“Food and Film with Sofia Coppola” Transcript
Alison Roman: Hello, this is Alison Roman, author of Nothing Fancy, and you are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Kerry Diamond: Hi Bombesquad. Welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe, the number one female focused food podcast in the universe. I'm your host, Kerry Diamond. The holidays have come early because we have a special treat for you. Today's guest is the one and only Sofia Coppola. I am a huge fan, so I'm thrilled that Sofia sat down with us. As all of you know, Sofia is the trailblazing Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind movies such as Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette and the Virgin Suicides. She is only the second woman to win the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and the third woman overall to have been nominated for a best director Academy Award. It's hard to believe. Sofia loves food, wine, restaurants, and cookbooks, so I had a great time chatting with her.
Kerry Diamond: Thank you to the sponsors of today's podcast, Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Schools and Emmi Cheese from Switzerland. You folks are the bombe.
Kerry Diamond: Some housekeeping. We have launched the official Cherry Bombe membership. You can now be a card carrying member of the Bombesquad. Join now through December 31st to become a founding member. Memberships are $25, and the price will go up in 2020. Visit CherryBombe.com to learn about the perks of being a member and more.
Kerry Diamond: Also, the new issue of Cherry Bombe Magazine is out right now. Are you a subscriber? If not, you can subscribe via CherryBombe.com. You can also pick up a copy at your favorite indie bookstore or magazine shop. It's our very first fashion issue and we have five different covers for you to choose from.
Kerry Diamond: Before we get to our show with Sofia Coppola, let's hear a word from our pals at Emmi Cheese from Switzerland.
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Kerry Diamond: Here's my talk with Sofia Coppola.
Kerry Diamond: A lot of people don't realize, they might be like, "Why is Sofia Coppola Radio Cherry Bombe? What does she have to do with the food world?" Well she has a lot to do with the food world, the Coppola name is closely associated with filmmaking, but there's a Coppola wine, food and hospitality empire you might not know about. It includes everything from villas and hotels to cafes, the great women's spirits collection, I learned all about that earlier, and the world renowned Francis Ford Coppola winery. So I'm curious, Sofia, what is your role in that side of the family business?
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, we moved to the Napa Valley when I was in first grade. So I grew up in Napa and in Rutherford in wine country. And my dad having Italian relatives that used to make wine in their basement in New York thought, "Oh, we should make some wine." And so he started just making wine on our property and then turned it into a small business. And then over all these years it's grown, and that's really our main family business, or his main business. And, then we also have our film making company. But yeah, so I grew up on a winery and around wine, and we always had wine on the table and food was a big- my dad cooking and my parents cooking-
Kerry Diamond: Oh, I can imagine.
Sofia Coppola: Having the main focus for our Italian American family is coming together for meals.
Kerry Diamond: Who did most of the cooking?
Sofia Coppola: Both my parents, but mostly my dad, yeah. He can just kind of throw anything together. And whenever he... At a certain point I wanted to learn how to cook, because I didn't really cook growing up. And he's like, "Oh, you just feel it. You throw this together." And I was like, "No, I don't know. I need a recipe. I need to know the amounts."
Kerry Diamond: Oh, so you're a recipe girl?
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, he has intuition and I'm too nervous in the kitchen. I enjoy cooking but I don't feel at ease, so I need it to be explained carefully. So, no I appreciate it, and my mom is a really good cook too, but he made the recipes that his family grew up on. And every Easter he makes this thing called pizza letet, it's like a rustic pie kind of quiche dish. And Christmas Eve we have octopus pasta, and these traditions that his mom started.
Kerry Diamond: Did you know your grandparents?
Sofia Coppola: Yeah. I grew up as a kid being around them and my grandmother, Mamma Rella, his mom, was very glamorous and made all these dishes. She used vinyl records as her place mats, she was very stylish.
Kerry Diamond: Oh wow. Was she sort of Sofia Loren in the kitchen? Did the glamor extend to when she was cooking?
Sofia Coppola: Oh yeah, she was always glamorous. She always had that kind of coral nail polish and jewelry and turquoise eyeshadow and a black flip, and Chinese pajama tops and so yeah, she always had her look.
Kerry Diamond: Oh my gosh, I want to see some pictures of her now. So do you have an official role in the family food and wine business?
Sofia Coppola: My dad always tried to involve my brother and I, because it's a family company that he wants to continue on. The same way with always having us on the film set, so officially I'm a board member at the winery.
