‘Story Of A Girl’ Director Kyra Sedgwick Finds Confidence Behind The Camera

Kyra Sedgwick is directing Lifetime’s new original movie “Story of a Girl,” but that wasn’t always the plan. After sitting on the script that she intended to produce for a decade, the actress suddenly found herself volunteering to direct as well.

“We went in there, talked to Tanya Lopez [SVP of Lifetime Original Movies] and she said ‘Is there any passion project that you are interested in doing here?’ And I said ‘Yes, Story of a Girl and I want to direct it.’ Literally, it just kind of came out,” Sedgwick told International Business Times at ATX Television Festival last month. “I just said it and I totally meant it. Yes, I’d been living with it for 10 years, but I had also become entirely ready to take the reins as a director.”

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Sedgwick has been working for about 40 years as an actress and she has a couple decades of producing under her belt as well, but directing is the job that has come with the most confidence. “It’s really all I want to do,” the actress said. “I will continue to act, but honestly, the directing has become my real passion now. The joy was — I can’t even explain how free and joyful and I just had such faith in my ability, which I don’t often have as an actor. I had a lot of self-doubt and a lot of like self-criticism. No one knows that but it’s true. I didn’t have that as a director.”

Though husband Kevin Bacon had often encouraged her to direct, the “Closer” alum didn’t think she was ready until this opportunity came along. Once she was in the director’s chair, she realized that she had been ready to be in charge for a long time.

“What I felt like was I’ve been preparing for this and not knowing my entire life,” she added. “Because the truth is, I’m always watching films going, ‘Why didn’t they get a close up of that? And why did the director do it that way? And why didn’t they shoot it from that angle? And we really missed an opportunity.’ And I’ve always been critiquing in my head those things that I didn’t even know that was preparation for this, but honestly, I can only say that it was sort of like a holy thing. I’m not religious or anything, but I do feel like there was something very — I don’t know — just a real gift from the universe.”

“It also feels more important to direct,” she continued. “Like it feels more important for me as a citizen of the world right now to find stories to talk about.”

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The narrative in “Story of a Girl” was one that Sedgwick felt was important for young women. The Lifetime movie, based on Sara Zarr’s 2007 young adult novel, follows Deanna Lambert (Ryann Shane), a teen whose life is defined by the sex video that hit social media three years ago. The movie deals with slut shaming, self-love and forgiveness, and a lot of that is just what comes with being a woman, according to Sedgwick.

“It’s hard to be a woman; it’s hard to be a girl,” the director explained to IBT. “We have a lot of messages coming at us about what we’re supposed to be, and a lot of that comes in direct conflict with the feelings that we’re having, the not pretty feelings that we’re having, the angry feelings that we’re having. The not feeling pretty enough, not feeling good enough, not feeling seen and feeling shamed for our sexuality. I don’t think there can be at this point enough stories about women at any age because I think we’ve erred so far on the other side.”

Sedgwick hopes that having the movie on Lifetime will allow more people to see “Story of a Girl.” “Unfortunately, independent film is kind of dead in the theaters. As much as I hate having that come out of my mouth, it’s just the way it is so most people are getting their content from television,” she admitted. “And honestly, it’s so sad. It’s like grown ups go to the movies now and kids watch TV. And I want kids to see this and I also want grown ups to see it. My dream, and it’s a big dream, but I think it’s a good one, is that families will sit down and watch this together.”

“Story of a Girl” airs Sunday, July 23 at 8 p.m. EDT on Lifetime.