Chloë Sevigny talks to the Globe and Mail about playing a nun who trades sex with a plantation owner in exchange for funds and medical supplies in Thom Fitzgerald’s AIDS drama 3 Needles:
“She sacrifices herself — the only way she knows she can, through using her body,” Sevigny says. “It’s selfless, but also selfish in a way — she can fill something in her through others. She’s someone who falls from grace — but doesn’t. I was very concerned with not making her too goody-goody; I didn’t want her to be too much of a do-gooder. I didn’t want you to hate her because she was too good. I wanted her to be flawed. Thom and I worked hard on that.”
There are hints that Clara will unravel. We see her cutting herself early in the film.
“The back story I created for myself is perhaps she had something traumatic happen to her, which is why she’s cutting herself. She’s also probably pretty self-righteous and spiritual. She finds being a young person today vapid, and people aren’t doing enough for others. She finds the church to be the best outlet for her spiritually, a way to contribute in some way.”
This film is coming to the Vancouver film festival next month, so I guess I’ll find out then whether it’s as manipulative as Fitzgerald’s last film, the pro-euthanasia The Event (2003; my review).
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