American-born fashion pioneer Chloë Sevigny (not forgetting the umlaut) is undoubtedly one of the most underrated actresses of the 21st century. Despite impressive and noteworthy performances in films such as American Psycho, Dogville, Shattered Glass, and more recently Zodiac, not to mention her Golden Globe- and Oscar-nominated supporting role of Lana Tisdel in Kimberly Peirce’s reality-based transgender drama Boys Don’t Cry (1999), more mainstream Hollywood starlets talent continue to dominate the press and award ceremonies. Unless we’re talking about her infamous oral sex scene in The Brown Bunny, of course, which seems a neverending source of interest to the media. On the other hand, to a truly dedicated actress like Chloë, recognition is surely a secondary aim; the joy of the craft come first.

Early Life in Darien

Chloe Stevens Sevigny (without the umlaut) was born on November 18 1974 in Darien, Connecticut, US, as the second child of French-born David Sevigny, a since deceased former accountant with a career in interior design, and Polish-American Janine Malinovski, a former elementary school teacher. Unlike with some of her famous contemporaries, Chloë’s Darien childhood has no tragic story of poverty or one of meteoric rise to fame and fortune to tell; with their parents being comfortably off, the childhood of Chloë and older sibling Paul, today a well-known New York DJ, was that of a comparably agreeable, albeit a very religious existence; the Sevigny children were raised strict Catholics, which is something Chloë rebelled against in her teens (however, according to a 2003 article in The New York Post, Chloë is a self-professed, practicing Catholic). Said in the September 2006 issue of Paper magazine:

“My parents didn’t have a lot of friends in town. We never had as much money as everybody else, so we were never members of any of the clubs or anything like that. I didn’t have many girlfriends, either. In elementary school the girls were really nasty. They would say, ‘Your mom shops at Stop & Shop because you’re poor,’ or ‘Your dad drives a Volkswagen, you’re poor.’ I remember from day one not buying that and not being part of the clique.”

The teenage Chloë attended the Darien High School, a well-situated school dominated by the offspring of well-off and influential parents. (As an interesting sidenote, while attending Darien High School, Chloë babysat That 70’s Show star Topher Grace on numerous occasions.) However, the young, rebellious Chloë was not particularly interested in scholarly education, and often skipped school to hang out with her skater friends, more often than not at the expense of her test scores.

Upon graduating at 18 years of age, she immediately acquired her own apartment in Brooklyn, New York, thus beginning a series of trips back and forth between her New York flat and Darien home, before finally settling into her new, Brooklyn existence.In New York, she quickly blended into the local rave scene; accepting a job at a store called Liquid Sky, the downtown rave headquarters, she soon became to know everyone around.

Despite an early interest in acting — at the age of 7, Chloë, encouraged by her mother, was already auditioning for kids’ commercials and “was really into it” — she told Page Six magazine in 2008 she quickly grew out of that phase, because she related more to the cool skaters than the nerdy drama kids. From Page Six, February 3 2008:

“I wasn’t into the drama scene. The kids were pretty geeky — they just weren’t my crowd. I hung out more with, like, the delinquents.”

So how was it that Chloë, too cool for school and well-known in the New York skaterkid circles, drifted back into the drama scene she’d resisted in her teens?

Discovery & Harmony Korine

In fact, not long after her move to New York did the 18-year-old Chloë enter the entertainment industry. While spending time with skateboarders in East Village, Manhattan, she was discovered by Jane Pratt, founding fashion editor of Sassy Magazine. Impressed by Chloë’s nonpareil, playful street style, Pratt convinced her to intern at the magazine. After a stint of internship, Chloë modeled for an edition of the magazine, followed by the occasional modeling gig, including a modeling contract for “X-Girl”, the fashion label of Kim Gordon, vocalist for American alternative rock band Sonic Youth. (Her earliest modeling work also includes a cover for power pop band Gigolo Aunts’ 1994 record Flippin’ Out, and music videos for “Sugar Cane” and “Big Gay Heart” by Sonic Youth and Lemonheads respectively.)

