Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning get wild with ‘The Runaways’
‘Twilight’ cast mates raise the heat in the punk-infused story of Joan Jett and her all-female ’70s band. Good thing they’re friends.
PUNKY: “ January 17, 2010
Dakota Fanning’s porcelain-doll features were swathed in exotic makeup and her blond hair coiffed into a feathery shag; she raised her umpteenth shot of sake and cast a knowing glance at Kristen Stewart. The “Twilight” star held Fanning’s gaze briefly and toasted back, looking every inch the tough rocker chick, with her matching black shag hairdo, spiked bracelet and razor-blade charm necklace. The actresses clinked glasses and giggled. With downtown Los Angeles’ Kyoto Grand Hotel standing in for a bustling Tokyo sushi joint last summer, the teen stars were on the set of the coming-of-age drama “The Runaways” — in character, with Fanning as Cherie Currie, the wild-child lead singer of the titular all-girl rock group, and Stewart portraying Joan Jett, its electric-guitar-wielding, ‘tude-copping founder. Between the years 1975 and ‘79, the Runaways packed shows from coast to coast, toured the world and racked up hits before self-immolating in a blaze of drugs, jealousies and in-fighting. “The Runaways” will premiere next Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, arriving as one of the fest’s most outrightly commercial offerings, thanks largely to Stewart’s demonstrated “opening” power as a marquee draw. (Put out by independent distributor Apparition, the movie reaches theaters in March.) But “The Runaways” is also one of the most piquantly feminist films to touch down this year at America’s preeminent independent film forum — albeit a punk- infused genre pic with a pronounced generational viewpoint and no shortage of blood, drug abuse and bodily effluvia.
Written and directed by Floria Sigismondi, the acclaimed photographer and video director behind such foreboding, atmospheric clips as Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People” and Christina Aguilera’s “Fighter,” the movie was less intended as a by-the-book musical biopic à la “The Doors” or “La Bamba” than an impressionistic character study illuminating a unique female predicament: What happens when teenage girls get handed too much, too soon via worldwide rock stardom?
Kid rock No stranger to the rock ‘n’ roll life in her own right, the Italian-born first-time feature director — a striking woman with a mane of raven-black hair who was clad in a vampire-chic, all-black ensemble on set last summer — said she drew on personal experience to connect with the characters. “It’s young girls getting swept up into a world they couldn’t handle,” Sigismondi said. “Feeding on those confusing feelings that develop from moving from girl to woman, I could reach deep into myself to find those things.” Sigismondi, who is married to Lillian Berlin, lead singer of the hard-rocking alt-quartet Living Things, continued: “I wanted to focus on Joan and Cherie. How different they are, how they were drawn together for this crazy experience. Joan is so focused, she really wanted to have this band. And Cherie wanted the rage of rock ‘n’ roll, the rebellion.” The film follows Currie at age 15 as she chafes against the San Fernando Valley’s suburban torpor and her family’s psychological abandonment en route to becoming the most forward female face in rock. On a parallel track, Jett is shown raging against the proverbial machine, defying all cultural expectation to stake out her place as a young woman in the boys’ club of hard rock while still in her midteens. One night in Hollywood, Jett approaches record impresario Kim Fowley (a scene-chewing Michael Shannon in campy glam drag) who introduces her to drummer Sandy West (Stella Maeve) and becomes the band’s Svengali. Fowley “discovers” Currie at a nightclub, installs her as frontwoman and even concocts the lyrics to one of the group’s biggest hits, “Cherry Bomb,” on the spot during Currie’s audition. Scant character development is devoted to West and bandmate-guitarist Lita Ford (Scout Taylor-Compton). “Runaways” producer John Linson pointed out that even though the film is partially based on Currie’s 1989 memoir “Neon Angel: The Cherie Currie Story,” “The Runaways” is not a “band film” per se, because the filmmakers did not secure life story rights for Ford and bassist Jackie Fox (drummer Sandy West died from a brain tumor in 2006; original bassist Micki Steele was fictionalized by Alia Shawkat’s character “Robin”). Instead, the grander ambition was to faithfully capture “the youth ethic in film.” “It’s about 15-year-old rock stars, the rise and fall of kids,” Linson said. “We’re trying hard not to let that get taken away.” Profligate prop sake consumption aside, Fanning, who turns 16 next month, and Stewart, 19, appear side by side in an overwhelming majority of the movie’s scenes. The two are shown snorting cocaine in an airplane bathroom as well as getting very up close and personal in what is sure to become one of “The Runaways’ ” primary talking points: a make-out scene in a roller rink that takes place about two-thirds of the way through the movie. The scene was inspired by a remark Currie made in the rockumentary “Edgeplay: A Film About the Runaways,” made by former band member Victory Tischler-Blue. “In ‘Edgeplay,’ Cherie mentions that Joan is really good in bed,” Sigismondi said. “I thought, ‘I have to pry into this a bit. It will cause an explosion in the film. Why not go there?’ ” Stewart and Fanning first shared screen time in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” and became fast friends. “You can probably tell we get along really well,” Fanning said in between takes. “For the characters, it’s really important that bond is portrayed. And we have that in real life.” Rather than talk up the more sensational aspects of filming — like, say, the scenes in which Fanning writhes and vamps onstage dressed in fishnet stockings and a revealing bodice — the actress chose to explain how she and Stewart (with castmates Taylor-Compton, Maeve and Shawkat) rehearsed the Runaways’ music together for a month before filming began. Stewart and Fanning then re-recorded the vocals for several of the songs heard in the film. “When you’re up there and you hear yourself singing the songs and feel yourself performing the dance moves that are so iconic — when you’re up there having the time of your life — you feel like you are those girls for a few minutes,” Fanning said. “It’s really fun!” Asked if the role was an attempt to shatter the conception of her as the child star of such kid flicks as “The Cat in the Hat” and “Charlotte’s Web,” the actress demurred, explaining it was simply part of her natural career evolution. “I’m just portraying what was going on with [Cherie] when she was my age,” Fanning said. “I want to continue to act for my whole life. Eventually, everyone will have to let me grow up, somehow, some way. I’m just trying to let that happen as naturally as I can.”
Look-alike During production, the real Joan Jett was a semi-constant presence on-set. At the Kyoto Grand location, the rock icon huddled with Stewart conspiratorially in between takes, their closeness highlighting a remarkable physical similarity. In the film, Stewart convincingly channels something of Jett’s androgynous, take-no-guff demeanor and rock star swagger. (Stewart declined comment for this story.) “She has completely embodied the character of Joan,” Sigismondi said. “Her body language, her face, her walk. It’s amazing how she has just become her.”
Production designer Eugenio Caballero was even more blunt. “Kristen is Joan,” he said in between scenes. “You talk with her and you think it’s Joan Jett.” The notoriously private rocker, whose post-Runaways project Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ “I Love Rock ‘N Roll” famously hit No. 1 and has sold more than 10 million copies, did not want to be interviewed. But she admitted feeling a strange satisfaction while watching the actresses perform the Runaways’ music. “It’s surreal, that’s all I can say,” Jett said. “But I have a smile on my face.”
‘She’s an actress of weight, honesty, integrity and depth,’ Jett tells MTV News at ‘New Moon’ premiere.
LOS ANGELES — It’s no secret that Kristen Stewart has become very, very famous over the past year. It’s also no secret that she takes her craft very seriously, respects a lot of artists who have come before her and holds a special place in her heart for Joan Jett.
At Monday’s (November 16) “New Moon” premiere, the legendary rocker was a special guest on the red carpet, walking just a few feet ahead of the A-list actress who has spent the past few months sharing her short, spiky haircut for “The Runaways,” an upcoming film about Jett’s all-girl ’70s punk band. Stewart told us the film is going to aim for a Sundance premiere in January, and Jett revealed much more about the pair’s friendship and whether KStew will be performing her own music in the flick.
