Sofia Coppola covers Vogue Australia: gorgeous & stunning or boring?

Sofia Coppola

Sofia Coppola covers the August issue of Vogue Australia, and she looks stunning and natural on the front of the Love issue. The rest of the editorial hasn’t been released yet, but you can see some crumply-looking reader snapshots of the editorial at the Fashion Spot. I’ve always thought that Sofia is a very underrated beauty with her somewhat offbeat looks, and she’s certainly had to deal with a lot of unfair criticism of her looks and acting skills — people were really nasty about her performance in The Godfather III and never took into account that Sofia was pulled into the movie on the first day of filming after Winona Ryder dropped out with no warning at all. I think (and I could be wrong) this criticism was part of the reason why Sofia decided to move behind the camera.

For the most part, this has been a wise move because Sofia is a genuinely talented director, and her early movies The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation really hit the mark. Then somewhere around Marie Antoinette, she seemed to lose the plot. Now Sofia is promoting The Bling Ring, and she also appears in a feature in the August issue of Interview magazine. This talk, which was led by artist Richard Prince, isn’t terribly informative or exciting, but the accompanying shoot is captivating. The stylists on this shoot and photographer Craig McDean really knew what they were doing and made Sofia look great. Here are some interview excerpts:

Sofia Coppola

Why she made The Bling Ring: “I was on an airplane and there was this article in Vanity Fair. I remember hearing about those burglaries on the news, but I didn’t pay it that much attention. I was caught by the article, though. I always love stories about teenagers getting into trouble … [laughs] And this one seemed so absurd. The quotes of what the kids were saying in the article seemed so out there and interesting. I thought, Someone’s got to be making a movie of this–it’s such a pop movie. I thought, We should get the rights if someone hasn’t already. I never thought that I would make the movie. But the article stayed in my mind, and I finally met the journalist and she gave me all of the transcripts from her interviews. Just reading all of these pages along with the police reports … I’ve never worked on anything that was based on a crime before–it was a different experience for me. So I tried making it into a script. I’d just finished my last movie, Somewhere, and had a few things in mind for my next project already. But this sort of grabbed all of my attention. That happens to me. I have a few different ideas on the table and one takes over. In this case it was the transcripts and the quotes from the kids. I used a lot of it as the dialogue for the movie. I was really struck by how everything got so out of control.”

On making Emma Watson unrecognizable: “That’s important because I don’t like when actors stand out. I find it distracting when there’s a famous actor in a film. So I’m glad she blended in.”

On the victims’ experiences: “Going through your underwear drawer … It’s creepy. Yeah, the fact that one of them stole Paris Hilton’s bra and was wearing it … they went to her house maybe five or six times. I think Orlando Bloom was because his girlfriend was a Victoria’s Secret model, and one of them said, ‘I want Victoria’s Secret-model clothes.’ I think it was more about these kinds of tabloid-style icon girls. I wanted it to feel like you were with them in the closets and rooms. That was really Paris Hilton’s place. She let us come into her house. She really has a nightclub in her house. Paris really did [leave her key under the mat]; hopefully she doesn’t anymore. And in none of those houses were the alarms set.”

These young adults really didn’t care about sex: “Yeah, I didn’t feel like sex excited them. It was about the stuff–and dressing sexy and getting attention in clubs, and maybe being discovered. But it was never about sex. It was about being sexy to get where they wanted to go.”

She likes filming quick and dirty: “It was about six weeks. We do everything low-budget, so we do it as quickly as possible just to have more freedom. There are always things that I wish were different, or I feel like I’ve made mistakes. But it’s just part of it. I don’t mind that it’s a little homemade. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Do you think about the audience or their opinions when you make a work? I try to just make what I want to make or what I would want to see. I try not to think about the audience too much. But for Bling Ring, I did want it to appeal to about the same age as the characters. I also hoped that people my age would be into it in the same way I was interested in the story. I wanted the audience to get into it and then not until later kind of stand back and think, ‘Maybe there is something else going on here …’ I wanted it to be seductive at the beginning.”

[From Interview Magazine]

Like I said, this discussion isn’t particularly illuminating, but ironically, interviews in Interview magazine are generally hit and miss anyway. What I really like about Sofia is that she’s not a Botox queen, and she realizes that she’ll never be a glamour puss and doesn’t try to fake it either. I mean, Sofia wore this t-shirt dress to her recent NYC premiere, and she completely owned it. Just like she does with this shoot.

Sofia Coppola

Sofia Coppola

Sofia Coppola

Sofia Coppola

Photos courtesy of Vogue Australia and Interview magazine

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27 Responses to “Sofia Coppola covers Vogue Australia: gorgeous & stunning or boring?”

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  1. Kat says:

    Love her. Can’t wait to see ‘The Bling Ring’.

  2. Dawn says:

    I too am looking forward to seeing the movie. I think the pics here are sort of cool.