Although now having surfaced in fashion industry limelight, it wasn’t until an article in The New Yorker that Chloë would reach notable fame in said industry. Often cited as the article that launched Chloë’s fashion career, American author Jim McInerney would refer to Chloë as “the new It-girl” in an 8-page feature on her in the magazine. Chloë’s style icon status was instantly solidified.

Actually, Chloë’s customary ‘hang-out place’ of Tompkins Square Park in East Village would prove to be a real professional gold mine for her. While spending time with local skateboarders, she was introduced to rising director and screenwriter Harmony Korine, at the time trying to acquire financing for what was to become the 1995 indie skaterkids drama Kids, the screenplay for which Korine had written. As a solid friendship was quickly established between the two, Korine and director Larry Clark chose to cast her in the lead role of Jennie, a young girl who, upon discovering being HIV-positive, tries to stop the source from infecting further women with the deadly disease, but instead only ends up being raped by one of his mates at a party. Surprisingly, this small indie production ended up gaining some attention, and Chloë’s 1995 acting debut was hailed by critics, her memorable and touching portrayal of Jennie earning her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Female in 1996.

Korine would soon prove to be more than a mere friend of the 20something Chloë when rumors of their romantic relationship began circulating in the entertainment business, post-Kids. According to an article on the two in in the July 2000 issue of UK mag The Face, the two began a relationship around the end of filming for Kids, and continued seeing eachother on and off until the end of their relationship some time after. While Chloë hasn’t been particularly vocal about her relationship with Korine and why it ended, an August 2003 article in The New York Post sheds some light on why things ended the way they did with the Gummo director:

According to Sevigny, it was Korine who changed. When she met him, she says, he was entirely “straight edge” – he didn’t smoke, didn’t drink coffee, showered two times a day and spent all his time writing and going to museums and “being inspired”. But then he discovered drugs, “and then slowly it all, um, fell apart. He was much less productive. It just depleted him of so many things”. She notes quietly that to her the best thing about life is relationships with people, or being in love. “But if you’re a drug addict it seems like that’s your only real love.” Addicts, she continues, generally aren’t interested in sex. And surround themselves with drug buddies, who they don’t even like. “And people on methadone,” she says in a sing-song voice, “will forever be on methadone…” I ask her if she was upset about Korine’s increasing dependency or whether she tried to stay laidback and she yelps, “No! I was judgmental, because he was my boyfriend and I was in love with him and he was a drug addict and it was a horrible thing to have to deal with. I mean, what do you do about it? You know, the lies, and everything else.” She takes a breath. “I mean, I have friends now that I think have problems. But I don’t have anybody that close to me, so it’s not as dire.”

Korine was never big on modesty. He once told a journalist that the more Chloë worked with other directors, the less interested in her he became.

Later, Chloë briefly touched on the issue in a February 2008 interview with The Guardian, in which she referred to the break-up as having been a “big messy one”, and asserted that she and Korine are “not in touch”.

Post-Kids Roles & Boys Don’t Cry

Following her performance in the controversial Kids in 1995, Chloë unfortunately experienced a tragic setback in her personal life. David Sevigny, Chloë’s father and a major influence and important figure in her life, sadly passed away of cancer in 1996. Chloë describes her relationship with her father in the February 2008 issue of BlackBook:

“My father used to take me into the city, to Macy’s, or Saks, to go shopping — I was Daddy’s girl, so those were really important days. He’d been a military man, so all of his outfits were very crisp. And beyond that he had some serious style. Fedoras, trenchcoats — very classic. He even wore those straps [garters] that hold your socks up. There was just something about that generation. He used to tell me how much he liked women in hats, so I would wear hats more and more often, because I knew he liked me in them.”

