If you’re looking for a little unexpected sass at the movies on Friday you may want to check out Abe Sylvia’s energetic debut “Dirty Girl.” The coming of age story meets road trip premiered at last year’s Toronto Film Festival and is finally hitting theaters this weekend in limited release.
“Dirty Girl” stars Juno Temple (“Atonement,” the upcoming “Dark Knight Rises”) as Danielle, a sexy, sexually promiscuous, foul mouthed and generally misunderstand Norman, Oklahoma teenager who is in dire need of finding her long lost father. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she’s thrown together with Clarke (newcomer Jeremy Dozier), an overweight gay classmate who is being mistreated by his out of touch father (Dwight Yoakam). When Clarke’s dad goes too far one night, the new BFF’s steal his car and head to the shiny hills of Fresno in hopes of finding Danielle’s dad.
Sitting down to talk to both Temple and Dozier last week, the young actors gave Sylvia a lot of credit for the film’s vision, but the daughter of famed British director Julien Temple admitted she’s always had a little bit of a “dirty girl” in her waiting to come out.
“It was definitely my fantasy of being a girl like that,” Temple says. “I would love to be Southern. I am fascinated by the South. I mean, she was like something that needed to be released like this firecracker that, y’know, doesn’t really give…a flying [expletive] about what people think. And she takes the hits and is an inspiration to people in that high school as someone who is very different, but she doesn’t change. She’s not gonna change herself to fit in with that crowd. She’s gonna be who she wants to be.”
The now 25-year-old Dozier admits he had his share of dirty girls in his own high school growing up, but think it’s the film’s message about acceptance which is more memorable than Danielle’s over-the-top antics.
“With Clark I think his story it’s everybody’s story,” Dozier says. “It’s trying to find who you are and who you want to be and everybody wants to be loved, accepted and heard, so I think what’s great about the two characters is that they bring out the best parts about themselves and they really learn a lot about themselves and each other.”
You can hear more from the duo including their fears about singing “Don’t Cry Out Loud” in front of the song’s original vocalist Melissa Manchester (live no less) in the video embedded at the the top of this post.
“Dirty Girl” opens in limited release on Friday.
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