A selection of quotations from Chloë Sevigny, compiled from various publications and interviews.
• Acting: Big Love
• Acting: Other Roles
• Childhood & Family
• Controversial Men: Harmony Korine & Vincent Gallo
• Fashion, Style & Opening Ceremony
• Other Topics
On Big Love co-star Harry Dean Stanton:
“The funny thing is, I’ll see Harry Dean at whatever Hollywood event, red carpet thing, and walk up to him wearing some crazy, sexy dress, and he’ll be shaking my hand and going, ‘Now, who are you again?’ And I say, I play your daughter! And sometimes I don’t think he knows what I’m talking about. He never recognizes me. But, whatever, he’s 86 years old. And he still likes to party — very hard. I think he comes to the set sometimes straight from the party, but you’d never know it.”
- BlackBook, February 2008
On Big Love co-stars Harry Dean Stanton and Bruce Dern:
“I admire them both so much. Without sounding full of myself or anything, I hope, in some way, that I’m carrying on the torch for guys like that — that kind of actor.”
- BlackBook, February 2008
On her Big Love topless scenes:
“You know, I did so many topless scenes during the first season, I got really tired of it. Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin don’t have to do any nude scenes. [The Big Love producers] tried to put pressure on me at first, and they said, ‘Well, you know, Jeanne shows her behind,’ and I said, ‘What? Any girl would rather show her behind than her boobies.’ You know what I mean?”
- BlackBook, February 2008
Criticizing the fourth season of Big Love in her (in)famous interview with the A.V. Club:
“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.”
- AVClub.com, March 24 2010
On winning the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for Big Love:
“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
On her experience working on Big Love:
“But in a television series, you feel less pressure. In a movie, it’s like, ‘This scene has to be the best scene because there’s only five scenes you’re in.’ So there’s much more freedom [in a television series]. I feel like I grew more as an actor in this than any movie I could ever do.”
- The Boston Phoenix, January 12 2011
On the challenges of portraying Nicki:
“[The repetitiveness] was always my main complaint, even from the first season. I was like, ‘Why do I keep going back to the same problem?’ As the writers explained to me, it’s because that’s what happens in real life. People have the same problems. But by the end, I was like, ‘Haven’t we done this scene before?” Of course. But that’s also real life: you have the same fight with your boyfriend over and over.”
- The Boston Phoenix, January 12 2011
On why she took the role of Nicki:
“[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
On why she took the role of Nicki:
“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
On winning the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for Big Love:
“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 2011
On her rape scene in Kids (1995):
“Rape is one of the most horrible things that can happen to any woman, but really it was my easiest scene to do.”
- The Face, February 1997
On her experience filming Palmetto (1998):
“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. [I 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
On being an actress and fashion icon:
“I love acting and I love cinema more than anything. For some reason the public has embraced me as a fashion icon, and I feel like it has diminished me as an actress. Or I don’t get as much recognition as an actress — and that upsets me.”
- Harper’s Bazaar, May 2001
On Boys Don’t Cry (1999):
“That was a very independent movie, and we were all shocked at its success. But nothing really came of it, career-wise, for me. Not much really.”
- America, January 2005
On wanting to do mainstream films:
“Only thing is, I say all this about wanting to work in more mainstream stuff, then I look around and there’s hardly anything out now that I would have wanted to be in. Except maybe Bad Education… and there wasn’t even a role in that for me! And I’m not even sure I can do it. I have to feel strongly about a project that I’m gonna work on. I might not even bring enough to a part to be part of some big Hollywood film thing.”
- America, January 2005
On her past filming experiences:
“I don’t want to toot my own horn or anything, but I’ve worked on lots of films where I’m doing my own part and the director won’t really respond. And then he’ll really be helping another actor, and I’ll be like, ‘I want that, too! What, you think I’m fine, so you just let me say whatever?’ But maybe they trust me.”
- Paper, September 2006
On not being an ambitious actor:
“I’ve never really been that ambitious. I’ve kind of just taken things as they come. Actually, almost every film I’ve ever done I’ve just been offered. I haven’t really had to audition. So I’ve been very lucky in that respect.
