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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Interview: Monet Mazur
IGN talks to Stoned actress.
by Stax
March 21, 2006 - Stoned, which opens this Friday, tells the story of the late Brian Jones (played by Leo Gregory), one of the founding members of The Rolling Stones. Monet Mazur (Torque) portrays Jones' girlfriend Anita Pallenberg. She would later become involved with fellow Stone Keith Richards (and maybe even Mick Jagger, too, if the rumor mill is accurate). Fanboys might best remember Pallenberg as "The Great Tyrant" in Barbarella.
Like Oliver Stone's The Doors, Stoned recounts the debaucherous life and times of a '60s rock music legend who lived fast and died young. Jones was discovered drowned in the swimming pool of his British estate in 1969; although ruled an accidental death at the time, former Stones lackey Frank Thorogood made a deathbed confession in 1993 that rumors that he'd played a role in Jones' death were true. Stoned focuses on this doomed relationship between Jones and Thorogood (played by Paddy Considine).
IGN FilmForce recently spoke with Monet Mazur about Stoned, and the relationship between Brian Jones and Anita Pallenberg:
IGN FilmForce: While Anita obviously liked the Stones' music, what do you think it was that drew her to these men for so many years? Especially since it wasn't always a healthy environment for her to be in, as Stoned makes painfully clear.
Mazur: I think it would be a fair question to ask what attracted these men to her, too, because she was definitely a muse and sort of an iconic figure of that time when music, rock n' roll and fashion became interwoven with each other. I think (Anita and Brian) were genuinely in love with each other and really deeply cared for each other, although that doesn't always mean it's a healthy relationship. I think they couldn't live together and they couldn't live without each other. And the more self-destructive he became, the more co-dependent and abusive their relationship became. It's easy to sort of say, "Oh, she was just a groupie and screwed all the guys in the Rolling Stones."
IGNFF: I do think it's noteworthy that Brian loved and left a slew of women but Anita is the one woman who seems to have done that to him, to have broken his heart.
Mazur: I think a more fair depiction of what happened is that when you're in love with somebody and you care for them and they become ill or sick or an addict, you don't just leave them. You try and help them. You try and save them and rescue what you have. And I think that's what she did. And she genuinely believed in him and the more ill he got, he became physically and verbally abusive to her. I always sort of saw her as a brave person for sticking with the guy to make it work for as long as it could, and when it didn't the one person who was there for her and rescued her was Keith Richards. But Brian drove her into his arms. I never looked at Anita and said, "ooh, she was naughty." I think it's sort of folklore. I never did hear yes or no whether she got together with Mick Jagger when they were doing that movie Performance. Maybe, maybe not.
IGNFF: The film suggests that Brian remained infatuated with Anita up until his death, even though by then she was with Keith Richards. She clearly had more of an impact on Brian than many of the other lovers he had through the years.
Mazur: He was really infatuated with her. He was really smitten with her. And she had a powerful influence over his life and music. He became this sort of really flamboyant, extravagant and gregarious person after they met. He really explored his feminine side and all kinds of things like that. She was, from what I could see, a sort of magical kind of powerful, strong, animal-like person and definitely had an influence over him.
IGNFF: Anita's still alive and, from what I understand, working in the fashion industry. Did you contact her at all before or after filming?
Mazur: No, I would love to meet her and ask her a couple things but I didn't want to for the movie because she was still alive, because I was playing this specific time in her life when she was sort of at the peak of who she was. I didn't want to have my judgment or perception of her be colored in anyway too extreme because I'm sure she had some things to say about him now and maybe felt a certain way toward Brian or Keith. I just thought it was better to know everything I should know from the beginning to the ending of the story we were going to tell.
IGNFF: I only ask because I know our readers will want to know but did you watch Barbarella in preparation for this role? Seriously, though, how did you prepare for the part?
Mazur: I've seen Barbarella. I watched it again. It's such a silly movie. And I'd seen Performance, actually a few times, and Stephen (Woolley), the director, wanted us to all watch it together. It's a hard movie to watch the entire way through because it makes absolutely no sense! And they just look like someone gave them money and a camera and drugs and just locked them in a house for a couple of days. I read everything I could. There wasn't tons to read about her except some photo books, and the mentions of her here and there, newspaper articles and what I could find of her in the biographies of the guys because there wasn't one about her. And that was kind of it. Maybe I was kind of safer playing her because I didn't have this huge plethora of information to go off of so I could interpret her in my own way. It wasn't like playing Johnny Cash.
IGNFF: How did you and Leo Gregory work together? Did you rehearse at all?
Mazur: We rehearsed with Stephen and definitely talked about everything a lot. This movie to me was more about talking everything to death, even in the sex scenes, which were sort of graphic. It was more about how you want this, how do you want this to look like? What are you trying to get across? What part of the story are we trying to tell? And the more we talked about it, the more comfortable I felt being let loose in that boundary of, "This is how far we're gonna go. Keep it there." And then feel free within there. That made everything easier to do. Leo was great to work with. I hadn't seen anything else he had done because he hadn't really done very much. But from what I'd heard, everything he had done he was phenomenal in. And I just thought, I would not want to be him and have to play Brian Jones. He didn't even know who Brian Jones was! He hadn't heard one Rolling Stones song. He couldn't name one. He's such a hip-hop, rap, baggy jeans, chain-smoking {guy] and listening to rap in the trailer everyday. But he's so sweet.
IGNFF: This was Stephen Woolley's first film as a director after producing many films, including Backbeat. How was he as a first-time director?
Mazur: What's great about Stephen was he wasn't so much a technical director. "I want you to bring this scene to here." He's such a huge encyclopedia of information as far as everything about that time and era of music went. He gave all of us these huge books. Leo got one about Brian. I got one about Anita. It just had every picture you could possibly find of her, every magazine article, newspaper article. Everything. We just sort of talked about who they were forever until we started shooting. Then it was just, "Go. Be them." I knew it was going to be beautifully shot and the soundtrack was going to be amazing and the editing was going to be great because that's what he's known for.
IGNFF: We were both born after Brian's death. There are now a couple of generations of fans who have grown up only knowing the Rolling Stones without Brian, or without fully understanding his importance in the development of the band. What do you want them to take away from this film?
Mazur: It's definitely a sad and inspiring, a sadly inspiring story of this man's life that was this unsung hero of the Stones, who was really the catalyst for them being a band. If you like the Stones, you should know who Brian Jones is.
IGNFF: Your father Ruby designed the Stones' famous "lips" logo. Did the filmmakers know that when they cast you? Or is that just a coincidence?
Mazur: No, I didn't even think of that when I read the script and said I wanted to do it. In my life I've known that for 30 years. Stephen was the one who was like, "I can't believe this. It's too serendipitous. You have to do the movie now!"
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| Break The Spell |
Gtreat article, plan on seeing that movie this weekend. Still interesting after all these years that know one really seems to know for sure whether Mick and Anita hooked up, depending on what rumor you hear. |
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