STEPHEN DORFF

SOFIA COPPOLA HAS GIFTED STEPHEN DORFF WITH THE ROLE OF HIS CAREER IN HER  EAGERLY AWAITED NEW FILM OUT LATER THIS YEAR. MARSHALL HEYMAN UNCOVERS THE EFFECT IT HAS ALREADY HAD ON HIS LIFE SINCE FILMING FINISHED

Though he’s had his career ups (Backbeat, Blade, I Shot Andy Warhol, Cecil B. DeMented) and downs (Fear Dot Com, Alone in the Dark), Stephen Dorff has been working in Hollywood since the age of 12. He had his big breakout at 19 playing a British youth of the apartheid-era in The Power of One, opposite John Gielgud, Morgan Freeman and Daniel Craig. In a way, then, it’s not a surprise that Dorff, now 36, seems to know everyone at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel where I find him one breezy afternoon in December.
But 2010 will likely prove to be a banner year for Dorff – certainly one filled with more career highs – since he’ll be starring in Sofia Coppola’s eagerly awaited new feature, Somewhere. Over one of the restaurant’s famous McCarthy salads (no tomato, no cheese, no beets), an iced tea, a skim latte, and a renegade cigarette or two, Dorff chatted about working with Coppola, and how he’s bracing for his life to change in the next few months.

Wonderland: tell me about the sofia Coppola movie, Somewhere.
Stephen Dorff: It kind of came out of nowhere. I’ve known her for years and we’ve been friends, but it was weird. A few years ago, there were just very few movies out there that I wanted to do, and some of the ones I wanted I didn’t get.

Which movies?
Some of the good ones. There’s only about a handful a year. And those are usually the right filmmaker, the right role, the right lead. A few years ago, I decided to reinvest in my career. Not necessarily to look at the money, but look at the real reasons why I got into this business. So I did this little movie that I produced called Felon with Val Kilmer and Sam Shepard, and it got a bullshit release. I starred in it. It was such a good movie, this guy Ric Waugh, a first-time director, he just killed it. We had everything going, but we just didn’t have the release. Normally you have the release and you get killed in the reviews. And before that, I did World Trade Center because Ol- iver Stone gave me a great part. Around the same time, I lost my mom so that fucking totally took me out of everything. Then I decided conscious- ly to go back to work and did Public Enemies with Michael Mann. He came to me for it, and I said: “I don’t think I can do this with the amount of prep.” He was so kind and he said: “I’ll catch you up on the prep, I want you in this.” He was such a fucking cool guy that I went and did that for six months. I remember coming down from that and thinking: “What am I going to do next?” We were looking at some movies, and then out of nowhere I got a random call from my agent that Sofia was going to be doing another movie. She’s only done three movies and he said: “All I know is it’s a story about a guy and a little girl. Supposedly you’re high on the list.” And a few weeks later she asked if I would look at the script.

Was it a full script?
She writes very short. Lost in Translation was six- ty-something pages. This was around the same, maybe shorter. But I read it and was blown away. I hadn’t read anything like it. So I flew to Paris and started talking to her and saw some friends we had in common. And she was sort of observ- ing me. There was no real audition – it was more like hanging out and talking about the project.

What would she be observing?
Probably everything. The character in her head. We hadn’t seen each other in a few years. She had a baby, I lost touch with her around Marie Antoinette. The next thing I knew, it was around the year anniversary of my mom’s passing, and she just called me up and asked me to do it. It was February, and we didn’t shoot it until the summer, and it was incredible. Without talk- ing too much about it, if anything, it’s kind of screwed me now because I don’t know what to do next. I’ve got to sit and wait now because it was so good that everything I read now is stupid. I told Sofia: “Next time we do a movie, just make it longer so this feeling can last forever.” It was so different from the normal Hollywood movie.

What’s it basically about?
It’s really just about a young movie actor who is living at the Chateau Marmont and kind of going through an existential crisis. He doesn’t really like that he’s famous, doesn’t really like his life, even if from the outside it looks kind of dandy and all real cool. And then he gets a visit from his little daughter [Elle Fanning] and, in the course of events, they spend a month together, and through that time it causes him to look at his life. They go on this adventure, they go to Italy. It’s kind of a father and daughter rekin- dling something really special, and it causes him to look at his own life. It’s just very poetic and simple the way her other movies are. But she’s the best, you know? She doesn’t want me to talk too much about it, but it’s just such a special role to have gotten at this time in my life. Especially these days when there are very few filmmakers with such unique voices who do their own thing. To do her movie is even better than if I’d got the lead in some stupid sci-fi movie. I’ve done all those movies, so for it to shock me means it’s really something special. In a way, I’m jaded, I’ve worked with the best actors, the best filmmak- ers. I loved her preparation, her looseness, her easiness, her attention to detail. But at the end of the day, it’s Sofia, my little friend. And she’s got a beautiful daughter, Romy, and it’s so cool to see her direct with her daughter on set. The whole thing was amazing. I got kind of depressed after. I was kind of like: “Fuck, how can I go do some zombie movie or these scripts they’re sending me?” So if anything, I’m sitting back. It’s hard because I’m kind of happiest when I’m working.

Were you surprised that Sofia picked you for the role?
I knew everybody in town wanted it. At the end of the day, she made the decision, which was so cool that she could do whatever she wanted. She’s got it all figured out. She’s a great mom, and her man, Thomas [Mars], is the lead singer of Phoenix, which is one of my favourite bands. They’re doing the music to the movie. Really, I just wanted to do great work for Sofia.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW IN THE FEB/MARCH ISSUE OF WONDERLAND MAGAZINE. ON SALE NOW.