Lindsay Lohan

With Lindsay’s latest film release garnering tons of press (both good and bad), first-time director Jarrett Schaefer sat down and gave an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. In it, he talks a lot about first-time director issues, but takes a minute to discuss Lindsay herself.

When asked how he got Lindsay to play such a small role:

“I guess I beat the odds,” he observed. “I know she really liked the writing, really liked the sort of earnestness of the script. And when you’ve got three great producers who have great credits each all coming together for this one little movie, you’re not exactly a first time director although you are. She trusted me and wanted to do a film like this. I think what’s great about Lindsay is that her work is getting infinitely more interesting and complex.”

When asked how it was to work with her:

“You know, it’s like getting to drive a Ferrari,” Schaefer replied. “I can’t really compare it to anything — a Ferrari off road no doubt because it wasn’t on some soundstage anywhere. We were out in (the streets of) New York City. She would (do) these improv things, but they’re not really improv because they’d come to her before a take and she’d always let me know (what she wanted to do) and they’d be hysterical. I had her for seven days — it was broken up (into) three days and then four days — and it was probably a good thing that we had such tough material in New York City with limited time and limited money. That stuff (about Lohan being difficult on other shoots) didn’t occur to me. I didn’t have those kind of problems.”

Did he have any problems with her:

“No, I didn’t have any problems (with her), but we were doing something that we really felt (good) about. Lindsay was spending time with Yoko (Ono). I know they went out to dinner and stuff. She wanted to play Jude and she had ideas about Jude being like this ultimate Beatle girl with a foot in the past and a foot in the future. That was what we were doing.”

On Lindsay’s character (Jude):

“Jude Stein is her name,” he said. “She’s the real person who had dinner with Chapman on the night he shot John Lennon. They talked and had those conversations. She’s real. It’s pretty much all real (in the movie). There’s not a tremendous amount to read about this event, but there’s enough.”