Trudie Styler. Actress, producer, director, child of a parent lost to Alzheimer’s, stunning blond mother, and wife to Sting, she’s created and directed an offbeat movie. Way, way offbeat.
“Freak Show” is about a gender-bender teenage boy who chooses life as an outrageous, over-the-top fashionista girl and wants to make a statement. The film’s excellent. But it’s no la-la land musical. It’s LGBT lulu style.
Why this subject?
Trudie: “Hurt as a child in an accident, I suffered facial scarring for years. Eyebrow torn, reddened marks, scars from being pulled on gravel. Looking different, I had unhappy days walking the corridors of my school. I didn’t fit in. I looked damaged and kids can be cruel and I was bullied. My own children have experienced bullying. Bullying has affected my life.”
Bette Midler plays the boy’s mother, Abigail Breslin’s the antagonist, Laverne Cox has a reporter’s role.
“After considering a hundred possibilities,” the boy Billy is played by Alex Lawther, who auditioned for the role.
A limited four-week prep, shot over 22 days, the $3 million film is heading for a nine-city tour. Has her family seen it?
“Sting’s seen it four times, my kids saw it — some are in it. The rest of our family, not.
“Our world must create compassion and develop an environment where those who would suffer bullying can be safe.”
Real movies
Que pasa with our great creators, our theatrical writers? Today’s films are mostly yesterday’s lives. Modern day nonfiction is nowadays entertainment.
Hugh Jackman’s “The Greatest Showman” — P.T. Barnum. “The Darkest Hour”? Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill. “The Post” — Meryl Streep doing Katharine Graham. “Victoria and Abdul” — the story of Dame Judi Dench as Victoria and whoever’s Abdul plays Abdul. Jessica Chastain is the still-with-us Molly Bloom in “Molly’s Game.” And there’s “I, Tonya” with Margot Robbie’s Tonya Harding.
“Dunkirk” is about Dunkirk. “The Big Sick”? All about the writers’ big sick. “Battle of the Sexes” has Emma Stone as Billie Jean King. There’s kidnapped Getty kid’s saga in “All the Money in the World.” “Lion” relived lost Saroo’s experience. Real bum Jordan Belfort, who went to the can in “The Wolf of Wall Street” — Leo DiCaprio played him.
On this and that
Lest anyone have need to ask where’s Tom Selleck — he fed in Elio’s the other night . . . CONSERVATIVE Democrat Rep. Tom Suozzi — ex Nassau exec who tried for governor, senator, lt. gov. — says after one year Congress wasted his talents and he belongs as 2020 Prez or VP. Like pols do, he might deny it. . . . Asked to do a nude scene, Jennifer Lopez told Hollywood Reporter:
“They’d determined I was already f - - kable.”
Live film stars
And then there’s “The Theory of Everything” — Stephen Hawking. “Selma” — Martin Luther King. “Schindler’s List” — Oskar Schindler. DiCaprio in “Catch Me If You Can” about that pretend airline pilot whom I myself interviewed.
And Saturday, author James Patterson investigates New England Patriots killer Aaron Hernandez’s life and death for CBS News’ “All-American Murder.”
On and on. Another 20 minutes and we’ll get “The Nancy Pelosi Story” starring that Ratajkowski broad droning in a half-open bikini. Maybe a double feature with “The Julian Assange Journal.”
Pamela Anderson could play herself if she’s not too busy playing with Julian Assange.
“I believe in the Bible. I respect Noah saving two of everything on the Ark. But why did He have to include mosquitoes, roaches and Republicans?”
Only in Greenwich Village in New York, kids, only in Greenwich Village in New York.