Singer-songwriter Sophie B. Hawkins is talking about women's roles in movies over late-night coffee in Santa Monica.
"What's going on in 'A Thousand Acres' and 'Paradise Road' is women are taking charge in ways that are not usually allowed on film. There is one scene [in "Acres"] where Michelle [Pfeiffer] goes, 'Daddy, you lost!' " Hawkins delivers the line in her best Pfeiffer imitation before continuing on in her normally husky voice. "And you feel all of the angst and anger [of] her whole life went into that moment."
It is not odd that movies are on Hawkins' mind. The singer is the subject of director Gigi Gaston's unreleased documentary "The Cream Will Rise." And it is not unusual that strong women would be her focal point. Since her fast rise to stardom in 1992 with the risque "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover" from the album "Tongues and Tails," Hawkins portrayed herself as an unapologetically strong woman long before the Lilith Fair tour made she-power cool. "I identify my sexuality with my soul, not with someone else's gender," explains Hawkins, who calls herself "omnisexual."
Tonight, the native New Yorker appears to have adapted quite well to Los Angeles. She rode her bike to this interview. Wearing faded gray corduroy pants and a sweatshirt, she talks about why she gave the reins to first-timer Gaston. "I was really curious as to why Gigi wanted to do it. I didn't know what I was to the outside world. I have a strong sense of myself but I had no idea how I projected out into the world. I had never seen myself perform."
The idea sprang full-blown into Gaston's mind after watching one of Hawkins' rehearsals. The two had met a few nights earlier by chance while having dinner with mutual friends in February 1996. They clicked and Hawkins invited Gaston to a rehearsal, insisting that she say for a couple of hours. As Gaston recalls, "I came and stayed eight. I was just so fascinated by her that I offered to do a documentary on her, and she said, 'yah, yeah, so many people say that,' and I said, 'I want to,' and she said, 'Go ahead.' "
But at that time, Gaston didn't know any potential crew members, own a camera or have any directing experience. She was a former Olympic equestrian who had started writing film scripts. "I called my assistant's friend who had painted my kitchen. She had mentioned that she had worked on movies," Gaston says with a laugh. That woman was Anne Attalla, who served as line producer. With a couple of years of commercial and film work to her credit, Attalla would prove invaluable.