- Paper, September 2006
On her experience working on Lying (2006):
“The director, M. Blash, was great, very fluid, and filming was such an escape after playing in Big Love for six months. My character continually spins lies — so it’s a study of why we lie and what lies we tell to entertain ourselves or make people feel sorry. Seeing myself on the big screen, I was impressed with how confident I appeared. I think I usually appear so self-conscious.”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On how she landed the role of Jennie in Kids:
“I was so disappointed when [Harmony] offered me a smaller role. They had cast another girl for Jennie, the character I ended up playing, and they day before shooting Larry Clark decided she wasn’t working and he asked Harmony who he had written it for. Harmony said, ‘While I was writing, I was talking to Chloë every night on the phone so I guess it’s her.’ I gave the script to my father to read and he said, ‘Yeah.’”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On the downsides of Hollywood:
“I love my craft and am still learning more, but the pressure of people judging on you all the time is hard on me and I don’t deal with it well. I guess I should quit and go into fashion — but hey, no quitters! I’m such a control freak I think I would be good at telling everyone what to do.”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On why she chose acting:
“Well, I had always wanted to be an actress and I had done my thing in music videos, but how do you get into the business? It just seemed impossible. So I thought maybe I would go into fashion, and then working at Sassy, I realized that I didn’t really want to work at a magazine.”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On why she turned down a role in I Shot Andy Warhol (1996):
“I got offered a part in I Shot Andy Warhol, playing a smaller part, but I’ve always been wary of being ‘bio-pic’ girl, especially with people I find so iconic.”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On how she chooses her films:
“For the most part it’s been the director. Like in the case of Woody Allen, I can’t say I was in love with the script, but at least I knew the director. In most cases it’s been about that. I mean, I’ve worked with Lans Von Trier twice, and I can’t say I was in love with the roles, but i just wanted to be around him to be in one of his pictures. As an actor you want to be in good hands.”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On wanting to one day try at screenwriting:
“I have [thought about it], but I still don’t have any confidence in myself as a writer. There are a few short stories that I would like to adapt, and make some shorts to kind of test the ground. But the stories that I’m in love with involve some special effects, so that’s tricky.”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On her controversial appearance in The Brown Bunny (2003):
“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, May 4 2007
On wanting to do mainstream films:
“Well, I’ve been playing that game, whatever it is, for a while, and it just hasn’t gotten me anywhere. I mean, I don’t get it. I take all kinds of ‘meetings’ with studio people, because everyone’s always saying, ‘Let’s get her for this,’ or, ‘Oh, we love your work,’ and, ‘We’re so excited about working with you.’ And then they don’t give me any parts. I want to make a big studio film, but maybe I’m trying too hard. Maybe if I don’t try so hard, it’s better — or it’s a better kind of trying. Maybe it’s because I’m not available enough. Who knows, really.”
- BlackBook, February 2008
On auditioning for the role of Brandon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry:
“When I was at the audition [director Kimberly Peirce] asked, ‘Have you ever wanted to be a boy?’ and I was like, ‘No, I’ve always liked being a girl — I’m pretty girly.’”
- Page Six, February 3 2008
On her early interest in acting:
“I was really into it. When I lost my baby teeth, my mom was so supportive that she got me one of those bridges with fake teeth so I could still go on auditions.”
- Page Six, February 3 2008
On losing her interest for acting as a teen:
“I wasn’t into the drama scene. The kids were pretty geeky — they just weren’t my crowd. I hung out more with, like, the delinquents.”
- Page Six, February 3 2008
On wanting to do a big studio film:
“I audition for them — I feel like I could be the ‘quirky friend.’ But the studios still aren’t into me. It hasn’t really clicked.”
- Page Six, February 3 2008
On Kids (1995):
“Kids was an exciting time. I wasn’t thinking about Hollywood. I didn’t care about the long haul, the big picture. It was so freeing.”
- The Guardian, February 16 2008
On not winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2000:
“I don’t even feel like it would be a good thing if I got it — it feels too early. My brother cried when I didn’t win. Isn’t that sweet?”
