Lauren Lee Smith (5/05 Art School Confidential)
Variety 5/18/05: Lauren Lee Smith | Art School Confidential | YouTube
Lauren Lee Smith
By JUSTIN CHANG
Smith just wrapped Terry Zwigoff's "Art School Confidential."
© Variety
The Vancouver Province 5/3/06: Lauren Lee Smith
This info isn't strictly Confidential
By The Vancouver Province May 3, 2006
Vancouver's Lauren Lee Smith is an actor on the move. Having scorched the screen in last year's ode to obsessive sexuality, Toronto filmmaker Clement Virgo's Lie With Me, Smith has a role in American Terry Zwigoff's much-anticipated Art School Confidential, which arrives in theatres today. She's also in the U.S. indie ensemble The Last Kiss, expected in the fall festival season, and has just finished a starring turn in One Way, a drama shot between Toronto and Cologne. "Right now, I would be ecstatic if I could work in Iceland. I'd work anywhere -- if it's challenging," says Smith, over coffee at Kitsilano's Epicurean cafe. "My absolute, 100-per-cent passion right now is working and doing things I'm proud of.
"I know Vancouver will always be home for me. My family's here and this is where I've always come back to in my life. But I love travelling and, in the past year, I've been back and forth from L.A., I've been to Toronto, I've been to Cologne, I've been to Montreal.
"I would like to work in Vancouver, though."
With American actors assuming starring turns in Canadian films, it's more than fitting that Canadians are increasingly showing up in U.S. indies. And Smith, with her on-screen charisma and superb acting chops, has everything required to be as popular in the larger indie world as Sarah Polley or Molly Parker. And with a messed-up funding/distribution/exhibition system stacked against the Canadian film scene, who can blame the Molly Parkers and Tygh Runyans and Carly Popes and Lauren Lee Smiths for seeking meaningful employment down south? The Canadian indie critique of Hollywood is aimed at its studio films, not its indies. Canadian and U.S. independent filmmakers often share values and sensibilities, and Zwigoff is one of America's most innovative indie directors. For Art School Confidential, he reunites with his Ghost World co-writer Daniel Clowes to adapt another underground comic book for the screen. It's about a talented artist who escapes a suburban high school only to find himself in art school. "I haven't seen it [Art School Confidential]," she says. "Ghost World is one of my favourite films. Terry is one of those directors, who you don't know what you're going to get."
In Art School Confidential, Smith has a small but juicy role as a beatnik student able to laugh and cry simultaneously. "He (Zwigoff) is completely odd. That's the only way I can describe him," she says, recalling a scene where her character, performing in a student film, has blood poured on her while she dances. "He came up to me on set and said, 'So, what are you going to do? I'd like you do this jerky dance. Let me show you.' So, he starts doing this insane, jerky, almost epileptic dance. Then he says, 'Something like that.' OK, done, buddy."
It was a dance drawn from Being John Malkovich. And, curiously enough, Malkovich himself co-produces and appears in Art School Confidential, which also features Anjelica Huston, Jim Broadbent and Max Minghella. "One of the reasons I was desperate to do anything in this movie was John Malkovich," says Smith. "He's one of my all-time favourite actors in the world. I thought for sure I would get to meet him but I didn't."
Born in Chilliwack, Smith lived everywhere in the Vancouver area, from North Van to Kitsilano. Eventually her family settled in L.A., but Smith returned to Vancouver after high school to begin her acting career, quickly landing TV work. "When I started acting the only roles I could get were girl-next-door. Now, it's sort of come full circle," she says. "I've heard the word edgy quite a few times in the past year. Honestly, I think it's not me. I'm a very easygoing person. When I see a character who has this edge, this fire, this darkness, I think I'd like to do that for a month -- have an excuse to be a raging lunatic. I just find it more interesting to explore these different, offbeat characters.
"I'm drawn to characters that have something to say. If my career ever came down to just being on a sitcom, I don't think I'd want to be an actress. I'd do something else."
Besides the recent movie work, Smith has a recurring role on TV's The L Word and is in the upcoming set-in-the-Downtown Eastside CBC miniseries Dragon Boys. These days, she's living between L.A. and Vancouver. "I like being in L.A. if there's a reason to be there but I would rather sit around in Vancouver. I'm hanging out here for the summer."
Finding work in L.A. independents is competitive. "The well-known actors that are smart are taking notice that these big studio movies are not that fantastic," she says. "It's great to do a huge feature film. But I find you get more out of the indie experience. I just find they care about what they're doing a lot more. I like being a part of that."
© The Vancouver Province
Excerpt from Vancouver Sun 6/21/07: Lauren Lee Smith
Sexy roles just come her way: B.C.-born Lauren Lee Smith plays seductive TV 'weather girl' in latest movie
Michael D. Reid, Published: Thursday, June 21, 2007
Smith, who made her big-screen debut with a tiny role in Get Carter, is no stranger to such adventurous filmmaking. On Art School Confidential, in which she played a beatnik art student, director Terry Zwigoff asked her to do a "jerky dance." He then demonstrated by weirdly undulating through a routine inspired by a dance in Being John Malkovich. "Terry's a little bit nutty," laughs Smith. "He was worried I wouldn't get it right so he started moving about like a maniac."
© Vancouver Sun
Excerpt from Claire McBuffy at L4: Lauren Lee Smith
Me: Because you were quite funny in Art School Confidential. That was hilarious your…tiny little role you had.
Lauren: That, that was, yeah! That was sort of…
Me: It was so funny.
Lauren: …A little piece, a piece of it.
Me: Particularly the screaming bit.
Lauren: That was, that was fun! *Laughs*
Me: It made me laugh.
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