Summary

• From Kids to Oscar-nominated roles, Chloë Sevigny's fearless acting choices have shaped her diverse career in indie and mainstream projects.
• Despite mainstream success, Sevigny continues to prioritize arthouse films and fashion, showcasing her unique style and artistic vision.
• Sevigny's unwavering fearlessness on screen has solidified her status as a sought-after talent in Hollywood, known for her unforgettable performances.

Chloë Sevigny was always more than a trendy, diaeresis-sporting, Manhattanite "it girl" — despite the fact that her presence on the New York City nightlife scene has been a near-constant since even before her acting career began. Regardless of her NYC association, Sevigny actually hails from nearby Darien, Connecticut — a tony enclave vastly different from the Downtown Manhattan she launched into as a teen model and actress in the '90s. After some spotwork in music videos for Sonic Youth and The Lemonheads, Sevigny was cast in the groundbreaking and controversial indie Kids by first-time director Larry Clark in 1995, gaining her instant notice when the film made a splash that year at the Cannes Film Festival.

Sevigny's acting work has grown by leaps and bounds since those halcyon days, expanding deeper into arthouse territory with films like Trees Lounge, Gummo, The Brown Bunny, and Broken Flowers. Still, Sevigny has kept a toe in the mainstream, with roles on HBO series (Big Love) and in studio movies like The Last Days of Disco and Zodiac — not to mention her portfolio of high-profile, high-fashion endorsements and modeling.

From Club Kid to Larry Clark Muse

Larry Clark had risen to art-world fame long before Kids with his incredible photography book, Tulsa — the style Sevigny matched perfectly — with her disaffected vibe and youthful photographic look. Clark's eye for talent was indisputable, as Kids immediately launched the careers of Sevigny, Rosario Dawson, and writer Harmony Korine.

We Were Once Kids, a 2021 documentary that took a hard stance against Clark's effect on the film's cast, was notably devoid of interviews with Sevigny, Dawson, or Korine. All three had benefited enormously from Clark's vision, and Sevigny was the film's greatest standout, acting-wise — with Kids' deepest character arc and most disturbing tragedy.

Sevigny Continued to Tackle Arthouse Roles, Leading to an Oscar Nomination

Kids led Sevigny to continue appearing in notable indies in the '90s, starting with Steve Buscemi's Trees Lounge, then a breakout role in Boys Don't Cry. Sevigny impressed in the film opposite Hilary Swank, netting her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in one of the first films to examine the complexities of transgender identity. She would lose out to Angelina Jolie, who won that award for Girl, Interrupted — though Sevigny could easily have won in today's Hollywood climate.

Commenting on the film, Roger Ebert was effusive in his praise for Sevigny's role as Lana, saying, "The Lana character is crucial to the movie, and although Hilary Swank deserves all praise for her performance as Brandon, it is Sevigny who provides our entrance into the story." That review became even more notable after the 72nd Academy Awards, as Swank would win the Oscar for Best Actress that year. Still, Sevigny's nomination gave her greater consideration for work in leading roles and more mainstream fare.

Despite Forays Into Larger Projects, Sevigny Stuck to Her Indie Guns

While Sevigny's profile had certainly been raised by the nomination, it didn't mean a full-time leap into studio movies and TV series. In the 2000s, she joined some larger projects, like HBO's Mormon polygamy drama Big Love and crime thrillers Zodiac and American Psycho, but she still stuck to her roots as an indie actor. Her 2000s roles were arguably her most daring, none more so than playing Daisy in Vincent Gallo's The Brown Bunny, which saw the actress take on a role that Winona Ryder and Kirsten Dunst reportedly passed on due to the graphic sex scenes involved.

The role in Brown Bunny could have been career suicide, the type almost any agent would warn a client against — but Sevigny was clearly an artist of a different ilk. In an interview with The Guardian, Sevigny said of the infamous sex scene: "It was tough, the toughest thing I've ever done, but Vincent was very sensitized to my needs." Recent allegations about Gallo may soon paint that film in a different light, but taking fliers on shadowy artists like Larry Clark and Gallo are precisely the risks that led to Sevigny's success — despite welcoming plenty of fallout.

Sevigny's Fashion Work Has Seen Significant Growth

While Sevigny's popularity as an actor has waxed and waned somewhat over the last three decades, her profile in the fashion world has steadily risen. After Sassy magazine editor Andrea Linett discovered a 17-year-old Sevigny in the East Village, early modeling work for small brands like X-Girl helped Sevigny subsequently secure her first acting roles.

You could argue she has had greater success in fashion than film, as she's released clothing lines for Opening Ceremony, Vestal, and even ready-to-wear clothes OC Collection. Sevigny has played muse to Marc Jacobs, directed campaigns for Miu Miu, and can still be seen gracing the pages of Vogue and Elle magazine as a brand ambassador for Louis Vuitton.

Throughout Her Career, a Constant Theme: Fearlessness

Though her choices of roles haven't always netted Sevigny greater fame or fortune, you could never describe them as boring. They have ranged from films that are grotesque (Antibirth) to explicit (Lovelace) and even borderline pornographic (The Brown Bunny)—but the roles are always engaging, and she remains sought after by directors like Jim Jarmusch and David Fincher thanks to her fearlessness and elegance on camera.

Speaking about the hubbub surrounding Sevigny's explicit roles, New York Times columnist Manohla Dargis may have said it best: "Ms. Sevigny isn't hiding behind anyone's desk. She says her lines with feeling and puts her iconoclasm right out there where everyone can see it; she may be nuts, but she's also unforgettable." Sevigny can be seen in recent television series like Monster and Poker Face, while her upcoming project, Bonjour Tristesse, is in post-production.