Sofia Coppola
Sofia Carmina Coppola (/ˈkoʊpələ/ KOH-pəl-ə[1] Italian pronunciation: [soˈfiːa karˈmiːna ˈkoppola]; born May 14, 1971) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and former actress. She has received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Golden Lion,[a] and a Cannes Film Festival Award,[b][2] as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.[3][4]
Sofia Coppola
May 14, 1971
Domino Coppola
- Film director
- screenwriter
- producer
- actress
1972–present
2
- Francis Ford Coppola (father)
- Eleanor Neil (mother)
- Carmine Coppola (grandfather)
- Italia Pennino (grandmother)
- Gian-Carlo Coppola (brother)
- Roman Coppola (brother)
- August Coppola (uncle)
- Talia Shire (aunt)
- Gia Coppola (niece)
- Nicolas Cage (cousin)
- Jason Schwartzman (cousin)
- Robert Schwartzman (cousin)
The youngest child and only daughter of filmmakers Eleanor and Francis Ford Coppola, she made her acting debut as an infant in her father's acclaimed crime drama The Godfather (1972). Coppola later appeared in several music videos and had a supporting role in the fantasy comedy film Peggy Sue Got Married (1986). She then portrayed Mary Corleone, the daughter of Michael Corleone, in the sequel The Godfather Part III (1990).
Coppola transitioned into filmmaking with her feature-length directorial debut in the coming-of-age drama The Virgin Suicides (1999). It was the first of her collaborations with actress Kirsten Dunst. Her films often deal with themes of loneliness, wealth, privilege, isolation, youth, femininity, and adolescence in America. Coppola received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the comedy-drama Lost in Translation (2003), and became the third woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director.[c] She has since directed the historical drama Marie Antoinette (2006), the family drama Somewhere (2010), the satirical crime drama The Bling Ring (2013), the southern gothic thriller The Beguiled (2017), the comedy On the Rocks (2020), and the biographical drama Priscilla (2023).[5][6]
In 2015, Coppola released the Netflix Christmas musical comedy special A Very Murray Christmas, which earned her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie.[7]
Career[edit]
1972–1999: Acting career[edit]
Coppola's acting career, marked by frequent criticisms of nepotism and negative reviews,[18][19] began while she was an infant, as she made background appearances in eight of her father's films. The best known of these is her appearance in The Godfather as the infant Michael Francis Rizzi, in the baptism scene.[20][21] Coppola also acted in her father's films The Outsiders (1983), in a scene where Matt Dillon, Tommy Howell, and Ralph Macchio are eating at a Dairy Queen; Rumble Fish (1983); The Cotton Club (1984); and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), in which she portrayed Kathleen Turner's sister Nancy.[22] Frankenweenie (1984) was the first film Coppola performed in that was not associated with her father; however, it often goes unnoted due to her stage name "Domino", which she adopted at the time because she thought it was glamorous.[23] A short film entitled Life Without Zoe (1989), released as part of a tripartite anthology film New York Stories, was co-written by a teenage Coppola and her father; her father also directed the film.[24]
Coppola returned to her father's Godfather trilogy in both the second and third Godfather films, playing an immigrant child in The Godfather Part II and playing Michael Corleone's daughter in The Godfather Part III after the originally cast actress, Winona Ryder, dropped out of the film at the last minute due to nervous exhaustion.[25][26][27][22] It has been suggested that Coppola's performance in The Godfather Part III damaged Francis Ford Coppola's career and ruined Sofia's before it had even begun.[28] Coppola has said that she never really wanted to act and only did it to help out when her father asked her to.[29] It has also been suggested that Sofia's role in the film may have affected its box office performance, which started strongly and then went into decline. Coppola herself worried that she had only been given the role because she was the director's daughter, and the role placed a strain on her during the time of shooting that her mother observed in a series of diaries she wrote for Vogue during the filming.[28] Coppola later stated that she was not hurt by the criticism from her work in the film because she never especially wanted an acting career.[30]
Other work[edit]
Television[edit]
In the mid-1990s, Coppola and her best friend Zoe Cassavetes helmed the short-lived Comedy Central series Hi Octane, which spotlit performers in underground music. The show was cancelled after four episodes.[78]
In December 2008, Coppola's first commercial premiered during an episode of Gossip Girl. The advertisement she directed for the Christian Dior fragrance Miss Dior Chérie, shot in France with model Maryna Linchuk, was very well received and continues to be popular on YouTube.[79]
In October 2014, Coppola launched a series of Christmas ads for the clothing chain Gap.[80]
In May 2020, it was announced Coppola would write and direct an adaptation of The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton for Apple TV+.[81]
In 2022, Coppola guest-starred as herself, alongside her husband Thomas Mars and fellow director Jim Jarmusch, in an episode of the FX horror comedy series What We Do in the Shadows.[82]
Modeling[edit]
At the beginning of the 1990s, Coppola was often featured in girl-oriented magazines like Seventeen and YM. In 1994,[83] she co-founded the clothing line Milk Fed in Japan, with her friend Stephanie Hayman in cooperation with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon. In 2001,[84] the fashion designer Marc Jacobs chose the actress/director to be the "face" of his house's fragrance, Daisy. The campaign photographs of Coppola were shot by photographer Jürgen Teller. The July 2013 issue of Elle featured photographs shot by Coppola of Paris Hilton at Hilton's Beverly Hills mansion (Both model and house appear in The Bling Ring).[85][86]
Stage direction[edit]
In 2017, before Coppola started pre-production on The Beguiled, she was asked by Italian state broadcaster Rai Com from All'Opera to direct their latest production of La Traviata. La traviata is a three act opera by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesca Maria Piave. This Coppola-directed production was filmed for broadcast in Germany and France by Arte/ZDF, using multiple state-of-the art 4k cameras and up to 100 microphones.[87] Coppola said in an interview she "could not turn down the project" with designer and fashion icon Valentino Garavani designing the costumes for this 15 show run of La Traviata (2017).[88] Discussing her modern take on this classic story Coppola says "I wanted to bring out the personal side of the French courtesan, the party girl used to the social scene. It's a very feminine world that I love".[89]
This was the first stage production Coppola directed.[88] Coppola discusses how Valentino "really motivated me to take a chance and do something that was scary for me and very unfamiliar," and promised a "traditional" production that could nevertheless be appreciated by those who are not opera connoisseurs. Rome Opera House Director Carlo Fuortes said in an interview ticket sales had exceeded 1.2 million euros (1.35 million dollars), a record for the establishment.[90]
All fifteen shows nearly sold out before opening night.[89] It was the biggest box office success since the Teatro dell'Opera Di Roma opened in 1880.[89]
Art[edit]
Coppola sits on the board for Gagosian Gallery.[91]
Released on November 1, 2023. Archive by Sofia Coppola is a personal collection with behind the scene content, scripts, photographs, and development behind each film. Including content from all eight of her films The Virgin Suicides (1999), Lost in Translation (2003), The Beguiled (2017), and Priscilla (2023). The book has a total of 488 pages. Archive is personally edited and annotated by Coppola herself.[100][101]