New York Times in March 2000…

“Palmetto [...] was just kind of a mess. The movie, the project, the people. It was my first big commercial endeavor and it soured me on working with big stars. I saw how they threw their weight around.” Ms. Sevigny, who most recently appeared in the HBO lesbian trilogy, If These Walls Could Talk 2, said she enjoyed working with Woody Harrelson. “But Gina Gershon hardly ever spoke to me and Elisabeth Shue spent a lot of time giving me, um, acting tips.” (The New York Times, March 12 2000)

Her breakthrough role, however, would come soon thereafter.

In 1998, Chloë was cast as Lana Tisdel in Peirce’s ambitious and hard-hitting low-budget drama Boys Don’t Cry. Based on actual events, the film recounts the life of Brandon Teena (portrayed by Hilary Swank), a transgender man who falls in love with Chloë’s Lana but is raped and eventually murdered by his male friends when they discover his female genitalia.

According to the Boys Don’t Cry DVD, writer-director Peirce only ever considered Jodie Foster and Chloë for the role of Lana Tisdel, but decided to give the role to Chloë after seeing her affecting performance in The Last Days of Disco; although Chloë originally auditioned for the role of Brandon, Peirce saw Lana as a more suitable character for her. The director later described working with Chloë on the film to The New York Times:

“Chloë just surrendered to the part. She watched videos of Lana. She just became her very naturally. She’s not one of those Hollywood actresses who diets and gets plastic surgery. You never catch her acting.” (The New York Times, March 12 2000)

Premiering in U.S. theaters October 22 1999, Boys Don’t Cry and its poignant performances from Hilary Swank and Chloë were received overwhelmingly positively, and both Swank and Chloë earned worldwide critical praise for their respective roles, Swank ultimately winning the Best Actress Oscar and Golden Globe, and Chloë receiving her first ever Golden Globe- and Academy Award-nominations for Best Supporting Actress. Said of her Oscar nomination in Empire magazine, May 2000:

Chloë Sevigny heard about the Oscar nomination when Julianne Moore jumped up and down on her bed. Sevigny had only just flown into Berlin, for the European premiere of American Psycho at the film festival, and was trying to sleep off her vicious jet lag. Moore was on her way home, and had just noticed that Sevigny, her co-star in the upcoming Map of the World, was in the room next door. Sevigny was asleep at the time, but Moore had big news, so the next thing Chloë knew, her mattress springs were in violent upheaval and Moore, shortlisted for Best Actress, was screaming, “Aaaaaahhh!!!” right in her ear. “She was a lot more excited than I was,” Sevigny notes wryly. “But it was a nice way to find out.” (Empire, May 2000)

Chloë’s performance also gained her the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress the following year.

As with nearly all of Chloë’s films up until then, however, even Boys Don’t Cry didn’t come without its controversies. In addition criticism for straying too far from the real life story of Brandon Teena, the real Lana Tisdel reportedly sued Fox Searchlight Pictures for the unauthorized use of her name and likeness, claiming she was inappropriately depicted in the film as “lazy, white trash and a skanky snake”. The case was settled out of court for an unrevealed sum of money. Furthermore, prior to the film’s theatrical release, the production team had much difficulty getting the film approved by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) due to its graphic sex and rape scenes, and was originally released in the United States heavily edited to avoid the NC-17 rating. Director Peirce later criticized the MPAA for wanting Brandon and Lana’s sex scene removed but not having any apparent qualms about the brutality and violence in the murder scene.

But even after half a decade of more or less controversial movie productions, Chloë entered the millenium with no evident intention of choosing her roles with more prudence. Following Boys Don’t Cry and a role in Scott Elliott’s A Map of the World (1999), Chloë appeared next as the quiet, mousy Jean in Mary Harron’s film adaptation of Bret Easton-Ellis’ novel, American Psycho (2000). In one of his most memorable and nigh iconic roles, Christian Bale appears in the film as the devastatingly handsome investment banking executive Patrick Bateman, whose secret voracious desire for sanguinary violence escalates into unnerving fantasies(?) of brutal murder. Despite many excellent critical reviews, the film also raised much discussion regarding the suitability of presenting such graphic violence in film.

