00:00Sometimes you can burn really bright and you can cut yourself up and everybody loves it and you last ten
00:05years or five years or two years or one film or one dance show or one whatever it is and
00:11it's about understanding that this actually takes something out of you.
00:15Guys, congratulations on the film.
00:18James, to have your directorial debut with a film based on music throws in a bit of a curveball there.
00:24It's quite a bold move because there's a whole other dimension to be kind of controlling.
00:28So why, what was it about these two schemas that you couldn't kind of shake off that kind of drew
00:33you towards this story?
00:34They just seemed, they seemed like we guys that I was and they seemed like people that I recognised from
00:41my, my sort of environment growing up.
00:46I don't know, a lot of, I got given, I got hit with a lot of scripts that were about
00:51hopelessness and unemployment and all sorts of abuse from the domestic to the alcohol to the drugs to the sexual
00:58to whatever, all certain council estates.
01:00And when I was growing up in a council estate, I had adventures and I saw a huge sky and
01:05I saw horizons and I saw adventure and I had a lot of fun.
01:10And so when I saw these two, I thought this is an opportunity to tell stories about the people that
01:17I recognise rather than sometimes the representation of the working classes that I see on screen.
01:22And yet still talk about the barriers and the obstacles and the gates that are kept from them.
01:28I think a lot of it is kind of perspective because I'm from a working class background and you grow
01:32up and you don't grow up thinking, oh, this is rubbish.
01:34You grow up thinking, yeah, life is great.
01:35It's just from the perspective of somewhere else, a more success or an affluent area where people kind of project
01:40some of those ideas onto you, I guess.
01:42These two characters have this kind of insane audacity and it kind of reminded me of the people I've met
01:47in my career in the entertainment industry of a similar sort of disposition.
01:52And it kind of is great for a story, but there's so many people like this out there.
01:56Do you think you need a certain level of insane audacity to be a success in your field?
02:03Do you think we've all got a bit of that in us?
02:06That's interesting.
02:06Do you think, I think you have to really want it.
02:11And that's what I think is like totally relatable about these boys.
02:13You know, they have a dream and they just like, they just really, really go for it till the wheels
02:16fall off.
02:17And I feel like, I feel like you have to, you have to, you can't fall backwards into being an
02:22artist, I don't think, because it's a, it's difficult and it's quite thankless in a capitalist society.
02:26Do you know what I mean?
02:26So it's like, you've got, you've got to really, you've got to really go for it.
02:30So yeah, I feel like that's relatable.
02:31I think particularly with performance art, right?
02:34So that's like, what is that?
02:35Singing or acting or dancing.
02:38And there's probably other versions of it as well.
02:41I think the contract with the audience is that we'll come and pay to see you, but you need to
02:47bleed.
02:49It's based on sacrifice, right?
02:52It's based, maybe the first performance art was literally human sacrifice or animal sacrifice, right?
02:56That's our relationship with performance now.
02:59We need to come, we need to see you bleed.
03:01You need to sacrifice something.
03:03Might be your dignity if you're a comedian, might be your, might be your health if you're a dancer, but
03:08we need to see you sweat blood.
03:10And it kind of, it, it means that it attracts a little bit, the business, the performance business, sort of
03:20attracts somebody who is comfortable hurting themselves a little bit sometimes.
03:23And it, some of the, it attracts people who are wild sometimes.
03:30And, and it's about managing that.
03:32Sometimes you can burn really bright and you can cut yourself up and everybody loves it.
03:37And you last 10 years or five years or two years or one film or one dance show or one
03:42whatever it is.
03:43And it's about understanding that this actually takes something out of you.
03:48You are sacrificing something of yourself when you do this, which makes it sound really worthy and wanky.
03:53I know it does.
03:54But you are given something of yourself that you might never get back.
03:58And how do you balance that for, and I've been doing it for 30 years now, less sensationally than these
04:05guys in this film.
04:07But, you know, there is a price to pay for what you do.
04:10And you've got to look at yourself in the mirror and go like, can I pay this price?
04:14Do you know what I mean?
04:14Sometimes you've paid too much of a price and you're done.
04:17Interesting you talk about that.
04:18I'm going to do a two for final question before I get thrown out.
04:21And it's about directing.
04:23Firstly, some of the style of this kind of reminded me of kind of human traffic in a little way.
04:27Early Danny Boyle stuff.
04:28I know you guys work together on Trance.
04:29So I was interested in what directors you've worked with that kind of inspired your workflow in a way whilst
04:35you were there.
04:36The way you were on set and the way you pictured putting this story together.
04:40And there was another one about there's been lots of great actors in the world who've done one great movie.
04:46Who've directed one great movie like Sling Blade, Billy Bob Thornton.
04:50And then they kind of, they pour their heart and soul into it and they're like, you know what, that's
04:54it for me.
04:55So I just wondered, is this a one and out or has this inspired you to kind of pick up
05:00this torch and make more in the future?
05:02I think I'd like to direct again.
05:05I know I'd like to direct again.
05:07But it's easy, you know, your first album, your first novel is the one that's been percolating for 30 years
05:13or whatever.
05:13And you pour everything into it.
05:15And once you've done it, you're like, oh God, well, do I have any ammunition for the next one?
05:19Don't know.
05:20We'll wait and see.
05:21But I would like to try.
05:22And in terms of inspirations or influences from directors that I've worked with, Danny was definitely an influence.
05:31His enthusiasm was something that I tried to emulate on set.
05:37But in terms of other directors, Joe Wright, I literally just copied him and how he deals with the crew
05:42and how he sort of enabled and welcomed and sort of communicated with the crew at the beginning of every
05:51scene.
05:52I literally copied him on that.
05:55Jamie Lloyd, who's a theatre director, I have been on the receiving end of his approach for 15, 16 years.
06:04And that's absolutely what I kind of was like giving to you guys, which is you're almost more important to
06:11me than the character.
06:12You're you.
06:14You, the performer is what I'm here for.
06:16As long as the story is being told, I want you as a person to feel absolutely like you deserve
06:23to be here.
06:24And you're the reason we're here.
06:26Do you know what I mean?
06:26And that was something I ripped off of him.
06:29Yep.
06:30Still from lots of directors.
06:32That's the way to go.
06:33Well, I really enjoyed it.
06:34I need to give a shout out to John S. Baird and James Watkins as well, who really helped me
06:38in the edit.
06:38I was going to say, looking forward to Meantime.
06:40I'd love to fill for this.
06:41Great movie.
06:42Thanks, man.
06:42Cheers.
06:43Yeah, no, me and John are definitely cooking again, so it's good.
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