Joan Jett ('The Runaways', 'Joan Jett & The Blackhearts')

By Scott W. Perry

Joan Jett defines awesome. There’s no other way to describe it.

A true pioneer in the music industry, Joan has been in the music scene for 35 years and is one of the most recognizable, and biggest selling female artists in the history of rock. Her seminal hit “I Love Rock N Roll” is one of Billboard Magazine’s highest charting singles ever and at age 50, still sells out shows worldwide...

Joan is also an accomplished actress on screen, most notably getting rave reviews for the 1986 film Light Of Day and most recently appearing in a cameo in Repo! The Genetic Opera. However, for her first role behind the camera, she watched a pivotal time in her early career come alive again before her eyes.

Joan, doing her thing in the 1980's

The Runaways chronicles her early rise at the age of 15 as the founding member of the band, and when Joan heard about the project she immediately came on board as an executive producer which immediately added to the authenticity of the film and in particular lending support to Kristen Stewart, who plays Joan as a teenager. When the film played at Sundance, a concert headlined by Joan to celebrate the film was the festival’s biggest event.

With the film hitting limited release on March 19th in preparation for a wider release on April 9th, Jett spoke with a group of reporters about her experiences on the film, going back to her time in the band, and what she hopes people get out of the film’s message.

Upon entering the room of the posh New York hotel, there is an instant awe of the extremely talented musician with a quick wit. When one reporter commented that she felt she should bow down to Joan, Jett responded wryly with “We could do that. Shall I get some goop?”

Immediately, Joan is asked about Kristen Stewart’s performance and what she felt about seeing her “avatar” on the screen. “That was the first time I heard it put like that,” says Jett. “I tell you, it was about as surreal as it could get. It was a very interesting feeling. It’s a good feeling. It’s been a really pleasant experience thus far. Kristen did great. If I didn’t think she did great, I probably wouldn’t be here talking to you right now. She really made a grand effort to be authentic, genuine, and really try to embody. I think she got it. People in Los Angeles who know me pre-Runaways or during that time, people like my family, people like Pat Smear from The Germs, who hung out with me many times, with them saying ‘She nailed it,’ that goes beyond me saying it. I thought she was brilliant.” Joan was defensive when asked about the tough yet soft demeanor Stewart played in the film.

“I think over the years I’ve become much more confident, much more outgoing. I think when I was younger I was very shy, much more withdrawn. I could be more outgoing but it might be after a drink or two. I think over the years I’ve learned how to talk to people. I’ve learned how to come out of my shell a little bit. I’ve become more resolute and more confident in myself. Back in those days, I wasn’t on my own. I was with five other people and we were on a mission. What I was saying was that I had to get stronger afterwards on my own so yes, Kristen did capture how I was at the time correctly.”

Joan and the original Runaways in the 1970's

In addition to capturing herself on screen, Jett’s biggest concerns came upon who would play her former mentor Kim Fowley and whether or not he would be portrayed correctly on screen. “Kim’s very much a stream of consciousness, a flamboyant stream of consciousness and Michael nailed him,” says Jett. “Kim is uncontainable and Michael really nailed that aspect of it. The one thing that I was concerned about was if enough humanity came through and enough of the friendship existed because Kim and I were friends and we got along very well. He couldn’t tell me what to do and he really didn’t tell us what to do. In one sense I felt that he was the most difficult character to get right because there were so many degrees of him in real life and was there enough time to show that there was a real camaraderie between the girls and him. It wasn’t just him running around telling us what to do and follow orders. That just wasn’t the case. Kim was very demonstrative, very big, used his arms a lot, and was very ornate with his words.” Does Joan still remember the things Kim taught her and apply to her career now, she responds by saying “Yeah, definitely.”

Despite writer/director Floria Sigismondi’s extensive background as a music video director, Jett had a surprising answer when asked about her work. “I must be honest, I wasn’t familiar with Floria’s work at all and so I just had heard about it.” She adds about Sigismondi’s work on the film with pride, stating “I really had to take all that on faith but I think that she did great and everything looked beautiful so the faith worked.”

Having acted on film before, The Runaways is Jett’s first foray into producing films, one she admits was a little nerve wracking. “I think the process is pretty brutal. It’s intense, very intense but really for me, my main role as I saw it was to help Kristen get there, to help her really feel like me but also be there for the cast and crew and anyone who wanted to talk to me about details. Different departments did come to me and asked me little elements like ‘Would you say this’ or ‘Would you say that,’ little tidbits that would keep it in the ballpark of what we were going for.”

