Naomi Watts may be a superstar these days, but she hasn’t forgotten the effort it took getting there. In 2001 she made a short film called Ellie Parker about an aspiring actress trying to make it big in Tinseltown with her friend Scott Coffey. Over the next four years they shot additional scenes until the short became the full-length feature showing at the ICA from 14 July 2006.

In the ‘80s Coffey gained critical acclaim for small acting roles in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Some Kind of Wonderful and became friends with Watts in 1995 on the set of Tank Girl. When David Lynch was casting the female leads for Mulholland Drive, Coffey suggested his friend Naomi and Watts shot to stardom.

We caught up with Coffey to talk about his renaissance as a writer and director, his friendship with Watts and being gay in Hollywood.

Can you tell me about the history of Ellie Parker?
I had the idea about what happens to an actress when they go from one character and then to a diametrically opposite character and what sort of psychological cost that has for somebody. So we shot the short which was Ellie going from one audition to the next and we had a great reception from the public and got into Sundance with it. So, we continued to shoot incremental films over the years and eventually had four shorts that we strung together.

Were you inspired by your own experiences trying to make it in Hollywood?
Yeah, I really was, especially that kind of purgatory of living in Los Angles, doing OK work, but never getting to a position where you felt that you were doing proper work. For all the frustrations I had it’s even worse for actresses. They have to be pretty on top of it and be sexy and wear ridiculous outfits.

And be thin and eternally beautiful…
Totally.

“I wasn’t [out ]as an actor because Hollywood is such an incredibly conservative place and people are put into boxes. It’s really tough to get around that and I think once you’re perceived as a gay actor people have a hard time imagining you as a romantic lead.”

It’s obvious that the story comes from someone who knows what they are talking about. How much of what Ellie goes through is made up and how much is real?
It’s all fictionalised.

The film also has universal themes as it’s about an aspiring actress
I have women come up to me all the time and say, ‘Oh my God, that is so my life’, and they’re not actresses and I think people really relate to it.

You met Naomi when you worked on Tank Girl in 1995. Did you hit it off straight away?
Yes, we’ve been friends for a long time and during the casting for Mulholland Drive I suggested her to David Lynch for the role.

It says a lot about her that she continued her involvement with Ellie Parker after her career skyrocketed. She comes across as being quite down to earth and not remotely up her own arse.
No, she’s not like that at all and is really committed to the work and I think she really cares about being an artist and that’s exciting to be around. She’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. Her timing is great and she knew the character so well that she really got it down.

Your partner played the role of Smash in the film and was a producer too, wasn’t he?
Yes, we collaborate on all kinds of stuff and it’s a fun way to work. He’s a novelist, I always read his work and he reads my screenplays. I just adapted a screenplay of his novel Clay’s Way, which was a fun thing to do. It came out last year.

Have you always been out as a gay man within the industry?
No. I wasn’t as an actor because Hollywood is such an incredibly conservative place and people are put into boxes. It’s really tough to get around that and I think once you’re perceived as a gay actor people have a hard time imagining you as a romantic lead. I think it’s OK in theatre, but America is pretty religious. I was out with friends, but I wasn’t publicly comfortable talking about that stuff.

How did you get round it when you went to auditions?
It didn’t really come up. But it’s frustrating not being able to be honest, it’s arcane and backwards and that’s another reason I find the whole thing nauseating really.

“It’s frustrating not being able to be honest [with your sexuality], it’s arcane and backwards and that’s another reason I find the whole thing nauseating really.”

What do you think about the success of Brokeback Mountain? Do you think it will make a difference to gay film making in the future?
One of the reasons why it did so well is because emotionally it resonates to people whether they’re gay or straight and I think that there’s a great place for genre / queer cinema, but it’s certainly smaller and the movies that succeed in a mainstream way have to have pretty great stories that are first and foremost about people and emotional experiences.

But, yes, I think there will be other movies as long as they aren’t preachy and polemic. I went to a screening of Brokeback Mountain with a mostly straight audience and all the straights were weeping. It seemed to really resonate with people and I think the repression of emotion in the movie’s characters resonated with a lot of people.

What’s it like working with David Lynch?
It’s great. He’s a fantastic man and he’s someone that I hope to continue working with because I think he’s the best. I’m in his new movie, which is coming out this year (Inland Empire – due out in August). But I’m not pursuing acting because I’ve never really loved it in the way I love directing.

