Filmmaker Gigi Gaston’s personal connection to the famed Gypsy Rose Lee is what originally snagged our interest in the backstory of Gaston’s new film 9 Bullets. As we delved into the details of this film, we learned how so many in the filmmaker’s life came to populate the characters in the story, albeit somewhat embellished and re-imagined as the story required.
In 9 Bullets, we meet several characters including main character Gypsy, a dancer given a second chance with a book deal. Her world is turned upside down when 8-year-old Sam suddenly finds himself hiding in Gypsy’s house after the brutal murder of his family. In an attempt to escape Jack, Gypsy’s former lover behind the murder of Sam’s family, Gypsy and Sam embark on a rollercoaster of a road trip that brings them together.
Here, Picture This Post (PTP) talks with Gigi Gaston (GG) about the making of the film, her personal connection, and how she navigates being a queer woman in a male dominated field.
(PTP) What events from your personal relationship impacted the portrayal of Gypsy in 9 BULLETS?
(GG) My mom was friends with the burlesque dancer Gypsy Rose Lee and actress Bette Davis, who used to come to my mom's parties at our house. I was the only kid and would sit on Gypsy's lap, watching everyone placate Gypsy and Bette.
One night, when I was maybe 8, Gypsy said to me, "See all those men out there? Well, they only see this," as she swept across the length of her body and she then said, "What is more important is what is between your ears. Brains are way more important than anything else, remember that". And I did. In 9 Bullets Gypsy just got a book deal and is getting a second chance to finally live off her brains and make a living that way. Her relationship with Sam and the dog very much come from my own experience though altered.
Were there moments in your relationships, whether it be as a child or adult, when you thought—OH, I have to make a movie about this?
It wasn't until 2017 that I said I have to make a movie about all these swirling thoughts and feelings inside of me evolving around a second chance and my kid.
How did you decide on the ending to the film, and how is it personal to you?
Everything I write is personal to me, and I hope some part of it will resonate to people who watch the film as well. I think now we all need a second chance in life. Nothing is hopeless, no matter where you are in life, who you are, or how old you are.
I think it's also about love, the choices we make and their repercussions. The last thing Gypsy wants is a kid, yet she makes the right choice to help him. She puts him first over her book, then realizes she loves this kid, who she doesn't want to love, and ultimately chooses him and to become his mother. They are two misfits who belong together and make a whole. Gypsy could have left that kid, but no, she is a reluctant heroine who does the right thing even though she doesn’t want to. Something in that kid, though painful of her past, speaks to her. She is a bit tough at first because he reminds her of past pain that she has shut away, but the innocence of Sam just cuts right through that. Both of them get a second chance in life - through each other - and they get a family, which to me is more important than that book deal. The dog gets a second chance too.
How is the character of Sam important?
My son Dash very much opened my heart and made me see life differently when I was totally scared about having a kid with my domestic partner. After my divorce I felt such a deep loss at not seeing him because he moved with his birth mother to New York. I was struggling at the time, and I wanted to write him a tribute on how much he meant to me and what he did for me. I didn't write it on the money like what was happening in my life, but about how important Dash was in my life. I dedicated the movie to him. Hopefully he will see that and know how much I love him. I combined both people from my life in this movie and then added a past romantic interest of Gypsy's, Sam Worthington's character Jack, who she knew and loved as a young woman. Yes, he has changed and gone to the dark, yet a part of her still loves him, as parts of me still love certain people I knew when I was young. As much as she hates him, she does still love that past in him, and she hates herself for it.
What other personal experiences inspired 9 BULLETS?
Barbara Hershey's role was very much a piece of my mother, though I never thought of that until now. In her goodbye to Gypsy her last words as they part are words that my mother said to me when she died in my arms in 2017, "Be strong, don't quit". The look on Gypsy's face said it all for me, no dialogue, just her reaction. I had wanted to do a close-up on Barbara - turn the camera around at that moment, but we shot 103 pages in 19 days and over 204 shots. It was a tough schedule for everyone and sometimes we ran out of time. This was one of those cases but it was all said in the look that Lena gives her. It was an incredible moment.
La La Anthony's character, Tasmin, to which La La brings such levity, was written based on a friend of mine when I lived in New York at 25. Lisa, played by Emma Holzer, is a character I knew when I was about 20. A girl who just wants to be accepted by the guy she has deemed for her and doesn’t care how he treats her, but she has to get the prize. She is very goal-oriented, and you think she is one way and here she is another, maybe even as ruthless as he is.
Can you share with our readers how 9 BULLETS “explores loving relations in different ways” and why you chose to make this a theme of the film?