Jett, who usually lets her music do the talking for her, opened up when it came to reflecting back and seeing if anything could’ve changed to keep The Runaways together. “I don’t think so. I think we were five girls who came together to do a certain thing but I don’t think we were all on the same page on what it meant to us or what we wanted to achieve from it. I’m not sure that Cherrie’s goals were necessarily the same as mine. I think Sandy and I were in similar in trying to make it easier for girls to play and that they could see in life, society creates these roles for men and women; you grow up, you do certain things and these are the way we flow. Men flow into these jobs and women flow into these jobs. I was trying to create a vision that women could flow into rock music as well and that it was OK. Do I think if anything could’ve changed with The Runaways? No I don’t. It was also about the communication. We didn’t communicate with each other. We didn’t sit down to talk about what was bugging us. If some of the girls didn’t get along, what was the issue to resolve it? I know we didn’t sit down to talk things out but I’m also not sure some of those things were resolvable. Some of the issues were just basic music issues where somebody likes one kind of music and somebody else likes another kind of music and we were growing apart. That’s just the way it is and soon we would’ve been 20 year old Runaways and that just can’t be.”

Joan on the set of 'The Runaways' with Kristen Stewart

Jett also openly reveals how she felt at the time when The Runaways broke up and how it led to her hugely successful solo career. Jett recollects, “I was pretty devastated at the end of The Runaways. I was in bad shape. I was partying too hard. I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t thinking necessarily about music because you had to feel the atmosphere around me. Los Angeles was laughing and saying ‘We told you it wouldn’t work.’ The despair was really bad. I probably could’ve pulled myself out of it and formed a band had I tried but I was really distraught. The Runaways were signed to a movie project when we broke up and I was contractually obligated to write songs for this film that now wasn’t happening. I thought I might get sued if I didn’t do it. I met Kenny Laguna, my writing partner, in 1979, and he’s still my writing and producing partner today. He thought I was really talented. He thought I was a great songwriter. He knew I could sing. He also knew that because I was in The Runaways, nobody wanted to deal with me, but he wanted to get me a deal. He starts calling up his friends in the business and he was kind of taken aback when nobody was willing to work with me. He wasn’t expecting this response. Now I have somebody who’s feeling as pissed off as I am and he’s on my team. That sometimes is all you need is someone to believe in you. That’s all it took so with Kenny’s help and from his belief I formed the Blackhearts in Los Angeles and we moved to New York. The reason why we moved to New York because for a struggling band performing in clubs, in LA there’s only so many places you can go and play. It has to be within a five hour radius. In New York, you can play New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Boston, and Maryland, and still get back home. It was enticing so we relocated and things went well after that.”

The Runaways is loosely based on Cherrie Curie’s book Neon Angel, and with Curie’s own involvement of the film she and Jett remain friends. When asked about her relationship with the other members of the band, Joan says “I haven’t really spoken with the rest of the band to be honest. Sandy (West) unfortunately died a few years ago but I haven’t really been in touch with the rest of the band.”

Jett hopes that the film generates a positive message towards those who are aspiring to be artists and had these inspiring words to share. “Somebody said that it made them want to form a band. If this movie makes girls want to do that, or boys too, that’s great, or anything, anything that you want to do that people are saying ‘No, you can’t do that.’

Why?

Because you don’t want to!

‘Well now I do!’

You’re saying that now because you are not tired of things until you are and things are going to be the way they are until they’re not, and who’s going to be the ones to change it, why not us? Get out there and do it. Give it a shot and if you don’t make it at least you gave it a shot, you won’t spend your whole life going ‘Dammit, I followed my parents’ path and even my own fuck ups are not my own.’”

After talking briefly about her latest project, a book recollecting her 35 year career in rock with Todd Oldham, Jett ended the interview by stating she was looking forward to the response of The Runaways. But will her experience as an executive producer lead her to continuing that path down the line?

“You know what, I would always be open to any opportunity like that, but for this film, my expertise was in a very particular field and so it was good to have me there for those reasons. I don’t know how I could be helpful as an executive producer or as a sort of any producer on any other film but you never know, you know, you just never say never, so I’d definitely be open to it, I mean I’ve acted in films and on TV so you never know.”

The Runaways opens in limited release on March 19th 2010 and in wide release on April 9th 2010.

(Special thanks to Betsy Rudnick and Brian Clark at Falco Ink)