After supporting roles in both Gus Van Sant's To Die For and Barbet Schroeder's Before and After, 18-year-old Alison Folland now garners her first lead in All Over Me, a new film by the Sichel Sisters.
This high school senior from Massachusetts portrays Claude, a young girl living in the Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan. Besides having to cope with normal variety of teenage angst, Claude is finding she's in love with her best friend Ellen (Tara Subkoff) who's turning into a druggie.
Folland's performance is tough, sensitive and quite promising of great things yet to come. Here's the interview.
Q: I loved your performance. Of course, everyone knows you from your first film. How did you get the part in that?
A: The first one?
Q: To Die For.
A: I went to an open call in my school.
Q: Were you an actress before that--or did you just decide to try out?
A: I just decided to try out. I was in the school play that year, and the drama director told me and a bunch of kids about these open calls. That they were looking for a 15-year-old girl.
Q: Was this just a fantasy? Did you have any idea you were as talented as you are?
A: (Laughs.) No, I'm not as talented as people think I am. But I don't know. I didn't even really consider being in movies before this happened. It was just a spur of a moment decision to go on this audition. I hadn't really thought about being in movies before this. I wasn't expecting to get the role.
Q: Do you have another film set up after this?
A: No, I don't.
Q: But you have a good agent?
A: Yeah. I do but I haven't been looking for any work lately because I'm just basically trying to finish up high school. I'm planning on taking a period of time off at least and just trying to find work, I guess, for next year. I'm auditioning and stuff like that.
Q: In both To Die For and All Over Me, you have played a troubled youth. Do you get your inspiration from people around you or did you just have to look inside?
A: A little of both. From watching other kids around me. How they interact. How they present themselves. Mannerisms. And from myself, you know. From like parts of myself that I can see within the character.
Q: Surprisingly, though so many films nowadays have gay roles, and TV shows, too, we in the press keep telling the performers how brave they were to play a lesbian or homosexual.
A: Right.
Q: Did you think you had to be brave? Were you nervous about approaching this role?
A: No, not at all. I didn't accept the role thinking I was playing a lesbian now. I don't think that was what my character was primarily. Primarily, she was a teenage girl who was going through a lot of changes in her life, and she happened to be a lesbian. But it wasn't in the front of my mind when I accepted the role. I wasn't scared of playing a lesbian.
Q: I was just interviewing an actress from the film Ripe. She wasn't even playing a gay role, and because she has a certain amount of fame, she said, "People are spreading these gay rumors about me," and she was very upset. You're two years older, but there might be people who see the film and think you might be like Claude. I think that's happening less and less though.
A: I think that happens a lot though because people are always constantly looking for icons of some sort, and like when they see a young actress . . . You know, I try not to worry about people judging me from my performances.
Q: In a sense it's a brave film. First of all, it's dealing with adolescent sexuality which is seldom explored in a serious way. But also it's addressing the problems of a young girl coming to terms with her lesbianism. This is sort of new for a film, and for many women who are lesbians,and of the right age, who are teenagers now, and All Over Me might save them from quite a bit of depression. There's a higher rate of suicide among gay teenagers.
A: Right. Right. I hope so. A lot of older lesbians have watched this movie and been particularly moved or really tickled by it because there are tons of moments in it which are like moments that they go "I've done that." Like really, really there are familiar scenarios to teenage lesbians. And even not necessarily lesbians but to teenage girls. I think almost anyone can watch this movie and identify with a situation that they've been in at some point of their life.
