Q&A: Harmony Korine

The director-provocateur returns to New York, this time with impersonators in tow

By Karen Wilson

Special to Metromix
May 6, 2008

It’s been nine years since wunderkind director and professional provocateur Harmony Korine released “Julien Donkey-Boy,” and it seems that the screenwriter of “Kids” has finally mellowed in his thirties. Making his biggest budget and most classic-narrative movie to date, Korine co-wrote and directed “Mister Lonely,” about a melancholy Michael Jackson impersonator (Diego Luna) who meets a voluptuous Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton) and follows her to a commune of impersonators in the Scottish highlands.

Metromix met up with Korine in the lobby of the Soho Grand before his movie screened at the recently concluded Tribeca Film Festival. Here, he riffs on stolen shoes in the subway, Little Red Riding Hood and suffering for his devoted fans.

I know you lived in New York for many years, but you don’t now. Do you ever see yourself living here again?
No, I could never do it. New York has changed for me. I used to fall asleep on the subway, and people would steal my shoes. Then I’d wake up and walk barefoot to my grandma’s house in Queens, with glass stuck in my toe. There’s something great about that. Now I feel like I could fall asleep in my shoes and basically, someone would get down on their knees to shine them. Also, I’m different. I live in Nashville, Tenn., and I have a house and a yard. The air is good. I can think. New York is like dessert: You love dessert, but if you eat it too much you’re going to get diabetes.

How do you feel about the film-festival circuit and being here at Tribeca? [Mister Lonely premiered at Cannes and played at the Toronto Film Festival last fall.]
It’s great. You work very hard on a film and you spend a lot of time in dark rooms and away from people, so it’s exciting for me to get that energy. It’s nice to see that people are enthusiastic. And to travel the world and know that there are people into the movies that I make—it’s a great thing.

One of interesting things about the characters being celebrity impersonators was how those two ideas—acting and impersonating—overlapped.
It took me a long time to cast the parts because I wanted to mix it up with professionals and non-professionals, real actors and real impersonators. This was a movie that I didn’t do much research for. I wasn’t really trying to make a movie about real impersonators. Besides, the couple that I did meet didn’t look too much like the person they were impersonating. So I realized what most of these people do is they will themselves to look like them, which I thought was much more interesting.

But why have Little Red Riding Hood in the movie?
I thought, originally, I need a pretty teenage girl. But there aren’t a lot of iconic teenage girls at that age, and when I put her in some kind of Britney Spears outfit she looked more like a slutty teenager. So then I started talking to the people who ran the impersonator agencies. One of the things that were always popping up was Little Red Riding Hood. I guess it was for children’s parties. There was something iconic and visually interesting about her. Also I liked the idea of there being…Little Red Riding Hood. [Laughs] To be honest, it never even entered my mind that she wasn’t a real person. [Korine ended up casting his wife, Rachel, in the role.]

I know there’s currently an exhibit that goes with the film. Are you thinking about doing more artwork?
Yeah, I like to make things. I always did. Sometimes making films is frustrating because it takes so long and you need to get so many people involved. I’d like to get back into this mode of putting things out there. I won’t be so precious about stuff.


Photo: O’SOUTH