Gia Coppola on Why Nicolas Cage Isn’t In Many of Her Family’s Films

San Sebastian Film Festival has continued to fortify the prestige of the event’s widely-attended Film Talks sessions by hosting Gia Coppola on Tuesday.

The filmmaker, whose most recent feature The Last Showgirl depicted Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis as fading showgirls on the Las Vegas Strip, is serving on the Spanish film fest’s official jury this year.

She led a session about her biggest takeaways as a child who grew up privy to some of Hollywood’s most illustrious sets, including those led by her grandfather, Francis Ford Coppola, uncle, Roman Coppola and aunt, Sofia Coppola.

“I’ve learned so much,” Coppola said at the city’s Tabakalera venue. “With my aunt, seeing her not only just being a woman and really trailblazing the path for women as filmmakers, but to do it in a in a way that’s true to her personality and that you don’t have to be like my grandpa, (laughs), who’s a big male presence and powers through. And that’s true to his personality.”

Fresh out of college, Coppola helped her grandfather on his 2011 horror Twixt. “I remember he was tired from a day of work and didn’t want to drive home, and we were filming in Napa, so he was like, ‘You drive home.’ I’ve never driven a manual before. The sun is going down, it’s a windy, mountainous road, and I’m starting to drive and the gas tank light starts flashing, and I’m like, panicking and freaking out,” she said. “He’s just sitting back laughing: ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if, all of a sudden, a deer went in front of the car?’ But the lesson he was trying to teach me is: Don’t worry until it’s actually really time for worrying.”

Coppola was asked why, despite their closeness — with cousins Jason and Robert Shwartzman, too — her relatives have scarcely made films with another Coppola: Nicolas Cage. “Well, my grandpa has,” referencing Ford Coppola’s Rumble Fish (1983) and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986). “But I would love to work with him. He’s just so busy! But he’s one of my favorite actors.”

The filmmaker also discussed her SAG Award-nominated The Last Showgirl and revealed it was initially a no from Anderson, who was lauded for her dramatic performance. “When I went to try to cast her, I got turned down within an hour, so I knew that she didn’t get a hold of the script,” Coppola explained. “I had to find another way. And I’m so grateful that I was able to get in touch with her son, and he put the script in her hands. And then when he was like, ‘Good news, she loves it.’ And we talked right away, and she was so emphatic: ‘I need this part.’ And I’m like, ‘But you have the part. I’ve been trying to get in touch with you!’”

She continued about the opportunity to work with Anderson and Curtis again “Both those women are incredible in very different ways. Pamela is so inspiring in how she just lives life authentically. I feel so lucky to have got this opportunity to work with her and get to know her as a human being because she’s a wonderful person. And Jamie is a total force. I was very intimidated to get to work with this actor that just came off winning this Academy Award [for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)]. I thought there’s no way she’s going to want to shoot this small movie in Las Vegas.”

But Curtis is “such a lover of independent film” and was excited to work with Anderson, Coppola said. “It was really eye-opening for me to see someone of that legend to work in the confines of our guerilla filmmaking. She was moving gear around and sits on set the whole time and is so generous to all the other actors. I learned so much just being in her presence.” She added: “I would love to find a way [to work with them again]. I also had a fantasy that the sequel to The Last Showgirl would be Shelly and Annette go rob a casino and it’s a heist film.”

Across the session, Coppola discussed her advice for budding directors, why becoming a parent has given her “less time” to be self-critical, and how she overcomes writer’s block. She also touched on her decision to join the industry as her relatives had, and said about her introduction to film: “I remember when I saw Zodiac (2007) for the first time in the movie theater at college, and I was just like, ‘Whoa. That is a cool movie.’”

“I love all the classics, and I know those movies, and I think they’re legendary, but I think what made me a film nerd was the Paul Thomas Andersons, the David Finchers, the more modern generation of moviemakers.”

The San Sebastian International Film Festival 2025 runs Sept. 19-27.