Aimee Mullins is one accomplished woman. Sports? She set the world record for the 100m and 200m sprints at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics. Modelling? Aimee strode the catwalk for Alexander McQueen in 1999, and was this year confirmed as the new face of L’Oréal. She’s now poised to take on the world of film, having already appeared in cult movie Cremaster 3, and TV series Agatha Christie’s Poirot, among others. Born without fibula bones in both legs, Aimee refuses to let being a double amputee define her, instead defying expectations through her stellar career. Acting as a juror for the this year’s ADFF New Horizons category, she chatted to Helen Elfer about Abu Dhabi sightseeing, her love of movies and breaking into acting.
Aimee, are you looking forward to your trip to Abu Dhabi?
Very much, it’s my first time on the Peninsula! I’m here for a full 10 days, so I hope to do lots of sightseeing. I’ll be watching two films a day in the morning, then plan to do lots of exploring in the afternoons – I’m desperate to see the Grand Mosque and to go out to Saadiyat Island and see what’s under construction. I can’t wait to see Emirates Palace too! I hear it’s unbelievable.
What drew you to judging the New Horizons category at ADFF?
I’m very excited about this particular competition because New Horizons is for first and second-time directors, which is pretty thrilling if you think about how many extraordinary directors have made their mark on cinematic history with their first and second films. I think that’s because that first feature is a labour of love, they’ve been working on it for years and often have a huge hand in the writing of the film – that devotion is what makes excellent first films: Welles’ Citizen Kane, Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Polanski’s Knife in the Water… I could go on!
What will you be looking out for in particular in these films?
The fact that a lot of first and second-time directors have limited budgets means they get very innovative, so you see a lot of originality in these films. You can’t do a big sweeping epic, so have to focus a lot on the quality of writing and precision of editing – that’s why so many of these films go on to become groundbreaking. There’s potential for something very bold and definitive in these directors that excites me, so I’ll be looking for that stamp of personality, being taken somewhere, a film that creates a mood.
How important are film festivals in giving these films a platform?
Well, they’re absolutely crucial. Cinema, like all art, has the power to change the world, giving a powerful platform for an individual to put across their point of view. ADFF doesn’t just bring the world to this region, but also brings gems from the region to the rest of the world.
Have you always been passionate about film?
I am a long-term film fan! Thanks to films festivals around the world I’ve had my own horizons expanded, learning about cinema all around the world. Storytelling has always been incredibly important in my life – liberating, you know? As a child I spent a lot of time in hospital, covered in plaster casts and couldn’t go anywhere, so I learned from a young age that you can travel in your imagination. I can read stories like Knights of the Round Table fifty times over. I didn’t feel like I had been actually trapped in the same bed – a few hours with a book or watching a movie actually took me somewhere.
You’ve had an incredibly diverse career so far – what’s next?
Probably what I’m most proud of is that I’ve been able to have this multilateral career. I see myself pursuing acting now. That’s what I’ve always wanted to do – the foray into the Olympics and runway modelling was just following the rabbit down the hole – just like, ‘let’s explore this’. I thought I owed it to myself to see if I could. I had to create a real shift in the way people thought about an athlete with prosthetic legs – before there was no precedent of someone like me being put in the sports pages and not human interest. So far, as an actress, I’ve had to say no to 85-95 per cent of offers because they’ve all been about me playing an amputee, and that’s just not interesting to me – I don’t want to play Aimee Mullins, I want to play somebody else! People put you in a certain category until they see you as something different, then you can be whatever you want to be. Hopefully I’m at that precipice now. I’ve managed to [shift perceptions] in the sports world, I’ve managed to do it in fashion, I’ve managed to do it in design – now I’ve got to make that happen in cinema.
