Tackling extreme true stories of identity has become the bread and butter of director Justin Kelly.
The American filmmaker has worked with inspiration from directing legends like Gus Van Sant and Todd Haynes to deliver acclaimed hits such as the biopic on gay activist Michael Glatze entitled I Am Michael starring Zachary Quinto and James Franco, and gay porn crime drama King Cobra featuring Franco and Christian Slater.
Now Kelly brings us the stunning true story of JT LeRoy, which charters the literary hoax around the author avatar of the same name.
The film sees writer Laura Albert (Laura Dern) persuades her husband's (Jim Sturgess) sibling Savannah Knoop (Kristen Stewart) to help her portray a fictional literary persona as the eponymous JT LeRoy and deliver apparently semi-autobiographical tales of drug use, sexual abuse, and blurred gender identity.
However, the hoax soon begins to cause major emotional crises for all those involved.
JT LeRoy also stars rock legend Courtney Love and acclaimed actress Diane Kruger.
Mirror Online spoke with Justin Kelly regarding what drew him to this bizarre real-life tale, how Stewart and Dern got involved with the film, and what is next for him to tackle in upcoming film Weetzie Bat.
What drew you to tackle the story of JT LeRoy and how did you get the film made?
Well, I read the first book Sarah, and was drawn to its weird, queer outsider presence. It was a unique book, but I was mostly interested in him [JT LeRoy] as a persona - the wig, the glasses, the shrouded secret identity.
And once the story broke and he didn't actually exist - this was even more fascinating than his books and by chance, I met Savannah Knoop and read their memoir and was blown away by the kind of information that wasn't out there and understood why they did it.
It started with quite a few years of rewriting the script by the time Kristen got it.
We had had 7 years of back and forth with rewrites and Savannah was working on other things, while we worked on other films to help get it off the ground.
What was it like working with Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern?
It was a fantasy to get them both and we were so lucky they responded to the material and we met up with them and they really understood these two people.
We really wanted them and they wanted to play the part.
Did Kristen Stewart spend much time with the real Savannah Knoop?
They hung out a few times in Los Angeles to get to know each other before the shoot - not quite talking in-depth on personal details at that point, but Savannah later visited the set and met up with Kristen and also Laura, along with Savannah’s brother, as played by Jim Sturgess in the film.
Savannah ended up staying for the entire shoot and was available to speak about anything.
How did Kristen and Laura approach their characters?
Kristen wanted a lot of information about Savannah’s life away from JT too, even more than I had wanted from her.
She had adopted these plugs in her jaw line to appear more masculine that weren't even that important to me but they really helped to capture Savannah.
They were both so incredibly dedicated to character but it was to an extreme point and in such a great way - to think about every word and every maneuver and gesture. It was very exciting for me and Savannah to watch.
It helped to go through the script page by page and go through it all together for their input on makeup and hair.
Kristen is definitely more internalised about her decision making and Laura more talkative, but they had their chemistry.
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