[lounge music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [Narrator] "On Story" is brought to you in part by the Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, a Texas family providing innovative funding since 1979.

"On Story" is also brought to you in part by the Bogle Family Vineyards, six generation farmers and third generation winemakers based in Clarksburg, California.

Makers of sustainably grown wines that are a reflection of the their family values since 1968.

[waves] [kids screaming] [wind] [witch cackling] [sirens wail] [gunshots] [dripping] [suspenseful music] [telegraph beeping, typing] [piano gliss] From Austin Film Festival, this is "On Story," a look inside the creative process from today's leading writers, creators and filmmakers.

This week on, "On Story," Director Gia Coppola joins us for a conversation on her latest feature, "The Last Showgirl."

- I was really drawn to just being in Vegas.

It feels like magic and consumerism coming together and it feels like it's sort of this metaphor for Americana and it's glittery and sparkles.

So that's hard to deny, but then there's this sadness.

I think was really me wanting to show this city that I've been so fascinated by for so long in a way that I am interested in it.

[paper crumples] [typing] [carriage returns, ding] [Narrator] Coppola reflects on working with the film's star-studded cast, including Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis, and how together they depicted an inspiring story of transformation.

[typewriter ding] - I'd really love to hear a little bit about how you teamed up with Kate Gersten.

It's a wonderful script.

Ya know, how you two kind of envisioned pulling this off.

- Well, this is really a family affair in a lot of ways.

It was really important to me to make a movie in an intimate way.

Kate Gersten is actually a relative by marriage.

So, she's married to my cousin, Matthew Shire, and he was like, "You know who else loves Vegas as much as you do is my wife."

She actually wrote this play that, she wrote it during her, I think when she graduated Juilliard and she actually went to Vegas and she sort of observed these real showgirls of the show, "The Jubilee," and their sort of final years there and she was just so taken by how kind of sad and odd this sort of period in their life and for showgirls to be such a symbol of Las Vegas, yet now, there is no showgirls to represent that.

- All the primary characters are at this sort of sunset experience of their lives and looking at casting that, I think it's fascinating the people that you chose, ya know, Jamie Lee Curtis, and obviously, Pamela Anderson, and Dave Bautista.

Somebody who was an obvious choice for you guys or was this a whole back and forth that you were determining who would be because he's wonderful.

I just, I just, he just blew me away.

I didn't feel like, I actually quit thinking of him as Dave Bautista when I started watching it which is hard to do, ya know, with him.

- He had nice, long hair this time around.

[laughing] Yeah, Dave, I got, I met him like seven years ago and he had expressed to me in sort of this ya know, general meeting thing that he really wanted to be a more dramatic actor and that always stayed in my mind and when this script came along, I approached him about it and he really took it to another level for me.

Like I had faith in him but I wasn't prepared to be as blown away as I was.

He really was breaking our hearts behind the camera and ya know, he thought about the character in a much more empathetic way than I think I initially perceived.

- Don't have anything for you.

- It's okay.

You look nice.

- Thank you.

- Do I look nice?

- Yeah, sorry.

Yeah, you look, you look really beautiful.

- Oh, thank you.

- Well, you always look beautiful.

- Awe, thanks Eddie.

- Yeah, just rare that I actually get to see you in a dress and not a, one of those rhinestone bustier things with your breasts hangin' out.

- Well, I wouldn't say hanging.

- No, no.

Well, you do though.

You look really beautiful.

Even all covered up.

[Pamela chuckles] - With Pamela's character, I really didn't know who could play that role of Shelly.

I thought of like past kind of icon, Marilyn Monroe, but no one was really coming to mind and then I saw her documentary and it just was kind of very telling from there that no one else could play this role but her and so, I could see that she was someone that was really bursting at the seams that wanted to express herself creatively.

Ya know, I think this goes to all of the filmmakers out here, like with Pamela too, I sent her team the script and I got turned down in an hour.

So, I knew that she didn't read it.

So, I had to find another way and I, I think it's a lot of perseverance.

And I finally got it to her son and he helped me get it to her hands and then she read it and she started selling herself to me.

I was like, "You don't understand.

I'm selling myself to you."

[laughing] But with Jamie, then of course, I really didn't think I had a chance, but ya know, I had nothing to lose.

So, I figured I'd just try to get it in her hands and she loved the script.

