The acting in "Flawless" is pretty impressive.
Robert De Niro spent a lot of time at an institute where they deal with stroke patients, going every day for five weeks and even visiting their homes. He also designed a special shoe for himself, weights for his arm, prosthetics for his mouth, which were very painful to wear, and took tango lessons everyday. Bob was the most committed to this project that he has been to anything in ages. He read this and said yes right away. He also wanted us to produce this together so that nobody could screw it up. Philip Seymour Hoffman, who as an actor is, I think, very similar to Bob, was determined to get across the fact that he is playing a trans-gender person in the film, which is someone who feels that they are born in the wrong body. Philip really understood that and, like Bob, really put in a lot of research.
In "Flawless", you take mainstream production values and mainstream stars and you subvert them both. It's a very subversive film.
I love the word subversive. I have wanted to be subversive all my life! The people that inhabit "Flawless" are very real for me as I am a street person from New York who knows that life and have known it all my life. There's a lot of crime and a lot of overlooked crime. Then mixed in with this you have drag queens, prostitutes but also musicians, young artists, and people who are struggling with basically not having any money. These are interesting communities and people pass them by without even noticing them.
Joel Schumacher talks about avoiding stereotypes in making "Flawless".
"The Lost Boys" and those "Batman" films.
See Joel Schumacher talking about his films at the 44th London Film Festival.
