Fire, Air, Earth, Water

Exactly Apart FIRE, AIR, EARTH, WATER

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LUCY POE My dad describes our family as the four elements. He said that the four of us were perfectly opposite. My dad is a Libra. My mom’s an Aries. Nick’s a Taurus, and I am a Scorpio. We are all three months apart: fire, my mom; air, my dad; Nick is earth, and I am water.

AMOS POE When we were connected, we had great chemistry. But we were also so different. We were astrologically exactly apart, almost diametrically opposed. She was war, I was peace. Power, love. It was this constant thing.

NICK POE My first memories were we would make these picture books cutting out pictures from National Geographic, making alphabet books together. I found them as we were moving out of Great Jones Street. She kept them. She kept everything. She kept pretty much every one of my childhood drawings.

LUCY POE Nick was really good at art. He was a natural. He was good at markers; he was brilliant with a pen and a paper. When he was in ninth grade, he took a marker and started drawing circles all over this huge canvas. Then he took up the pen and drew one line, just one sweep, and it turned into a thing, an old man drinking tea in the corner, and trees, and birds. She wanted me to make my own path. I was searching for a place in the world of my own. It was hard to find a place next to her.

ROMY CHARLESWORTH Lucy was “still waters run deep”. Sarah was just the opposite: what you see is what you get.

LUCY POE We butted heads when I was younger. Mom would tell the story of me putting my hands in the toilet bowl and my mom yelling, “No, Lucy, no!” and me yelling back, “Yes, Mommy, yes!” My dad would say that she was a little bit afraid because I didn’t accept being controlled. I also really wanted to make her proud, though, and to fit into her model.

I think the problem was that she would hurt my feelings when I was little. I’m very sensitive and she would go on and on about something and when I’d contribute she could be dismissive. I really hung onto my dad then. He got upset when she was hard with me and he coddled me. Actually, my interest in talk therapy comes out of this interaction with my dad. I’d say my dad and I have much higher EQs, while my mom and brother have more technical skill as artists. My brother is a storyteller though, and so is my dad. I got cooking from my mom. My dad was anti-authority. You weren’t allowed to ask my dad for permission because he would say yes no matter what it was. He wouldn’t even listen to the question—he would just say yes. Permission had to come from my mom. Our mom taught us about being responsible about money. She said if we wanted money, there was always work. She made it seem that we could have anything we wanted, anything—but we had to work for it. “You want to buy a $2,000 bike? You know how many hours of work that is going to be? You can have it but you have to work for it.” We lived minimally but comfortably. I think I would spoil my kids a little bit more if I could.

On the set of Subway Riders.

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