Listening with Director Kimberly Peirce

Kimberly Peirce is one of the most intense interview subjects that you'll ever meet. Within seconds of getting into a room with her, you can tell that she's a woman with strong opinions but she also has the fantastic ability to listen. Peirce speaks as eloquently as anyone you're likely to meet on a press junket. She'll passionately explain her viewpoint and then do something that not a lot of people do nowadays - just as passionately listen to yours. It's listening to other people that has led Peirce to Stop Loss.

After 9/11, Kim's 18-year-old brother volunteered for the Army and went to both Afghanistan and Iraq in September 2003. To try and understand what her kid brother was going through, the director of Boys Don't Cry took a camera and started interviewing his friends and fellow soldiers. Peirce interviewed hundreds of soldiers and came across the issue of "stop loss" - sending people who have already done their tour of duty back overseas. Kids were going AWOL to avoid being sent back to war. It inspired Peirce to switch from documentary to narrative, and the feature film starring Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Abbie Cornish hits theaters this Friday. The riveting Peirce sat down with The Deadbolt a few weeks ago and spoke more about the issues surrounding her movie than the flick itself. Our only regret is that we didn't have more time.

THE DEADBOLT: I've heard that you've been taking the film around to students and doing several Q & A sessions, what are some of the responses that you've been getting?

KIM PEIRCE: Across America, it's been really interesting. It's been fascinating to me that it plays to both young and old, man and woman. I think I'm beginning to see why they all find a way into it. We're doing a college tour; we generally make sure to have college students. What I get from them consistently is, "I didn't know this was going on. I didn't get to see this footage before. This is not on the news and I feel an obligation to know what's happening with our soldiers." And, "I can relate to this," which is, I think, because our story is told from the soldier's point of view and because of the music that we use. We use Toby Keith, they listen to that. We use Drowning Pool. We use Marshall Tucker Band. So, I think that they feel it speaks to them on that level. Also, this is the generation that picks up a camera, video tapes themselves, and puts it on YouTube. They're used to editing. They're used to doing mash-ups. So, for them, the way the movie communicates works.

What I get from women is that they love that the guys are emotional. They feel that they haven't been able to see a lot of that. And what I get from everybody is, "Thank you for making an emotional movie. We didn't know if it was going to be set over there but we're happy it's about camaraderie, it's about people, and it's about coming home." That's been pretty interesting.

THE DEADBOLT: The YouTube comment is interesting. This morning I was watching the Sound Off clips, which I found riveting. Are those the clips you shot yourself when the project was first a documentary or did they film it themselves?

PEIRCE: We gave them the cameras, they filmed it, we edited it, and we're going to be doing installments and then we encourage them to interact with the audience and any questions they may have. Dave served with my brother and got hurt. Sharla, I interviewed while I was doing research on military wives and she was extraordinary and helped me really understand it from the woman's perspective and I became very aware of her husband, who was fighting. Sharla's great, she has so many great stories. Keith Kurtz, I adore. He's in the movie. He's one of the soldiers that we hired. He's a Marine and he went through boot camp with my actors. He's incredibly close to them. He was there for me. Whenever I could, I brought real soldiers into the experience - looking at my script, working with the actors. Most of the scenes where you see soldiers in the background - those are real soldiers. I would say, "Guys, what was it like to come home your first night?" And then I would use that. Kurtz was great, he gave me a dagger at the end of shooting. The guys love him. The other guy, Stuart, I didn't meet but he's fantastic. He's the All-American. We found them mostly because we were friends with them or a couple of people like Suzanne, whose son is stop-lossed, she came in later. The guy under her came in later. That's about it.

THE DEADBOLT: All of those hours of documentary footage that you shot, will those ever see the light of day?

PEIRCE: Yeah, they will. I have to see. A movie can only be made if a movie is meant to be made. I feel like a movie tells you if it's ready. So, I have all this footage and I'm waiting to see if it is a movie, but I gave a hundred hours to the studio, which is my interviews and around my office we just filmed me and the people around me working. I love the idea of filming the process. So, we gave all that footage over. They're using some of it for national broadcast. What's great is it shows elements of the soldiers and combat that people haven't seen. Also, we use it for the making-of since I spent so much time filming the process. And I also film all the Q & As. It's been twelve cities. I film every question and all my answers. It's been extraordinary getting to know the regionality of America along with the universality.

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