- The Guardian, February 16 2008
On not winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2000:
“Pretty stiff competish… although I still don’t think that Angelina’s was a supporting part.”
- The Guardian, February 16 2008
On the negative reception for the controversial Brown Bunny (2003):
“Yeah… though some of the criticism was painful. And I felt like so many people were just judging without even watching it and that was hard.”
- Nylon, April 2008
On being an actress and fashion icon:
“[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
On turning down roles in Legally Blonde (2001) and Never Been Kissed (1999):
“[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
On working with actor/director Werner Herzog:
“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
On being an actress and fashion icon:
“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
On her controversial appearance in The Brown Bunny (2003):
“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
Describing herself as an actor:
“I wish I was more into my craft. I have a lot of respect for actors, but I’m a tool. I don’t feel like an artist. Which is what I struggle with the most. And maybe why I’m attracted to films that I think are pushing the limit — or are pushing boundaries in some way. They’re making more of a statement than I can really make in my own life. So I want to be a part of something that’s bigger, or better, or different.”
- The Boston Phoenix, January 12 2011
On acting:
“It’s hard work in being an actor. But it’s easy money. I’m totally fine sharing my wealth with my friends and my family. It’s not like I’m working the fucking coal mine. It’s like winning the lottery! Why not share it with people — I’ve won the lottery!”
- The Boston Phoenix, January 12 2011
On turning down roles in Legally Blonde (2001) and Never Been Kissed (1999):
“When I was younger, I was offered parts in Never Been Kissed as the nerdy friend and the nerdy friend in Legally Blonde. Now I wish I had taken those parts. But I had this whole, young, ‘I’m only gonna do indie’ attitude. Like, ‘I don’t want to be in any fluff, popcorn movies.’ If I had done those, I think I would be able to show a range that would be easier for me to now get my foot in the door more with commercial work. The studios, they’re just really not interested in me. If I had done that, even those little parts then — they were movies that made money, first of all — I would’ve been able to show a comedic thing in a studio picture along with huge movie stars. So I kind of shot myself in the foot. It was just what happened.”
- The Boston Phoenix, January 12 2011
On moving forward with her career:
“I’m still looking for my 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
On her early drug (ab)use:
“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
On growing up:
“You get older and stop being such an idealist snob.”
- America, January 2005
Describing her childhood in Darien:
“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
Describing her father David and brother Paul:
“My father was very unconventional. He was quite an intellectual and really into art and music. I remember listening to Parallel Lines by Blondie when I was four or five years old, and the Flying Lizards and Elvis Costello, too. He’s passed away now, but he was a painter. His parents really repressed that. That’s why I think he was very supportive of my brother and me. I was lucky to have an older brother who was into skateboarding and punk rock. He’s had a big influence on my life.”
- Paper, September 2006
On how she got into the skater scene as a teen:
“When I was still living in Connecticut I was working at Sassy magazine, and that’s when I met Harold Hunter [skateboarder, star of Kids]. Harold was the first kid I met from that scene. He was the first one who came up to me because I had a girlfriend with me who was a really pretty blonde. So I was hanging out with all of them and going to the rave clubs and whatnot and I was basically skipping school and going there every weekend. I wasn’t ready to go to college, I wasn’t a very good student. I guess I wanted to experience things more than being taught things.”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On her father David’s influence on her style:
“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
On 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.”
- Playboy, January 2011
Describing her childhood in Darien:
“We had a unconventional household in a conventional town. [...] My childhood was idyllic. We were young, sheltered and carefree.”
- The Darien Times, January 22 2011
On herself and her brother Paul:
“I think my brother and I are very grounded people. I think that’s all my parents ever wanted.”
- The Darien Times, January 22 2011
On how drugs changed her relationship with Harmony Korine:
“[...] Slowly it all, um, fell apart. He was much less productive. It just depleted him of so many things. [...] 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.”