In 2000, Chloë was also offered a part in the Reese Witherspoon-vehicle Legally Blonde, but turned down the role which ultimately went to Selma Blair. The movie then having turned out a surprise smash hit, Chloë says she regrets not having taken the part.

“[I was offered] the Selma Blair character — the bitchy, preppy girl. I wished to God I had done that movie. I really fucked up with that one. Screwed the pooch. And also Drew Barrymore’s Never Been Kissed. She offered me the Leelee Sobieski part, and I should have done that, too. [...] I said no to Legally Blonde because I was offered a play in New York, and I’d never done theater, and it was a Joe Orton play [What the Butler Saw]. It was off-Broadway and just something that I really wanted to do. The movie is so amusing and funny, and I can appreciate it now, but at the time I probably thought it was pretty corny.” (Tokion, August/September 2009)

Chloë then moved on to appear in a series of largely unnoticed films, such as Party Monster (2003), Demonlover (2002) and the experimental Lars von Trier-drama Dogville (2003), co-starring Nicole Kidman, John Hurt, Jeremy Davies and James Caan. However, none of these films, nor any before them, would cause as big a controversy as her 2003 appearance in The Brown Bunny — a film which nearly ended her career.

Written and directed by Vincent Gallo, The Brown Bunny features Gallo and Chloë in the central roles as Bud and Daisy. Haunted by visions of his former lover Daisy, Bud embarks on a lonely cross-country road trip on his motorcycle, during which the events that had previously transpired between him and Daisy are gradually revealed. Although the story and its tragic culmination are both thought-provoking and upsetting, the controversy that arose from the film did not have so much to do with the film in general as a particular scene, in which Chloë notoriously performs unsimulated oral sex on Gallo’s Bud.

The controversial scene immediately sparked an uproar in the film community and heated debate over the admissibility of such material, not to mention ruthless criticism of both Chloë and Gallo. The debut of the original cut at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2003 was a disaster, and the loud, negative reactions of the audience reportedly reduced Chloë to tears at the screening. Gallo apologized for the sexually explicit scene after the catastrophic Cannes premiere, but later reneged his apology when gaining moderate support Stateside for and edited version of the film. It also brought on a lengthy war of words between Gallo and film critic Roger Ebert, who cited The Brown Bunny as “the worst ever film premiere in Cannes Film Festival history.”

The unwanted media attention took its toll on Chloë as well. Indeed, it nearly ended her career. In January 2004, reports began surfacing that the William Morris Agency had decided to drop Chloë as a client, with a source at the agency claiming that “William Morris now feels that her career is tainted and may never recover, especially after rumours began circulating about the even more graphic outtakes that didn’t make it into the actual film.” (ContactMusic.com, January 2004) Chloë’s representative Amanda Horton quickly shot down these claims, however, telling NY Post‘s Page Six, that “after being represented by William Morris for eight years, last summer, Ms. Sevigny decided that she no longer wished to be represented by the agency. [...] At no time did William Morris try and ‘drop’ Ms. Sevigny, as any official representative from William Morris would tell you if they weren’t all on vacation.” However that may be, Chloë nevertheless severed her relationship with WMA and quickly signed up with their rival agency, Endeavor.

Even today, nearly a decade since the controversy, The Brown Bunny continues to be something of a topic of discussion in the media whenever the subject of Chloë is brought up, and she is often asked to comment on the film and why she chose to do it. In May 2007, she had this to say on the film to WENN.com:

“I seem to question myself every day why I crossed the line in The Brown Bunny, but I really believed in the director [Gallo] as an artist. I guess I just thought, ‘I could go to this extreme once,’ but perhaps it was the wrong choice. I’m not gonna beat myself up over it anymore. I think perhaps if it had come out at a different time people would’ve reacted to it differently. Making it for me was not difficult but the reaction from the public has been very difficult for me to handle. I think a lot of people talk about it without having seen it and that’s part of the problem.” (WENN.com via IMDb.com, May 4 2007)

