 ......Luckily, considering that last one, she has managed
to avoid letting any of those roles stick for too long. The only thing
that seems to stick to Sevigny -- who also has small roles in two other
movies at the film festival, Manderlay and Mrs. Harris -- is her steadfast
indie it-girl presence.
In 3 Needles, written and directed by Canadian filmmaker Thom Fitzgerald,
she takes on perhaps her biggest role thus far. In the tripartite movie,
set in rural China, Montreal and a South African village, Clara carries
the segment set in a hospice in South Africa where most of the patients
are dying of an unnamed virus we know is AIDS. Sevigny, 30, says she hadn't
heard of Fitzgerald when a casting director friend of hers insisted she
read the script. It's not her usual M. O., she says -- usually she finds
herself working with directors she knows or who single her out. "I thought,
I don't care what movies this guy has done before," she says. "I don't
know where it fits into the whole story, but I feel like I could do something
really special with it. I've always wanted to play someone who is pious
but also struggling with religion."
Clara was the starting point for the project, Fitzgerald says. "Chloe's
an actor I've watched and admired for a long time. I know it's a bigger
role and a bigger challenge than she's often associated with. Girls just
have to play the girlfriends. That's the world we live in." Fitzgerald
says, for this role, he wanted to create a contemporary, well-rounded
and conflicted nun. "Not a movie nun. Movie nuns are either beatific or
they hit you with a ruler. This is a character who's drawn to something
but doesn't fully grasp why. And she's a novice."
Clara's struggle comes early on, as she oversteps her assignment to care
for and convert the dying, finally trading sex in an oddly tender quid-pro-quo
arrangement with a plantation owner, in exchange for funds and medical
supplies. "She sacrifices herself -- the only way she knows she can, through
using her body," Sevigny says. "It's selfless, but also selfish in a way
-- she can fill something in her through others. She's someone who falls
from grace -- but doesn't. I was very concerned with not making her too
goody-goody; I didn't want her to be too much of a do- gooder. I didn't
want you to hate her because she was too good. I wanted her to be flawed.
Thom and I worked hard on that." There are hints that Clara will unravel.
We see her cutting herself early in the film. "The back story I created
for myself is perhaps she had something traumatic happen to her, which
is why she's cutting herself. She's also probably pretty self-righteous
and spiritual. She finds being a young person today vapid, and people
aren't doing enough for others. She finds the church to be the best outlet
for her spiritually, a way to contribute in some way."
 Sevigny was raised Catholic, as was Fitzgerald. However,
their film won't be shown in nun class. In addition to the sex scenes,
there's the matter of Clara storming into a tea field with a rod and attacking
a man she suspects of raping an infant to "cure" himself of the virus.
"It's not very nun-like," Sevigny says. It's also demanding emotionally
when coupled with beginner local crews, a language barrier and a most
un-Hollywood set-up. "Thom was so patient. I was getting really annoyed.
Thom turned into my inspiration for Clara, as it turned out. I grew to
adore him and his thought process." As it happens, Fitzgerald says the
film is "about my inner nun. And my Catholic upbringing and reconciling
the teachings of the faith with practical realities that we face every
day: How do we bring our faith into the world? I thought it was a great
central crisis." And one that isn't as easy to pull on and off as a pair
of Dolce & Gabbana pumps. Fitzgerald says he witnessed the toll one day
when Sevigny thought she was alone.
"The scene in the field was the one location that actually scared her,"
Fitzgerald says. "Goats were walking past her and rubbing against her
legs. The intensity of it . . . I had headphones on. There was a moment
where she was by herself, waiting for a shot. I realized she was just
quietly weeping out there, the thoughts getting to be a little too much."
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