Parker Posey, who gained the title "Queen of the Indies" through her string of popular independent features in the '90s ("Personal Velocity," "Best in Show," etc.), finds what's going on in the indie film world today "really hard" and "really painful."
That would include moviemaker John Waters' decision to pull the plug on his planned "Fruitcake" flick, to which Posey was attached, and his declaration last year that in this economy he was "going to have to do a puppet show."
"I don't want to lose the small stories that these independent directors create," Posey says. "There are so many writers and directors out there who see things that would inspire and enlighten people about what it is to be a human being."
She did make the forthcoming "Price Check" indie comedy in January, but, she says, "I felt sad at the end of each day. I had a great time working on it -- but I couldn't help thinking, 'If this was the '70s, it would be a real budget, and they'd have more than three weeks to do it.' A lot of movies that get made get thrown together because they're a certain genre. That's where we now are."
"I feel like it's come full circle: [Independent] movies are going back to the low budget world, but the budgets are even smaller because of digital cameras. The market is so oversaturated now. Anyone who thought they had something to say could go out and make a movie. But a lot of them didn't have something to say, and their films aren't interesting."
But Posey herself has a lot of interesting things coming up, with projects including the big-screen "Inside Out" and "Hemingway & Gellhorn." She'll be showing up starting Monday on Laura Linney's brilliant "The Big C" Showtime series. Linney's character's teenage son (Gabriel Basso) makes a new friend online, in a chat space for kids of parents who have cancer. She turns out to be a full-grown woman -- Posey -- who dresses, talks and acts like a teenage slacker.