MTV: So, Joan, are you a “Twilight” fan?
Joan Jett: I’d obviously heard about the movie, but before she was cast as me, I hadn’t seen it. Of course, when she was cast as me, I wanted to see the movie, and I’ve seen everything she’s done. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really entertaining, and I’m excited that she was cast as me in “The Runaways.”
MTV: Kristen told us awhile back that she wasn’t sure if the director would dub in her singing voice and guitar. Will we hear her or a studio musician?
Jett: She’s singing. She’s definitely doing the singing, yeah. And during the filming, she was playing guitar. We went through it. I showed her the positions that I play — because some guitar players will use different hand positions on the boards — so I showed her how I played it, and she picked it up really well. I’m a lefty, too — not guitar-wise, but in my handwriting. So she switched that up too; she was writing with her left hand. She really, really embodied it.
MTV: We know you and Kristen became very close. What kinds of questions did she have for you?
Jett: I don’t know that she had specific questions, so much as she just observed me a lot. We talked; I would talk to her. She didn’t really have to ask me. I’d just dump on her my feelings about the Runaways: what it meant to me, what I thought we were trying to achieve, how I felt about girls playing rock and roll and stepping outside the box of what we were allowed to do in life, just that whole thing. And she’d listen to my accent and watch my body language. She’s an actress of weight, honesty, integrity and depth, and she’s very serious. She takes it as art.
MTV: Tell us about the first time you saw Kristen with that signature Joan Jett haircut.
MTV: Will you have a cameo in “The Runaways”?
Jett: No, I didn’t want to.
MTV: You became famous as a teenager, and so did she. Has she come to you for any advice on how to handle it all?
Jett: We did have discussions about life, you know? I think she’s got a great head on her shoulders, and she’s dealing with it just fine.
The trailer for the anticipated rock 'n' roll film based on late '70s teenage rockers the Runaways has been released online, and if one can unfairly draw conclusions from a 50-second, fast-cut teaser, it's giving punk rock a nostalgic makeover. "The Runaways have the most chance of any group I've seen to tear this world apart," is the voice-over heard in the clip's final moments, setting up, no doubt, a crash-and-burn rock 'n' roll tale.
But rock 'n' roll, after all, is about nothing if not myth-making, and the real fan appeal of the teaser is getting a glimpse of "Twilight" star Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Runaways vocalist Cherie Currie. The clip is fast, and full of fury, with shots of Stewart breaking glass and throwing chairs, and snippets of the newly recorded film version of the Runaways' first single, "Cherry Bomb."
There's no real glimpse (Edit: There is a very brief glimpse) of record industry puppet-master Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon), or any indication as of yet whether the film will touch on deeper issues of rock 'n' roll exploitation that the Runaways story presents (Runaways albums came complete with the group members' ages in the credits). But it succeeds in setting up anticipation for a film that documents the fast rise and quick fall of one of the nation's more influential all-girl groups -- and one that will hopefully inspire a few kids to pick up the guitar.
"The Runways," the feature film debut from director Floria Sigismondi, will premiere at Sundance, and open in March. Watch the teaser below.
MTV: We know that you and Kristen spent New Year’s Eve together last year. What was that like?
Jett: We met on New Year’s Eve. I was doing a show up in Seattle. She flew up to watch the show, right after she was cast. We sat around, and that’s when I told her all about the Runaways and what it meant to me. She came to the show, saw the soundcheck.
MTV: Now that she knows how to play, would you ever invite Kristen up onstage during a show to jam with you on “Cherry Bomb”?
Jett: If she would do it, yeah. In a heartbeat. But I think she takes it all so seriously that she might not feel comfortable doing it. That’s just a guess — but maybe someday.
Check out everything we’ve got on “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” and “The Runaways.”
For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.
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