So, I think it's a testament to good writing.

And I was all ready to talk, ya know, like thespian language, prepare myself and she called me and she's like, "Let's [bleep] go," and I was like ah, okay!

[laughing] So, she's a real team player.

She was moving gear and every, ya know, really helping a small function work.

- You know, I don't like that.

It makes you think like I'm irresponsible.

I am not irresponsible.

I'm thinking of opening an IRA.

- I think you're too old to open an IRA.

- Okay, whatever.

I just, I mean, you know me.

I make money.

- Sadly.

- You know, you could always get together with Eddie.

- What!

Oh my God, that's a first.

- You could!

- Who are you?

[Jamie laughs] - Hey Tony, I need a Jack and ginger.

- Hey, we're cuttin' the floor.

You and Esme can go home.

- What!

- Who's staying?

- Jennifer and Jessica.

- Of course they are.

Well, you can tell one of the [bleep] over there to drop that at Zsa Zsa Gabor in the nickel slot.

- There's a couple of scenes in here that I'm curious about.

Her scene in the, in the, I guess lobby of the dancing, in the lobby of the hotel, the casino, is really, ya know, how much of that was scripted?

How much of that was her?

It's an incredible scene, truly.

- Thank you.

That's a fun story actually 'cause working in Vegas, we were sort of all at the Rio Casino, a lot of the cast and crew, all the crew lived there.

And you go to set at six in the morning or earlier and you see the people that are still kind of hanging out from the night before, still drinking and it's such a interesting environment.

But at the Rio, specifically, they have what you call a bevertainer and so, the waitresses are also, really wanna be singers and dancers.

So, when they get a break, they get to use these podiums to sort of show off their talent and Jamie was just observing this girl doing her dance and was just in awe of how talented she is.

And I was like, "Well, do you wanna do that?"

And she's like, "You're gonna make me dance, aren't you?"

I was like, "Yes, please."

And she's like, "Well, Annette's song is 'Total Eclipse From the Heart'."

I was like, "Okay, great!"

So, I mean, she, as you said, she really just goes for it and gives it her all and it's really fun to be around.

- The last two weeks.

On behalf of Muffy as well as our long-time producing partners at the casino, the decision to close the show has been a hard one to make.

But it's been an incredible 38-year run and they wish to thank everyone for their hard work over the years.

- Like, right now?

[light ominous music] [girls chattering] [Showgirl] No, did you know?

[Eddie] This is your 15 minute call, ladies and gentlemen.

- So how much and I'm sure this is in probably many interviews already but, just because at this point that she is in her life now and having just come off that documentary, was she, like what was that directing her like in this?

Was, ya know, it almost, in a way, it almost seems obvious but obviously not, like to get into the place where her whole life is about to change and she only really knows one thing, ya know?

- I don't wanna speak for Pamela, but she has expressed, like she hadn't really gotten the chance to sort of express herself as an actress in this way and so, I think she was really excited by this opportunity and she worked really hard at it and spent a lot of time kind of living with the script.

There were certain things like the strike at the time, so it kind of allowed us to have a long, more conversations.

And I think she just like really immersed herself in a way that, as a director, you're really grateful that they just give 'em so much of themselves to the part and that she was willing to be so vulnerable with me.

- It was brutal when she goes out to try out.

It's such a revelatory scene and I'm curious.

Were you, when you were working this out to go from play to film, where that fell was pretty integral to the emotional journey for us as an audience member.

Can you talk about that?

- Yeah, you know what?

I feel like that scene is so heartbreaking and it speaks so much for itself and especially in the following scene, I was so proud of her and how she, she would really tell me when she was ready to do that, when she was in that emotional place and we would have to get the camera ready and like, ya know, support her in that moment.

- I mean, let's be honest.

You were hired because you were sexy and you were young.

I don't know how to help you if that's, if you don't understand that's not what you're selling any more, baby.

Next.

- So, is this what sexy girls do?

Is this sexy enough for ya?

Is this what young - Next, please!

- and sexy girls... - Another place where I kind of just really fell in love with her was when she's getting ready to go to have dinner with Eddie and then that scene with Eddie and again, it just seemed like such a, ya know, I finally know them each and in that scene.

And how did you lay that out and shoot that?

