Ahoy, squirts! Quint here writing from snowy Austin. Yeah, that’s what I said. Snowy Austin. I’m finding it hard to believe, too. All this snow reminded me of Sundance, so here’s another Sundance interview in my continuing series of “Oh, shit. I still have a lot of Sundance interviews that need posting!” articles. Today we’re going back to Nowhere Boy, the John Lennon as a teenager biopic. I interviewed star Aaron Johnson as well and that chat posted back on my Birthday (click here to read it!) In this brief chat you will hear Ms. Taylor Wood discuss Paul McCartney’s supposed “outrage” at the project (and how that’s total crap), how they tried to avoid a “spot the reference” kind of filmmaking while telling the story of one of the most iconic artists of the last 100 years and how she wanted to capture Liverpool in the early ‘60s as a real hotspot of music culture because it was the first port of call for many of America’s rock and roll LPs. Enjoy!
Quint: I gotta say, I’m a really big Beatles fan and I loved the movie.
Sam Taylor Wood: It’s so great when a Beatles fan enjoys the film and you just say, “Oh, thank goodness,” because sometimes people go “I’m a really big Beatles fan. I’m going to see your film.” You are just like [Sounding apprehensive] “Okay, good!”
Quint: My mom and I went and saw Paul McCartney in New York City a few months ago when he played in what used to be Shea Stadium. She’s the biggest Beatles fan ever and I was telling her about Sundance and I’m like “There’s a movie here that you would really like.” She was like “I read that Paul wasn’t sure about this movie.” I guess the way he read it was John’s Aunt Mimi was supposed to be the villain and that’s not what it is at all.
Sam Taylor Wood: That was totally made up, because he actually came… We had a really good discussion about her and I think in an interview I said he gave me good advice on Aunt Mimi and said “Don’t demonize her” and which I didn’t want to do either, but of course that little bit of Paul McCartney saying “Don’t demonize her…” They just sort of picked up and ran with that. It’s like, “No, no, no! He wasn’t objecting.”
Quint: And watching the movie, especially the way Kristin [Thomas Scott] plays her it’s so obvious that she adores John and that he adores her.
Sam Taylor Wood: Yeah, absolutely. I read a couple of those things and it’s like “No, you’ve got it all wrong! I said it ‘round the wrong way!”
Quint: I made sure to call my mom after seeing the movie going, “No, you are going to love it. Don’t worry, you can put away the pitchfork!”
Sam Taylor Wood: It’s so frustrating, because you think “How do I set that record straight?” Anyway, I’m glad you liked it, because obviously you are part of the fanbase I really wanted to appeal to with the film.
Quint: I also really like that even though it’s John Lennon, I love that you don’t ever say the word “Beatles.”
Sam Taylor Wood: Yeah, I know. That was fun.
Quint: There’s a little alluding to it at the end with the Hamberg mention…
Sam Taylor Wood: That’s the thing. It was actually fun playing with that, because when Matt [Greenhalgh], who wrote the screenplay, when he and I were working together, we had so much fun with so many different little details like that… “Shall we? Shant we mention the Beatles?” Matt would say “No, let’s not!”
Quint: I also like that it didn’t turn into a “spot the origin.” You have “Maggie Mae”, but by using it sparsely makes that moment and him learning it from his mother…
Sam Taylor Wood: Yeah, it makes it more poignant.
Quint: It actually does. You catch Strawberry Fields in the background, but that’s where he lived.
Sam Taylor Wood: We played with a couple of little things like that.
Quint: But it isn’t a “spot the reference.”
Sam Taylor Wood: No, and also Strawberry Fields and those gates, that’s how they are still there as well, so we just felt “They are still there, so let’s shoot them.” One of the producers said to me “You are never going to use that.” I was like “Oh, I will!”
Quint: I kind of love the portrayal of John as almost a James Dean REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE sort of tortured young man.