Despite the devastating loss, Chloë was able continue pursuing a career in acting, and moved on from Kids to star in a number of other indie gems. These included Steve Buscemi’s drama comedy Trees Lounge (1996), Volker Schlöndorff’s largely unnoticed crime thriller Palmetto (1998) and then on-and-off-boyfriend Korine’s 1997 directorial debut Gummo, another controversial drama that earned Korine further notoriety and questionable attention due to the film’s graphic footage and disagreeable material. She then moved on to portraying Alice Kinnon in Whit Stillman’s low-budget dramedy, The Last Days of Disco, co-starring Kate Beckinsale (Underworld), Jennifer Beals (The L Word) and Robert Sean Leonard (House M.D.).

However, it was the eve of the millenium that would bring Chloë the role of her career, to date at any rate. In 1999, Chloë was cast as Lana Tisdel in Kimberly Peirce’s fact-based transgender drama film, Boys Don’t Cry. Based on actual events, the film recounts the life of Brandon Teena (as portrayed by Hilary Swank, who went on to win an Oscar for her performance in the film), a transsexual man who is raped and eventually murdered by his male friends when they discover his female genitalia. Alongside Swank’s Academy Award-winning performance, Chloë’s heartfelt and unparalleled portrayal of Lana, Brandon’s girlfriend, earned worldwide critical appraisal, and the major film associations responded accordingly: Chloë received Golden Globe- as well as Academy Award-nominations for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal (though both of which she unfortunately lost). Her performance also gained her the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress the following year. Said of her Oscar nomination in Empire magazine, May 2000:

Chloë Sevigny heard about the Oscar nomination when Julianne Moore jumped up and down on her bed. Sevigny had only just flown into Berlin, for the European premiere of American Psycho at the film festival, and was trying to sleep off her vicious jet lag. Moore was on her way home, and had just noticed that Sevigny, her co-star in the upcoming Map of the World, was in the room next door. Sevigny was asleep at the time, but Moore had big news, so the next thing Chloë knew, her mattress springs were in violent upheaval and Moore, shortlisted for Best Actress, was screaming, “Aaaaaahhh!!!” right in her ear. “She was a lot more excited than I was,” Sevigny notes wryly. “But it was a nice way to find out.”

Naturally, the sensitive nature of the material dealt in Boys Don’t Cry didn’t come without its public controversies. In addition to the film being criticized for straying too far from the real-life story of Brandon Teena, the real Lana Tisdel sued the Fox Searchlight production company for unauthorized use of her name and likeness, claiming she was inappropriately depicted in the film as “lazy, white trash and a skanky snake”. (The case, however, was settled outside the courtroom for an unrevealed sum of money.) Furthermore, prior to its release, the production team encountered considerable difficulties getting the film approved by the MPAA due to its shockingly graphic rape scene, and was originally released in the United States heavily edited and with an NC-17 rating. The original, uncut version is rated R.

The Infamous Brown Bunny

Leaving behind nearly half a decade of more or less controversial movie productions, Chloë entered the millenium with no evident intention of choosing her roles with more prudence. Following performances in low-budget films such as Korine’s Julien Donkey-Boy (1999) and Scott Elliott’s A Map of the World (1999), Chloë took upon herself the role of the quiet Jean in Mary Harron’s adaptation of the Bret Easton-Ellis-novel American Psycho (2000). In one of his most unforgettable, nigh iconic roles, Christian Bale portrays in the film the handsome and successful investment banking executive Patrick Bateman, whose voracious desire for sanguinary violence escalates into unnerving fantasies(?) of brutal murder. Despite excellent critical reviews, needless to say the film garnered much debate over its graphic footage and violence. Said of the film in the May 2000 issue of Empire:

“I liked the book,” says Sevigny, “I thought it was really funny. And it’s my brother’s favorite book, too. He’s obsessed with Bateman.” Is he like him? “A little bit. He works in commodities and is into Hermes ties.”