I mean, even just the way, the camera movement in there just was a really, it was a, it felt like such a very emotional experience that you're totally involved in them and I feel it's a way, that was from the way you shot it.

- A lot of our camera choices are just sort of dictated by our space.

They're obviously real locations, so they're smaller, and so, you kind of can't move that much, which Autumn, our DP, is always complaining we had no depth.

Like the space was so small, she's like, no depth.

So, that was sort of really the deciding factor with that but Pamela had fun with that scene of like, I think I should give him a present and she thought of the Stetson perfume and Dave was totally thrown off guard and was like, I don't have a present.

So, it's fun to do little things like that and I think she was having fun being a little glammed up after like doing so much strip down version of herself.

- Yeah but her anticipation there and her expectation that you can just feel and the dashing of it-- - Yeah, it's sad.

- is just so sad.

- Ya know, yeah.

So, what were some of your film influences 'cause you're such a unique filmmaker?

- With this project specifically, I did, ya know, it was interesting in that I didn't turn to any movies.

I didn't feel inspired by that.

I was really drawn to photography and documentary and just being in Vegas, I think, was really me wanting to show this city that I've been so fascinated by for so long in a way that I am interested in it.

- Why do you think you're so fascinated by it?

- My family thinks I'm weird.

I don't know.

I said it sort of before, but I think, just like it feels like magic and consumerism coming together and it feels like it's sort of this metaphor for Americana.

But it's glittery and sparkles, so that's hard to deny, but then there's this sadness and what is it like to just do your day to day life there?

I was just very curious.

[Barbara] So, what was your process for capturing kind of this spirit of Las Vegas?

- Well it was interesting 'cause I've always wanted to make a movie in Vegas and then, of course, I get to make a movie when now I have an eight month old son with me.

So, I wasn't getting to like experience it the same way as I wanted or had normally felt like I could really immerse myself.

But I was going back and forth a lot and then I got a house there and I would just get to know all the locals and a lot of the locals were really supportive to this movie and helping, kind of.

Shelly's house is a locals house.

We didn't have to dress it very much.

It really was kind of eccentric like that.

And a lot of the, we met with real Jubilee showgirls that kind of showed Pamela how to stand and just tell us their stories and the etiquette is very intricate what the showgirl world means to them.

And it's, ya know, the level of production back then, we don't have anymore.

They used to spend like $10 million on those shows and the sets were so huge, they still can't even get em out of the casino.

They have to be demolished and we used the actual costumes from the "Jubilee" show.

Those are like, real Bob Mackie pieces that are like museum pieces that have not left the building in 30 years.

Yeah, it wasn't easy in those small spaces and these costumes can sometimes be like 60 pounds.

And like, you're not supposed to wear them for very long and I'm not letting them take it off because we don't have time to reset.

So, everyone's like leaning on walls and trying to rest their neck.

I think, ya know, so much of being in Vegas is interesting is you see out with the old, in with the new.

The Tropicana was being demolished and the Sphere is popping up and this movie kind of teeters that idea of analog versus digital and we shot on 16mm film and I think, for me, it was just this sort of selfish reason of I like film and I wanted to shoot on that.

But I think I'm also grappling with this idea of why do we just discard things?

Like why do we, why can't we just, I don't know, have a little bit more appreciation for where things, ya know, learn the classics and be inspired by that and integrated and I don't know.

I guess we don't need to discard so viscously and it kind of goes in this direction of just like perverse sometimes.

♪ Just like a rose ♪ ♪ Red in its glow ♪ ♪ Watch her as she sways ♪ ♪ Just like a rose, she'll ♪ ♪ Cut you with thorns ♪ ♪ She's beautiful that way ♪ [Barbara] Can you talk about that song at the end?

- Yeah, Andrew Wyatt, the composer, he works closely with her and I really wanted an original song for that last act and I begged him if there was a world we could get Miley's vocals and it really wasn't seeming likely and then, all the sudden, I got a audio file with her voice on it and her voice, just to me, like really has that kind of show-girly sound.

She's got a, and I liked that kinda dichotomy of a new artist with that kind of older sound and kind of feel a little more theatrical.

I guess it's kind of to the point of the old and new kind of worlds crossing together.

- You had all these people involved who were essentially people who have been involved with parents, et cetera, in the industry.

Did you really think about that as you were making the film?