Kerry Diamond: That's exciting.
Sofia Coppola: But I don't, I'm not-
Kerry Diamond: What does that mean to be on the board?
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, I go to meetings and give my opinions and feedback and try to learn as much as I can about it, but I'm not that involved day to day. But when I was a kid, he said, "I'm going to make you a champagne someday." And I used to love Kir Royale, as a teenager, I guess I'm not supposed to really be, but you know.
Kerry Diamond: That's funny. I went to Paris for the first time, I loved Kir Royales, and I thought it was the chicest drink. They're so sweet now.
Sofia Coppola: I know I haven't had one in years, but when I was 16 I was interning in Paris and I think that's where I knew about them, but he always said, "Oh, when you're 21 I'm going to make you your own champagne." And then he really did. And so it's been fun to have.
Kerry Diamond: It's called Sofia.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah. I have my namesake champagne that he made for me and I think idea was kind of in the style of Prosecco. It has moscat, and it's dry, but it's fun to have your own sparkling drink.
Kerry Diamond: I can imagine. It's also one of the prettiest bottles. I remember when it came out because it was so different from other sparkling wines and champagnes because it was almost minimalist.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah. I love the design. My dad designed the label based on a French jam label, and then I don't know where the idea of the pink cellofane, but I love that it's very festive and it's nice to give as a gift and it's fun to always have on hand. And then he came up with the can idea, which I don't think was ever done before. I think it was the first.
Kerry Diamond: Your family's company was the very first one to put wine in a can.
Sofia Coppola: Yes, the idea of making this little sparkling wine in a can was his invention, which I thought was really fun. We'd put them in our pockets and bring them to movies and so that's fun to have and to have in the fridge.
Kerry Diamond: Did your dad actually wait until you were 21 before launching Sofia?
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, it came out probably a little after that, because it took I think longer to actually make. But yeah, it was. I remember we had a launch party. Do you know Risa Scobie?
Kerry Diamond: Sure. That's how we met actually, though Risa.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, I thought so. So Risa helped throw a party in the basement of the Sherry-Netherland, there's club called Doubles in the '90s we had this really fun launch party.
Kerry Diamond: The '90s.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah. But yeah, so now it's been around for a while.
Kerry Diamond: And now Sofia is like a full fledged collection.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah. Then they started expanding it and they have a Rose that I really love that I enjoy in the summer, and there's a woman winemaker, Tondi Bolkan, who's the wine maker and there's a Riesling and a Chardonnay. I like the Chardonnay too.
Kerry Diamond: Do you ever have to step foot in the wine shop anymore or do you just...
Sofia Coppola: I do. There's one actually in our neighborhood on, I live in the West Village, Sea Grape on Hudson, which is near our butcher, near the great burger I was telling you about. So I do like to try other wines, and being married to a French man, I also appreciate French wine. Actually, his family has a winery too. So my kids have wineries on both sides.
Kerry Diamond: That's so funny. What's his...
Sofia Coppola: It's called a Chateau Turi and they make a great Rose there in that region in Provence.
Kerry Diamond: So do you still go back and forth between Paris and here?
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, we have a place there. So I feel lucky I get to spend time, there but we're more based here because our kids are in school and I'm more in New York.
Kerry Diamond: I noticed you even have a nonalcoholic wine named after one of your producers.
Sofia Coppola: Oh yeah. Mister Youree, my producer, Youree Henley doesn't drink and I wanted to make him a festive drink because he's a sophisticated guy and he's like, "I don't want to drink Martinelli's on special occasions." So we made, I think it's a really cute bottle design, he wears a bow tie so it has a little gold bow tie. But yeah, I love this product. I have to get it out there more because we only made a little bit. But I feel like people who don't drink alcohol can enjoy it, because it tastes good. Basically Corey, the wine maker at our place, they got a machine that takes the alcohol out. So we took our Blanc de Blanc and just took the alcohol out.
Kerry Diamond: Wow.
Sofia Coppola: So it tastes good. It's a little bit sweeter, because it changes a little bit, but it's definitely more elegant than a Martinelli's, and I thought it's a grown up, sophisticated, sparkling drink.
Kerry Diamond: More grown up than apple juice?
Sofia Coppola: Yeah. Exactly.