Sam Taylor Wood: We had to make lots of decisions and one was… He wasn’t a Beatle yet, so what we needed to look at was what formed him and transformed him into the icon that we love and lets look at it as a coming of age story and try to forget for a minute that it’s John Lennon and try and sort of put it down as a big good story and also a story that a lot of people don’t know about Lennon, too.
Quint: I had known just the bare essentials. I knew that he lost his mom early, but I didn’t know the circumstances around it.
Sam Taylor Wood: Yeah, it’s brutal that moment.
Quint: It is and you just feel for him. It’s such a tightrope for Aaron [Johnson] to walk, because it’s so… You have so many things that he has to keep up in the air. He has to sound like John, because everybody knows what John sounds like, but he can’t do a caricature of him. He’s got to be the tortured angsty youth, but he can’t be an asshole. He’s got to have John’s sense of humor and all of this stuff has to work.
Sam Taylor Wood: There’s a fine balance and very early on what I said to Aaron is “What I don’t want is an impersonation. What we need to do is to embody the spirit and soul of Lennon and also the multifaceted person that he was,” because yes he had a cruel wit, but he also had a sharp humor and he was also incredibly loving with a sort of strong feminine side and was brought up by two powerful women. So there was so much that we needed to fit into, for me, such a short space of time. Everyone keeps asking me “Are e you going to do the sequel?” I’m just like “I think the sequel has been done a few times.” (laughs)
Quint: You need to do it and go out all DANTE’S PEAK/VOLCANO style going up against Robert Zemeckis’ YELLOW SUBMARINE.
Sam Taylor Wood: Yeah, exactly! There’s that coming too, isn’t there?
Quint: So, let’s talk about how you brought Aaron in. Was he somebody that you knew you wanted immediately or did you have to find him?
Sam Taylor Wood: I knew immediately when I met him that he was Lennon, because I had seen a few, but he came through the door as Lennon and he used to be Aaron Johnson. It was annoying, because there’s a big part of “Would you like a cup of tea?” and “What are you working on at the moment?” and wanted a bit of the chit-chat to kind of get a sense of the person and he just kept looking at me with this kind of ferocious sort of like “Don’t pull me out of character.” I loved that intensity and also that commitment to it and also he was pretty convincing, too, and I just thought, “I think he’s got the intensity and the strength to carry the role,” because it’s a weight on whoever’s shoulders. After that, I saw another 300 just to make sure. (laughs) And pretty much he was a clear front-runner. There was no one who really came close. He was actually pretty easy to cast, in the sense that I saw in eighth or ninth in the process. McCartney was much more difficult, especially knowing that he was alive and he could watch it.
Quint: That must have been a bit nerve wracking for Thomas [Sangster] as well.
Sam Taylor Wood: It was very nerve wracking and tough for both of them, because they both had to learn the accent. They also both had to learn to play guitar, Thomas back to front as well, and to sing. The other reason I picked both of them is they are both quite experienced for their age, because Aaron had been acting since he was six and Thomas similarly and I thought “That experience is going to be able to come into play to handle a lot of this.”
Quint: Was there a temptation to put a stronger focus on the John and Paul relationship? It’s not the story you told and I’m actually kind of glad you didn’t, but I think that there’s a lot of people going “It’s the early days of John and Paul.” And their relationship is so unique and so strong. The moment at the funeral where they confront each other, I think, is probably my favorite part of the movie.
Sam Taylor Wood: One of my favorite scenes is when they are standing on the street hugging. That brings a tear.
Quint: What I like about it is without saying what their relationship is, you see it. It’s all physical, both the conflict and the love.
Sam Taylor Wood: And also right from the beginning the tea over beer. That’s sort of the genius of Matt Greenhahlse also who wrote it. I think also, because it’s so well documented that meeting between John and Paul. There’s a whole book on just that meeting.
Quint: Oh really? I didn’t know that.
