Table Of ContentTodd Haynes: Interviews
Conversations with Filmmakers Series
Gerald Peary, General Editor
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Todd Haynes
i n t e r v i e w s
Edited by Julia Leyda
University Press of Mississippi / Jackson
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member of the Association
of American University Presses.
Copyright © 2014 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2014
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Haynes, Todd.
Todd Haynes : interviews / edited by Julia Leyda.
pages cm. — (Conversations with filmmakers series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Includes filmography.
ISBN 978-1-61703-983-6 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-61703-984-3 (ebook) 1.
Haynes, Todd—Interviews. 2. Motion picture producers and directors—United
States—Interviews. I. Leyda, Julia editor of compilation. II. Title.
PN1998.3.H385A3 2014
791.4302’33092—dc23
2014001978
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
Contents
Introduction ix
Chronology xv
Filmography xvii
Karen Carpenter: Getting to the Bare Bones of Todd Haynes’s Superstar:
The Karen Carpenter Story 3
Sheryl Farber / 1989
Todd Haynes: The Intellectual from Encino 13
Jeffrey Lantos / 1991
Poison at the Box Office 19
Michael Laskawy / 1991
Cinematic/Sexual: An Interview with Todd Haynes 26
Justin Wyatt / 1992
Appendix: An Interview with Todd Haynes 33
Michael William Saunders / 1995
Diary of a Sad Housewife: Collier Schorr Talks with Todd Haynes 42
Collier Schorr / 1995
Todd Haynes 49
Alison MacLean / 1995
Antibodies: Larry Gross Talks with Safe’s Todd Haynes 60
Larry Gross / 1995
v
vi contents
Briefs, Barbies, and Beyond 73
Blase DiStefano / 1995
All That Glitters: Todd Haynes Mines the Glam Rock Epoch 77
Amy Taubin / 1997
Todd Haynes (Interview) 81
Nick James / 1998
Flaming Creatures 86
John C. Mitchell / 1998
Interview with Todd Haynes 93
Keith Phipps / 1998
Fanning the Flames 101
Amy Taubin / 1998
Heaven Sent 105
Dennis Lim / 2002
Imitation of Film: Todd Haynes Mimics Melodrama in
Far from Heaven 110
Anthony Kaufman / 2002
Past Perfect 115
Geoffrey O’Brien / 2002
A Scandal in Suburbia 123
Jon Silberg / 2002
The Many Faces of Bob Dylan: An Interview with Todd Haynes 130
Richard Porton / 2007
Conversations: Todd Haynes 138
Stephanie Zacharek / 2007
Todd Haynes 143
Noel Murray / 2007
contents vii
It Ain’t Me Babe 149
Matt Prigge / 2007
From Underground to Multiplex: An Interview with Todd Haynes 152
Scott MacDonald / 2008
Interview with Todd Haynes 170
Sam Adams / 2011
HBO: Mildred Pierce—The Evening Class Interview with
Todd Haynes 177
Michael Guillén / 2011
Daughter Dearest 185
Amy Taubin / 2011
Todd Haynes on Mildred Pierce: Too Racy for Indies, but Perfect for TV
193
Eric Kohn / 2011
“Something That Is Dangerous and Arousing and Transgressive”: An
Interview with Todd Haynes 201
Julia Leyda / 2012
Key Resources 227
Index 233
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Introduction
One thing becomes strikingly clear in reading this collection of inter-
views: Todd Haynes likes to talk. From the beginning he has been gen-
erous with his time, making himself available to interviewers of every
stripe without discriminating: famous film critics, academics, bloggers,
and writers for local and niche publications, all get a crack at him. Given
his extensive influences and interests—experimental cinema, melo-
drama, celebrity and stardom, feminist and queer theory, and serial
television, to name a few—it comes as no surprise that he comfortably
moves among such different discourses. In assembling this collection, I
have tried to include a representative sample of this range of sources and
contexts.
In my correspondence with these writers in my capacity as editor
of this volume, I was impressed by the number of contributors who re-
marked on what a pleasure it was to conduct these interviews. When I
had the opportunity to do my own interview with him, I immediately
understood. Haynes is not only whip-smart and extremely knowledge-
able about film, politics, theory, and popular culture, he also comes to
the interview ready to rethink and reconsider his own films, engaging
enthusiastically with even the most obscure questions.
These interviews also trace several important and recurring issues in
his body of work: the tension between formalism and emotional engage-
ment, social ostracism of non-normative behaviors or identities, and the
centrality of popular culture in contemporary life. Interviewers pursue
these and other threads throughout his career as they ask him questions
about his latest release as well as previous works, giving readers of this
book a chance to observe the development and sedimentation of various
perspectives and retrospectives.
Todd Haynes first attracted attention for his 1987 film Superstar: The
Karen Carpenter Story, a short biopic of the pop singer performed by dolls
and presented in the mode of a television disease movie. The clever un-
derground allure of the film conceals its stealth mission: it seduces the
viewer, expecting camp or irony, into a powerful emotional encounter
ix