More recently, she touched on the subject in an interview for US Playboy:

“What’s happened with that is all very complicated. There are a lot of emotions. I’ll probably have to go to therapy at some point. But I love Vincent. The film is tragic and beautiful, and I’m proud of it and my performance. I’m sad that people think one way of the movie, but what can you do? I’ve done many explicit sex scenes, but I’m not that interested in doing any more. I’m more self-aware now and wouldn’t be able to be as free, so why even do it?” (Playboy, January 2011)

There has also been much speculation as to whether or not Chloë was involved with Gallo at the time the film was topical. Although Chloë has in the past given the impression that she and Gallo were lovers at the time of the making of the film, Gallo has since denied there ever having been any such relationship between them.

“Chloe and I were never boyfriend and girlfriend. In 1995 we made out once in Paris. [...] I feel Chloe has suggested we were boyfriend and girlfriend to lessen the boldness of her appearance… and to portray herself as a devoted girlfriend and victim rather than a great radical performer. Chloe brilliantly understood that the media would persist in thinking that she did it out of loyalty to me. [referring to Chloë's 2011 'Playboy' interview] I am sorry she feels the experience was so startling that she needs therapy to resolve her feelings.” (Page Six via NYPost.com, December 24 2010)

Chloë has not commented on Gallo’s statement to Page Six, but did have this to say about him to The Observer Magazine in October 2010:

It was reported that Gallo and Sevigny had a complicated relationship, with him admitting that he’s been “obsessed” by her since she was a pre-teen. Today they no longer speak, but Sevigny is careful to stress that she regrets nothing. “He’s a fascinating man,” she says slowly, “but we haven’t spoken for a while. Not that that’s unusual — actors rarely stay in touch with directors after they’ve filmed together. We go back to real life.” (The Observer Magazine, October 3 2010)

Incidentally, The Brown Bunny didn’t end Chloë’s career. Instead, her post-Bunny career took a more mainstream turn after years of indie work, appearing as e.g. Laurel in Woody Allen’s 2004 romantic comedy Melinda and Melinda, or as Caitlin Avey in the Billy Ray-written and -directed drama Shattered Glass (2003). She also appeared in a small supporting role as Carmen’s assistant in Jim Jarmusch’s critically acclaimed Broken Flowers (2005), starring Bill Murray.

In 2004, Chloë would also make her small screen debut, guest starring as Monet with Edie Falco in episode “East Side Story” of the award-winning sitcom Will & Grace. This role was followed by more small scale films, such as the made-for-TV thriller Mrs. Harris (2005) and M. Blash’s largely shunned and ignored Lying (2006), which was not even released Stateside until its Region 1/North American DVD premiere in May 2009. Moreover, in addition to a starring role in another largely ignored thriller, Sisters (2006), Chloë also appeared as the Catholic nun Clara in the movie 3 Needles in 2005, a performance for which she has later gained some critical recognition, despite the film having mostly gone unnoticed due to ambiguous release dates and nonexistent distribution.

In 2005, however, after numerous unproductive auditions for various TV series, Chloë was offered a starring role in HBO’s upcoming new polygamist drama series Big Love, co-starring Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Ginnifer Goodwin and Harry Dean Stanton. Hoping the role would lead to more mainstream work, Chloë seized the opportunity, and in the March 2006 series’ premiere debuted the manipulative, ultra-conservative and credit card-challenged Nicolette “Nicki” Grant, the second wife of Mormon polygamist Bill Henrickson (Paxton).

“I was the first person cast for the show. [...] So many people don’t know a lot about Mormon fundamentalism. I thought it would be interesting to try and explore.” (The Darien Times, January 22 2011)

“[I took the role] because I was getting all these small parts and wanted to be able to show off a little bit. [...] Does that sound completely narcissistic?” (LATimes.com, January 15 2011)

Chloë’s riveting character and performance have earned her nigh unanimous high praise throughout the course of the show, culminating in 2010 in her second ever Golden Globe nomination — and first win. The show’s fifth and final season premiered January 16, 2011 on HBO.