I have to confess that I watched Mulholland Drive for the first time the other day and thought it was a complete head shag, but very clever. I think I worked it out by the end...It’s really incredible, there’s nothing like it. I think it’s more of a poem that might never be figured out and I kind of love that about his movies. Working it out is part of the fun, but it’s more about letting the story unfold. It’s more fun that way.

Has his style of filmmaking had an influence on you as a director?
His sensibilities and styles are different, but there are similarities. One of the things I learnt from him was that sometimes accidents are wonderful and he’s really good at letting those things just happen. That’s a great lesson, not to be too much of a control freak.

How do you feel about LA?
I don’t love LA. I grew up in Hawaii and the word ‘Aloha’ means ‘Goodbye’ and ‘I love you’ and my aunt is hilarious because if she gets really angry about someone she will say, ‘Oh, I have no ‘Aloha’ for that person’, and I guess I have no ‘Aloha’ for Los Angeles.

What don’t you like about it?
I think it’s really ugly. I don’t like the perpetual 70-degree day where every single day is the same. I don’t like driving and I think it’s an environmental nightmare.

And New York where you live now?
I love New York. I feel like it’s my favourite place in the whole world.

What about London?
It’s a great city. My best friend lives in London so I spend a lot of time there.

Who are some of your favourite actors?
I love Sean Penn, I’d do anything to work with him and Kate Winslet is one of my favourite actresses. I have something that I wrote with her in mind.

What’s it about?
It’s about America and Christian fundamentalism. It’s going to be a comedy.

"I went to a screening of Brokeback Mountain with a mostly straight audience and all the straights were weeping. It seemed to really resonate with people and I think the repression of emotion in the movie’s characters resonated with a lot of people."

After watching Ellie Parker I’m guessing you quite like Johnny Depp. (There’s a scene where Coffey’s character fantasises he’s having sex with Depp)
(Laughs) Yeah, I love Johnny Depp; he’s a great actor.

Did you try and get him involved in the film?
No. That would have been quite funny, but I wanted to be careful that we didn’t trot out every single star we could think of to put in the movie. You know, Naomi’s really good friends with Nicole Kidman, who I’ve met a couple of times and I really like and at one point we were thinking yeah, let’s put Nicole in it, but I wasn’t sure I wanted every actor we’ve ever met in the movie.

How did you get Keanu Reeves to do his cameo?
He’s an old friend. He saw an early short that he liked a lot and he thought it would be fun to be in it.

I saw Dogstar playing a gig in London a few years ago. I booked tickets as a surprise for a friend’s birthday and didn’t tell her what band we were going to see.
Did she have fun?

God yes. She loved it, but we didn’t really go for the music I have to say.
(Laughs) He’s just the bassist and there’s the lead singer and another guy playing guitar and when we were shooting there was a big crowd there and they were all gathered on the side of the stage where Keanu was playing bass screaming ‘Keanu, Keanu’ and it was empty in front of the other guys.

Have you had a good reception for Ellie Parker in the States?
Yeah, we’ve had great reviews. It's such a weird movie because it’s got a big movie star in it and she’s not glamorous and you can tell it was made for like $2 and it’s not the most mainstream of movies, but people seem to really get it and understand it. I’m happy that it’s finally opening in London.

Have you been to the ICA before?
No I haven’t. How is it?

It’s a trendy place that attracts quite a discerning audience.
Oh good. I had a screening in Westchester, which is a suburban town about an hour outside Manhattan, for a film club and it was for people all in their 50s and 60s and they were walking out by the droves. I was in the lobby and I could hear them saying (puts on pompous voice), ‘This is just too edgy for me. I don’t want to see her use the bathroom! Why would I want to see her throw up and pee? This is just disgusting’. It was just one person after the next you know.

Any plans to come to London?
Yes. I’m arriving on the 12 July and I’ll be there for the Q&A on the opening night.

Read our review of Ellie Parker.

Ellie Parker will have a 10-day theatrical release at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) from 14 July 2006. It will then be released on DVD on 24 July 2006 with an audio commentary from Scott Coffey, deleted scenes and the original theatrical trailer.

Ellie Parker [2005]
Label: Tla Releasing
Released: 24 July 2006
ASIN: B000F6IIK8 

Buy the DVD of Ellie Parker now online and save yourself some money! Alternatively, why not get Clay’s Way, the novel by Scott Coffey's partner Blair Maustbaum.