- No, I always pick someone based off their own merit, but I think, ya know, I didn't talk to Jamie so much, but I bet she has some great stories of probably her parents in the Vegas days, but Billie, I went to her for I think maybe one of the younger showgirls and she actually expressed to me how much she liked the Hannah role because she related to it from being around her mother and her grandmother.

And she was very ya know, transparent and vulnerable with her kind of background, with her relationship with her mom and how her mom's mom, Debbie, used to do these shows in Vegas and to the point, you know?

She sort of felt like she was playing her mother and that Pamela was sort of Debbie in a way and so, I think, for her, it was a really cathartic experience to kind of dive into that mother-daughter relationship and I was really excited to work with her in that capacity just because I felt like she was gonna bring so much heart and make it multi-layered in a way that just felt like maybe on the page it could just be sort of an angsty young woman.

- So, can you talk about the scored music in this and working with your composer and your music team?

- Wyatt is, he's amazing.

And he really kind of went above and beyond my wildest dreams.

Ya know, he wanted to use a real orchestra and I think that just made it elevate the film in such a different way and I think it kinda goes back to that nostalgia of like using you know, real instruments as opposed to synthesizers or, and I just, I love what he did.

And then, just sort of picking song choices of what those women would be listening to was fun to kinda dive into that kind of, that soundtrack.

- Well, I did have a question about that though.

Did you have your own vision of what that music was going to be like before he, before you brought him in?

Ya know, and obviously, you're hiring him for his own choices, but did you have a vision for that when you were prepping for the film?

- I knew that I wanted it to have an orchestra as much as we would be able to afford.

And I just wanted him to run with the idea that I find Vegas to be a very sonically interesting place.

There's a lot of sound.

It always has sound.

You go in a casino any time of the day, there's music.

Any area of the casino, there's music, which is also very hard for when you're making a movie.

But and then, there's slot machines.

So, I just, yeah, I wanted him to take in consideration what the world meant in a sound sense.

[Barbara] So, how hard was that shooting that in Veg-- in a casino, like it had to be.

How'd you range all that?

Did you?

- It's very hard.

I mean, we were in an actual theater where those dressings room, dressing rooms were, so we had to be out every day by four o'clock so that they could undress it and then get the real, the circus show, I think, was there.

And then we have to like put everyone's things back where we acted away.

And yeah, ya know, you're working.

You just get kind of a sectioned off area, but they don't really want you kind of taking away from their money making areas.

- I mean, I was so heartened to see this movie, also, not just because it's so good, but also because it's so touching and I'm hoping you guys kick butt at the movie theater.

- Thank you.

- Because in a literally weekend where we spent talking with all these writers and producers at the conference about IP and how much it's taken over and ya know, the only movies that made it this year were essentially IP movies and how, and you guys made this personal film that's not IP in any way except maybe Vegas by itself.

And it's so, it's so heartening just to know that this can get made, ya know?

We thank you for doing it.

I mean, it's kind of a brave, scary thing that you've put something out about real people.

- Thank you.

Yeah, I feel like a little bit like we're the, I keep saying the little engine that could.

And I just feel like work with people that make you feel confident and believe in you and I think when you have to really sell yourself and what not, like then it's not a good fit and I feel like with this project, we all talked about how it just really felt like divinely kind of coming together just with Pamela's timing and for me.

I just, I also, I don't know, I became a, when the script was starting, I then later found out I was pregnant.

So, I became a mother.

So, I understood the daughter perspective and then the mother perspective and I really was able to connect with it from a different side of how to juggle being a working mother and a creative and how complicated the sort of societal systemic sort of boundaries are for us in that way and can see it with ageism and all that sort of thing.

So, it really just was getting all these women to kinda commiserate and talk about it.

And it didn't feel like ya know, all this, getting to share it with you is what, the best part, and we just had such a great time making it and I think that's, that's also the joy.

[typewriter ding] [Narrator] You've been watching "The Last Showgirl," with Gia Coppola on "On Story."

"On Story" is part of a growing number of programs in Austin Film Festival's On Story Project, that also includes the On Story radio program, podcast, book series, and the On Story archive, accessible through the Wittcliff Collections at Texas State University.

To find out more about On Story and Austin Film Festival, visit onstory.tv or austinfilmfestival.com.

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