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Sky Ferreira and Eli Roth are sitting side by side above Hollywood Boulevard, the west side of Los Angeles laid bare like a cliff’s drop from Roth’s poolside balcony. Monkey, Roth’s French Bulldog puppy, is lapping at Ferreira’s legs for attention, she’s been there before, in fact, Roth and Ferreira are close friends.

“I think her performance is really going to surprise people, because she’s not playing herself, there was a lot of dialogue, she became a character, and she’s funny as hell,” says Roth, of Ferreira’s involvement in his latest film, The Green Inferno. “I’ve done three other films, never the funny person.” Follows F

erreira. “She’s always been the suicide moody girl!” Says Roth, laughing. “Or like, the Manic Pixie Dream girl type thing, so this is definitely something new for me, and I’m excited about it.”

Next year’s The Green Inferno, Roth’s first horror directorship since Hostel: Part II, tells the story of a bunch of Columbia-esque college students who travel from New York City to the Amazon to protect an endangered tribe, which works, but then, their plane crashes and they’re held hostage by the very people they helped.

Ferreira plays the best friend of the lead character, played by Lorenza Izzo. Given that she’s the only one talking any sense as the students ready themselves for the jungle, in many ways she’s the voice of Roth in real time. “I wrote the script right after the Kony 2012 thing happened. I saw all these people getting really self righteous and caught up in it, wearing their T-shirts and buying mugs, next thing you know, the guy’s on the street jerking off and everyone realised it did absolutely nothing, except make people feel better about themselves. I think activism is great and getting involved is important but a lot of people now are doing it in the laziest way,” says Roth.

Ferreira and Roth share a love of late 60s, early 70s Italian horror. “I’ve got a weird thing for blood and gore,” she says. “The second time I ever hung out with Eli, it was his birthday party, and I asked Lorenza to show me the movies, and I locked myself in that screening room by myself in the dark, watching Zombie.” She says, curled up in the corner of the sun lounge. “You know, there’s obviously a generational difference, but we’re both exactly the same in many ways, very similar tastes,” says Roth with a nod of his head. Here, they discuss how they came to cement their working relationship in a hedonistic night of candy, film premieres and Snoop Lion.

Eli Roth: I think for Sky as an actress it’s a very exciting interesting time. Her music career is exploding, but she could do any movie she wanted and I could certainly see her in like, a Larry Clark or Harmony Korine movie, but that’s part of the reason I wanted to cast her as a Columbia University student. I feel like there’s a typical type of student you always see in the movies and I think Sky is a much more interesting, multi-layered version of that. I think it’s one of the things people are going to find relatable, because she is so real. I didn’t even audition her for the part, I just knew she’d do it, and that’s how I like to cast. Sometimes I audition people but other times you just talk to people, as a director and even an actor myself sometimes you just know, you have a gut feeling for who’s going to be able to pull it off, and she was incredible.

Sky Ferreira: I mean, we kind of just had conversations about who she was. Because she was not me. She’s a bit of a hard ass, and the way I do it is in a more subtle gentle way. She also just knows what she wants. I saw you at Toronto Film Festival like two weeks after we talked about it [over dinner initially].

Roth: Oh yeah, our first creative meeting was getting high with Snoop Lion! Because I was in Toronto for the festival with After Shock, and you were there.

Ferreira: I was playing a show.

Roth: That’s right and we went to see The Master.

Ferreira: Talk about intense! We were like, ‘OK, gotta change the tone’.

Roth: Then we went to the Snoop Lion party.

Ferreira: Yeah, which was a completely different vibe. I’ve heard the stories about Snoop Lion’s weed, I was like ‘Nooo it’s okay’. Then I was like, ‘Wait a second, I’m from Venice/Culver City and he’s from Long Beach, I have to do this’.

Roth: And we got so stoned, we couldn’t even move at that point.

Ferreira: And we tried to go to some other thing…

Roth: The Spring Breakers after party! These two twins in Spring Breakers, they have ten-inch cocks and they like to double penetrate and they call it Blessing. And we’re high and we were with Harmony Korine and these two twins want to double penetrate Sky and I’ve brought her there so I feel like I need to protect her.

Ferreira: …Eli drops me off, and my hotel’s elevator gets stuck and I’m stoned, soaking wet, with John Goodman and Ben Affleck! And John Goodman’s like, ‘Ohh, don’t be freaked out, don’t be scared’, and I’m like, oh yeah, thing is I’m not scared at all, I’m just stoned. And I was like, ‘John Goodman cannot know I’m stoned, that’s like your uncle, he’d be ashamed of me, even though he doesn’t know me’.

Roth: Sky was texting me [while it was going on] I was like, am I hallucinating? Did that really happen? And we just thought, yeah, this is a good collaboration, this works. I’m going to film with this girl.

Ferreira: We’re very serious actors, that’s what it comes down to. This is very Inside the Actor’s Studio, so this is our craft: get high with Snoop Lion and talk about nothing but films.

Eli: When we first clicked it was really bonding over movies rather than music.

Sky: Yeah, and I’m a big fan of horror movies.

