Christine Vachon Q&A

The legendary producer discusses her body of work and the new Bob Dylan-inspired pic 'I'm Not There'.

Oct 12 2006

As co-founder of Killer Films, Christine Vachon has established a reputation over the past 15 years as one of the most dynamic, provocative and influential producers in America, working with directors like Todd Haynes ('Poison', 'Far From Heaven'), Mary Harron ('I Shot Andy Warhol', 'The Notorious Bettie Page'), Todd Solondz ('Happiness') and Kimberley Pierce ('Boys Don’t Cry'). She spoke to Time Out from the set of Haynes’ Bob Dylan-inspired film, 'I'm Not There' in advance of her Screen Talk at this year’s London Film Festival.

What's the deal with 'I'm Not There'?

The premise of it is actually very simple but it’s far simpler when you see it happening rather than when it’s explained. Basically what fascinated Todd about Dylan was his shape-shifting, to the degree that not only would he completely shed one identity, it was like he turned his back on it and it no longer had anything to do with him. So really that’s what the movie plays upon. It’s completely delineated, different stories in different time periods that have their own narratives. It’s not what Todd Solondz did in 'Palindromes', asking the audience to accept different actors playing the same person.

You’ll be the first producer to give an LFF screen talk.

Oh, is that true? I didn’t know that. We’re finally getting a little respect! No, I’m certainly not sitting around moaning that I’m not getting recognised enough. I think most people, with good reason, don’t have a clue what a producer does and part of the reason is because when you go to a movie there are so many producer credits and all with different prefixes – executive producer, associate producer, co-producer. You’d never have someone agree to finance a movie and say ‘but only if I can get a directing credit too’ or ‘only if I get a 'starring in’. People often say to me, ‘Oh, you’re a producer!’ And then there’ll be a silence, and then they’ll be like, ‘So… What does that mean you did?’ But I’m not on a one-person campaign to change awareness.

So how would you characterise your role?

Really the only way to describe it is to say that the producer provides the engine or keeps the ball rolling. Basically a good producer is developing material, assembling the talent, looking for the financing, doing everything necessary to push the train forward to get the thing on celluloid, or whatever medium we’re talking about these days. I got into it because I decided I wanted to work in film and when I was getting my feet wet, trying out various positions on movies, it became clear that producing was to me – not to everybody but to me – the most exciting place to be, having the whole big picture in your mind at one time.

You produced 'Infamous', showing at the LFF, whose subject matter is very similar to that of 'Capote'.

'Infamous' obviously has its own inherent set of difficulties that you can’t really compare to any other film, I think, ever. But the glass-half-full version is that Warner Brothers let us make it, you know what I mean? The other movie had already gone into production and instead of pulling the plug on us and saying, ‘Sorry guys, tough luck, you didn’t win the race’, they let us make the movie, which is pretty amazing.

Killer Films now has an impressive track record of critical and commercial successes. Does that make it easier to do your job?

Every movie is its own war story, every movie has its bumps on the way to getting financed. With our taste, you take risky subject matter, plus maybe a movie star or two to offset risk, plus an experienced director – you put all those things in a ball and see how much the market will give you. The rule’s basically that there’s never enough money no matter how much you have, and the movies we make are always too big for their britches, and the director’s eyes are always bigger than his stomach.

You’ve said that you aren’t convinced that theatrical distribution is the be-all and end-all.

That’s right, I’m finding that some of the most daring media out there is on stations like HBO and Showtime. There’s a lot more freedom in those arenas to challenge conventionality and my experiences of making 'Mrs Harris' [a true crime story starring Annette Bening and Ben Kingsley] and 'Bettie Page' for HBO, even though 'Bettie' got a theatrical release, were both really good experiences. When 'Mrs Harris' premiered on HBO, I would guess probably more people saw that than had seen our last couple of releases put together.

But isn’t there something special about watching films in the cinema?

I think most everyone who works in the movies has a romantic fantasy – and it’s a good fantasy – of that collective experience of sitting there in the dark feeling alone and together at the same time. You don’t quite hear the same revelatory stories about being in your living room, but that’s just the way it is. And is it so terrible that some teenage kid in Omaha now can buy or rent the complete works of Fassbinder? I make it a habit never to say never.

Christine Vachon gives a Screen Talk at the NFT at 4.15 on Sunday 22. 'Infamous' is at the Odeon West End on Thursday 26 and Friday 27.

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