Kim Fowley, Joan Jett, Cherie Currie and Kristen Stewart talk about "The Runaways"

-So what was your reaction to seeing the film?

-I have two of them. On a good day, it’s a musical version of "Rebel Without a Cause," and on a bad day, it's a nighttime soap opera with some rock 'n' roll music. From a marketing perspective, it's a coming-of-age movie that works.

-And the actor Michael Shannon's take on you?

-Micheal's a genius. Michael is the new Christopher Walken.

-He comes off as a bit insane.
Michael Shannon as producer Kim Fowley in "The Runaways".

-It’s Cherie Currie’s version. Remember, Cherie wrote the book, and they adapted her book for the screenplay. That’s her impression of me, and they expanded it and used poetic license.

-There’s an important line in the film in which the Kim Fowley character says the band is not about women's lib, but is instead about "women’s libido."

-That wasn’t my line. That was a line a writer or adapter created. I had a similar sentiment, but that’s not a quote.

-But I was curious of your reaction to the sentiment.

-The sentiment is right. I produced Helen Reddy, and she was a feminist. Her content and the Runaways content were different. I produced both of them.

-Was there something you wish the film had shown that it doesn't?
-We had, I thought, a crusade, to save rock ‘n’ roll. There was no punk rock. There was no MTV. We had just gone through Vietnam. Kansas was really big. No Ramones. No Sex Pistols. The Runaways, for a very brief period of time -- August of 1975 -- was the only rock ‘n’ roll band in America. That’s what I thought was the story. That’s not the story on the screen. It’s a coming-of-age story about a girl and her family issues and her musical adventures. It’s Cherie’s story, and whether it’s entertaining or factual or sad or tragic, it’s her statement. It’s interesting, enjoyable and watchable, and from that perspective, it works". Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com


"The Runaways" director Floria Sigismondi in Sundance Film Festival 2010.

"Dakota watched my [1980] movie Foxes. She sounds just like me," Currie proudly tells her identical twin sister, Marie, who has dropped by for a visit. Jett paces back and forth, wearing headphones and holding a portable monitor. "I don't want to be in Kristen's eyeline and freak her out," she says.


Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning talk to Access Hollywood about "The Runaways".

Two weeks earlier, gossip blogs reported that Jett made Stewart cry on set, but Stewart insists, "That is totally bogus." Jett elaborates: "Whatever pressure Kristen felt, she put on herself. She knew that she had a lot to live up to, and she wanted to please me."
Most of the crazy shit Cherie told us, we couldn't include -- it would be a completely different movie," says Stewart. "I don't wanna, like, out them, but they were pretty nuts." Likewise, there's no universally agreed-upon narrative. Jett calls Fowley, who cowrote many of their original songs, "a close friend," while Currie maintains he was "verbally abusive" and stole from the band. According to Shannon, Fowley told him over dinner, "It wasn't just me screaming at them. Don't make me look like a bad guy. When I'm dead, this is how people are going to remember me." Fowley's concern hints at the broader significance of films like these: They are simply more likely to be seen than a documentary. Add the hottest starlet on the planet, and the number of eyeballs increases exponentially.Guitarist Lita Ford, whom Currie claims "wasn't an easy person to get along with," and the unanimously adored but troubled Sandy West, the late drummer who co-founded the band with Jett in 1975, get less screen time; bassist turned lawyer Jackie Fox is depicted as a composite character for fear that she might otherwise sue. "I wouldn't want either of them to hate it, but obviously I have no control over that," Jett adds. Inhabiting such liberated -- if Quaalude-abusing -- characters clearly had an effect on its stars. As the filming winds down, Stewart retreats to her trailer to read lines with Jett and practice the guitar ("Put your pussy to the wood" was Jett's advice). In two days, the cast will travel to the outskirts of L.A. to reenact a 1977 Japanese gig, during which Currie rocked a white corset for "Cherry Bomb." Source: www.spin.com

Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning at Sundance Film Festival 2010.

-I thought the performances were just incredible. I'm so glad Kristen [Stewart] and Dakota became good friends because the friendship between Joan and I was so important.

-In the movie, your character initially has a problem singing "Cherry Bomb", particularly the line "Have ya, grab ya, till you're sore." Were you really that naive?

-Not at all. I had no problem singing that line. The filmmakers took a lot of liberties. If you read the book, then you'll know that my twin sister's boyfriend had raped me and took my virginity. That's why I was angry, that's why I cut my hair to look like David Bowie's. I really felt that detail was important. The filmmakers didn't. They did not want the Cherie character to lose her innocence so early in the film".
Source: www.spin.com

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