“We were Cinderella and the public was Prince Charming, and they just embraced the myth of this scrappy little band,” says band member Kathy Valentine
When the Los Angeles based band the Go-Go’s was at the top of the rock world in the 1980s, there were easy labels to describe the five young women who were the first all-female band to play their own instruments, write their own songs and hit No. 1 on the charts.
“They would always describe us as cute, bubbly and effervescent,” lead singer Belinda Carlisle said at theWrap’s studio at Sundance Film Festival, where director Alison Ellwood’s documentary “The Go-Go’s” premiered in January. “It was very superficial and it didn’t describe who we really are.”
“It’s such a ready-made hook,” bassist Kathy Valentine added. “It fits into the general myth of Cinderella and Prince Charming. We were Cinderella and the public was Prince Charming, and they just embraced the myth of this scrappy little band. It fit with the archetypes — the gender boxes, I like to call them.”
Ellwood’s film breaks the archetypes and describes who the Go-Go’s really were: a tough band of onetime punk-rock misfits whose cleaned-up music was a pop delight, but whose success ended prematurely with infighting and drug addiction.
In a Wrap review of the film, Todd Gilchrist wrote, “‘The Go-Go’s’ tackles the seminal all-female ’80s rock band with such honesty, openness and effervescence that it not only rises above that clichéd, almost telegraphed arc but transcends the ranks of other music documentaries to offer a story you desperately want to keep watching, even when you already know where it’s going.”
And as someone who absolutely knew where the film was going, I can vouch for the accuracy of Gilchrist’s words. Mind you, I’m biased: I’ve known the Go-Go’s since 1981, before the Sundance Film Festival existed, when I interviewed them for the Los Angeles Times as their debut album, “Beauty and the Beat,” was about to be released. The following year, I went on the road with them and wrote their first Rolling Stone magazine cover story; it sported a cover photo of them in white underwear with the dismissive headline, “Go-Go’s Put Out,” which is discussed in the film.
The band — Carlisle, Valentine, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock and Jane Wiedlin — talked about that in theWrap studio, which was the first time in decades I’d seen them together as a group. They also discussed the difficult parts of making and then viewing the documentary, including scenes where their original manager, Ginger Canzoneri, describes being cast aside for a big-name management firm that remains unnamed in the film (but, Schock admitted in this interview, was Irving Azoff’s Front Line management company).
“As you grow up and as you get older, you learn about empathy, and I think there was a lot of lack of it, certainly on my part,” Carlisle said of the decision to push out Canzoneri. “That part of the documentary did make me feel really bad.”
“We were kind of brats for a while there,” Schock added.
“It’s not an excuse, but we were working our asses off,” Caffey said. “And when you don’t have that balance in your life, it can really mess with you. That’s not an excuse for bad behavior, but it affected us, all in different ways.”
Making the film, though, has brought the band closer as they prepare for a summer tour together. “The documentary has opened up many other levels of healing and forgiveness that I think are really important for us as we go on,” Valentine said. “It’s so important to let go of the old stuff and embrace what we are.”
“We’ve gotten grateful,” Shock said. “I think that’s the word.”
“The Go-Go’s” will air on Showtime but also went to Sundance looking for theatrical distribution.
See more of the conversation in the video above.
Sundance Portraits From A to Z: Andy Samberg to Zazie Beetz (Exclusive Photos)
Glenn Close, “Four Good Days”
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Mila Kunis, “Four Good Days”
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Writer-director Rodrigo Garcia, “Four Good Days”
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Actress Toni Collette, “Dream Horse”
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Director Euros Lyn, “Dream Horse”
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Sienna Miller, “Wander Darkly”
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Diego Luna, “Wander Darkly”
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Director Ron Howard, “Rebuilding Paradise”
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Alison Brie, “Horse Girl”
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Jeff Baena, “Horse Girl”
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Steven Yeun, “Minari”
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Yuh-Jung Youn, “Minari”
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Yeri Han, “Minari”
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Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung, “Minari”
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Kelly Rowland, “Bad Hair”
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Ashley Blaine Featherson, “Bad Hair”
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James Van Der Beek, “Bad Hair”
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Yaani King Mondschein, “Bad Hair”
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Elle Lorraine, “Bad Hair”
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Director Justin Simien, “Bad Hair”
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Subject (and former fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi) Hatice Cengiz, “The Dissident”
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Director Bryan Fogel, “The Dissident”
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Andy Samberg, “Palm Springs”
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Cristin Milioti, “Palm Springs”
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Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti, “Palm Springs”
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Writer Andy Siara, “Palm Springs”
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Joe Keery, “Spree”
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John DeLuca, “Spree”
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David Arquette, Sasheer Zamata, director Eugene Kotlyarenko, John DeLuca, and Joe Keery, ” Spree”
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Peter Macdissi, Paul Bettany, director Alan Ball and Sophia Lillis, “Uncle Frank”
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Writer-director Alan Ball, “Uncle Frank”
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Actor Paul Bettany, “Uncle Frank”
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Actress Sophia Lillis, “Uncle Frank”
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Actor Peter Macdissi, “Uncle Frank”
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Rachel Brosnahan, “Ironbark”
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Director Dominic Cooke, actors Rachel Brosnahan and Merab Ninidze, “Ironbark”
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Wilmer Valderrama, “Blast Beat”
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Diane Guerrero, “Blast Beat”
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Actor Moises Arias, “Blast Beat”
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Actress Kali Uchis, “Blast Beat”
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Daniel Dae Kim, “Blast Beat”
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Actor Mateo Arias, “Blast Beat”