But even Big Love has stirred things up in the press for the outspoken Chloë.

Accepting the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for her Season 3 portrayal of Nicki at the January 2010 Golden Globes, Chloë’s ruffled lavender Valentino gown was accidentally ripped by the usher escorting her onto the stage. Flushed and breathless, Chloë turned for a moment towards the direction of the usher mid-acceptance speech and laughed out, “I can’t believe you just ripped my dress!” before again proceeding with the speech. The quip was immediately picked up on the internet, and in the following days Chloë would gain much press attention for it, as well as harsh words from people who thought the exclamation inappropriate. She later related what happened that night to the monthly LGBT publication The Advocate:

A few days after the Golden Globes ceremony, when I discovered on Greginhollywood.com that the escort who stepped on your dress, Joe Everett Michaels, was gay, I thought, Great, another reason for people to hate us: As if our pesky demands for equal rights weren’t enough, now we’ve gone and ripped Chloë Sevigny’s Valentino!
“Oh, geesh, I know. He actually found me in the ballroom afterward, came up to me, and was going on and on, like, ‘I’m so, so, so, so sorry!’ The poor guy. Accidents happen, so of course I accepted his apology. You know, I had a feeling something was going to happen. I thought I was just going to stain the dress or that I was going to trip, but leave it to the gays!” [laughs] (Advocate.com, March 2010)

And barely had the first media commotion passed when the next one came knocking, when Chloë criticized the recent fourth season of Big Love in an interview with The A.V. Club at the March 2010 SxSW festival.

The A.V. Club: This past season of Big Love has taken a lot of flak for being so over-the-top.
“It was awful this season, as far as I’m concerned. I’m not allowed to say that! [gasps] It was very telenovela. I feel like it kind of got away from itself. The whole political campaign seemed to me very farfetched. I mean, I love the show, I love my character, I love the writing, but I felt like they were really pushing it this last season. And with nine episodes, I think they were just squishing too much in. HBO only gave us nine Sundays, because they have so much other original programming –especially with The Pacific — and they only have a certain amount of Sundays per year, so we only got nine Sundays. I think that they had more story than episodes. I think that’s what happened.

[...] Me and the girls [Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin] definitely were not very happy with where it was going—or more kind of, ‘We really hope it’s going to work. It seems like they’re really pushing it.’ I think next season, they’re going to go back to more just the family. I think that the stuff with Ben and Lois and that stuff was really great in Mexico, but… [laughs]

[...] AVC: Like how J.J.’s trying to inject her with an incest baby?
CS: Oh God, I know. Oh, God. It’s too much. It’s too much. But I hope the fans will stick with us and tune in next year. There’s a lot of people who really love this season, surprisingly. God, I’m going to get in so much trouble. [laughs] (AVClub.com, March 24 2010)

The media immediately picked up on the article, and the comments were soon posted as news all over the internet, generating such attention that Chloë was eventually prompted to call and explain herself to Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly:

What happened? Why’d you say it?
“[long pause] I feel like what I said was taken out of context, and the [reporter] I was speaking to was provoking me. I was in Austin [at the SXSW festival] and really exhausted and doing a press junket and I think I just… I wasn’t thinking about what I was saying. You know, after a day of junkets sometimes things slip out that you don’t mean, and I obviously didn’t mean what I said in any way, shape, or form. I love being on the show. I have nothing but respect and admiration for our writers and everybody involved with the show. [...] I think [the show] is very complex and the content is amazing and it’s just very ironic that this statement would come out and blow so out of control. Because I feel absolutely the opposite. It is difficult being on a show for several seasons and having no control and having things go in different directions where you didn’t think they would go. But that’s also the most exciting part [because] they keep the character really fresh and there’s new scenarios that they come up with.”

The fact is, many people were let down by last season. You didn’t really say anything that hasn’t already been said by a lot of fans and critics. Is it possible there was some grain of truth to your remarks and perhaps it just came out too harsh?
“Maybe it did come out too harsh. I especially think the third season was so strong, and obviously we only had nine episodes so we couldn’t really explore as much this season, so maybe that was part of it. And I really haven’t seen the whole season because I don’t have a television. I’ve only seen about half of it, so I couldn’t even really comment having not been able to see it all the way through.