Kerry Diamond: Exactly. The whole non-alcoholic thing is a big growing part of the industry, because I think you've had all these people for a long time who, maybe they weren't drinking by choice or weren't drinking by necessity, but there just weren't never a lot of great options.
Sofia Coppola: The ones I remember taste terrible. They're really sweet and the labels are really ugly. So I thought that there's a need for that. And Corey was saying that the lower alcoholic drinks are becoming more and more popular.
Kerry Diamond: I'm always bummed when you go to a restaurant, and you don't necessarily feel like drinking and you ask what the non-alcoholic options are and it's basically water and soda.
Sofia Coppola: Oh, yeah.
Kerry Diamond: That's always a bummer for me.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, I know. It should be more creative.
Kerry Diamond: And you've had kids so you know even when you're just pregnant and you're out. Yeah. Out in a restaurant.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah.
Kerry Diamond: Yeah.
Sofia Coppola: So we have this little tiny hotel in Italy from the town where my dad's from called Palazzo Margherita in Bernalda, which is, it's really beautiful. But they have a drink there they make in the summer, it's sparkling water with fresh Rosemary and lemon. And I have to ask what the... I have to get the whole thing with. And it's really nice in the summer when you want something that has flavor, but it tastes like a cocktail.
Kerry Diamond: But we need an updated cocktail recipe from you. I think you're actually in the, are you in the first issue? I feel like you're in the first issue talking about French 75's.
Sofia Coppola: Oh yeah, I think so. Yes.
Kerry Diamond: Yeah. And we were talking about the bar at the Ritz hotel.
Sofia Coppola: Yes.
Kerry Diamond: Which was open when we interviewed you and then closed for all the renovations.
Sofia Coppola: And now I think it's back open again.
Kerry Diamond: I haven't been.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, it's back open again.
Kerry Diamond: Oh, Bar Hemingway, right?
Sofia Coppola: Yeah. Colin, the bartender there.
Kerry Diamond: Is he back?
Sofia Coppola: He's back. I'm pretty sure he's back because.
Kerry Diamond: He was always a cool guy.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, he's back. I know. I love that he went on hiatus, but they made sure to have him.
Kerry Diamond: And it was the tiniest bar for, for such a legendary space when you would go see it and you're like, "Oh gosh, this is literally like the size of a shoe box."
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, but it's so cozy. Now it's all kind of cleaned up so it looks a little too perfect. But it's, it's so... yeah.
Kerry Diamond: Historical spirit kind of.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah. When I was living in Paris during Marie Antoinette, we would go there and he makes those beautiful cocktails with fresh flowers in them and, but they're strong. So you have to watch out.
Kerry Diamond: I think I've had some of those, but I still love a French 75 have you, do you ever go to New Orleans?
Sofia Coppola: Oh yeah. I filmed Beguiled there.
Kerry Diamond: Oh that's right.
Sofia Coppola: About two years ago, so we spent a couple months there and I love it there.
Kerry Diamond: Did you ever go to that little bar called French 75 in New Orleans?
Sofia Coppola: I don't think so, but now I need to go.
Kerry Diamond: It's also a little sliver of a bar.
Sofia Coppola: Oh no, I have to go there.
Kerry Diamond: It's so cool. And obviously everyone gets the French 75 and they have great bar snacks. It's like all leopard and monkey lamps.
Sofia Coppola: Next time I go there I'm going to go for sure.
Kerry Diamond: You would love it. So people can also visit the winery.
Sofia Coppola: Oh yeah, in Geyserville. There's the one with our name, Coppola family winery, which it's really nice. And I love the restaurant there. It's called Rustic and it's all my dad's favorite dishes and they had the great Fiorentina steaks, which I love and, and it's nice. It has a pool with crepes. It's very kid-
Kerry Diamond: You can rent the cabanas.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah it's very family friendly. We bring our kids and hang out by the pool and it's really nice.
Kerry Diamond: It sounds great. So we stumbled upon the Sofia wine Instagram account.
Sofia Coppola: Oh yeah.
Kerry Diamond: And it seems like it's the closest thing the world will ever get to a Sofia Coppola Instagram account.
Sofia Coppola: I know that's what my friends, like Marc Jacobs is so an Instagram and my daughter loves Instagram and I know I'm still dragging behind, dragging my heels. So that was my one foray into playing with that and I wanted it to be reflective of my personality and what-
Kerry Diamond: -and spirit, that definitely comes through. And every now and then there's like a new photo from you.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, I try to send stuff in here and there to keep it connected, but I don't look at it scream all the time. I kind of forget about that whole universe. But I... But it's fun to dip my toe in.