- The New York Post, August 2003
Describing Harmony Korine and how she met him:
“I met Harmony during the summer between sophomore and junior year of high school. I would rack up the hugest phone bills calling him out at his grandmother’s house in Queens. We were really just best friends. There was nothing romantic until after we filmed Kids. He came to my high school graduation. You know, we were pals. Obviously, you know him, you know how captivating he is. Just to meet someone that had so much inspiration and he knew about so many things and was interested in so many things. It was exhilirating! He was like my college education. He was lucky enough to have a father who turned him on to so much film and literature and he taught me and shared with me all the things that he knew.”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On Vincent Gallo:
“He’s a fascinating man, 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
On being an actress and fashion icon:
“I love acting and I love cinema more than anything. For some reason the public has embraced me as a fashion icon, and I feel like it has diminished me as an actress. Or I don’t get as much recognition as an actress — and that upsets me.”
- Harper’s Bazaar, May 2001
On her interest in fashion:
“I think I’m pretty schooled as far as the designers go, but I don’t study fashion. I don’t think it’s worth studying… Fashion is just there.”
- Harper’s Bazaar, May 2001
On her “It girl” label:
“It’s a back and forth thing. I was accepting of it, then resisted it, then went back again. First I liked it because it was just attention and it sorta helped catapult me and give me a name. Then it felt like people only talked about that and not my acting. Then I got over that and realized that there is a long line of actresses who have been celebrated for their style and if I’m one of them, so be it.”
- America, January 2005
On her demands for fashion:
“I think most fashion designers really hate me because I’m really controlling and just always disappointed by what they do. I always expect more or better.”
- Paper, September 2006
On her “It girl” label:
“I was always confused by that. I always thought of myself as being kind of under the radar and I thought of that label meaning more mass appeal. Like a party girl or society girl and I’ve never done that. I only go to those functions if I’m affiliated with it in some way.”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On her first runway experience:
“Kate [Moss] was first and I was second. I can’t remember who was in charge of casting, but they brought me out and taught me how to walk, keep my head up, and look bored and blah, blah, blah. All the girls backstage, I have to admit I was really nervous, but they were all really nice. They gave me some champagne to try and relax me! My mom and dad went there and it was at Bryant Park.”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On her own fashion mistakes:
“I was wearing this sheepskin jacket out the other night with graphic leggins from my friend Sue Stemp and a pair of platform heels and realized what a fashion victim I was. I had taken the voluminous look — the jacket — and altered my wardrobe around it.”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On her personal style and feeling pressure to be more commercial:
“I do [feel the pressure]. More so in the way that I present myself, you know, going to the awards ceremony and looking more conventional. Not trying to push the envelope fashion-wise.”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On her personal style:
“I just can’t carry something that I don’t like.”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On her early personal style:
“I wasn’t so much a tomboy — I guess I was more into the androgenous look, I think that’s the early 90s and I think that was kind of popular, more in Vogue.”
- He Magazine, January 2008
On her early personal style:
“Yeah, you know, I still had long hair in that [Sassy 1992] spread. In the rave scene I was into, in this sort of skate scene, there was this whole kind of, ‘Is she a girl, is she a boy,’ being able to pass as either. Because everybody was sort of into… everybody.”
- He Magazine, January 2008
On the inspiration for her 2008 Opening Ceremony debut collection:
“I like to think I’m designing for the alternative girl everywhere. I was just in Shreveport, Louisiana, and I met a group of girls that dressed really cool, and they were just into an alternative sort of lifestyle, and music, and fashion and things, and I think you can find those kids everywhere. It’s the kids that are seeking something different from the norm.”
- He Magazine, January 2008
On her early personal style:
“Pretty much from kindergarten on I wouldn’t let my mother dress me. I had very specific tastes, and refused to put on anything she wanted me to wear. I was really into clothes, often kind of outrageous, not quite typical kid-wear, like hats and things.”
- BlackBook, February 2008
On her father’s influence on her style:
“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
On the name of her clothing line, “Chloë Sevigny for Opening Ceremony”:
“Yeah, not all that clever, I know — but the logo, I like.”
- BlackBook, February 2008
On the inspiration for her 2008 Opening Ceremony debut collection:
“The difference with it, for me, is that I really thought about it as a commercial product. I really thought about the consumer, which is something that, well, I just don’t normally do. I really want it to be successful. I want people to buy it, and to like it.”
