A Downward Evolution

Diamond Stingily: Bella, why did you say yes to being in the play?

Bella Newman: You said the play came to you in a dream and I believe in dreams.

DS: I did dream it. And we didn’t know each other that well at all then.

BN: But I knew I liked you.

DS: I liked you too. And I knew I was going out on a whim when I asked, Bella you're busy, you have a lot going on. But I told a friend I was going to do a play with you – and then you said yes. That’s how it works, if I say something, it just happens. I have that power.

BN: So what was that dream you had?

DS: The dream was set at night. So I don’t have a license in real life, I can drive, but in the dream it was me driving around illegally, in a car that looked like the car my maternal grandmother drove in the 90’s. Then Bella was there in the passenger side shooting people outside the window. And it looked cool. That was the dream. And you really do shoot guns as a hobby. I had wanted to make a play about my mom, but then it expanded into something else. I think a lot of the art I have been making is a reaction to my grief of losing my mom and grandma, both my grandmas, and my aunt. Losing all these women in a short amount of time.

BN: You told me before that your mother was excellent at driving.

DS: She was a great driver. She taught my dad how to drive a stick. That’s sexy. Also my mother couldn’t walk that well because she was disabled. I don’t think we say handicapped anymore, but she had a lot of health things – but when she was in the car she was in full control. Is control important to you Bella?

BN: Yes and no. In life I am addicted to uncomfortable situations.

DS: You're in it for the story.

BN: Yes, give me the character development. But artistically I want to be in charge of all the variables. I never know what the final product will be, the creative process is the experiment, but you have to control the parameters for the alchemy to work. What about you? What’s making the word control come to mind?

DS: I am trying to get better at loosening up. I think one of the reasons I like acting is because I am not in control. Acting gives me the opportunity to let someone else take the reins. This is a new situation for me, I’ve never written a play by myself. I am in control but I have to be open to critique in a way that I am usually not with my visual practice. Are you into how I see you as the shooter?

BN: Traveling for work as an artist is sort of like being an assassin. You're alone a lot, on assignment in foreign lands.

DS: I totally agree, I always think being a visual artist makes me feel like being a spy, with a passport full of stamps and weird explanations.

BN: Yeah, and you're trying to soak in a new place on a fixed amount of time on the edge of the delirium. Other people try to make comparisons between my using of a camera in image making and my shooting hobby. Shooting a gun is meditative. Whereas with my process in photography I have to build the entire world, it has nothing to do with immediacy. Guns are just like there to shoot at metal when I’m stressed. Back to the play though: What is the meaning of it? Why are we here?

DS: Well just so you know, I also chose you to act in this play because you're good at shooting. And you look sexy with a gun in your hand. But to your question, the play is about jealousy, and what it means to be jealous of someone younger than you. This happens particularly between women. It’s also about the idea of mothers being flawed and the harsh reality of what motherhood actually is. I thought at first when writing the play, that I wanted the characters to behave like men. But that isn’t my perspective, but I do know the perspective of being a flawed woman. I want to write about what I am. The play is loosely sparked from my own mother who was not perfect, but her story was extremely interesting. And I genuinely believe she did the best she could, going off what she knew. She wanted to do better than her parents and I think she succeeded in that. I think there was a lot of beauty in her flaws, she was very earnest and honest with her children.

BN: When we met for the first time you hand wrote me a letter with a list of movies I should watch or rewatch, and some characters to look at. We also then went into aYouTube hole looking at dance scenes in film.

DS: Yeah we did, I think it’s important before you start a project to have your references so no one is confused about what you're trying to direct. I think if we’d gone in blind, I wouldn’t have known what was going on. I think the references helped in evolving. I think originally it was going to be very maternal, with the jealous mom and the young daughter vibe, but also very lesbian. You were like, “It’s kind of gay,” and I could see that too. I think it’s a thin line between maternal and incestuous? Is that a good thing to say in an interview, I don’t know.

BN: You told me to look into P and Joe’s relationship in Nymphomaniac, so I was like, “Oh they’re gay.”

DS: Only gay for each other, which makes sense for us.

BN: It’s fun to endlessly talk about the characters and bring them into real life while we're on this sabbatical in LA. Last Tuesday, at the Supreme party at The Viper room, we were asking what our characters would do in this situation. And we realized our characters would have looked at each other, shrugged, and without a word, leave the party and head down Sunset to the strip club with those flashing letters GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS. Then The Shooter (me) would debate on getting a dozen or a half dozen wings, The Driver (Diamond) would say “You do you, I’m not hungry,” and order a Jack and Coke. The Shooter would then order a Shirley Temple but do coke in the bathroom, and come out to the food and eat maybe two wings, then The Driver would say, “Don’t waste food,” then eat all the wings.

DS: Yeah, I think The Shooter is very caring to The Driver. We talked a lot about duos, like Joe and P, Ren and Stimpy, Pete and Pete and the two actresses from Mulholland Drive. And I think we make an unlikely good duo.

BN: We’re both Aquarius.

DS: It’s like a weird combo that works well, like peanut butter and celery.

BN: I’m not sure about that one.

DS: Then come up with a better one.

BN: Last question: who’s your favorite assassin?