Kerry Diamond: New spotlights and cool movies and I love, your muse-
Sofia Coppola: Oh, that's fun to do.
Kerry Diamond: -thing that you do. And I saw my pal, Veronica Webb on there. It was nice to see Veronica.
Sofia Coppola: Oh, you know Veronica Webb? I love her. I haven't seen her in years, but when I was 16 I interned at Chanel in Paris and it was the 80s and she was there as a model and she just made such a big impression on me.
Kerry Diamond: And she's so nice.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, I haven't seen her in a long time, but that's cool.
Kerry Diamond: I bumped into her, I was at actually very intense dinner for Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey who wrote, She Said, and who broke open the whole Weinstein story, and she was there and we were able to catch up.
Sofia Coppola: Oh, cool. Will you tell her I say hi when you see her?
Kerry Diamond: I don't know if you've read that book or-
Sofia Coppola: I started reading it, but then I felt-
Kerry Diamond: It's painful.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, I read a bit and then I was getting kind of dark and I had to take a break.
Kerry Diamond: I mean, for you, for me it's one thing reading it, but I would imagine, for you being in the movie world, it's a completely different...
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, but I feel like it's universal probably.
Kerry Diamond: True. All right, we're going to go back to movies. I want to wrap up on cooking. So you mentioned that you're a recipe girl. Do you still stick to recipes?
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, I really need it spelled out. And Cindy Pawlcyn is a family friend, so when I'm in Napa she shows me, I'm lucky that she taught me how to make a few things, but I really needed it explained. And then she sent me some simple recipes, so I really need to follow them. And even something really simple. I do you know Julia Turshen?
Kerry Diamond: Yeah, of course.
Sofia Coppola: She's so nice. I met her years ago and I emailed her the other day and I was like, "I want to make just some roast vegetables. What kind of tahini or something, what would I put on it?"
Sofia Coppola: And she's like, "Oh, anything will be good." And I was like, "No, can you tell me exactly what to do?" And then she told me tahini with hot water and lemon juice, and I was so appreciative because I could just follow that and do it. And it was good.
Kerry Diamond: Yeah. Julia's amazing. She was the very first host of our radio show.
Sofia Coppola: Oh really?
Kerry Diamond: Which is great.
Sofia Coppola: Oh, that's cool.
Kerry Diamond: Yeah. She's so talented and her cookbooks are beautiful Do you buy cookbooks?
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, I love cookbooks. But they have to have great photos and visuals. I can't make something that I don't see what it's supposed to look like and I have way too many cookbooks that I should. But yeah, I love them, they're beautiful. I want to send you my friend Laurent Buttazzoni, who's a architect in Paris. He is a friend who always makes beautiful dinner parties and I said, I'm always asking him for the recipes and say "Oh, can you please, when are you going to make a book?"
Sofia Coppola: And so he made this book and it has really beautiful photos. He art directed them and half of it is a place setting, which that's my favorite thing about making dinners, setting the table and making it-
Kerry Diamond: Oh is it really?
Sofia Coppola: -designing the table. Yeah, that's what I, I love art directing it.
Kerry Diamond: Tell us the name of your friend's book again.
Sofia Coppola: It's called Diner a la Maison. And I wrote the intro. It's just about the tips on how to entertain easily and make dinner and little, his basic easy recipes and then how to make the leftovers into something. But he and his boyfriend are super chic and so, yeah, I love the book.
Kerry Diamond: Oh, fun. We'll look for that.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, it just came out.
Kerry Diamond: So why is setting the table your favorite part of organizing a meal?
Sofia Coppola: I just, that's a part that I love. It like relaxes me. I love picking the linens and the... And I'd love china and I love flowers and all that. So like for Thanksgiving, that's the part I liked the most. And, and I enjoy cooking, but I'm not at ease in the kitchen, but I love a place setting.
Kerry Diamond: Do you collect old china? What do you use?
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, I love china but I have to stop. I don't know what is acceptable number. My mom's friend has a whole room that's just a pantry of different china and that's my fantasy. But I probably have six different sets and yeah, I love china and all housewares. I was just in Tokyo and I love houseware shopping in Tokyo.
