She was a shot in the arm to Hannah's Iowa writers' circle in Girls, and now Desiree Akhavan is taking over 2015 with her own film, Appropriate Behaviour
What do we first look for in a girl crush? Cool creative career ? She’s got it. Willingness to send herself up with a wicked sense of humour? Naturally. Lust-have hair? Way ahead of the crowd on the wavy bob. Meet Desiree Akhavan, the 29 year-old New York film-maker (writer-director-actor and even apparently bit of a singer) set to turn heads in 201. Nt only is she set to be the new break out star in the new season of Girls, but she's also showcasing her considerable talents in slice-of-hipster-life indie flick Appropriate Behaviour (which premiered at Sundance) shortly afterwards.
So how would she feel, if, on a lazy day, we nicknamed her the ‘New Lena Dunham’? ‘Well it’s not new! It wouldn’t be something I’m unfamiliar with,’ Akhavan tells us. ‘When you get compared to this massively successful person whose work you really appreciate and it’s like ‘yay!’ And then you think ‘but I’m my own person, boo!’
So what will her Girls character be, if not a slice of Dunham? ‘I play Hannah’s classmate at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop,’ she tells us. ‘I went to grad school for directing, and my character is very much the worst of the grad school types.’
In Appropriate Behaviour – her big screen widening of a loosely autobiographical web series The Slope she made at said film school– Desiree plays Shirin, a Brooklynite struggling to unify her out bisexual self with being a ‘good’ Persian daughter. ‘The Slope came out of us talking about how no gay films spoke to us, and how we were actually probably the most homophobic lesbians,’ admits Akhavan. ‘Mainstream gay is supposed to represent you, but actually gives you the heebegeebies.’
From her new film we can expect Hannah Horvarth levels of self-reflection, not to mention the odd bit of real-world New York nakedness. ‘The events in the film didn’t take place; it was a fantastical version of where I was, the heightened version of my worst qualities.’ Despite that read though, Shirin is a likeable character, who finds herself chasing a job and ending up ‘working in film’ at an after school club for eight year-olds.
Now, Akhavan is writing a dating comedy TV show set in Manhattan,saying: ‘Whatever I see as an interesting conversation I’ll write. I’m not that strategic politically. I hate stories where you feel like they have a message. It just feels like you’re taking your medicine.’
What she will admit to is a level of ambition some Brits may find it hard to say out loud. ‘I really do feel ambitious. Here it might be deemed tacky, that you’d deserve success as a person,’ she explains. ‘But I think it’s an immigrant thing, my parents sacrificed so much for me. Why would you sleep on that opportunity?’ As Female directors are in short supply we’re right behind her, but does she think it's going to be a difficult road. easy road, does she think? ‘I’ve found it’s pretty equal footing for men and women at first feature level, but you see the drop-off at second and third features. So I’m figuring that out for myself.’
Appropriate Behaviour is in cinemas this weekend