The love between a mother and child is sacred. The love between two strangers that morph into that mother and child. The complicated and unhealthy love Gypsy has for Jack, may be cloaked in hate, but that seed of love from their childhood still remains. Her shame is apparent when she goes into the bathroom and cries after they have made love. Jack loves her so much that he can't kill even though he wants to when they are in the graveyard alone. Jack pulls a gun on her but can't pull the trigger, why? Would he have if his men had come back? The quiet love Barbara Hershey's character Lacy has for Gypsy, telling her to “be strong, don’t quit,” means to me in that scene that Barbara believes in her writing and her ability to change. Lacey’s character is sort of a distant mother figure for Gypsy.
There is even a love between Martin Sensmeier’s character Eddie and Mike, played by Chris Mullinax.Tasmin's (La La Anthony) love of her mother, wanting to get home to her. In my director's cut she doesn’t get home.
How did you get started in writing and directing?
I was a waitress in New York at a restaurant and some people ran out on my table and I had to cover the bill. Later when I was walking my dog, a man came up to me with what I thought was a knife in his pocket and said give me your money. I was young and as I said in a bad mood and said “F**k You” ! I am not giving you anything unless you give me something” He looked at me shocked and took off his backpack. He was one of the book sellers that used to sell on the sidewalk in New York. He took the books out and said pick a book! I picked a book called Mockingbird by Walter Tevis and gave him my money. I read the book a year later and had to option that book. I was going to be a producer, but it was expensive!!! I found investor friends, and a partner who had made maybe one movie, optioned the book and went to find a writer but no one wanted to write that script. After a year the 20K option was running out, and I didn’t want to lose people's money, so I bought a book by Syd Field. I read and wrote my first spec in 2 weeks. CAA repped me as a writer and we sold it to Steve Tisch, Mary Parent and New Line! I put a guy's name as thw writer, not my own, when I sent it to the only agent I knew at CAA. When they asked to meet George I showed up! The movie never got made. Crazy!
As for director, the first documentary I directed was called The Cream Will Rise. At a screening in New Jersey, a woman said that documentary "changed her life. It showed me what I could do with all the abuse in my life and inspired me.” That hit me so hard and deep. It is the only reason for me to be a filmmaker, to give people hope and inspiration and tastes of life, stories that resonate to someone that can move a person and help them understand. That is what movies did for me as a child. Those precious moments in life that change you, that make you feel… to find those moments in life and make them work effortlessly, and then actors take it further. Every actor in this movie did. Actors inspire me to be a filmmaker - they are magic.
What memories can share with our readers during the production of 9 BULLETS?
Lena Headey comes to her first wardrobe fitting and she is looking through the clothes, picking things out and not liking a lot of the dresses. I had written Gypsy to be in skirts, running around like Melanie Griffith, who was racing around in an action movie in a skirt and heels. I can see Lena doing her thing, not looking too pleased at the selection of clothes. Lena picks jeans and a leather jacket to wear “on the run”. I thought wow she looks cool! It's different from what I wrote about, but I really trusted her instincts as an actress. We are shooting and about two weeks in the DP kept calling me Lena, then saying "sorry Gigi". Then a few others did the same, and then I looked at Lena and realized what she had picked was a better version of my staple outfit jeans and a leather jacket! Now I had not told her this kid was about my son and BAM I was staring at a part of myself, and a part of Dash in Dean Scott Vasquez!
How is navigating the directorial/writing world as a woman, especially a queer woman?
I don't really feel I am a woman or a man when I am directing, because my focus is on the scene, the moments, and the actors when in production. In pre-production and post I did feel a little challenged here and there. My word of advice is to make sure you have someone who is really supportive of you. Not just supportive to the outside world, but in their hearts, the first being a great manager who has your back and is savvy. We all set our sights on the goal of making a movie, the best we could. It's all about the actors, the story and getting the movie done.
Do you have anything you are currently working on that you could share with our readers?
Yes! I am revisiting a script I wrote years ago and sold about a drag queen and a tomboy. It's called Like a Lady and is based on my life as a showjumper equestrian, who is a champion but is always mistaken for a boy and feels like a freak (me in the late 90's)! She stumbles into a bar and sees men that are more feminine than she has dreamed of being, and gets the old drag queen to teach her how to look like a sexy woman, make-up, and all. My Fair Lady/Professor Higgins in Drag!
Are there any other comments you would like to share with our readers?
I am just grateful. Grateful to my cast, my producers, investors, my friends, my manager who all helped me get the movie done. I hope it will touch some hearts.
Photos courtesy of Screen Media.
To find out how to watch the film, visit 9 BULLETS on the Screen Media wesbite.
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About the Author: Jessica Purdy
When Jess asked her friends to describe her, they unanimously said three words: outgoing, funny, and spontaneous. She has a passionate voice for the things she cares about, including politics, animals, lgbtqa+ and women’s rights. Growing up in the suburbs of Manchester, England, Jess has a special place in her heart for British sport. Her ideal Sunday would be spent on the couch watching Manchester United, while eating homemade vegetarian lasagna. Besides that, you’ll find her on a tennis court, whether it be cheering on her teammates during rigorous collegiate competitions or playing herself.