However, it wasn’t until after Boys Don’t Cry and a series of small roles in largely unnoticed films, such as Party Monster (2003), Demonlover (2002) and the Lars von Trier-drama Dogville (2003), in which she starred opposite Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge!, Cold Mountain), John Hurt (V for Vendetta), Jeremy Davies (Saving Private Ryan) and James Caan (The Godfather, Las Vegas), that Chloë would pick the role that would spark an unprecedented controversy around her. The Brown Bunny, an indie drama written, directed and acted out by then-boyfriend Vincent Gallo, would in 2003 premiere the infamous scene in which Chloë as Daisy performs unsimulated oral sex on Gallo.

The controversial and graphic scene in Gallo’s Brown Bunny instantly sparked a heated debate over the admissibility of such material, not to mention ruthless criticism and negative outcries. The original cut was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2003, and the reception for the film was unanimously negative, indeed cited “a catastrophe”, and the loudly negative response reportedly reduced Chloë to tears at the screening. Gallo apologized for the sexually explicit scene after the disastrous Cannes premiere, but later reneged his apology, when gaining moderate support for an edited version of the film back in the States. The film also brought on a lengthy war of words between Gallo and film critic Roger Ebert, who cited The Brown Bunny as “the worst ever film premiere in Cannes Film Festival history.”

The unwanted extra media attention Chloë garnered for the role took its toll on her. Indeed, it nearly ended her career. Following the release of the film, Chloë is rumored to have been dropped by the William Morris Agency, with their representatives citing her career “[was] tainted [by the film] and may never recover.” According to an online report, however, Chloë’s rep countered these claims saying, “At no time did William Morris try and ‘drop’ Ms. Sevigny, as any official representative from William Morris would tell you if they weren’t all on vacation.” At any rate, following the Bunny controversy, Chloë quickly signed up with WMA’s rival agency, Endeavor.

In more recent days, Chloë has sometimes opened up about her mixed thoughts on the film and her role in it. She told an online news website some years later:

“I seem to question myself every day why I crossed the line in The Brown Bunny, but I really believed in the director [Gallo] as an artist. I guess I just thought, ‘I could go to this extreme once,’ but perhaps it was the wrong choice. I’m not gonna beat myself up over it anymore. I think perhaps if it had come out at a different time people would’ve reacted to it differently. Making it for me was not difficult but the reaction from the public has been very difficult for me to handle. I think a lot of people talk about it without having seen it and that’s part of the problem.”

A Mainstream(?) Turn

Incidentally, Chloë’s acting career was not ended by The Brown Bunny, despite such speculation. Instead, her post-Bunny on screen-productions took a slightly more mainstream turn after years of working in the indie genre — something she had often and expressly wished. In 2003, Chloë portrayed Caitlin Avey in Billy Ray’s crime drama Shattered Glass, uniting her with Boys Don’t Cry co-star Peter Saarsgaard, before moving on to portray Laurel in Woody Allen’s (rather poorly received) romantic comedy Melinda and Melinda in 2004. She then starred in a small supporting role as Carmen’s assistant in Jim Jarmusch’s acclaimed drama comedy Broken Flowers (2005), co-starring Bill Murray (Lost in Translation), Julie Delpy (Before Sunrise), Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct) and Jessica Lange.

In 2004, Chloë made her small screen debut as Monet in episode “East Side Story” of the award-winning sitcom Will & Grace, one of the few shows exploring homosexuality at the time of the series’ launch in 1998. This performance was followed by a return to small scale films in the made-for-TV thriller Mrs. Harris (2005) and M. Blash’s largely shunned Lying (2006), which was not released for distribution until its Region 1/North American DVD release — in May 2009. Furthermore, in addition to Douglas Buck’s drama thriller Sisters (2006), Chloë starred in the 2005 HIV-drama 3 Needles as Catholic nun Clara, a performance for which she has gained some critical recognition, despite the film going largely unnoticed due to ambiguous release dates and nonexistent distribution.

