If you’re one of the millions of people who streamed Orange is the New Black over the weekend, then you probably noticed a familiar face sitting on the prison airplane next to Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling). Piper’s helpful seatmate was none other than Lori Petty, who became famous in the 1990s for being “a punk rock princess in a Barbie world” known as Hollywood.
Most people remember Lori best from Tank Girl, but she did loads of movies before that. Like Point Break and A League of Their Own. Lori’s been out of the Hollywood scene as an actress, but she’s moved into directing. She directed Jennifer Lawrence’s first film, The Poker House (2008). In this interview with The Daily Beast, Lori talks about how she “discovered” JLaw. All you JLaw haters can now blame Lori Petty for your angst! Finally … a culprit. Lori also discusses working with Madonna and Keanu Reeves, and she touches upon ageism in Hollywood:
How she scored an OITNB role: “This is a true story that people don’t believe, but it’s true. I was visiting New York to see my friends in Porgy and Bess, and Orange was this big whoop that was new, and Girls was this big whoop, too. I’m a big fan of both shows–especially Orange, which is this groundbreaking new show, and I thought to myself, ‘I should be on that show!’ and then maybe, as a director, wiggle my way in there, too. I found out that the casting directors were in New York, and I called my manager and said, ‘I’m in New York for one more day and I want to meet Jennifer Euston, who casts Orange and Girls.’ She said, ‘You want me to call her and tell her you’re in town for just one day and want to see her?’ And I said, ‘Yes, please.’ She called her and they said, ‘Oh my god, we love her’–because to them I’m someone they grew up with and they probably went as me for Halloween or something.”
On her fight scene: “I got stomped! There were no stunt doubles during that scene, but no one got hurt. Jodie [Foster] did say, ‘Okay, you need to get really messed up,’ and it was minus-700 degrees out, and I had to lay on the ground getting stomped, and they couldn’t put anything on the ground because they were shooting it, so the costumers were wonderful and gave us all these hand warmers. I’d keep asking for more hand warmers, then give them to the extras who looked like they were dying, then ask for more. I became the hand warmer contraband girl. ‘Go to Lori, she’ll give you hand warmers!'”
On “discovering” Jennifer Lawerence: “No sh-t! You can quote me on that. No sh-t. I cast her in her first film. Look, she deserves 100% of her success, period. In addition to that, I think I passed along 25 years of experience of being an actress to her. But she’s amazing and the camera loves her, and that’s why I cast her. It’s like when I first saw Leo DiCaprio in This Boy’s Life. We were editing A League of Their Own and De Niro and them were editing This Boy’s Life next door. I’d go to post-production with [Penny]. So De Niro comes in and goes, ‘You’ve got to see this kid.’ We went into the room and saw some unedited scenes with DiCaprio and both went, ‘There’s another movie star.’ We’d already cast Selma Blair as the mom, and Selma is five feet tall and weights 90 pounds. Mary [Vernieu] sends me these tapes of these girls and goes, ‘This girl Jennifer Lawrence is a star. You have to watch this tape.’ But it said she was 5’9” on her resume, and I said, ‘I can’t fit them both in the frame! How am I supposed to have the mom be 5′ and the daughter be 5’9″?’ But she said, ‘Just watch the tape.’ I watched the tape and was like, ‘Okay, great, that’s another movie star.'”
On making Point Break: “It was me and 10 naked boys every day. I’m not kidding. We had to go surfing every day for three months, so we’d be in Venice or Huntington Beach with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Patrick, Keanu, and me, and they’re just wet and crazy twenty-something boys, and it was a blast. Every morning before work, all the boys–Patrick, Keanu, etc.–would go skydiving against the rules of the studio. They’d say, ‘Lori, come on!’ and I’d say, ‘You could give me a million dollars cash, and I wouldn’t do it.’ They’d go, ‘Oh, you’re such a p-ssy!” And I’d say, ‘Call me that all day, I’m not going!’ And that’s really Patrick in the movie doing all that skydiving/ballet sh-t in the air.”
Working with Madge on A League of Their Own: “That was the height of all Madonna-ness. She was the hardest-working woman I’ve ever met. She’d get up in the morning, run eight miles, and then come to work. She was never a diva. Ever. And she gave me a very nice vibrator for a wrap gift.”
She worked with Tupac too: “Tupac was the sweetest man in the world. That whole thug thing was an act–it was silly, and dumb. He was a complete gentleman and one of the kindest men I’ve ever met. He was a sweetie-pie, a genius poet, and a great actor. I loved him.”
Joel Silver fired her from Demolition Man: “It was the most uncool day in Hollywood for me. I just treat people the way I want to be treated, so I’d rather not gossip about his unkindness.”
Why the roles dried up after Tank Girl: “Well, because I was thirty-something and I hadn’t married my agent, married any guy co-stars, or gotten fake t-tties or Botox. I never wanted to be a bombshell; I wanted to be an actor. I would much prefer to be a woman than a man, but if I was a dude, maybe I’d have Johnny Depp’s island because women in this industry after a certain age definitely don’t get to do Pirates of the Caribbean. Poor Keira [Knightley], they even airbrushed huge t-ts on her on the poster, and she’s flawless! I was trying to play football with a baseball, and you can’t really do that.”
[From The Daily Beast]
Well … Lori definitely has a point about aging in Hollywood and the different treatment of male and female actors. Actresses tend to peak early, in their 20s, and then they’re usually washed up by age 40 unless they’re (literally) Meryl Streep. Whereas male A-listers continue well into their 50s (and beyond) with male leading roles, which often involve them sexing some hot young thing. The hot young things get younger and younger with each movie, it seems. And the men are permitted so many more “flops” than actresses would ever be allowed. How many financial flops has Johnny Depp had in a row? Four. If Johnny was a chick, he’d have been kicked to the curb two flops ago. Yet Hollywood continues to court him for plum roles. Lori may not have been the greatest, most versatile actress, but at least she has abilities beyond playing a makeup-covered weirdo in every single role.
Photos courtesy of WENN
