CraveOnline: You’re a filmmaker who, from the outside at least, seems to bring something very personal to your films. Your own personal interests and maybe some of your anxieties in your horror films. Do you ever feel exposed in that way?
David Cronenberg: No, because I’m actually not at all a paranoid or anxious person. You see, this is the deceptive thing. I mean, people really think that there’s a one-to-one relationship between an artist and his art, and there isn’t. It’s a very complex kind of relationship. A lot of what I do on film, it has to do with making a drama, making something interesting. So there has to be some danger, some conflict. This is the essence of drama, as George Bernard Shaw said. Conflict is the essence of drama. Nobody wants to see a movie about everybody having a really nice lunch and [being] really happy. [Laughs.] It’s just not that interesting. Even Leave It To Beaver had conflict, you know?
So in some ways I’m observing the world and I’m examining things I see in the world. They’re not always things that are actually personally in my life directly. We can all worry about various conflicts, military conflicts or religious conflicts that are happening all around the world, we can worry about them, but when we just are sitting alone in our house or walking down the street they’re not really directly in our lives. It’s sort of like that. In other words, people might think that they have huge insight into what I might be like and then they really don’t.
“People might think that they have huge insight into what I might be like and then they really don’t.”
I can give you… this is an example I’ve mentioned before, but when Marty Scorsese met me he told me he has been terrified to meet me because of the films he had seen, which terrified him. And I said, “You? The guy who made Taxi Driver, you’re afraid to meet me? I’m afraid to meet you!” But there you have an example of an artist who should know better, and of course we’ve been friends ever since and he’s not scared to meet me anymore.
Well that’s good!
Yes, it’s good.
This film has a lot of portrayals of actors, and what they’re like on and off the set. I’ve actually been an admirer of your acting abilities ever since I saw Nightbreed. I’m wondering what you bring to that portrayal of actors, coming at it from both ends.
In Nightbreed? Well, I’m pretty much an amateur professional actor, because it’s not something I do consistently enough, I think, to get really good at it. But I really enjoy the opportunities when they come along, and i think it’s really very interesting and very good for a director and a screenwriter to spend some time as an actor because it’s so completely different, and it gives you a real understanding of…
As I’ve often said, you’re only about ten feet away from where you are as a director when you are acting, but it does put you on the other side of the camera and there you are, really. It’s your body, you know? It’s your body, your face, your voice, that’s what your instrument is. That’s what you’ve got to work with and it’s completely different from being behind the camera, behind the monitor, with all kinds of devices and people around you to protect you and to help you. When you’re an actor you’re right out there. You’re really vulnerable. It’s really intriguing to do that.
When I did Nightbreed it was terrific, and that still is the biggest role I’ve ever played. I was in London for three months shooting it at a studio, at Pinewood. It was a really fantastic experience and it was the only time I’ve sort of been an actor on location, away from home kind of thing. Because normally I just shoot stuff in Toronto. It was extremely interesting to play the role of an actor.
Have you see The Cabal Cut yet? The director’s cut of Nightbreed?
No, I haven’t. Clive [Barker] sent it to me but I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet.
