Birmingham Post

We’re living in the era of sequels and remakes... this script reminded me of the heyday of art films

DIRECTOR MIRANDA JULY, AND STARS EVAN RACHEL WOOD AND GINA RODRIGUEZ, DISCUSS OFF-BEAT HEIST FILM AND FAMILY DRAMA KAJILLIONA­IREWITH GEORGIA HUMPHREYS

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THE second Evan Rachel Wood signed on to star in comedydram­a Kajilliona­ire, she started working on her character’s very specific physicalit­y with the film’s writer-director, Miranda July.

Crafting that, and figuring out who Evan’s character Old Dolio was, as the daughter of two con artists, sounds like a complex process.

“We watched videos and we would do scenes together and we would improvise, and she would limit my form of communicat­ion,” explains North Carolina-born Evan, 33. “So we’d do a scene and she’d say, ‘OK you’re not allowed to talk’, ‘OK, this time you can’t look anybody in the eye’, ‘OK this time you can only make noises like an animal’ and then, through these exercises, we would find little ‘isms’ and things that I would do and we would keep those.”

Kajilliona­ire follows a dysfunctio­nal family – Old Dolio and her parents Robert (Richard Jenkins) and Theresa (Debra Winger), who are small-time hustlers living in an abandoned LA office block. Old Dolio has been brought up without ordinary paternal affection. Instead, she’s always been treated like an adult, and she yearns for love and human connection. We see how her heart is stirred by Melanie, played by Gina Rodriguez, who the trio meet during an elaborate scam involving lost luggage. Discussing her portrayal of Old Dolio further, Evan explains how they wanted the character to be “genderless”.

“I definitely am androgynou­s but can still fall more into the feminine side, and so even little tells, like my hands, had to change and had to become slightly more creature-like, and my voice had to lower, and I just had to embody something completely different,” says the star, who’s best known for American sci-fi series Westworld. “One of my references was Edward Scissorhan­ds actually – someone that is just so uncomforta­ble in the real world, who has lived in a different world, and someone who doesn’t really say very much but is breaking your heart every time they’re on screen and is communicat­ing so much by seemingly doing so little.”

As for what attracted her to the script, Evan says she remembers “feeling so relieved and excited” when she finished reading it.

“I can’t tell you how hard it is to read a script and it be completely original. We’re living in the era of sequels and franchises and remakes.

“And so to see an indie art film like this, which was so funny and so sad all at once, and had a heroine like Old Dolio – we never really get to see a leading lady like that – everything about it jumped out at me.”

“It reminded me of the

Debra Winger, left and Richard Jenkins play Old Dolio’s parents

heyday of art films with these incredible people and this kind of Sundance, weird, artful class of films that we just don’t see as much any more – or it’s harder for them to get funding,” she continues.

“But that’s how I started, they’ve always been my first love. And so it felt like a call back to that, that golden era of independen­t films.” Vermont-born Miranda – whose film debut was 2005’s Me And You And Everyone We

Gina Rodriguez and Evan Rachel

Wood co-star

versions of that in Kajilliona­ire.

“I felt like I had this kind of long-haired, butch icon on my hands and I’ve loved women like that, it’s really an ode to that kind of woman,” adds Miranda.

“And to get to see one version of where a woman like that might have come from, and then also have a beautiful woman fall in love with her, was quite meaningful to me.” Chicago-born Gina, is clearly enamoured of Miranda’s unusual creative process.

“She is a mystical, magical creature,” enthuses the 36-year-old, star of the sitcom, Jane The Virgin.

“When you’re around her, you know you’re experienci­ng something different.

“Even just the way she sees the world, the way she sees colour, the way she sees story and relationsh­ips .... Working with her was a spiritual experience, it was an educationa­l experience. It was falling in love.

“I would get goosebumps and butterflie­s going to set, like all I wanted to do was be good for Miranda.”

Kajilliona­ire is released in cinemas on Friday

UNJOO MOON writes and directs a biopic of Australian singersong­writer Helen Reddy, famous for her I Am Woman anthem, who sadly died last month. Helen (Tilda Cobham-Hervey, pictured) arrives in 1966 New York with her three-year-old daughter on the promise of a recording contract. Her hopes are cruelly dashed when the record company tells her that they have enough female talent on the roster and she should return home. Instead, Helen chooses to stay in America without a visa.

She forges a close friendship with rock journalist Lillian Roxon (Danielle Macdonald) and captures the mood of the second wave of the feminist movement with her song I Am Woman.

Aspiring talent manager Jeff Wald (Evan Peters) becomes her agent and later her husband, but his drug addiction poisons the relationsh­ip and Helen realises she must take control of her career.

Moon’s film will be simultaneo­usly available on download and streaming platforms.

AKIRA (15)

THE cult Manga comic series comes majestical­ly to life in a 4K re-release of writer-director Katsuhiro Otomo’s startling 1988 animation, set in a future Japan presided over by marauding gangs of bikers and rebels intent on overthrowi­ng the government.

The artwork is ferociousl­y true to the comics, but plot and character are slightly scrambled in translatio­n.

The plot centres on Shotaro Kaneda (voiced by Mitsuo Iwata) and best friend Tetsuo Shima (Nozomo Sasaki), who lead their gang, the Capsules, in a turf war against bitter rivals the Clowns. The feud pales into insignific­ance when doctors discover that Tetsuo possesses devastatin­g psychic abilities similar to a little boy called Akira, who destroyed Tokyo decades before.

HEY DUGGEE AT THE MOVIES (U)

THE animated CBeebies series for pre-schoolers created by Grant Orchard, which is narrated by Alexander Armstrong, invades Vue multiplexe­s with a compendium of eight episodes. Duggee (voiced by Sander Jones), above, and the members of The Squirrel Club need to deliver an important parcel at the other end of the river in a fun-filled compilatio­n that includes The River Badge, The Submarine Badge, The History Badge, The Shape Badge, The Honey Badge, The Cardboard Box Badge, The Spooky Badge and The Puddle Badge.

The above films are in selected cinemas.

COMING SOON

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