It seems only fitting, really. On the set of Gonzo Girl, Patricia Arquette’s feature directorial debut based on the experience of Hunter S. Thompson’s former assistant, Willem Dafoe was given the iconic writer’s actual robe to wear. And there was an added surprise, too.
“There was a shotgun shell in the pocket,” Dafoe said during a panel at Deadline’s TIFF studio.
Set in the 90s and based on the semi-autobiographical book of the same name by Cheryl Della Pietra, Gonzo Girl follows the story of Alley Russo (Camila Morrone), a nascent writer hired to assist the Thompson-esque character Walker Reade. The ‘assisting’ consisted of taking copious amounts of drugs with Walker while cajoling him to produce pages for his latest book and often writing them herself.
Arquette, who plays Claudia, Walker’s longtime manager, said she was initially approached for the role alone, but was drawn to make this her feature directorial debut due to the rich themes of the piece.
“Part of it was addiction, codependence and the subconsciousness of that, unhealed people, a coming-of-age story, this 90s element, mixed with his 60s world, [being] a writer, their art and how you can get trapped in your art and forced into a box and how frustrating that is.”
For Dafoe, the role appealed because, he said, “There’s a theme here of an older man at the end of his creative life, without judgement of whether it’s going down or not, and a young woman who’s just starting and what the attraction is of one to the other. That interests me.”
Morrone’s Alley comes into the assistant job “bright eyed and bushy tailed” Morrone said, but after her immersive experience in Walker’s world, “she chooses herself ultimately.”
“When you’re a young person it’s very easy to blur the lines between what your boundaries are, and as a young person myself I found I could really connect to that aspect of her, especially when you’re trying to please someone and to your job and you’ve been hired to do something, and you really want to make someone proud. I could just totally relate to that. It’s something that I’ve explored and struggled with.”
Click above to watch the full interview.