Kerry Diamond: Did you pick up anything?
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, I got some beautiful porcelain and I was carrying like glasses back. I got a tea set. Yeah, I love all that. How stuff.
Kerry Diamond: We'll be right back with Sofia Coppola after this quick break.
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Kerry Diamond: What would your girls say mom makes? If we had to ask one of them, what is your mom good at making? What would they tell us?
Sofia Coppola: That's a funny question. They complain that I make salmon too often cause it's the only fish I know I want to make, I need to learn how to make another one. I'm trying to-
Kerry Diamond: How do you make the salmon?
Sofia Coppola: I follow Cindy's recipe and just roast it.
Kerry Diamond: Do you a slow roasted salmon?
Sofia Coppola: No, I turn it up high and do it quickly.
Kerry Diamond: Oh, Okay. I do a slow roast, around 220 and just put it in for a while.
Sofia Coppola: Oh no, I should try that. But yeah, I don't, I know and I make pasta.
Kerry Diamond: So they say you make salmon too much. You make pasta.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah I make pasta. What do I make? I feel like I'm always having this conversation with my friends of like we're always stressed, like, "What do we make for dinner?" I don't know why. I don't know how to figure out how to make it more simple, but it seems to be an ongoing anxiety, even though we make the same kind of things over and over.
Kerry Diamond: And do you eat out very often?
Sofia Coppola: I do because we live in the West village. I feel really lucky that we have so many good places around us when we go to Via Carota and Buvette all the time. And I'm around the corner from En Brasserie, which we'd go with our kids a lot. Yeah, there's so many good places. And I had the most delicious burger, I think ever, at Dinette, which, it's right next to our butcher that we go to Hudson and Charles.
Kerry Diamond: Let's talk about food and drink and your movies. Because there's so much fabulous food and drink and you're movies.
Sofia Coppola: That's so funny, I never thought about it, but it is a big focal point in my life. So I feel like... I was talking to my mom about how I feel like, while we're eating a meal, we're always talking about the next meal. And she said, "Oh, that's just an Italian thing." I thought, "Oh okay. That's why I do it." But yeah, I guess because it's one of the great pleasures in life. And so you want to convey that in the movie atmosphere. I know with Marie Antoinette we had a big, like a whole art department based around the food of what would be accurate for that time.
Kerry Diamond: You did? I was curious about the technical aspects of it. So do you, I mean probably not you personally, but you have to hire a food stylist for every single movie?
Sofia Coppola: Well you hire a prop person, which it's very strange cause they're in charge of like cars and food, but the prop department does the food. And Marie Antoinette, I just think we had a whole elaborate art department centered around the food because those meals at the time that, it was all the kind of gelatin sculptures, was really to be accurate of the time. And then we had the macaroons would show up.
Kerry Diamond: The extravaganzas of patisserie. Out of control.
Sofia Coppola: I know I think overdo some of the macaroons. But I remember, we'd be shooting, I'd be like, "Can we eat them yet? Did we get the shots and we can eat them?" So it was always exciting when all the pastries showed up.
Kerry Diamond: So the prop people in a movie, so we all understand this, because I mean I'm kind of obsessed with food stylists. But food stylists for magazines and cookbooks are different from food stylists in movies.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah. For movies, it's part of the prop department. And for my movie I just shot this summer On the Rocks we have a lot of probably food and drinking. There's a scene where they have caviar, they go on a road trip and they have caviar to go from Russ and Daughters and they brought it. And so we were getting to sample some. But yeah, so the prop person who also does the cars and animals, like everything, does the food. And then we shot at 21 for one scene and they- But it's so complicated with the food during a scene and the eating. So we tried to have most of the scenes happen after they just ate and they have, they're having ice cream, or whatever.
Kerry Diamond: I would think continuity is the biggest thing.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, the continuity. Then when you're editing you don't have as many options. And also it's confusing to always have to take a bite at the same thing and talk. And then the actors don't want to have this food take after take.
Kerry Diamond: That's so funny. Those are totally the things you don't think about. Oh, I just remembered one of my favorite restaurants in the West Village. Angie Mar is the Beatrice Inn. You probably hung out at the Beatrice Inn when it was a club.
Sofia Coppola: Oh a long time ago. But it's a restaurant?
Kerry Diamond: Now, it's like the chicest steak steakhouse ever.