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Esteban Arango, “Blast Beat”
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ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt, “The Fight”
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ACLU lawyer Brigitte Amiri, “The Fight”
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Producers Kerry Washington and Eli Despres, filmmakers Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg, and lawyers Lee Gelernt and Brigitte Amiri, “The Fight”
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Winston Duke, “Nine Days”
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Bill Skarsgård, “Nine Days”
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Zazie Beetz, “Nine Days”
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Benedict Wong, “Nine Days”
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Arianna Ortiz, “Nine Days”
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David Rysdahl, “Nine Days”
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Writer-director Edson Oda, “Nine days”
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Sil Lai Abrams, Drew Dixon, and Sherri Hines, “On the Record”
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Gloria Steinem, “The Glorias”
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Director Julie Taymor, “The Glorias”
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Actor Harvey Guillén, “What We Do in the Shadows”
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Christopher Abbott, “Possessor”
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Brandon Cronenberg, “Possessor”
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Agnes Gund, “Aggie”
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Director Catherine Gund, “Aggie”
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Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, “Farewell Amor”
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Zainab Jah, “Farewell Amor”
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Jayme Lawson, “Farewell Amor”
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Musicians Charlotte Caffey, Jane Wiedlin, Gina Schock, TheWrap’s Steve Pond, Belinda Carlisle and Kathy Valentine, “The Go Go’s”
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The Go Go’s and director Alison Ellwood
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Actor John Reynolds, “Save Yourselves”
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Actor Sunita Mani, “Save Yourselves”
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Directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, “Save Yourselves”
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Alec Baldwin, “Beast Beast”
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Jose Angeles, Will Madden, and Shirley Chen, “Beast Beast”
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Director Bao Nguyen, “Be Water”
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Producer Julie Nottingham, “Be Water”
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Director Lana Wilson, “Taylor Swift: Miss Americana”
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Producers Christine O’Malley, Morgan Neville and Caitrin Rogers, “Taylor Swift: Miss Americana”
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Producer Jessica Hargrave and director-producer Ryan White, “Assassins”
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Actress Carey Mulligan and writer-director Emerald Fennell, “Promising Young Woman”
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Director Maïmouna Doucouré and producer Zangro, “Cuties”
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Charlie Shotwell, Jude Law, and Oona Roche, “The Nest”
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Actress Devin France, “Wendy”
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Elisabeth Moss, “Shirley”
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Michael Stuhlbarg, “Shirley”
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Director Josephine Decker, “Shirley”
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Actor Logan Lerman, “Shirley”
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Writer-Executive Producer Brian Lazarte, “McMillions”
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Writer-Director James Lee Hernandez, “McMillions”
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Julia Garner, “The Assistant”
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Kitty Green, “The Assistant”
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Marquise Vilson, director Sam Feder and Amy Scholder, “Disclosure”
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Zeke Smith, Zackary Drucker and Jen Richards, “Disclosure”
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Rebecca Hall, “The Night House”
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Director David Bruckner, “The Night House”
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Stacy Martin, “The Night House”
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Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Angel Manuel Soto, Caleeb Pinkett, Sherman Payne, and Will Catlett, “Charm City Kings”
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Actor Wagner Moura, “Sergio”
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Brent Travers and Daniel Marc Dreifuss, “Sergio”
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Director Greg Barker, “Sergio”
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Annie Clark and Carrie Brownstein, “The Nowhere Inn”
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Actor Pilou Asbæk, “Run Sweetheart Run”
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Ella Balinska, “Run Sweetheart Run”
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Pilou Asbæk, director Shana Feste and Ella Balinska, “Run Sweetheart Run”
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Emily Mortimer, “Relic”
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Director Patricia Vidal Delgado, “La Leyenda Negra”
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Actress Monica Betancourt, “La Leyenda Negra”
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Actor-writer-director Viggo Mortensen, “Falling”
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Lance Henriksen, “Falling”
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Laurent Bouzereau and Natasha Gregson Wagner, “Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind”
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Producer Stacey Reiss, “Spaceship Earth”
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Producer Mark Nelson, “Spaceship Earth”
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Director Matt Wolf, “Spaceship Earth”
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Subject Linda Leigh, “Spaceship Earth”
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Director Marina Zenovich, “Lance”
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Andrea Riseborough, “Possessor” and Luxor”
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Karim Saleh, “Luxor”
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Director Brenda Chapman, “Come Away”
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Aubrey Plaza, “Black Bear”
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Sundance 2020: Stars like Glenn Close, Kerry Washington and Bill Skarsgard stop by TheWrap Studio presented by Heineken at the Pando Art Gallery
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