 The poster for Steven Soderbergh’s “The Girlfriend Experience.” Image courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.IW: How do you go back and forth between the “Oceans”-style blockbusters and art films?
SS: They’re not as different as you think. Because it’s still problem solving. They’re both kind of like math problems but you’re dealing with different kinds of numbers and integers, depending on the scale. But you’re still trying to solve a problem. You have something in mind, you have a certain amount of time, a certain amount of money, and and you’re kind of triangulating to see if you can organize the elements to get what you want.
iW: But in a big studio movie you have to please the suits and the audience.
SS: It would help if you please the audience. But you’re still pleasing yourself. I like those kinds of movies. The reason I made the “Ocean"s movies is because I like caper movies. I always have. When somebody sends me something and I read it and I go, Look, I think this is perfectly good but I wouldn’t get in line to see it, I can’t make it. I’d be second guessing. I would be in line to see an “Ocean"s movie. The trick is, now that those are sort of over with, can I find something else that’s pure entertainment like that that I want to do? That I feel like is good for me to do. I haven’t been able to find one yet.
IW: Critics have noted the influence of Godard in “Girlfriend.”
SS: It’s certainly in line with the kinds of films I was watching when I was growing up, like Godard and Fassbinder. It’s like Godard in its reportage aspect. But he has a reputation for being more non linear than he really is. When you go back and watch a lot of his films, as digressive as they usually are, they’re actually usually told in sequence. Resnais was aggressively non linear. And then I was thinking of Fassbinder, because he really liked to use non actors in his films by casting friends of his.
iW: About the sound track. Why that exciting drumming in the third scene?
SS: I shot a bunch of street musicians, including this guy Shakerleg, not knowing what I was going to do with them. The third scene where Chris is jogging - I wanted loud drumming there because to me that’s sort of where the movie really starts. We’ve set up a couple of things, but that’s where the movie announces ‘Okay, here we go.’ Her boyfriend’s out jogging, while she’s waking up in bed with this guy.
IW: You have this ravishing wife. Doesn’t that get in the way of work?
SS: How do you mean?
IW: It’s such an invitation to other aspects of life that don’t take it out of you like filmmaking. I bet you’ve never been asked that before.
SS: Actually, she asked me that ... I encouraged her to write because she has a really good story sense and knows exactly how to structure a story. So I was the one who was saying, Why aren’t you writing? She said I’ve tried, it’s really hard. And I found these legal pads behind a shelf somewhere that were filled with page after page of stuff and that’s when I said, you really need to try it.
That’s where both of our heads are, y’know what I mean? At a certain point, as you know, the connection needs to move into some territory that is beyond what somebody looks like. Because there are lots of interesting looking people around and if you’re somebody like me, who’s very work driven, the ability to have conversations about the core of that is crucial.
IW: Have you gotten any negative reactions from women about this film?
SS: Not really, if they don’t like it, they just leave the screening and never call for an interview.
IW: I think you may get some negative reactions.
SS: I’m sure I will. If I didn’t, I’d be doing something wrong.
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