Sam Taylor Wood: I just thought “Do I study that book and then try and do it word perfect?” I thought “No, let’s just do it as we think those characters would be, as well as the facts.” That was a really fun scene to shoot and also it’s fun. It was quite stressful that day and I can’t remember quite why, but it was also fun when you think of recreating such a historic moment, too. I can’t remember why that day was stressful, but it was.
Quint: Another thing musically and again, just so it’s not a “spot the reference” thing, it’s like… I might be wrong, but I think the only John song you have in the movie is during the end credits, right?
Sam Taylor Wood: Yeah, that’s right.
Quint: The focus was more on John’s obsession with rock and roll. You see the older pictures of John where he has the Elvis hair…
Sam Taylor Wood: That’s the thing; we decided to focus really on all of the influences that made him in a sense. Other than his mother and his aunt and the two women having such a strong… We wanted to look at all of the music and the fashion and Liverpool at that time and again, I didn’t want to paint Liverpool as a “It’s grim up North” kind of place. I was much more interested in looking at it as “This is the vibrant epicenter of the music world at the moment” and where did that come from? Looking at the docks and the fact that the ships brought in all of the new music, so trying to pull as much of that into it.
Quint: It’s fascinating, because living here it’s always the British invasion, but in a very real sense there was a US invasion into the UK before that.
Sam Taylor Wood: There was, but it was that discovery of Elvis that was literally from coming off of the ships and crates of music coming in and Liverpool being the first port.
Quint: And you had that literal scene where you had John throwing away the jazz LPs and having the American essentially introduce him to this harder rock and roll.
Sam Taylor Wood: Exactly, and that was as much fun as anything and that was what I kept telling Aaron to focus on as well, to not get too imbedded in looking at Lennon footage of later years, because I felt the Lennon that was know was really formed by the death of his mother and all of that tight lipped stance was because of the defensive nature of coming out of that trauma, in a sense. We were trying to look at more exciting times and rock and roll and Elvis and cinema and all of that sort of stuff, so trying to get that youthful excitement as well, so that was a lot of fun doing all of that research and having to listen to rock and roll constantly was just great.
Quint: (laughs) So what do you guys have planned? I really hope the Weinsteins get behind the movie. They are known for pushing for award stuff, I can’t imagine Kristin Scott Thomas not getting nominated for supporting actress.
Sam Taylor Wood: Yeah, I definitely think so too and I thought she was absolutely brilliant in it and so much fun to work with. Oh my God, she was funny.
Quint: Oh yeah?
Sam Taylor Wood: Yeah, she came on set and really tested me for the first couple of days and thank God I past those tests, because after that we had so much fun and I would watch her test other people and I could have fun with it. (laughs)
Quint: How did she test you?
Sam Taylor Wood: Well, you know what she’s like on screen.
Quint: She’s intimidating.
Sam Taylor Wood: Yeah, intimidating and so beautiful and also quite cool. She came on and it was constant questioning of what I was doing and I really had to come up with the right answers. Then we had a real head to head over one scene and I just thought “Shit, I’m really going to have to stand up to this woman and I am terrified, but I’m going to have to show her nerves of steel.” I don’t know what, but something just switched in me and that was it and I cut straight through.
Quint: You brought out the ruler and started slapping some knuckles?
Sam Taylor Wood: (laughs) Yeah and after that we had so much fun. God, she would make me laugh so much. She’s naughty.
Quint; (laughs) So what are you working on now? Do you have anything in the pipline?
Sam Taylor Wood: Not at the moment. I’m just developing things and you know this will be two years of my life… the best two years. So I’m just going to take time to figure out what my next project it. I’ve read lots of stuff, but nothing that’s really…
Quint: Jumped out at you?
Sam Taylor Wood: No, and especially now I know what a commitment you have to make. You have to really love whoever or whatever , so yeah we will see.
Quint: Cool, all right well thank you and congratulations on the movie.
Sam Taylor Wood: Thank you!
Hope you guys enjoyed the chat. I have a few more to go before “Oh shit! I still have a lot of Sundance interviews that need posting!” can end. Keep an eye peeled!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter
