The actor talks about being an indie icon, becoming a mother during lockdown and her joy at joining the second season of Russian Doll. She has switched between indie films and sitcoms, taken risky roles and lived a parallel life as a style idol, which has given her a cult celebrity.
She has skirted the mainstream for years, never quite becoming a household name. But to some β those who grew up reading the magazines that tracked her years as a 90s cool girl via films such as Kids and Gummo β she is a fashion and arthouse superstar.
We speak on a video call. Sevigny is at home in New York, positioned beneath a reclining female nude by her longtime friend the artist Rita Ackermann.
It gives the impression that Sevigny is being birthed by her. She is wearing black and applies a slash of red lipstick before we begin. Somewhere in the background, I can hear her nearly two-year-old son. The show β which follows Nadia, trapped in a nihilistic time loop β is a riot. First, though, in a role that could not be more different, Sevigny plays Lynn, the mother of Conrad Roy, a teenager who kills himself, in The Girl from Plainville. It is based on the real case of Michelle Carter played by Elle Fanning in the drama , a year-old who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after encouraging Roy to kill himself in an intense text relationship.
She was released from prison in , after serving less than a year. Also, look at suicide and how it affects families and how far-reaching it is. Also, how [Lynn] kind of healed from that and eventually found some peace.
