Sofia Coppola: Women in my films are parts of me at different stages of my life

Sofia Coppola (Aurore Marechal/PA)

Sofia Coppola has described the women in her film as “parts of me at different stages of my life”.

The Lost In Translation director, 49, is also responsible for film such as Somewhere, starring Elle Fanning, and Marie Antoinette starring Kirsten Dunst.

Her latest offering On The Rocks stars Rashida Jones as a young mother who reconnects with her philandering father, played by Bill Murray, after she suspects that her husband is having an affair.

Coppola said: “I guess they’re all parts of me at different stages of my life.

“I’m trying to put in something that I could add to and am thinking about.

“There’s a father-daughter theme that runs through with Elle’s character and Rashida but I think they’re just different moments, where you look at what kind of person you’re going to be and who you’re going to be within the different roles that you’re a part of.”

Sofia Coppola on the set of On The Rocks (Apple TV+/JoJo Whilden)

Coppola has said Murray’s character is inspired by her own father, The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola.

She said: “There is a generation of men and they were the ones who drink martinis and cigars and are connected with a kind of old-world way of life you don’t see as much now. And of course their perspectives are different.

“There’s a clash. They have a fun quality and are a kind of a breed that doesn’t exist but how to explore that with all the contradictions and the clash between the generations?

“It comes from our parents’ generation and characters that I’ve met along the way. A man of the world.”

Rashida Jones and Bill Murray in On The Rocks (Apple TV+/JoJo Whilden)

Coppola has been making films about women since her directorial debut The Virgin Suicides in 1999 and she said: “I’m so glad that there are more and more stories from a women’s point of view.

“When I was starting, it was really hard to get that made and now it’s become more of a norm. So those are the stories that interest me from my point of view and I think the more and more different points of view that we see, the better. So, hopefully, it’s opening up to all kinds of voices.”

On The Rocks is available now on Apple TV+.