Finding herself

Mathis Winkler

Just before graduating from Newport Harbor High School in 1982, Irene

Turner went through the most unpleasant experience of her school career.

Her classmates had voted Turner the “most scholarly” student. When it

came time for a yearbook picture, she kept smiling at the camera like

everyone else, but the photographers told her they wanted to try a

serious look. Just once.

“And then they used the serious one,” Turner, who’s “36 on a good

day,” said recently. “I was the dorky, serious one. Everybody else got to

smile. Not me.”

But then Turner left Newport Beach and went up north to Stanford

University. She forgot about her science abilities, dropped the idea of

becoming an engineer and pulled out other parts of her life instead.

“I kind of got to loosen up,” Turner said. “And I was fortunate enough

that my parents didn’t think I was a lunatic, going to Stanford and

majoring in drama, which is not something people would do.”

In a way, Turner’s search for her own passion is mirrored in “The

Girls’ Room,” her debut as a film director. Part of the Newport Beach

Film Festival, the movie screens today at 4 p.m.

Set on a college campus in the South, “The Girls’ Room” is occupied by

messy rebel Casey (Soleil Moon Frye) and pristine belle Grace (Cat

Taber.)

While the two roommates consider each other equally freaky at the

outset, they soon begin to rub off on each other, only to discover that

they’re both striving to reach the same goal: finding themselves.

Turner, who teamed up with screenwriter Amanda L. Beall after mutual

friends arranged an introduction, said she found parts of Casey and Grace

in herself as well.

“As a person, I’m more rebellious and closer to Casey,” she said. But

then again, an embroidered panel her aunt gave her and pictures of her

family ended up on Grace’s side of the room during set decoration.

“There’s got to be some Grace in me somewhere,” she said. “While you

lean toward one character or another, things are not as cut and dry.”

Speaking of family -- Turner’s father, Clarence, served as Newport

Beach’s mayor. She’s dedicated the film to him and her late mother,

Celia, who died of cancer in March 1997.

“I think he was really happy and proud of me,” Turner said.

While she thinks Newport Beach is a beautiful city and remembers

standing in line at the city’s movie theaters with a touch of nostalgia,

Turner, who now lives in Los Angeles, doesn’t think she’ll move back any

time soon.

For one thing, it’s hard to do enough schmoozing with Hollywood folks

when you live more than an hour away.

And “I vote a little too Democratic,” she said, adding that differing

political viewpoints made for interesting dinner discussions at her dad’s

home.

Not that she’s been spending a lot of time in her downtown loft in any

case.

Last week, Turner had just returned from a film festival in Edmonton,

Canada. So far, “The Girls’ Room” has screened at more than 20 festivals,

including the Sao Paolo International Film Festival in Brazil last year.

On Friday, she’s heading out of town again to attend a screening in

Montevideo, Uruguay.

Unlike other filmmakers, she enjoys watching the audience react to her

work and “see where the laughs come” since it reminds her of her days in

theater.

But even Turner has limits on how often she can relive her work.

“Three times in a weekend is a bit much,” she said. “I can’t watch

‘Casablanca’ that many times.”

FYI

“The Girls’ Room” will screen at Edwards Island 7 Cinemas at 4 p.m.

today.