Kelly Reichardt is known for her films with lived-in details, complex female lead characters and poignant social commentary. Despite making gem after gem, Reichardt is not immune to the problems of being an indie filmmaker, with her sophomore feature coming in 12 years after her debut.
READ MORE: Kelly Reichardt: The Essential Films [Be Reel Podcast]
In a new interview, Reichardt opens up about spending a season shooting “America’s Next Top Model” in order to finance her film “Old Joy.”
During an in-depth interview with GQ to promote her latest film “First Cow,” Reichardt talked about the struggles of independent filmmaking. When asked about the 12-year space between Reichardt’s debut feature “River of Grass” and “Old Joy” Reichardt said that independent filmmaking “was really not open and generous to women in any way.” After spending a decade trying to get her sophomore film going, Reichardt saved enough money by doing a season of “America’s Next Top Model.”
“Richard Glatzer, the director, he’d been working on reality shows since the very first reality show,” Reichardt said. “Richard got me the job and I went out to L.A. and while I was working on it, I was working on the script ‘Old Joy’ at the same time.”
This isn’t the first time Reichardt spoke about the financial struggles of independent filmmaking. In a New York Times profile in 2016, Reichard candidly talked about the reality of making low-budget films: “You can romanticize it — and maybe it is adding something — but it also just means that I’m not getting paid, and I’m in my 50s.”
