Sofia Coppola: ‘I’m glad we weren’t kicked out of Tokyo making Lost in Translation’

Hello, I’m Cherry, I’m 14 and an aspiring film-maker. I love how your films capture what it feels like to be a young girl growing up. We hear so much about the famous men in your family, but how have the successful women in your family inspired and influenced you? Your films capture the experience of what it is to be a young girl in a way words often can’t. CherryEmmaThat’s nice to hear, thank you. I feel like I got a lot from my mom about being true to yourself, following what you’re interested in and seeing the beauty in your surroundings. My mom always noticed odd details in life, so a lot of my films are made up of those kinds of things.Sofia Coppola behind the scenes while making Marie Antoinette. Photograph: Sofia CoppolaYour films beautifully capture the isolation of hotel rooms – spaces completely detached from a character’s past or future. If you were forced into that stillness and could choose to preserve only one cherished memory while erasing another for ever, what would they be? Malpractice1It’s hard to pick a memory, but recently we had a party in Versailles for the anniversary of Marie Antoinette and New Order played. When they started playing Ceremony [from the soundtrack] and the lights went on, I just know that in the future when I have to remember a happy memory, that’s going to be it. Even painful memories are part of making you who you are, and you learn from them, so I can’t think of anything I would erase.I heard that some of Lost in Translation was filmed guerrilla-style due to a lack of permits. Which scene carried the biggest risk of getting you arrested? What if you had been kicked out of the country? catchytitledWe had permission for most of it, but we had to grab the scenes with Scarlett [Johansson] on the subway with real people around. The same with the overhead shot of her at that famous Shibuya crossing – we just went into Starbucks because it had this incredible view, but we would have never got permission to film there. So we stole a few things in the spirit of guerrilla film-making. And I’m glad we didn’t get kicked out, yes.The Virgin Suicides (1999): clockwise from left, Kirsten Dunst, Leslie Hayman, Chelse Swain and AJ Cook. Photograph: American Zoetrope/AllstarWhat was the dynamic like between the five girls behind the scenes on The Virgin Suicides? For instance, which girls were the closest, who was the loudest, who was the quietest, etc? Imogen067Their personalities did kind of emerge. We did rehearsals where we all hung out together and had them interact as a family and they cooked together. They hung out off set and they started to bond. Chelse Swain was the most eccentric one.Kirsten Dunst and Jason Schwartzman in Marie Antoinette (2006). Photograph: Sofia CoppolaThe postmodern soundtrack in Marie Antoinette, all that post-punk and new romantic music, was so audacious that it took your film to a staggering level of artistry. What was the original idea behind bringing those two worlds together? Dmitry_SWhen I first started reading about Marie Antoinette in Antonia Fraser’s book, I was struck by how young she was. She was 14 when she came to Versailles and around 18 when she became queen. So I really wanted to convey that she and Louis were teenagers, and I thought back to the new romantic music I was listening to when I was a teenager. I was lucky that I had a big brother who exposed me to good music at a young age. I wanted to show it through that filter of Bow Wow Wow and Adam Ant. When the film came out, some people were offended because it just wasn’t usual to put contemporary music in a period film.Your 2003 video for the White Stripes’ cover of I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself has been rated by Rolling Stone as one of the sexiest music videos ever. What other ideas were considered before you landed on Kate Moss pole dancing for three minutes? McScootikinsOh, wow, I didn’t know that. That’s so cool. I don’t know where it came from. It was just my idea, and I was glad that everyone was on board with it. I just asked Kate to do that, she said yes, and the band was into it.Are you aware that you’re a girlblogger icon? sleepy_nymI don’t know that much about bloggers, but that’s nice to hear. I’ll have to ask my teenage daughters. I do appreciate that my work was made a while ago, so it’s great that it connects with young women of this generation.Sofia with her father, Francis Ford Coppola, at Cannes film festival in 1979. Photograph: Gilbert TOURTE/Gamma-Rapho/Getty ImagesWhat was it like working on Tim Burton’s 1984 short film Frankenweenie, before Tim Burton was “Tim Burton”? jasonaparkesThat was such a fun experience. I was 12 or something. I think Tim Burton was right out of school. It was an early short film, so it was really fun to meet him and be on his set – he used to do drawings for me. I’d spent a lot of time on my dad’s film sets, so it was fun to be on someone else’s. I still like to visit film sets. I’m never jaded – I’m still impressed by movie magic.Didn’t you mind having your mum filming behind the scenes for all those hours when you were making Marie Antoinette? Dr_J_A_ZoidbergMy mom always had a grounding mom presence. It was a stressful shoot, so it was nice to have her there. She also appreciated all the beauty of the costumes and the details of the food and the flowers, so it was fun to show it to her, and she was really into filming all the details and how it was made. I forgot about the footage until recently and I didn’t realise how much there was. My mom had almost 80 hours of footage, so it was a real treat to have this home movie to revisit. I never thought we would do something with it.Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation (2003). Photograph: Focus Features/AllstarYou’re not going to answer this – but someone has to ask it anyway. What does Bob whisper to Charlotte at the end of Lost in Translation? rolleyesI like what Bill [Murray] always says. He says, “It’s between them,” so I’ll leave it at that.