If Sofia Coppola had taken her famous father’s advice, she might not have a movie coming out this Friday.
“I always remember my dad saying, ‘No one makes a remake unless they are trying to make money; there is no reason for it,'” she recalled of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola’s advice during a Q&A with The Washington Post. “It was not an honorable thing to do.”
It wasn’t until she saw the 1970s version of “The Beguiled” starring Clint Eastwood and got a nudge from a friend — “I think you need to make a new version of that” — that she though to put out a remake decades later.
But when viewers will be watching, it’ll be Sofia’s adaptation of the original film. One noted tweak she explained was forgoing a slave character who was, “so stereotypical in a cringy way.”
“I just thought, ‘OK, I am going to take out all the things I don’t like or connect with and just focus on the characters,’” she said of roles played by Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning.
Given that the Civil War-era film follows a group of women confined to an all-female boarding school, Sofia drew from her own life of constantly navigating new social circles thanks to her constantly traveling parents in the film industry.
“I had to move into it quickly, so I was super aware of the codes of communication and who’s who,” she said. “But I think there is something about being able to read people that interests me, and in a group dynamic.”