“[...] And I feel really terrible. And I called Will and Mark and apologized profusely. [...] They accepted my apology. We have a great mutual respect for one another, and they know my work ethic, how I treat other people at work and them, and how I never contest anything they write for me. I’m always willing [to perform what's written]. Even if I have a little trouble with something, they’ll explain it to me in a way that makes perfect sense. So I think that what was so surprising for all of us is that I never really complain or have any problems with anything. I think I was just exhausted in Austin and just spoke out of line and said something that wasn’t really how I was really feeling. [...] We talked it out. We talked for a while. [laughs] I was a sob case, of course. I haven’t slept all night because if they said something about me, if they made a statement that they were disappointed in my work, I would feel awful. I always feel, ‘Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.’ And I just feel it was very out of character. I feel really awful. I don’t know what else to say except that I’m really sorry, and I’m really proud of the show, and feel blessed to be a part of it.” (EW.com, March 26 2010)

Although both the series’ creators and HBO were happy with this apology, many fans were actually more disappointed with the apology than the original comments, feeling that Chloë retracted her interview comments needlessly and likely only out of pressure from the network, and that she should’ve stood by her word instead of “copping out”. The A.V. Club also quickly countered Chloë’s claims of having been mislead by their reporter by releasing an audio clip of Chloë’s interview with this statement:

“[...] fair enough. You were caught biting the hand that feeds you Golden Globes; probably best to blame your momentary lapse into candor on everything that’s beyond your control, such as exhaustion and the rigors of doing press junkets. But as the person who conducted said interview, I’m not really sure how a statement like ‘It was awful this season’ can possibly be taken out of context.” (AVClub.com, Mar 26 2010)

Either way, after the respective statements of Chloë, the A.V. Club and HBO, Chloë did not further defend herself one way or the other in the continuing media and online discussion. Her latest statement on the subject is from Playboy‘s January issue:

“I got into a lot of trouble. It was a huge thing on the Internet. Yeah, I got a little talking-to. [laughs] I don’t want to bite the hand that feeds me. I loved being on the show; I love my character and my co-stars. The whole experience has been great. I just felt it was a weaker season than others. I shouldn’t have said it. I don’t want to offend anybody.” (Playboy, January 2011)

Aside from Big Love, things were moving forward for Chloë film-wise as well as she was able to land her first genuinely big Hollywood production in David Fincher’s fact-based crime thriller Zodiac (2007), starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo. Although Chloë’s small role as Melanie went largely unnoticed by the critics, the film gained mostly positive critical reviews upon its release and continues to hold its own with an impressive 89% “fresh” rating at the review collection site RottenTomatoes.com.

In 2008, however, with no films lined up for release and Big Love on hiatus, Chloë’s focus shifted momentarily from acting to fashion. In addition to appearing in ads for French fashion house Chloé’s new “Chloé” fragrance with actress Clémence Poésy and model Anja Rubik, in February 2008, Chloë debuted her first line of clothing for Humberto Leon’s hip New York label Opening Ceremony. The Chloë Sevigny for Opening Ceremony Spring/Summer 2008 collection was very reflective of Chloë’s personal style, characterized by its distinctive ’90s vibe and floral and gingham prints, and although sure to divide opinions, garnering both praise and outright rejection from fashion critics and enthusiasts, quickly sold out in over 100 boutiques worldwide. Describing the inspiration for the collection to AustralianDoingbird 2008…

“I was kind of thinking of a store that I used to shop at called Unique Boutique — it was on Broadway, but it’s not there any more. And I was thinking about my junior high, the beginning of my high school years, and what I was into when I was kind of discovering myself and my own style and forming some sort of an identity. I was kind of thinking of that period — it’s not a literal interpretation of anything I wore, but, y’know, things I kind of liked back then. Like, I wore a lot of stretch cotton skirts and mock turtlenecks and things like that, so I incorporated those into the line. And I wore a lot of floral rayon dresses and stuff, but I didn’t want to do rayon so I did all the florals and the cottons. And the boots are kind of sophisticated versions of the combat boots and Dr. Martens I used to wear as a kid.” (Doingbird, Spring/Summer 2008)

Chloë later followed up the collection with a second, less publicized unisex/menswear line for the Fall/Winter 2009 season, and a third, more “commercial” and “wearable” Resort 2011 collection, both for which she again partnered with Opening Ceremony.

