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Special Feature: Behind The September Issue
KRISTINE KENNEDY: Why did you want to make a documentary about a fashion magazine?
RJ CUTLER: I didn’t want to make a documentary about a fashion magazine. I wanted to make a documentary about Anna Wintour. I wanted to make a film about her because she’s a fascinating person. Its always people first. That’s what’s going to drive you through the whole process.
KK: In watching the documentary, it seems like she’s still really guarded. She’s still inaccessible. She never really cuts loose. Did you find that when you were spending so much time with her?
RJC: Well. That’s who she is. It’s not as though you’re in a documentary and your personality changes. I was with her for nine months. That’s who she is. It’s not like there’s something going on with Anna Wintour that we didn’t film. This is Anna Wintour. Then people see The Devil Wears Prada and say, well Meryl Streep threw her coat down on the desk, why doesn’t Anna do that? Anna is very controlled, a very economical communicator. She’s very, very clear. But, that doesn’t mean that she jumps up and down and screams at people.
This is really a movie about Anna and Grace [Coddington, fashion editor]. It tells the story about these two women who have been working together for 20 years. Through their dynamic, through their relationship, through their history, through the way that they do what they do and through what they do, we learn an enormous amount about them and of course, about the world they kind of rule. These people live and work at Vogue, so you learn a lot about Vogue watching them. It’s called The September Issue because that’s the battlefield that this relationship is playing out on.
Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington in The September Issue
KK: Did you know going into this what the relationship was between Grace and Anna or was that something you discovered through spending time with them?
RJC: I only discovered it through spending time with them. It appears that they are opposites. But, there is really a symbiosis between them. They need each other. That dynamic was so evident spending time [at Vogue] that I decided to make it the focus of the film. Anna is very, very well-suited for the job that she has and Grace is very well-suited for the job that she has. Grace will be the first one to tell you that she could never do Anna’s job. I would say that it is an indication of Anna’s sense of the importance of beauty in Vogue that Grace has been such an important figure there. It’s not as though Anna is stuck with Grace. She wants Grace, she celebrates Grace. She tortures her. She edits her. That’s her job. She has to think about a whole magazine. Grace only has to think about one photo spread at a time.
KK: This film was shot in 2007, a mere two years ago. Was the electronification of media starting to come into their consciousness. They’re about to produce the largest print magazine in their history. Were there conversations going on about moving more toward web distribution?
RJC: Eh, a little bit. Style.com had been around. Vogue was just starting to explore the potential of web-based stuff.
KK: To some extent, Anna Wintour is a household name, mostly to people who buy fashion magazines. But, how do you feel a film like this is going to appeal to the public at large?
RJC: I’ve now shown this movie at Sundance, around the country and around the world as we’ve been leading up to the release, and when I show it to people in the entertainment industry or the fashion industry, I get a great response. But, when we go to places that have no connection to fashion, people who aren’t really in the industry, it’s a whole different thing. They’re laughing from beginning to end. They connect to it in a way that surprises them. It’s because, I think, it’s a story about a woman driven by passion and her tough boss, who’s human and who you can relate to as well. I had this experience with The War Room too.
KK: Anna seems to me similar to a politician in how controlled she is, how she presents herself. Did you find that when you were working with her?
RJC: No. Here’s what was similar between The War Room and this film: James [Carville] and George [Stephanopoulis] had in common with Anna and Grace passion, vision, dedication, commitment. And I don’t just mean a little. I mean a lot of all of those things. In that way, there are similarities. But, politicians are so outer directed in a way that I don’t think Anna is. They certainly have thick skin the way Anna does. Like, Bill Clinton sees a camera and he runs to it like a puppy dog. He doesn’t know how to stay away. He needs your love. I don’t really feel that’s Anna Wintour. I wouldn’t describe her that way at all.
There’s a reason why she adapts so well to caricature. There are two Annas on Ugly Betty. There’s The Devil Wears Prada. There’s Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Willy Wonka that’s apparently based on Anna. There’s a cartoon Anna in The Incredibles. But, she is a real person. That’s one of the great beauties, I think, of this film. You see this rich, complex person.
Kristine Kennedy is the author of the blog Unsolicited Submissions—about her experiences trying to sell her screenplay. You can also catch her work online on WHYY’s The Sixth Square.