Getting up to speed with the forceful females behind 'Personal Velocity.' by Allison Hope Weiner

ONE SUNNY OCTOBER AFTERNOON ON A MALIBU beach, the stars of Personal Velocity-Parker Posey, Kyra Sedgwick, and Fairuza Balk-are arguing about who among them was most qualified to play the role of town slut Delia. "I think my ass would have been better," jokes Posey, 34. 9 "My ass is a little small for Delia," Sedgwick, 37, replies with a sly smile. e Despite her seemingly inadequate posterior, Sedgwick won the part in writer-director Rebecca Miller's drama (which United Artists will release on Nov. 22), a trilogy of stories about women struggling to change their lives. For Miller-the daughter of playwright Arthur Miller and wife of actor Daniel Day Lewis-the movie itself was a singular struggle. Adapting her 2001 book of short stories, the 40-year-old mother of two shot quickly on a digital-video shoestring, yet managed to win both the 2002 Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize for drama and the award fo excellence in cinematography. 0 In the movie's first segment, Sedgwick (Something to Talk About) Plays Delia, a woman with an abusive husband who takes off with her children one night after a bad beating. The second segment features Posey

(Best in Show) as ambitious book editor Greta, who agonizes over whether to leave her kind but unsuccessful husband. In the third, 28-year-old Balk (The Waterboy) plays Paula, a pregnant runaway who's traumatized after witnessing a hit-and-run driver kill a man.

POSEY in this movie, there are three different women all going through changes. I don't know where I've seen that before other than in European movies. The film has no problem showing women who are passionate, and [it] doesn't judge.

SEDGWICK I would definitely agree with that. You see my character use her sexuality as power.

MILLER The movie probably has a different expression of sexuality than most. I didn't try to conform to any idea of what's romantic or what's sexy. In Delia's case, I was interested in the whole idea of the slut personality. Everyone always thinks these women are used by men, but what about the woman who's also using men and gets pleasure from it? The idea that women only want love and to be faithful is a fiction that's handy for men.

BALK The movie is about real women. God forbid [some-one] makes a movie with three real women in it.

SEDGWICK I was so happy to get the part. A lot of directors couldn't see me *in anything but something like Phenomenon. HILLER I thought Lyra was softer than Delia until our casting director explained that Lyra actually has some real toughness and directness in her personality. When I met her, she was dead-on.

POSEY Rebecca thought I was too pretty to play Greta and then she met me and realized I was just fine. [Laughs]

MILLER I did worry originally that she's so pretty and Greta was meant to be less attractive than her husband. As she played it, though, her physicality is sec

ondary to her attitude.

BILK I mad the script and thought, Cool, a week in Connecticut or whatever. When I met with Rebecca at a coffee shop, she said, "I think you're good."

HILLER Once I met Fairuza, I was onvinced that she was right for Paula because she has a great ability to play the gray areas.

SALK I didn't prepare a whole lot because I was playing shock. I talked to Rebecca about the story and stuff, but you can't really think about shock.

HILLER I rehearsed a bit with Fairu but I just talked to the others and gave them the book.

POSEY Rebecca just let us go. Fairuza shot first, Lyra shot second, and I shot third. And we each had a week. The whole shoot was only 16 days.

SEDGWICK I shot my segment in four days. The movie is really original. None of the characters are all bad or all good.

BALK Most films being made are ridiculously unreal.

SEIGVICK Since this was shot in digital video, they were able to shoot with the camera very far away. When the camera is right up in your face, it's very intimidating. With digital, Rebecca could do a close-up from far away and it gave me the sense of"they don't know I'm here." It's very voyeuristic.

POSEY When I did Dazed and confused, my first shots were with this big crane coming down in my face. The little digital camera isn't as intimidating.

MILLER I tried to make the camera be in the favor of the actor. Because the technical demands of ffirrimaking can be so onerous, it often gets in the way of performances. The mini [digital

video] camera is great because you can light minimally a d
i n
keep shooting, and there is that much more time for the
actors to work. They're not sitting around all day waiting
SEDGWICK She also didnt use the quick cuts so popular these
days. Sometimes the best moments are right before they say
action and after they say cut. where I come out of the
gar-age and cry ended up being around four minutes. We just
kept going I kept wondering when she was going to say cut.

Because she kept the camera rolling, she caught that exact moment right after you cry, when you start breathing again.

MILLER I loved being able to continue on and not cut for really long takes. I sometimes could go for 15 minutes. I shot for so long during the scene in the women's shelter that some of the people playing pool actually forgot I was there.

BALK The movie is completely unsentimental. Rebecca is not this gushy, sentimental broad. She's very intelligent and direct. POSEY And she's not intimidating.

MILLEN I think if I was intimidating, the actresses couldn't have done the work they did. I was really focused because I

was under a huge amount of pressure to stay on schedule or we wouldn't be able to make it. We had no overtime.

SEDGWICK I think Rebecca can be very intimidating. She wasn't when she was asking me to do the movie. But when I first came on the set, she was this coltish figure leading the way and you better have your s --- together.

POSEY Well your character is also intimidated at the beginning of the movie.

SEDGWICK But she's also really strong. Things go wrong for her, but by the end, she's reclaimed her power. It ends with a great sense of hope.'

HILLER I set out to give the viewer a kind of feast-a film that's beautiful to look at, that's funny and sad, and about real people BALK I'm really proud of the film It's a great movie and not a downer. Parker's [segment] is hysterical.,Anyone who would say the movie is a downer is insanely stupid.

POSEY Calling it a chick flick devalues the themes of the movie: experience, destiny, transformation, and emotion.

MILLEN It's an extremely positive film, although it does have these contradictory elements in it. In movies, there's a desire to simplify for the sake of the message. I didn't worry about the message. It's whatever you want to bring home with you.