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Chloe Sevigny on Oppenheimer: It was just white guys doing bad stuff

Chloe Sevigny had a wonderful profile in Variety this week, all about the success of Feud: Capote vs. the Swans, and all of her new work and professional plans. I hesitate to say that this is Sevigny Renaissance because she’s always worked and she’s always done offbeat, indie projects, but it definitely feels like she’s in a new professional era, especially because of Feud. She was great on the show, playing a haughty CZ Guest, who actually maintained some kind of friendship with Truman Capote after the other swans denounced him. Chloe is working on another Ryan Murphy project right now, which is why she was in LA for the Oscars (she attended the VF party) and she had thoughts on all of the Oscar-nominated films. Some highlights from Variety:

Capote never betrayed Guest. “It was easier for her to stay loyal. Truman didn’t throw her under the bus.”

She loved Tom Hollander: “I was like, ‘He’s my new gay best friend,’ until I realized that he had a wife and kids. And I was like, ‘Oh no!’ I’d been pushing up against him. He must have been like, ‘She’s the biggest flirt I’ve ever encountered in my life.’”

Hollander on Sevigny: “I didn’t feel she was flirting with me. One of the wonderful things about ‘Feud’ was, because I was playing a gay man, the relationships with all the ladies in the cast benefited. There was none of the tension that there can be in the straight environment, where everyone is keen to define where they stand. Here I was essentially playing the gay best friend, so it created this relaxed environment where we were all having fun. [Chloe] comes across as a tough, straight-talking New Yorker. There’s a no-nonsense streetwise-ness to her. But then she breaks out with this laugh, and you realize there’s a goofiness to her that’s very appealing.”

Being an Oscar voter: “I’m too honest of a person. I’m only going to vote if I’ve seen everything in a category. I don’t want to just vote for my friends or something.”

When asked about her favorite films of the year: “I like certain aspects of certain things or certain performances, rather than loving anything overall,” she says carefully, before praising “Maestro,” particularly Carey Mulligan’s performance, and Mark Ruffalo’s work in “Poor Things.”

She’s mixed on “Oppenheimer.” “I kind of enjoyed it, but I also felt like it was just white guys doing bad stuff. I guess we’re gonna continue to mine that. As I was watching it, I kept wondering, ‘Am I stimulated by this or am I bored by this?’ I felt somewhere in the middle.” She pauses for a second before adding that she liked Josh Hartnett, the early-aughts heartthrob who plays one of the scientists in the film. “He’s so handsome and natural on the screen. He felt very real in that part, whereas some of the other performances were pushing a bit.”

How she really feels about LA: During a video interview with Elle last month, Sevigny sounded off on all the things she hates about L.A. — there’s too much driving, she hates the terrain and the vegetation, and finds “the sunshine monotonous.” But she insists that her response, which has sparked a whole thing, was more measured. “Despite what the internet might be saying right now, I’ve had a lot of fun in L.A.,” she says, name-checking the beaches and the art scene as highlights of the city. “In that video, right after I went on a rant listing all the things I disliked about L.A., I had a long list of stuff that I loved about it. Of course, they cut that out.”

[From Variety]

This was shocking to me as well: “I was like, ‘He’s my new gay best friend,’ until I realized that he had a wife and kids.” Hollander is SO GOOD as Capote, and I could have sworn that he was a gay guy with his girlfriends. Hollander should take it as a compliment that he really absorbed Capote’s energy to the extent where Chloe Sevigny was “BESTIE!” As for her comments on Oppenheimer… I liked the movie, but she’s right and her criticism is valid. It’s a sausage party and yes, filmmakers are going to continue to “mine that” tortured-white-guy thing.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

New York premiere of FX’s ‘Feud: Capote vs. The Swans’ season 2 at Museum of Modern Art Featuring: Chloe Sevigny Where: New York, New York, United States When: 23 Jan 2024 Credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com New York premiere of FX’s ‘Feud: Capote vs. The Swans’ season 2 at Museum of Modern Art Featuring: Chloe Sevigny Where: New York, New York, United States When: 23 Jan 2024 Credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com New York Premiere Of FX’s ‘Feud: Capote vs. The Swans’ at Museum of Modern Art Featuring: Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny, Naomi Watts, Tom Hollander, Molly Ringwald, Demi Moore, Calista Flockhart Where: New York, New York, United States When: 23 Jan 2024 Credit: Barbara Hine/Future Image/Cover Images **NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN GERMANY**
96th Academy Awards Vanity Fair Party held at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts Featuring: Chloe Sevigny Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 10 Mar 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY** 96th Academy Awards Vanity Fair Party held at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts Featuring: Chloe Sevigny Where: Los Angeles, California, United States When: 10 Mar 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**

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Christie Applegate

Update: 2024-05-28