Steven Andrew Soderbergh (born January 14, 1963 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and Oscar-winning director of Swedish descent.
Biography
As a child, Soderbergh's family migrated from Atlanta to Baton Rouge where his father became Dean of Educations at Louisiana State University. It was there where he discovered filmaking as a teenager, directing short Super 8 mm films with equipment borrowed from students at his father's university. [1] Rather than attending LSU, Soderbergh tried his luck in Hollywood after graduating high school; working as a game show scorer and cue card holder to make ends meet, and eventually finding work as a freelance film editor. [2] His big break came when he directed the Grammy-nominated concert video, 9012 Live, for the rock band Yes in 1985. [3]
It wasn't until he came back to Baton Rouge when he concocted the idea for Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) which he wrote in eight days. The independent film won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, became a worldwide commercial success and — along with Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction — greatly attributed to the 1990s independent film revolution. Movie critic Roger Ebert dubbed Soderbergh the "poster boy of the Sundance generation." [4]
What followed was a series of low-budget box office dissapointments: Kafka, a thriller starring Jeremy Irons; King of the Hill (1993), a critically acclaimed Depresion-era drama; Underneath (1995), a remake of Robert Siodmak's 1949 film noir Criss Cross; and Schizopolis (1996), a comedy which he starred, wrote, composed, and shot as well as directed. Making good on his Schizopolis-inspired "artistic wake-up call," [5] his commercial slump ended in 1998 with Out of Sight, a stylized film adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel, starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. The film was both widely praised and a box office smash, reaffirming Soderbergh's potential and sparking the beginnings of an artistic and lucrative parternship between Clooney and Soderbergh.
Soderbergh followed-up on the success of Out of Sight by making another crime drama, The Limey (1999) starring veteran actors Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda. The film was well-recieved, but not as much as Erin Brockovich (2000), a "Rocky movie" starring Julia Roberts. Later that year, Soderbergh released his most ambitious project yet, Traffic, a social drama which featured an ensemble cast. Traffic became his most acclaimed movie since Sex, Lies, Videotape, and earned him an Academy Award for Best Director.
Ocean's Eleven (2001), featuring an all-star cast, is to date Soderbergh's highet grossing movie. The star of which, George Clooney, also appeared in Solaris (2002 in film), marking the third time the two have headlined a film. Soderbergh moved on to docudramas with K-Street, a ten-part political HBO series. Ocean's Twelve (2004) followed.
In 2006, Soderbergh raised ebrows with Bubble, a $1.6 million film featuring a cast of unprofessial actors. It opened in theaters and HDNet simultaneously, and four days later on DVD. Industry heads are reportedly watching how the film performs, as the manner in which it was released could have implications for all future featured films.
Soderbergh's non-intrusive directorial style has enabled him to work with many high-profile actors more than once. Julia Roberts had roles in Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve, Full Frontal and won an Academy Award for Best Actress in Erin Brockovich. Benicio Del Toro, who also won an Academy Award in a Soderbergh film (Traffic), is starring in the upcoming Guerrilla. Other actors common to Soderbergh's work include Luis Guzmán and Don Cheadle. But the actor who played the leading role in no less than four of his films is George Clooney, with whom he co-owns the production company Section Eight Productions. Section Eight produced the critical hits Far From Heaven and Insomnia, as well as the Clooney-directed films Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Good Night, and Good Luck.
Soderbergh often acts as his own director of photography under the alias of Peter Andrews and occasionally acts as his own editor under the alias of Mary Ann Bernard. While shooting Traffic, Soderbergh realized that WGA regulations prohibit a cinematographer or editor to be credited over a screenwriter, so he uses psudeonyms to assign credit to himself. He also wrote Criminal and Underneath under the lesser used Sam Lowry.
Soderbergh is a rare director in that he can make big budget Hollywood films one year and art-house independent films the next. He is also quite versitile with the genres he chooses to film and his varied trades behind the scenes. Traffic screenwriter and Syriana director, Stephen Gaghan, called Soderbergh "the Michael Jordan of filmaking" for his ability to handle so many roles in film production. Known for his work ethic, Soderbergh has thus far released two feature films in the same year on three occasions.
As of 19 March 2006, his projects in production include Guerrilla starring Benicio Del Toro as Che Guevara, and a romatic drama set in post-war Berlin starring Cate Blanchett and George Clooney called The Good German. [6]
Trivia
- He is the youngest director to receive the Palmes d'Or, at age 26.
- Both his films in 2000, Erin Brockovich and Traffic, were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Directing.
- In March 2002, Soderbergh was elected First Vice President of the Directors Guild of America.
- Steven Soderbergh is a fan of the rock band, Guided by Voices, and its frontman, Robert Pollard. Soderbergh wrote the foreword to the book Guided By Voices: A Brief History, Twenty-one Years of Hunting Accidents in the Forests of Rock and Roll, written by James Greer.
- He often utilizes Cliff Martinez to construct/compose the soundtracks to his movies, and when not cutting his own films, he relies on editor Stephen Mirrione.
- Soderbergh is married to actress/columnist (and former E! Entertainment Television anchor) Jules Asner. [7]
- He has described himself as a "hardcore atheist."
Filmography
Director
Writer
Cinematographer
Editor
Producer
Major Awards
External links
