We were lucky to get to sit down with the real rocker Joan Jett and former lead singer of The Runaways, Cherie Currie who have re-kindled their friendship since the film and speak well of each other. Oscar nominee (for Revolutionary Road) Michael Shannon plays the brash, in-your-face manager/promoter of The Runaways Kim Fowley and all three celebs have great things so say about working with Dakota and Kristen. We wanna share their wonderful comments with you.....
TeenHollywood: Joan, how did the casting come about with Kristen Stewart?
Joan: The casting director I guess. All I said to them was it was really important if you can get teenagers, because I think that teenage energy is obviously specific to teenagers, and once you get into your twenties you’re still young, but it’s a different thing. So that was my only suggestion, and I had no preconceived notions about Kristen, with the Twilight stuff, so once I met her I felt very secure that she was going to be able to handle it.
TeenHollywood: And you were on the set to help her out?
Joan: The main reason I was there was for me to be a resource for Kristen, and to be a tool for her completely. I would not have been around if she didn’t want me there. She said, ‘I want you there as much as you can be,’ so I was there, and I was not going to leave. So I had a monitor, I had earphones, and I stayed out of her eye line and I tried to stay out of the director’s way so it wasn’t like any kind of competition, but I wanted Kristen to know I’m around. I could hear her so she knew that if she needed me, she should say, 'Joan, come over,’ and I could hear her.
So I’d get out of the way and find a little spot and just watch everything and when Kristen has questions, it could have been about anything, about the way I said something, or maybe she didn’t have any questions, and we’d just kind of talk about a scene, I was just really there to be a support for her, even if she didn't always need me.
TeenHollywood: Was there ever any time when you were watching the monitor where you really wanted to go and tell her something, give her a suggestion? 'This is the way it happened, this is the way I felt'?
Joan: I absolutely would if that had happened, but we went through a lot of this stuff ahead of time, so we were able to say, ‘Would you really say that, or would you really do that? ‘Yeah, I’d do that,’ or, ‘No, I wouldn’t do that.’ She could kind of adjust it to be what felt genuine.
TeenHollywood: What was the one thing you really wanted Kristen to get right about you?
Joan: It was the passion for the music, it really had to be about her heart, and everything else would follow suit. It really did. Kristen and I, I think, are similar a lot, outside of the art, outside of you take her out of being an actress, as a person and you take me outside of being a musician, as a person, I think there’s just similarities, it’s just in our energy, the way we move and do things.
I wanted her to trust herself. When you're there and the camera is rolling, and you’ve got to make a decision, I don’t want you thinking, ‘What would Joan do?’ I want you to just do it, because I guarantee you whatever choice you make it’s going to be what I would have done.’ And I wanted her to really trust that and know that that’s how I felt, so she wasn’t thinking, ‘I wonder what Joan thinks? You’re it, you’re it, if something’s off, trust me you will know it. I will come to you right away, but just do it, just have fun with it. Have fun being it, and you can get away with any bad behavior blaming it on me.
TeenHollywood: She said on the set that you’d really been a mentor to her, beyond the realm of the movie, on the celebrity aspect of her life, can you talk a little about that?
Joan: Well, look, she’s got a lot to deal with, it’s completely different from what
The Runaways had to deal with, we didn’t have this intensity that she’s got to deal with. I guess it comes with what you do, but there are levels. You can be this successful actor and still be able to go out and buy a loaf of bread. When you think about it, there’s nothing this person can do at the moment. She does have such a great personality and a great smile and all that stuff, that it’s just as good if people see that stuff.
Maybe the way I mentor her is more through example, not with me saying, ‘No, you should do this, no you should do that,’ because I can’t tell her that, I don’t live her life, I don’t deal with the people that she deals with and the questions that they ask her and all that stuff, so I can only do what I do and if she learns something from the way I handle my own stuff then that’s great, but just to be in control, you’re you, just own it.
Really there’s nothing for me to say to her, it’s more about just I guess, enjoying it and answering the questions and really getting meaty questions that it’s something she can talk about. I guess it can be difficult when you’re answering silly questions is one thing, but if you’re answering something that’s meaty and genuine and something about acting, and not so much about the surrounding hoopla then I think you’ll get a different answer. If you’re talking with her about work she’ll talk to you about work.
TeenHollywood: How accurate is this compared to the reality? And how do you think Dakota did playing you?
Cherie: (The film) is like getting on a bullet train in Japan compared to the regular Metrolink here. It flies through so much stuff. How do you go through almost 2-1/2 years of people’s lives and condense it into 1-1/2 hours? You feel that bullet train action going on. They picked what they thought was important. Dakota, she’s so incredible. She’s my favorite actress of all time. I’m serious . I’m not just saying that. I think she’s the most amazing actress I’ve ever seen, don’t you?
TeenHollywood: She's darn good all right! What did you think she was she able to pick up about you when you saw her in the role?
Currie: I used to be really soft-spoken. And with age, you start wanting to give it up. So she watched Foxes, this film I did with Jodie Foster. I did that movie right on the tail end when I left The Runaways. That wasn’t acting. That was just me. I was lucky. She studied that and a lot of the videotapes and the YouTube videos. We just had really long conversations about how I felt about particular times in the film and she was incredibly perceptive. She really pulled it off. She really did!
TeenHollywood: As Kim Fowley, you really have to get all up in Dakota and Kristen's faces with a lot of rough, crude dialogue. Was it tough for you to do that?
Michael: Not particularly. (laughs) Maybe it should have been. The thing about them is they've been around. They've made a lot of movies and spent a lot of time with "grownups". It's pretty hard to shock them, I think. They're not wild by any stretch of the imagination. They're just working. They show up and they work then they go home.
They're not going nuts or anything and that's what actually happened. If Kim just came in and said 'now, let's play some music', we wouldn't have a movie (laughter). That's the way it was. It's rock 'n roll. You go into the room and it's a feeling, a charge in the air. A lot of times, the best rock 'n roll is created when there is some kind of friction between people. He looked at forming the band as sort of being a drill instructor. Oh, I love that David Bowie song and how Dakota does at the school talent show.
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