- BlackBook, February 2008
On her interest in fashion:
“I’m interested, not really in high fashion per se, but in style.. There’s a difference.”
- Page Six, February 3 2008
Recalling the moment she was discovered on the street by a Sassy magazine fashion editor:
“I was at a kiosk buying cigarettes or something. I was wearing camel-colored corduroy overalls, steel-toe wingtip Doc Martens and a wacky hat.”
- Page Six, February 3 2008
Describing her 2008 Opening Ceremony debut collection:
“When you’re young, you’re mixing things up. You’re a sponge. The Opening Ceremony stuff is like me going back to my youth. My last hurrah.”
- The Guardian, February 16 2008
On fashion and modeling:
“Oh, like the selling out, you mean? Yeah, that’s not so much fun. But fashion is a good way for me to make a living. I couldn’t survive just doing independent movies. And I’d rather do modeling than movies or TV I didn’t like.”
- The Guardian, February 16 2008
On being on (or off) the fashion industry radar:
“A few years ago I started wearing these white Ray-Ban Wayfarers that my mother found at a flea market in Connecticut. I loved them and wore them every day. But I was constantly made fun of by all the tabloids, attacked over and over again. It got to the point where my publicist and my agent had this conference call with me — yes, a conference call — and said, ‘Chloë, we know you really like those sunglasses but people are taking the piss out of you so much that we have to advise you to stop wearing them.’ I was like, OK fine, I’m sick of them anyway. But then the next summer those white Ray-Bans were everywhere! You could not escape them. Mary-Kate Olsen wore them and it was, like, ‘Mary-Kate starts a new trend.’ I never got any credit! I’m so off the radar!”
- Elle, March 2008
On celebrities with stylists:
“These people are celebrated for their style and they don’t even dress themselves. It’s so unfair!”
- Elle, March 2008
On finding the perfect jeans:
“I’m still looking for the perfect pair — I’ve been searching since 9th grade!”
- Elle, March 2008
On how she hates tracksuits:
“I hate tracksuits. But I was going to the gym for a while and you have to wear a tracksuit there. I remember running into this girl once when I was on my way to the gym — girls often come up to me to talk. I was, like, ‘I don’t want you to see me like this, you have to go away!’”
- Elle, March 2008
On being referred to as having been the “creative director” of Imitation of Christ:
“Yeah, I’m not sure what that means really. The press kind of made that up I think. [laughs]“
- Doingbird, issue #13, 2008
On how her collaboration with Opening Ceremony came about:
“I was out at a party one night and Fashion Wire Daily was there, y’know, doing little areas and they said, ‘How come you never did a line. If you ever did one, who would you wanna do it with?’ and I said Opening Ceremony. Humberto [Leon], the owner of Opeing Ceremony, read it online and called me the next day and said, ‘Do you really wanna do something like this? Let’s sit down and talk about it.’ So, it’s kind of lucky, being who I am, that, y’know, they would take notice and be interested in doing it with me.”
- Doingbird, issue #13, 2008
On being an actress and fashion icon:
“[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
On being an actress and fashion icon:
“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
On actors doing ad campaigns:
“I think it can add and raise your profile. People think you’re a hot commodity or marketable. I know how Sean Penn has been very outspoken about how he doesn’t think that actors should do advertising. I think some actor’s actors might frown upon it.”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On growing more self-conscious with time:
“I wasn’t really interested in make-up. I’m just a lot more self-aware now of my flaws. I remember that when Kids was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award, it was one of my first times in Hollywood, and we were going to the awards ceremony. The producer of Kids had this assistant and she was kind of taking care of me and um, maybe I shouldn’t say it, it’s kind of gross! [...] She said, ‘I think you should, you know, wax, your, uh, moustache.’ I was like, ‘I don’t have a moustache, you’re crazy!’ I have this very thin layer of blond fuzz all over my body. And so, I think that was the turning point for me and it all went downhill from there.”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On not having made a lot of friends in Hollywood:
“I haven’t made that many friends in the industry. [...] I guess it stems from not really having anything in common, really, with most of the actors I meet or people that I come in contact with. Or if I do, just being really bad at maintaining those relationships. I met Natasha Lyonne and we were like two peas in the pod. You know, we have a lot in common.”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On not wanting to appear overtly sexual in public:
“I guess I don’t want to be overtly sexual and I think that I’m self-conscious that I have… full breasts. I think of a woman with smaller breasts being more refined or whatever and maybe I don’t want to show them off. I remember a couple years ago at a Vanity Fair party I wore this white Holly Harp dress and it was very kind of revealing and Tom Ford was like, ‘[gasp] Did you just get those??’ I was like, ‘No, I’ve always had them!’”