Eli: We really bonded over Christiane F, both of us love that movie. It’s by Uli Edel, it’s based on a true story. This girl wrote it and she was exposed to a lot of the teenage prostitution, and it’s one of the most painful, incredible performances ever done. It’s one of those pet movies – it wasn’t ever released in the US. I actually contacted the producer because I wanted to use a poster of it in the film. Sky and Lorenza share a dorm room – Lorenza, being the innocent girl, has a Betty Blue poster which I remember was ubiquitous in American university dorms in the 1990s. And for Sky’s character we used the Christiane F poster.

Sky: I remember I saw it when I was 14, I was like, “Oh my God, I get this.” But I wasn’t going to start doing heroin. I guess I can see how some people think it’s glamorous ‘cause she’s so cool in the film, but you see what happens to her.

Eli: For …Inferno, I needed a really, really strong actor who’s watching her roommate getting caught up in activism. We needed someone who’s basically the voice of the audience going, ‘Why are you trying to mess with a tribe? You’re out of your fucking mind.’ I’d met Sky actually through Jeremy Scott and knew her because she’s friends with Lorenza, and I said to Lorenza, ‘What about Sky?’ And she said, ‘Oh, that’d be incredible!’ We needed someone that was very real and that was in the movie for a significant chunk but give a very memorable performance. She’s so creative. I loved working with her.

The Green Inferno is out in 2014

Photography Justin Tyler Close 

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Sky Ferreira – Everything Is Embarrassing (Unicorn Kid Remix) by Sky Ferreira Official

Tell us about your change of direction since ‘One‘.

I got signed when I was 15, and I had a lot of people telling me what I should do, and I didn’t necessarily agree with it but I was like, “I guess I’ll try it”. After ‘One’, they were like, “Oh your song didn’t do well…” It got attention, but it didn’t sell anything, which was actually for the best, because I don’t think I really wanted to make that kind of music to begin with.

It was a great track though.

It was a great track – totally. I don’t regret it.

Tell us how you hooked up with Dev Hynes for ‘Everything Is Embarrassing‘.

I met Dev Hynes through mutual friends. We were always trying to work together. My publicist sent it to Pitchfork and they posted it and made it best new track, and it got traction from there.

Your album will be dropping later this year. You’re like a Cassie figure – the longer you’ve been away, the more the mystique and expectation have built.

Yeah, that’s why I have to make sure it’s good! Some people might be disappointed because it’s not ‘One’ or ‘Obsession’, but there are still a lot of pop elements in it. It’s a lot more guitar driven, there are acoustic songs and it’s very stripped down. A lazy, easy comparison would be Blondie.

Who have you been collaborating with on this one?

I worked with Jon Brion on half of it and then Ariel Rechtshaid on the other half. Ariel produced that Usher’s song ‘Climax’, which is completely different to what we’re doing, and then he did Vampire Weekend. Jon Brion did Elliott Smith and Fiona Apple.

I was going to say that some of your new work has a bit of an early Fiona Apple feel to it.

Yeah she’s a really big influence – always was. She was my number one idol as a kid. I’ve seen her play like 10 times, and I cried the second time. I cried at the front.

It was so embarrassing!

Discreet tears or full-on sobs?

I wasn’t sobbing. Definitely tears though!

A lot of your artwork and videos remind me of a young Vanessa Paradis.

Yeah, and Nastassja Kinski is a very big person for me. Vanessa Paradis as a teenager! She’s still glamorous. I love all that look of French girls, like Brigitte Bardot.

How did you get approached to be the face of Saint Laurent Paris?

Hedi Slimane and I met a few years ago, and always kept in touch. He took photos of me for his diary, then he did my artwork, and then asked me to do Saint Laurent. So yeah!

You’re touring North America with How To Dress Well. Great combo.

Yeah it’s going to be a cool tour I think. We have mutual friends, and we like each other’s music. We thought it’d be a fun tour.

What’s your go-to album at the moment?

Kendrick Lamar. That’s my favourite album of last year. I love his music, but I think it’s also the LA in me. I’m from Venice Beach. When I listen to him, I’m like “LA! Yay – repping the West Coast finally.”

Are you off to some Paris fashion shows whilst you’re here in Europe?

Yeah. I skipped New York fashion week this time, but I’m going to Givenchy and Saint Laurent next week. Riccardo Tisci was one of the first people – even during my whole break – who had me play his parties. He’s really supportive. And I’m playing a show at Silencio, David Lynch’s nightclub there.

Tell us what it’s like shooting with Mario Testino, Terry Richardson and Hedi Slimane.

They’re all quite different. Hedi’s thing is quite intimate, you know, and then Terry is just like my friend. We just hang out.

Is he still getting his dick out all the time?

I think he’s stopped that – too much commercial work! And Testino’s a bit more glamorous. That’s like shooting like a diva.

Sky Ferreira’s EP Everything is Embarrassing will be released 8th April on Polydor. She plays tonight at White Heat and tomorrow at XOYO, London. skyferreira.tumblr.com

Words: Stuart Brumfitt

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