A Woman Directs a Film in Taft…
Ana Lily Amirpour on A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Epic Movie Music and Why Everyone Should Leave Ridley Scott Alone
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is one of the year’s more buzzed about movies, and rightly so. First-time feature director Ana Lily Amirpour has crafted a singular film, a genre-bending mashup of an Iranian vampire art film with Sergio Leone western overtones. The film is shot in black-and-white, with the cast—led by Sheila Vand as a chador-wearing, skateboarding vampire and Arash Marandi as her Persian James Dean paramour—speaking in Farsi with English subtitles.
Whether she likes it or not, Amirpour is the “it girl” of indie filmmaking. She’s a force to be reckoned with, both in her work and in person. Unlike other press junkets in which film directors and their stars are usually ensconced within the safe confines of a swanky Beverly Hills hotel, Amirpour chose a cafe near her L.A. home for her press day. She comes across as someone who pulls no punches and doesn’t stick to the rulebook of giving safe, pat answers during interviews.
For example, when we asked to clarify some facts on her bio, which states that she was born in London, then moved with her family as a child to Miami then Bakersfield, California, she clarifies that she was born in Margate, a “seaside industrial wasteland,” about 75 miles east of London. She also adds that she considers Bakersfield home because “I basically had puberty in Bakersfield. When people say, ‘Where are you from?’ It’s like to me, where did you have your period?’”
With those details out of the way, Paste talked with Amirpour about making A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, skateboarding, the importance of music in her work, directors that excite her and whether she ever considered making the film in English. [Spoiler alert: She didn’t.]
Paste Magazine: How did this film originate? Did it develop from a short film?
Ana Lily Amirpour: It came from that character (The Girl), and I thought of the character when I put on a chador. And when I put on a chador, I felt like a creature, like a supernatural, stingray-like creature and instantly, I thought, “Oh this is an Iranian vampire.” It’s a brilliant disguise. Nobody’s going to expect anything from this person, which is kind of like Spiderman’s got a disguise, Batman’s got his.”
Paste: One of my favorite scenes is when The Girl goes into her apartment for the first time, and she takes off her chador, and she’s wearing that striped shirt and sneakers … usually we don’t think, or see, past the black. Can you talk a little more about The Girl and her chador?
Amirpour: That’s really what’s interesting beyond the conversations about religion or politics or feminism or all those -isms. It’s not really about that. It’s about people, outwardly what we look like and how we present ourselves is a system to operate in society. The bumper stickers on your car, how your house is decorated, what your clothes are, what your hair is. All these things tell a story that you want to tell outwardly, but peel back the layers of people and they’re all full of very strange things and secrets and unexpected surprises. And what happens when you see those things, it makes you question the outward system, and that’s what’s interesting to me.
Paste: What is the heart of the film for you, as the filmmaker?
Amirpour: The heart of the film is: “How do you deal with loneliness?” For me, I have a very intimate and close relationship with my loneliness and solitude. I think loneliness and solitude are misunderstood and have gravely, grotesquely bad PR. People avoid solitude and loneliness by [doing] many, many things, but I think it’s probably one of the most valuable things for a human being because it’s really only in solitude where you can find yourself. Certainly for being an artist, for creating anything, it’s necessary. It’s an absolute, vital mandatory part of creativity.
I think a vampire is the loneliest mythical character of all because they see it all, and they’re exposed to it all, but are kind of disconnected from it all at the same time. And then there’s these times where some kind of magic happens, and you connect. It can be with music, an animal, person, family, psychedelic drugs, whatever it is, that you feel this real intimacy, then it goes away.
Paste: Let’s talk about logistics for making this film.
Amirpour: I talked to Sheila [Vand] first (The Girl), and I was like, “Look, I’m going to do this black-and-white Iranian vampire film and I want you to be the vampire, but you have to cut your hair really short.” Her hair was down to the middle of her back. It’s a really big deal for an actress to cut their hair. Her agents were pissed because it was the fall pilot season, and they’d send her on auditions. She did it, and that just shows her level of [commitment]—she was all in.
Paste: Did she know how to skateboard?
Amirpour: That’s me. I was a stunt double. She did learn. We did spend time together, and it’s her at the wall; but in the street, that was me.
Paste: When did you start writing A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night?
Amirpour: March 2012, I started writing it. I finished the script by May, so it was very fast, less than two months. I called everybody then. I called Dom [Rains], I called Marshall [Manesh], I Skyped Arash [Marandi] in Germany. I was like, “Look, I’m writing a part for you.”
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