Joan Jett Talks About ‘The Runaways’ Movie

Joan Jett sat down with Interview magazine to talk about the upcoming movie “The Runaways”, which is based on the legendary girl group she was in with Cherie Currie, Lita Ford, Sandy West and Jackie Fox. Joan shared that she wasn’t too keen on having this movie made at first.

On wanting The Runaways’ story to be told:

Well, not me so much-I think that’s true more so for the other girls. I was always pretty resistant to both a Runaways reunion or just any sort of movie situation. I guess I was afraid that the only thing that could happen is that things could go wrong. Maybe it was a way to protect it for myself because The Runaways was so special to me and meant so much, beyond just girls playing rock ‘n’ roll. I think it represented a lot to me about following your dreams, about not being dictated to about what your life is going to be. Girls see these defined roles they’re supposed to follow in life, but when I was a young child, my parents told me I could be anything. Before I settled on music, I wanted to be an archaeologist, an astronaut, all sorts of really diverse things.

On working with Kristen Stewart, who plays Joan in the film:

Well, I found Kristen to be through and through totally professional and just great to be around. I found us to be really, scarily similar, just in our physicality, the way we move through space. She came to see us do a concert. We hung out for the whole day, and I just dumped on her about everything I could think about The Runaways-I mean, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I told her all that stuff and how much it meant to me. Then she went off to do New Moon, and I didn’t see her again until about two weeks before The Runaways thing started. But she is so authentic. The thing that came through to me was that it was important to her to capture it. She really wanted to nail it. So I gave her all The Runaways music that I could find; I gave her tapes of me talking. . . . When we were together prior to the start of filming, she was staring at me the whole time. And I was fine with it because I knew she was watching my posture, my mannerisms, everything I did, the way I hold my hands, just everything. And she really soaked it in. When we were hanging out together on set, it was like I had a mirror image. Even just sitting around, we’d do the same thing at the same time. It was just great-and it wasn’t creepy. It was wonderfully special.

I’m sure Kristen appreciates the praise from Joan. From the photos and clips released so far, Kristen really is a dead-ringer for Joan. Are you planning to see the movie? Are you anxious to hear Kristen singing as Joan Jett?

Photos by INF & WENN