Yeah, conflict is important to storytelling, I would agree with that. I did like that aspect of trying to find redemption, but if he was already in a great place, then it wouldn’t have been interesting.
Right.
Is there a letter that you think would have that kind of impact on you?
It’s funny, when you speak about this movie, Al [Pacino] talked about it a lot, if Danny Collins had hypothetically gotten the letter at twenty, who knows if it would’ve made a difference? He might not have been ready to hear it at twenty. When do we listen to anyone when we’re twenty? And so for me, I’m still kind of early, I don’t think there’s a letter that would change anything.
Maybe when I’m sixty, and I could look back and think now I have a perspective looking back. But I’m not sure, I have other ones, my mom passed away kind of suddenly during a surgery, and I kind of remember cleaning her house after she died, and thinking, I wonder if I’ll get one of those romantic letters from your mom kind of saying goodbye. But not really in terms of art, I don’t think.
Sure, continuing from what you were talking about, the idea of family and the conflict between what you’re trying to do in life and what you’ve settled for. I feel like that’s come up in some of your movies before, so is that something you feel is particularly important to you?
I think the fine line between commerce and art is an interesting thing to explore. I don’t think that’s what this film is about, I think it’s about a person trying to connect with human beings for the first time in his life, a family and love and it’s about bigger things, but in terms of the art story of it, the mystical story. I think that’s a really interesting thing, this thing we’re all doing, you and me, art and commerce and business.
I think that’s a really interesting thing, this thing we’re all doing, you and me, art and commerce and business. tweet
I’m here traveling around the country trying to get people to go to a movie theater to see a movie, and I’m hoping it pleases. Whereas I love the movie and I’m very proud of the movie, but if it’s pure art that should be all that matters. If I was the kind of guy who was a painter that cuts his ear off, I’m a real “artiste,” that’s all that matters, it’s the process of making something. But that’s not the business I’m in or we’re in, so that’s a complicated thing I think is fun to explore.
So I heard you talking before about how Lennon had this message about love and family. When you were starting to do more research about him, did it become, well this is clearly what it has to be about?
Well it just fit. The letter from Lennon was the thing that started my journey to writing the movie but also as I’m writing I’m listening to all of Lennon’s stuff. I know most of his catalog is massive as a solo artist and it’s expensive and not everybody’s familiar with it. Some of it’s unusual and strange and dissonant, but there’s a thematic undertone which is carefree, he’s not trying to please, he’s making music for himself.
So on an artistic level it’s very much the journey; it wound up actually attaching to this movie before I was even intentionally doing it. It was a lot about love, a lot about family. It was things he discovered in the second chapter of his career before he died. With Yoko and all that, it fed very much into the story on a level of of wow, this is weird how it’s all kinda linking up. And it wasn’t necessarily intentional.
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