Sofia Coppola: I'm so glad you told me. I had no idea.
Kerry Diamond: With an incredible female chef and owner, Angie Mar.
Sofia Coppola: Oh wow. I haven't been there in years.
Kerry Diamond: So the Beatrice when you were hanging out there was a club, and then Graydon Carter turned it into a restaurant.
Sofia Coppola: I remember that.
Kerry Diamond: And then Angie... He hired Angie as the, I don't know, third or fourth chef because it was a mess.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, at the beginning I remember it wasn't-
Kerry Diamond: So she turned it around, and then wound up actually buying it from Graydon. So she's, she's incredible.
Sofia Coppola: I'm so glad you told me.
Kerry Diamond: Food's amazing. If she has this plum tart on the menu with a arugula you have to get the plum tart. It's a savory tart.
Sofia Coppola: Oh interesting.
Kerry Diamond: Sort of like nothing you've ever had before. It's really, really cool.
Sofia Coppola: That sounds great for a winter spot.
Kerry Diamond: Yes, perfect. She's great. And then I thought of another place to tell you about. Oh I know, The Riddler. So Cherry Bombe invested in the champagne bar in the West Village.
Sofia Coppola: Do we have our champagne there?
Kerry Diamond: I have to find out.
Sofia Coppola: I have to send some.
Kerry Diamond: It's the cutest space. It's owned by this woman named Jen Pelka.
Sofia Coppola: I thought I heard about a champagne bar.
Kerry Diamond: There's one in San Francisco, and she opened one here, and it's backed by an all female investment group.
Kerry Diamond: And she actually came on the radio show and did a whole show about how she put together this investment group. And it was so fascinating, I think was one of our more popular shows.
Sofia Coppola: Oh that's so cool. And it's... Do they have little snacks and things too or...?
Kerry Diamond: It's right on Bank. They have great snacks. It's got a bigger food menu than the one in San Francisco. But they do fun things like tater tot waffles. You can get salmon with caviar on top.
Sofia Coppola: I'm going to bring my girlfriends to Riddler. That sounds great.
Kerry Diamond: So was it fun filming in New York? Even though you've spent so much time in New York, you haven't really shot a lot here.
Sofia Coppola: I never filmed here except for the Christmas show, which was three days inside. Yeah, it was fun because we were all over the city. It was harder than I thought just being... because we were moving around so much in the middle-
Kerry Diamond: It's hard enough just being a human being in this city, let alone trying to make a movie in this city.
Sofia Coppola: And being in the middle of SoHo with Bill Murray is not very inconspicuous. But it was really fun cause we were kind of all over the place, but it was hard. A lot of it, we were shooting cars and at night and that's always an adventure. But it was really fun to be in New York.
Kerry Diamond: And you were like, "Now I know why I don't shoot in New York that often"?
Sofia Coppola: Well, probably an a stage would be different, but yeah, no, it definitely has an energy to it. But it was hectic.
Kerry Diamond: Yeah. Bill's a big foodie. His son's a chef.
Sofia Coppola: Oh yeah. I love his son's restaurant. Yeah, Bill's enthusiastic about food.
Kerry Diamond: So when will that movie come out?
Sofia Coppola: I think it'll come out probably like next September.
Kerry Diamond: Oh wow. We have to wait so long.
Sofia Coppola: I think so. We'll be finished with it by March and then... But yeah, I'll let you know when we have a screening in the..
Kerry Diamond: So will it be a theatrical release or will it... is it streaming?
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, no, it'll be theatrical. I know. A24 is putting it out and then it'll be out the theatrically for about a month and then it'll go on Apple's new...
Kerry Diamond: Apple TV plus.
Sofia Coppola: Yes.
Kerry Diamond: Yeah. I just interviewed Jennifer Aniston about her show.
Sofia Coppola: Is she a food person?
Kerry Diamond: You know, she is. She has a chef, but she actually has a pizza oven in her kitchen. Which I though was pretty badass. Yeah, so she does pizza nights and she has girlfriend taco nights and yeah.
Sofia Coppola: Oh that's fun. That would be a dream to have a chef.
Kerry Diamond: Oh, I thought you were going to say that'd be a dream to have a pizza oven in your kitchen.
Sofia Coppola: We have a pizza oven at my parents in Napa, which is fun in the summer. Yeah, it's one of the... I don't know if it's the first movie that they're doing, but yeah. So we'll see.
