Sofia Coppola Francis Ford Coppola daughter,Director Sofia Coppola spent much of her childhood living in hotels while accompanying her famous filmmaker father to movie sets. But she insists that her coming film "Somewhere," about a wayward movie star who takes up residence in a Hollywood hotel with his 11-year-old daughter, isn't autobiographical.
"My childhood was so different—I grew up in the country, not Hollywood, and my parents are still married," says the 39-year-old director, who remembers her own upbringing with Francis Ford Coppola as far more harmonious than the father-daughter relationship portrayed in the film.
Still, for Ms. Coppola, "Somewhere," which opens in select cities Dec. 22, marks something of a return to her roots. It is set at the Chateau Marmont, a celebrity hideout that Ms. Coppola frequented herself many times in her 20s. The film's protagonist, an actor named Johnny Marco, takes his daughter to Las Vegas to teach her to play craps—a scene she says was inspired by a Vegas trip she took as a child with her own father. And she shot the film using her father's old camera lenses from his 1983 drama "Rumble Fish." "My brother had saved them and it was a sentimental thing," she said.
Despite its personal touchstones, the movie's story evolved in an unexpected way. After finishing her last film, "Marie Antoinette"—which was panned by critics—Ms. Coppola moved to Paris and decided to write a film about vampires. "It's kind of embarrassing, but it was before 'Twilight' came out and I was writing about a family of vampires when one character just took over," she says.
Over several drafts of Ms. Coppola's screenplay, that character morphed into an actor who struggles to find meaning in a life muddled by excess. Johnny tries to find his path out of a world that offers too much—limitless access to women, money, even late-night room service—and yet never enough.
The character was inspired by people Ms. Coppola had met in L.A. and actors she had read about in magazines. When she was writing, an old friend, Stephen Dorff, struck her as a natural choice for the part. "Stephen came to mind as an L.A. party guy," the director said over tea in New York, where she has recently relocated with her two daughters and their father, Thomas Mars, lead singer of the band Phoenix.
Mr. Dorff says there are key differences between him and Johnny: "I've had girls, but not Johnny Marco girls. At one point, I told Sofia, 'Are we really having another supermodel in this scene? Haven't we had enough?' But she would say, 'Nothing is enough for Johnny.' And she was right."
It was the movie's almost singular focus on Johnny that attracted Mr. Dorff—who, as it happens, had a starring role as an evil vampire in the 1998 action movie "Blade." "Movies are rarely made about characters anymore—they are usually about action, some big concept, or a book or videogame," he says. "But Sofia does the opposite."
In the middle of "Somewhere," Johnny leaves the Chateau with his daughter, Cleo, and embarks on a press tour for his latest film in Italy. Not much else happens. Mr. Dorff's character doesn't speak for the first 15 minutes of the film as he drives around Los Angeles in his vehicle.
That's unsurprising for Ms. Coppola, who has developed a filmmaking style out of quiet moments of meaningful awkwardness on screen. At age 32, Ms. Coppola won an Academy Award for her screenplay for "Lost in Translation," which drew on languid silences in its portrayal of a friendship between an aging actor and an insecure young woman. "Lost in Translation" is still Ms. Coppola's most commercially and critically successful film to date; it grossed more than $100 million on a budget of $4 million. It's not clear if audiences will respond to Ms. Coppola's understated style in the $7 million "Somewhere," which won the top Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival but has otherwise received mixed reviews.
For Ms. Coppola, some of the most nerve-wracking moments in shooting the film may have been her father's occasional visits to the set.
"He made Sofia very nervous," recalls Mr. Dorff, who says that the visits always coincided with nude scenes. "I'd be naked in a shower scene, Francis would show up, and Sofia would say, 'I can't believe this, my dad is going to think we are making a porno movie.' But I was just thinking, 'Um, can I get a robe?' "
SOURCE : wsj