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She was such an honest musician and an honest songwriter that it makes total sense.
No ones trying to say this is how it happened, when it happened, beat by beat.
I dont think, unless you were there, you could ever expect to know that entirely.
I understood the attitudes of the time.
We met up prior to the shoot; it was just an afternoon.
Someone fun to be around, quite a magnetic personality.
He charges into the pub having just had a result on the horses.
What a great fucking starting point.
We meet him coming into this boozer, ready to splash the dosh.
For me, that was the tagline, and I built it from there.
Sam was totally game for all that playfulness and the silliness and the charm.
Blake was constantly on hand if I had questions.
Thats a really important review to me, his.
It was not something Ive been conscious of until you said it.
I feel a great degree of compassion for Blake and empathy.
I think its always key to point out that these are people in their 20s.
Same goes for Blake.
The same would apply to Amy if she were here.
I think its all part and parcel of growing up, isnt it?
I think the music was great then, and I think Camden was brilliant.
I think our U.K. music scene was, like, world-beating.
Some people might disagree, but I loved it.
I loved being around London in this era.
I was having the time of my life cause I was just pretending it was the noughties again.
I got a massive buzz off that.
I had to read that about four times before I accepted that it was in the script.
It wasnt a no-brainer before reading it.
This story is fraught with all sorts of badness.
Can you talk to me about filming that scene?
I was listening to the tune over and over again, watching themusic videoover and over again.
The spirit of the Shangri-Las, I wanted to bring all of that in.
And I knew I had that as an ace up my sleeve, once Id worked enough on it.
Obviously with that, there comes an element of nervousness.
Yeah, Im quite nervous in that scene.
Do you feel like the nervousness helped?I think the nervousness helped.
But Marisa shes just great, man.
She is a powerhouse.
I think this film has got every chance because of her.
And that is also a testament to Sam as a director for cultivating that atmosphere.
It helped that we were in a pub, which is a very comforting environment anyway.
you might see it in her interviews.
She was an embodiment of Camden at that time.
It feels like the one surreal moment in a film that is otherwise very grounded.
When youre trying to understand the reality ifyoure trying to understand it you dont wanna be judgmental.
Yeah, it is surreal.
Were trying to make a massive point quite subtly.
Were not pointing fingers.
The easy narrative is to say, Look at this guy.
Look what hes doing hes bad news.
Why did she ever fall for him?
But the reality is not that simple.
They fell for each other, and they cared for each other.
But also, the drugsare there.Yeah, brilliant.
I think addiction on the whole is an awful thing.
Its an evil, and there comes a point where the only thing that matters is the drugs.
There might be similarities, but each circumstance is unique.
I find that I have a lot of empathy and a lot of compassion for addicts.
Theres a tragedy in that that really moves me as a storyteller, as an artist.
Its something I wanna understand and wanna help people understand.
I guess that is the motive.
You gotta take risks and embrace the failure.
Failure is your friend.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