Kerry Diamond: That's so exciting.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, I'm excited.
Kerry Diamond: And now the whole debate over what is a movie, if it goes straight to streaming, is it a-
Sofia Coppola: I know I love-
Kerry Diamond: -movie in the traditional sense.
Sofia Coppola: I love the experience of seeing a movie in a theater. I just feel like it's so different. We saw Parasite the other night at IFC with a packed house and you just get the energy of being around other people. It's just a different experience. And I think there's things that I watched at theater that if I watched at home I would've probably turned off halfway through it. You don't have that same focus, but it is fun to watch at home in your pajamas.
Kerry Diamond: It's interesting. We did a screening last... oh earlier this year of Samin Nosrat's Salt Fat Acid Heat. Have you seen...?
Sofia Coppola: Oh no.
Kerry Diamond: She has this beautiful cookbook that you would... Oh it has- You know what? I think you would still love it. It doesn't have a single photo, but it's all incredible illustrations by Wendy MacNaughton.
Sofia Coppola: As long as there's a visual.
Kerry Diamond: And it's such a unique cookbook. But she did a series to go along with it on Netflix. Same name, Salt Fat Acid Heat.
Sofia Coppola: Oh, I heard about that, yeah.
Kerry Diamond: So we screened the fat episode at the Wythe Theater over at the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg and I was like, "I feel like people are losing so much." I mean, I watched Salt Fat Acid Heat, my computer is right here, on this screen and it's so tiny. And when we screened it, it was like a feature film. It was so beautiful. All this lush footage of olive groves in Italy and her going to this pig farm and they're eating acorns and gorgeous oak trees everywhere and you just, you lose that.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, I want to see that. And I love the same things. When I'm making something, I'm like, "I hope people see it on a big screen, or at least a big screen at home and not like on their phone."
Kerry Diamond: Or on the back of a chair of an airplane.
Sofia Coppola: Oh yeah, I can't watch that.
Kerry Diamond: You don't?
Sofia Coppola: No, I don't watch movies on the plane because the little... Maybe on my iPad, I'll watch something but...
Kerry Diamond: So, we touched on this a little bit earlier. I mentioned the She Said book, but I was thinking about you and reading that book in relation to Me Too and Harvey Weinstein and the call for more women to be involved in Hollywood in every capacity, filmmaking, writing, directing, and it's something that you've been doing forever. And I was thinking, I was just curious how you feel that you were there doing the work all along and I hope you feel like you got the credit.
Sofia Coppola: Oh, that's so nice. I feel lucky that my dad brought me... always brought me to set the same as my brother and treated us the same. And he worked with a lot of women, and so seeing that, I just always felt like, "Oh, I can't too." But even today, when I go pitch a movie or try to get a movie financed, it's always a room of men. It's very rarely...
Kerry Diamond: Still?
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, sometimes there'll be one woman, but usually it's just a room of men, and you're just thinking if those are the people deciding what moves are interesting and what they relate to. That part I think is challenging. So many people always talk about it more. I'm excited there's more and more women filmmakerss.
Kerry Diamond: Do you notice a difference?
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, I feel like there's so many more in the last couple of years than when I was starting for sure, but I hope there's going to be more women executives, and in positions of power because that's who decides what gets made.
Kerry Diamond: Some of them have championed you over the years. I was reading something about, is it Amy Pascal? She was really instrumental with getting financing for Marie Antoinette.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, no, she totally was behind that and made that happen. So I'm so grateful to her and all the people that support you as you try to do things that are out of the ordinary.
Kerry Diamond: Is financing still the hardest part of getting a movie made?
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, it's a hard, it's a really hard time for independent films right now and because everything is shifting and with streaming. Now there's more opportunity to get financing through these companies like Netflix and Apple that are making content for streaming but to get... But if just for theatrical, I think that's challenging.
Kerry Diamond: What are you streaming right now?
Sofia Coppola: Oh, that's funny, I was just having dinner with some girlfriends last night and we were talking about what everyone was watching and we just finished Succession. So I'm in between. I'm looking for, I need to find a new one. Oh, actually we were watching The Clinton Affair. Have you seen that?
Kerry Diamond: Oh no, I haven't.
