Sofia Coppola was literally baptized (as a boy) into the cinema during the famous climactic montage in father Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather. She continued to play bit parts in his films throughout her childhood, and at 18 co-wrote the script for his New York Stories segment, Life Without Zoe. But it wasn't until her infamous turn in The Godfather Part III that Coppola, a last-minute replacement for Winona Ryder, came under intense public scrutiny, an experience she has had trouble living down. That may change with the release of her assured directorial debut, The Virgin Suicides, a faithful adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides' popular novel. Set in suburban Detroit in the mid-'70s, the story unfolds from the collective memory of a group of boys fascinated by five enigmatic and deeply troubled sisters confined to their home by overprotective parents James Woods and Kathleen Turner. Coppola prepared for her first feature with Lick The Star, a short film about four cruel teenage girls obsessed with Flowers In The Attic, and her experience in photography and clothing design (she runs the independent Milk Fed label) contribute to the film's lush visual scheme. She recently spoke with The Onion A.V. Club about the challenges of occupying the director's chair.
The Onion: Considering your involvement in design and photography, was it always your intention to direct films at some point?
Sofia Coppola: I guess it was subconsciously. I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I went to art school and tried a bunch of different things, but I knew I wanted to do something in the visual arts. And I'd always been around my dad's film sets, so the interest was there. But I didn't have the guts to say, "I want to be a director," especially coming from that family. When I read [The Virgin Suicides], I thought I knew exactly how it should be as a film. I did a short film, and that was when I first realized that [directing] was actually something I knew how to do, which surprised me.
O: It seems like your short film deals with some of the same themes [as those in The Virgin Suicides].
SC: Oh, you saw that?
O: No.
SC: It's embarrassing, like an old term paper. But I guess it's related, because it deals with a clique of young girls.
O: What's your interest in girls of that particular age?
SC: Well, the girls in [Lick The Star] were a little younger, like seventh grade. I just remember seventh grade as being really difficult, because there's nothing meaner than a girl at that age. You gang up on people, and it's traumatic. It wasn't so bad for me, but there's a woman I know who's still traumatized by junior high. At that age, everything seems like a huge deal, but of course that changes when you get older. How does [Lick The Star] relate to Virgin Suicides? There's something about being a teenager that's so sincere. Everything is more epic, like your first crush. I feel that it's not always portrayed very accurately. It bugs me when they have people my age [28] playing teenagers.