Moreover, in spring 2008, Chloë was announced as the new “style advisor” of UK Elle. In her new role at the magazine, Chloë answered questions about style from fans and the fashion-challenged in a monthly column which ran March through November 2008. Although the discontinuation of her column was never formally announced, the column hasn’t appeared in the magazine since the November installment. She also appeared that year in ads for Ellus’ Spring/Summer 2008 collection and Uniqlo’s “UT Project” tees.

But despite her fashion design, the occasional modeling and being well-known and revered for her fashion sense, Chloë maintains today that being appreciated for her style is not as important to her as the recognition she receives from her acting, and in fact sometimes sees her “it girl” status as more a hindrance than a benefit. She tells Playboy in their January issue…

“I guess I am stylish, but I would rather have people come up and say ‘I really liked your performance in this or that’ than ‘I really like the way you dress.’ That irks me.” (Playboy, January 2011)

… Missbehave Holiday 2008…

“[Being known not only as an actor] can be good, but it can also be bad. You know, ‘Well she’s the fashion girl, she doesn’t really act.’ I don’t think that people give me enough credit as an actress. Not that I think I’m the world’s greatest, but I’ve done a lot of good work.” (Missbehave, Holiday 2008)

… and Bust June/July 2007…

“[...] I feel like I still have to prove myself in more big-studio pictures before the business will be able to look at me in a different way. Once you’ve gotten some label, it’s really hard to shake it, even though I think I’ve played a wide range of roles within the indie world. I still feel like I’m not given enough credit, but I also feel like I haven’t been given that many great parts. I had a really great part in Boys Don’t Cry, obviously. And in a couple of films, like 3 Needles (2005), which played at [the small indie theater] Village East for something like two weeks. It was a great part, but I feel like people aren’t seeing me enough in different roles like that.” (Bust, June/July 2007)

Perhaps that’s why Chloë says she felt a little vindicated winning the Golden Globe for Big Love‘s Nicki in January 2010, after a three-year series of Globes and Emmy snubs.

“I’ve never even been nominated for an Emmy, goddamn it. There’s no justice. [laughs] Actually, the Golden Globe felt like a little bit of justice, a real confidence booster, having never felt embraced by the industry. It wasn’t a Sally Field thing — ‘You like me! You really like me!’ — more like, ‘Yeah, good. I showed them.’” (The Observer Magazine, October 3 2010)

“They were celebrating my work, giving me accolades. I never really cared about awards, but winning just gave me this huge boost of confidence. It meant something very special to me.” (The Darien Times, January 22 2010)

On a more personal level, towards the end of 2008 rumors began circulating that Chloë had ended her relationship with her longtime boyfriend, A.R.E Weapons’ bassist Matthew “Matt” McAuley. In May 2009, Chloë confirmed to TimesOnline.co.uk that their “eight-year relationship” had come to a close. (TimesOnline.co.uk, May 17 2009)

In 2009, Chloë once again returned to film, appearing in the short films Beloved and The Fragile White Blossoms Emit a Hypnotic Cascade of Tropical Perfume Whose Sweet Heady Odor Leaves Its Victim Intoxicated (quite a mouthful of a title), as military behavioral analyst Emily Riley in the straight-to-DVD thriller The Killing Room, and most notably as Ingrid in Werner Herzog’s psychological drama My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, co-starring Michael Shannon, Willem Dafoe and Big Love‘s Grace Zabriskie. Chloë describes working with the legendary director, whom she’d previously worked with on Julien Donkey-Boy (1999), in Tokion 2009:

“I worked with him before on Julien Donkey-Boy. He played my father, which was terrifying. I think he was doing some kind of Method shit, because he was really mean to me the whole time and kind of chauvinistic. So I was really scared about working on My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done. I didn’t know what I was getting into. But we spoke on the phone before, and he seemed very kind and enthusiastic about me being in the project. I showed up and he was very gentle, and it was completely the opposite of the experience on Julien Donkey-Boy.” (Tokion, August/September 2009)

The film received a limited theatrical release in the U.S., but went mostly unnoticed due to mediocre festival reviews and modest promotion.