Sofia Coppola: I guess it came out a while ago, but it was more popular in England. My friend-
Kerry Diamond: I missed that. I didn't even know about it.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah. I didn't know about it either. I think it's a six part, documentary series, it has all this footage from that era that we... With Monica, I think Monica Lewinsky produced it. It's really interesting because to see it with eyes of today is really...
Kerry Diamond: Especially with her as a producer.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah. She talks on it. It's just shocking how we looked at her and that whole situation. It's just so blatant, so it's really good. I don't know if who... where it's... Anyway, you should still see it.
Kerry Diamond: Okay I'll find it.
Sofia Coppola: I think it's on Amazon.
Kerry Diamond: I think about her a lot.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah. She talks on it now as an adult and I know she's producing some other things, but you should really watch it. It was...
Kerry Diamond: It's terrible what this country put her through.
Sofia Coppola: I know.
Kerry Diamond: So many women, what they've been put through,
Sofia Coppola: But she was just a kid.
Kerry Diamond: But especially her.
Sofia Coppola: There's all this great old footage of, yeah, it's pretty startling to see it.
Kerry Diamond: So Succession, that's it? I'm watching the second season, no third season of The Crown.
Sofia Coppola: Oh, I want to say that with Olivia...
Kerry Diamond: With Olivia Colman and Helena Bonham Carter. It's interesting, the whole idea of taking a series where you've gotten used to these, this one set of characters and then recasting the whole thing.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah. Did you, are you into it?
Kerry Diamond: It took me a few episodes to get into it. I do love Olivia Colman and I deeply love Helena Bonham Carter, but I did love that first cast. I thought they were tremendous.
Sofia Coppola: I loved Princess Margaret especially, but I love Olivia Colman as the stepmother on Fleabag the second season.
Kerry Diamond: Fleabag, if you haven't seen Fleabag, those of you listening, it's so good.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, and I have to say at the beginning, I didn't get into it right away. I think you have to give it a few.
Kerry Diamond: Succession was the same for me.
Sofia Coppola: Me too.
Kerry Diamond: I wasn't that into the first season.
Sofia Coppola: Me too.
Kerry Diamond: It took me a little while to get into Fleabag, but the second season, I loved both of them.
Sofia Coppola: Yeah, me too.
Kerry Diamond: Yeah. All right, Sofia, thank you so much for spending some time with us.
Sofia Coppola: Oh, that was so fun.
Kerry Diamond: You've been such an inspiration forever. You supported the magazine in the very first... when we first came out, when everyone was like, "What the heck is this magazine?" So we appreciate that.
Sofia Coppola: Oh, I'm so glad to see you guys going strong.
Kerry Diamond: Thanks. And then just like I said, to have been such a great role model in Hollywood and to be telling women's stories for as long as you've been doing it.
Sofia Coppola: Thank you.
Kerry Diamond: Thank you for all you've done.
Sofia Coppola: Thank you.
Kerry Diamond: That's it for today's show. Thank you to Sofia Coppola for coming. By no doubt we'll be raising a glass of Sofia sparkling wine this holiday season. And if you need a great hostess gift, well hey, a bottle of Sofia is the perfect present. And if you haven't seen of Sofia's movies, add them to your must-watch list.
Kerry Diamond: Speaking of female filmmakers, Jess Zeidman, who produces and edits Radio Cherry Bombe, got some great news this week. Jess wrote and produced an indie film called Tahara and it was just accepted into the Slam Dance Film Festival. It's Jess's this first film and she's only 23 years old and we couldn't be prouder of her. Congratulations Jess. You can follow the movie on Instagram @TaharaTheFilm. Thank you to Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Schools and Emmi Cheese from Switzerland for supporting Radio Cherry Bombe. Be sure to subscribe to Radio Cherry Bombe wherever you get your podcasts. Today's show was recorded at CDM Studios in New York City. Cherry Bombe is powered by Jess Zeidman, Audrey Payne, Maria Sanchez, Donna Yen, Kia Damon and Nancy Pappas. Our publisher is Kate Miller Spencer. Our theme song is All Fired Up by the band, Tralala. Thanks for listening, everybody. You're the bomb.
When Harry Met Sally Clip: I'll have what she's having.
Nicky Chang: Hi, I'm Nicky Chang. I'm the Head of Design and Strategy at Junzi Kitchen located in New York City. Do you know who I think is the bomb? I think Amelie Kang, the owner and talented chef of MaLa Project is, because the way she leads the team and the way she shares the food and the way she looks at food landscape overall.