  3. Aiobhan says:

    She and Affleck have the same issue: they are much better suited behind the screen than in front of it. She was not the reason why the Godfather 3 was awful-I feel that film was a mess from beginning to end- but she was not one of the few good reasons to see the film either.

    The Virgin Suicides was excellent and I cannot wait to see the Bling Ring.

  4. Talie says:

    I LOVED The Bling Ring…she really hit the right tone and barely had to make up anything. I read the article when it came out as well and a lot of the script is just word for word, that’s how nuts these kids were.

  5. Lucy2 says:

    She looks very pretty in this shoot.

  6. bns says:

    She’s beautiful.

  7. Lilyvanilli says:

    I love her work but she really is queen of the hipsters.

  8. minimi says:

    The shot is amazing and I do think she is a natural beauty. She is also obviously creative and intelligent, what makes her a great director. The Virgin Suicides is one of my favorite movies, in my opinion it is a fine piece of Art. It’s nice to see that what could be just one more case of nepotism in Hollywood, actually brought such a talented person to the eyes of the public.

  9. LAK says:

    i must be the only person who loved MARIE ANTOINETTE. i completely understood her take on it. It was refreshing to see history paralleled with current society because that’s how it should be. Costume drama be damned.

  10. Stubbylove says:

    Talented, confident, gorgeous and has her own style. Sofia has always known who she is and has nothing to prove – that makes her attractive.

  11. UsedToBeLulu says:

    Love her. A confident beautiful, talented woman. And I want those sneaks.

  12. Meanchick says:

    I’ve always thought she was beautiful and that she purposely downplays her beauty in order to be taken seriously. Talented woman. Love her work.

  13. Liz says:

    I do think she’s lovely. And I envy her Paris based life.

  14. A Fan says:

    She’s got a very interesting face. There’s depth in those eyes.

    Far more attractive than one more cheesy, sexed-up, open-mouthed fake blonde.

  15. Chloeee says:

    It’s interesting to hear why she made the film. I do like her a lot. Gah, I’m still so up in the air having known one of the girls involved pretty well. She lived on my street and we hung out often. I met some of the other people who I later found out were involved too. Some part of me wants to see this and the other part of me doesn’t all.

    • ParisPucker says:

      Really? Care to share any personal stories?:) We’d love to hear some!

      • Chloeee says:

        Okay so….I met Rachel the so called ring leader and every time I encountered her she seemed messed up off something…maybe just drunk. She wasn’t exactly a scholar either from the few times I was around her. My friend was one of the girls who got busted along with Alexis. It’s funny because I heard Prugo’s name constantly but never met him. The only pretty much outright admission I got from my friend was one day we were in the car and she randomly turns to me and says, “these are Paris Hilton’s sunglasses” confused, I say, “oh you mean she designed them?” and she goes, “no I mean they’re hers….a couple of my friends have been going to these houses in Hollywood and one of them happened to be hers. They also found coke and weed but we smoked that (and I quote) we should go along one day, you don’t even have to get out of the car if you don’t want to and nobody even locks their doors…” I honestly thought she was making it up to try and impress me or something. I heard about the robberies at Paris’ but I figured she ran with something she heard. I didn’t hear about it again. She moved away. Flash forward a couple of months and I see Rachel’s face splashed all over TMZ. I haven’t heard from my friend in a while so I send her a message asking if she’d heard about what happened. Not even 10 minutes later There’s a video of HER in the back of a cop car on TMZ.

    • ParisPucker says:

      Hey, thanks for sharing! Interesting that they were so blaze about talking about it — crazy! A bit surreal, honestly — no wonder SC was interested in making a movie about it…Makes sense that they would wan to show off with ‘getting away with it’ at the time…but time teaches us that they most certainly didn’t. Took some serious balls/stupidity to do that. I’d be more curious just to see the homes, but to *steal* is something else…

      • Chloeeee says:

        you know, I almost went because that’s how little I believed her. I figured we’d end up driving around the hills in one of the cars their daddy bought for them…but then I remembered I would kill myself being in the car with all her stupid ass friends for more than 30 seconds. and thank the deities because I would have gotten my ass implicated for something I would never take part in.

  16. ParisPucker says:

    She’s the sh*t. I worked and lived in Tokyo around the time ‘Lost in Translation’ was filmed and put out. I’m telling you: she nailed it. I was blown away by how she was able to capture and convey the subtle charms and mysteries embedded in a foreigner’s every day life in what was present-day-Tokyo. I loved her for it, and for her dedication to that projection in not going forward if Billy Murray turned down the part. The fact that she wrote it with him only in mind to play that role says a lot about Sofia. She may have had a famous daddy, and yes, he certainly had a lot to do with launching her career, but she is quite talented…

  17. NEENAZEE says:

    Most of her movies are too slow-paced for my taste and way, way, way over-hyped. I understand why she tries to live outside the glare of the spotlight… all the haters must be a real drag. But she’d get a lot less flak if she didn’t project the “I’m such a cool, unaffected hipster” vibe out of every pore.