Gia Coppola: I didn’t see The Godfather until last year

The director revealed she only recently watched her grandfather Francis Ford Coppola's film
Impressed: Francis Ford Coppola’s granddaughter Gia, says she was blown away when she saw his masterpiece The Godfather last year
Ben Morgan25 September 2014
The Weekender

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Gia Coppola is the latest member of the movie-making dynasty to take the director’s chair — but today revealed she only watched The Godfather for the first time last year.

The granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola, who made the classic 1972 Mafia film, will see her first feature, Palo Alto, open in the UK next month.

Ms Coppola, 27, said: “Friends would ask, ‘Have you seen The Godfather?’ and I’d be like, ‘No’.”

Her late father Gian-Carlo was a film producer and her aunt is Lost In Translation director Sofia Coppola. Other movie relatives include Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage and fellow actor Jason Schwartzman.

Classic: Francis Ford Coppola made the classic 1972 Mafia film

Ms Coppola said of her family: “It felt intimidating. I wasn’t sure what my passion was. I never paid attention to movies until fairly recently.”

She finally saw the legendary trilogy about a Mafia family with friend and actor James Franco. “He sat me down and we watched I and II back-to-back. I was blown away,” she said.

Ms Coppola, who divides her time between New York, with boyfriend Sam Freilich, and Los Angeles, said low-budget Palo Alto would be a “gritty” take on the high school genre.

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“You don’t find much that articulates that time as a teenager well,” she said. “It’s always PG and too clean.”

Palo Alto is out on October 17.

Read the full interview in ES magazine out tomorrow

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