- Self Service, issue #26, 2007
On having found a potato bug in her bathroom:
“One night I found this… thing. It was in the bathroom, which is downstairs [it's a two-story house], and it was… it was like something from a David Cronenberg movie, and huge — huge! Or, I thought, maybe an alien had stopped in, and then gone into my bathroom to have a miscarriage. It’s probably not something you say in an interview, or maybe ever, because it’s incredibly embarrassing — but it’s pretty funny, so I will. I was so, so scared, I mean utterly terrified, that even after it was gone, for so long I wouldn’t go in there, and in the middle of the night, rather than risk it, I would pee off my upstairs porch. Turned out it’s called a potato bug. It’s the size of my fucking… hand.”
- BlackBook, February 2008
On life and people in Los Feliz:
“I love Los Feliz. It’s a great, great neighborhood. I go out sometimes — the Cha-Cha, Little Joy, Echo — in those places I can relate to people. It’s more like being in New York, East Village, or wherever. There aren’t so many movie people, fancy-pants morons who are climbing and clawing their way up the social ladder — basically, to nowhere.”
- BlackBook, February 2008
On a tabloid photo cut as if to imply that she was dating SNL comedian Seth Meyers:
“Matt was sitting [on the other side of me] and I was holding hands with him the whole time! Can you believe that? How do they just cut out the boyfriend?”
- Page Six, February 3 2008
On being single in Los Angeles:
“I was dating while I was in Los Angeles — oh my god, it was a nightmare. I was like, ‘I never want to be single again.’ There’s not a lot [of good men] to pick from there.”
- Page Six, February 3 2008
On her sleeping habits:
“I sleep in the nude… well, and an eyemask.”
- Page Six, February 3 2008
On a Morrissey fan site always mocking her:
“They always make fun of me. They hate me, they’re really nasty.”
- The Guardian, February 16 2008
On how the publicity that followed her famous 1994 profile in The New Yorker affected 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
On the term ‘It girl’:
“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
On the rumor that she was dating Jersey Shore‘s Pauly D after the two were seen sitting side by side at the same basketball game:
“I was just looking at his hair. [...] It looked like… egg yolk. Or Elmer’s Glue. [His hair] had a white glaze thing kind of happening and I was like, ‘How the fuck? Does he go upside down? What’s the process?’ I should have asked him, but I didn’t think that engaging him would be worth it — not to be mean or rude, I was really interested in the basketball game.”
- The Boston Phoenix, January 12 2011
On why she dislikes living in Los Angeles:
“The town gives me a lot of anxiety. I don’t feel like myself there. I just feel uncomfortable in my skin there. I’ve been going there since I was 19 — you’d think I’d get over it. But it just gives me so much anxiety, you hear about the business, ‘What are you doing next?’ Even if you’re hanging out with people who aren’t in the business, they talk about the fucking business. Here [in New York], nobody asks me about it.”
- The Boston Phoenix, January 12 2011
On why she hates doing press and interviews:
“Shameless self-promotion is really hard for me. It makes me feel really gross. I know I’m promoting the show and something bigger, but if I could get rid of that, I’d be really happy. And if I could do a lot less interviews. Because it’s your life, and you need story points, and it’s hard to make it fresh and change your answers. But then I have to remind myself that whoever is reading the Boston Phoenix hasn’t read this, that, and the other thing, so they’re hearing this information for the first time.”
- The Boston Phoenix, January 12 2011
