Chloe Sevigny on That Insane, Naked Murder Scene in Her New Movie 'Lizzie'
This post contains spoilers for the film Lizzie, in theaters now.
We’ve all heard the, TBH, completely messed-up rope-skipping rhyme: Lizzie Borden took an axe / And gave her mother forty whacks. / When she saw what she had done / She gave her father forty-one.
But did you know it’s based on a true, completely messed-up story? “She's come to represent this kind of like feminist American outlaw,” says Chloe Sevigny who plays the titular accused murderer in Lizzie, in theaters now.
The almost unbearably tense, can’t-take-your-eyes-off-of-it film depicts the repressively patriarchal world in which Borden lived, the weeks of Borden’s life that led up to the murder of her father and step-mother, and Borden’s subsequent murder trial. Kristen Stewart co-stars as Bridget Sullivan, the Borden family’s live-in maid with whom Lizzie develops an intense friendship, then romance, that provides an escape from her abusive, domineering father and spiteful step-mother.
Kristen Stewart co-stars as Bridget Sullivan, the Borden family’s live-in maid with whom Lizzie develops an intense friendship, then romance, that provides an escape from her abusive, domineering father and spiteful step-mother.
Oh, right, and there’s also the murder itself. A scene that is wholly upsetting yet gratifying (I mean, you know it’s coming the entire time and then-finally!) and that feels like something out of a horror film: Sevigny is nude, covered in blood, seemingly possessed. But, I don’t know, can you blame her? (The jury that acquitted her couldn’t, mostly because a group of guys in 1892 couldn’t picture a nice dainty lady committing such a heinous act.)
I spoke to Sevigny about the Borden and bringing her crime to life onscreen-
On Lizzie Borden’s story:
“I love a gossip tale, and it hit on a lot of things that always interested me: turn of the century New England, tragic love story, a woman fighting for her freedom. Plus, it’s entertaining and spooky.”
On the side of Borden that hadn’t yet been explored:
“Other versions of the story have always said, ‘She's such an outcast, a misfit, so cold and detached,’ and I really just wanted to explore her, and humanize her. There are so many social constraints on her, her sexuality, her mind. She had very little options, like most women of that time. You were either under your father's thumb or your husband's.”
On that wild murder scene:
“I felt like the audience almost deserves it at that point, the movie is so constricted. Being confronted by a naked woman-like, this is a woman doing this-and seeing my body, it's really powerful. She just sheds herself of all those social constraints and something takes over. She doesn't even know that she's really going to do it, and once she starts, she gets possessed. The adrenaline, fear, release-when she goes downstairs and finds Bridget, she's almost detached and checked out in a calm robotic state. To me, that is almost scarier.”
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