In 2010, Chloë appeared in a first ever comedic role as the something of a nymphomaniac Jennifer in Chris D’Arienzo’s hearty comedy Barry Munday, starring Patrick Wilson and Judy Greer. Unfortunately, the film never quite got off the ground and went to DVD after only a brief stint in theaters. She then appeared as Judy Marks opposite Rhys Ifans and David Thewlis in the Howard Marks-biopic Mr. Nice, which premiered October 2010 in UK theaters. Her other works that year included the shorts All Flowers in Time and Fight for Your Right Revisited, and voicing Candy Darling in the documentary Beautiful Darling, which debuted February 2010 at the Berlinale international film festival in Berlin, Germany.

In 2011, Chloë will be bringing Big Love to a close, and will hopefully appear in theaters in The Wait, the newest film from Lying-director M. Blash for which filming wrapped already in the summer 2010. Chloë was furthermore approached to appear on Broadway in Extremities opposite Katie Holmes, but has since confirmed she has turned down the project.

But despite her successes with e.g. Big Love and Boys Don’t Cry, Chloë says she is still looking for her “star vehicle”…

“Something that will really showcase my talents. The girlfriend role — you can’t bring a lot to that part. I’ve had great opportunities and I’m grateful for them, but I hope the best is yet to come. I’m lucky to be a working actor and getting work, but now I want to start taking more control.” (The Darien Times, January 22 2011)

“I think my brother and I are very grounded people. I think that’s all my parents ever wanted.”
- Chloë Sevigny in The Darien Times, January 22 2011

Biography by Chloë Sevigny Online
November 12 2007 (revised February 5 2011) © All rights reserved.

Press Articles:
• BlackBook (US), February 2008
• Bust (US), June/July 2007
• Doingbird (Au), Spring/Summer 2008
• Elle (UK), March 2008
• Empire (UK), May 2000
• Missbehave (US), Holiday 2008
• Page Six (US), February 3 2008
• Paper (US), September 2006
• Playboy (US), January 2011
• The Darien Times (US), January 22 2011
• The Face (UK), February 1997
• The Face (UK), July 2000
• The Guardian (UK), February 2008
• The New York Post (US), August 2003
• The New York Times (US), March 12 2000
• The New Yorker (US), November 7 1994
• The Observer Magazine (UK), October 3 2010
• Tokion (US), August/September 2009

Websites & Online Articles:
• Advocate.com: “Second Wife’s Club”, Mar 2010
• AVClub.com: “Chloë Sevigny Apologizes for A.V. Club Interview, Mar 26 2010
• AVClub.com: “Chloë Sevigny Interview”, Mar 24 2010
• ContactMusic.com: “Chloe Sevigny Dropped by William Morris, Jan 5 2004
• EW.com: “Sevigny expresses regret, blames exhaustion on her ‘awful’ outburst”, Mar 26 2010
• Harmony-Korine.com
• Internet Movie Database: “Chloë Sevigny”
• InterviewMagazine.com: “Chloë Sevigny”, Jan 2011
• LATimes.com: “Chloe Sevigny is happy to be a sister wife on ‘Big Love’”, Jan 15 2011
• NYPost.com: “Gallo Bites Back at Chloe Sevigny”, Dec 24 2010
• SFGate.com: “Sevigny Hits Back at Agency Claims, Jan 2 2004
• TimesOnline.co.uk: “Chloë Sevigny, Queen of Cool”, May 17 2009
• WENN.com: “Sevigny Still Upset About Reaction to ‘Brown Bunny’”, May 4 2007