Big Love: A Venture into Televisio

In 2006, the opportunity presented itself for Chloë to venture in to television when, after numerous unproductive auditions to various TV series, she was offered a starring role in HBO’s new polygamist dramedy series, Big Love, also starring Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Ginnifer Goodwin and Harry Dean Stanton. Chloë seized the opportunity, and the series premiered in mid-2006 to a mixed, if largely positive reception. Since the series’ debut, Chloë’s portrayal of the manipulative, ultra-conservative and credit card-challenged Nicolette “Nicki” Grant, the second wife of Bill Hendrickson (Paxton), has earned Chloë much critical praise, including a 2010 Golden Globe nomination. The series entered its fourth season in January 2010.

Even film-wise, after years of controversial roles in unorthodox independent films, Chloë finally got her first genuinely mainstream in 2007, taking on the mellow role of Melanie Graysmith, the ignored and concerned wife of newspaper cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), in David Fincher’s exceptional, Hollywood-produced fact-based crime thriller, Zodiac. In the film, Melanie is forced to watch from the sidelines as her husband becomes obsessed with the identity of the mysterious Zodiac Killer, which then begins to take its toll on their marriage. Upon its release, Zodiac gained largely positive critical reviews and holds its own at an impressive 89% “fresh” rating at the professional review collection site RottenTomatoes.com.

A Lesson in Fashion

In 2008, however, Chloë’s focus seemed momentarily shift back from acting to fashion. In February 2008, she debuted her first collection for hip New York label Opening Ceremony, featuring quirky, 90’s inspired pieces dominated by floral and gingham prints. The collection, being very much reflective of Chloë’s personal style notes, was sure to divide opinions, gaining both acclaim and well as rejection from fashion critics and -friends worldwide, and regardless of the mixed response, quickly sold out at over 100 boutiques worldwide. Said of her personal thoughts and inspiration behind the debut collection in a 2008 issue of Australian fashion mag, Doingbird:

“I was kind of thinking of a store that I used to shop at called Unique Boutique — it was on Broadway, but it’s not there any more. And I was thinking about my junior high, the beginning of my high school years, and what I was into when I was kind of discovering myself and my own style and forming some sort of an identity. I was kind of thinking of that period — it’s not a literal interpretation of anything I wore, but, y’know, things I kind of liked back then. Like, I wore a lot of stretch cotton skirts and mock turtlenecks and things like that, so I incorporated those into the line. And I wore a lot of floral rayon dresses and stuff, but I didn’t want to do rayon so I did all the florals and the cottons. And the boots are kind of sophisticated versions of the combat boots and Dr. Martens I used to wear as a kid.”

Chloë followed up the collection with a second, less publicized unisex/menswear line for the Fall/Winter 2009 season, again partnered with Opening Ceremony.

Continuing on the subject of fashion, in the Spring of 2008, UK fashion mag Elle’s editor-in-chief announced Chloë Sevigny was to become the magazine’s new “style advisor” in coming issues of the publication. In her new professed role at the magazine, Chloë answered questions about style from fans and fashion-challenged individuals in a monthly column, which ran March-October 2008.

On a more personal level, towards the end of the year, rumors began circling online that Chloë had ended her relationship with longtime boyfriend, noise-rock band A.R.E Weapons’ bassist Matthew “Matt” McAuley, whom she has reportedly dated nigh uninterruptedly for years. Although neither have to our knowledge either confirmed or denied the rumor, as started in November 2008, it would seem as if the two are no longer together.

What’s up in 2010?

Despite releasing two films in 2009 — the Jonathan Liebesman-directed thriller The Killing Room and the Werner Herzog crime thriller My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done — the year passed largely quietly, with little big news or projects. In early 2010, Chloë will be reprising Nicolette “Nicki” Grant in the much-anticipated fourth season of Big Love, and release the Howard Marks-biopic Mr. Nice. She furthermore has the Chris D’Arienzo comedy Barry Munday in post-production, however its release prospects remain at this point uncertain.

Biography by Chloë Sevigny Online
November 12 2007 (revised January 15 2009) © All rights reserved.