Roundtable Interview With Nick Cave On Lawless

We Got This Covered: Had you met the author prior to writing the screenplay?

Nick Cave: I just met him just now. I’d never met him before, I didn’t even know who he was. I’m standing there and he’s like “I’m Matt Bondurant.” I’m like “Hi.”

We Got This Covered: You look like you put a lot of heart into your writing. Do you think that’s a prerequisite for an artist?

Nick Cave: You can do it in that way or it can really be a craft. I think that scriptwriting of anything is a craft in a sense that you’re a functionary that’s serving a greater machine. Your heart and soul is not really even wanted. You’ve just got to do the job that’s required to realize the vision of the director and the producers. That’s what you learn as a scriptwriter.

For me, as someone who is directly involved in songwriting, where I’m just sitting in a room on my own night and day when I’m writing songs, to come out and work collaboratively and to work for someone else is a huge relief. That’s how I feel about scriptwriting. It’s something that I have some kind o af talent for and it’s not really my vision, but it’s the director’s vision that I’m trying to find out what that is. I’m not saying that to be humble or anything. It’s actually a huge relief to have that responsibility and do something for somebody else. It’s not what I want to do  all my life, but it offers me some relief from songwriting and that sort of thing.

We Got This Covered: Is screenwriting your new career?

Nick Cave: It isn’t my present career. It’s kind of an extracurricular thing that goes on. My career is my band and music and that sort of stuff.

We Got This Covered: Does it bother you if people think of you as a dark or brooding guy based on your music?

Nick Cave: Oh, I’m just doing an interview. You wait until the sun goes down (laughs).

I don’t know what people think about me. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I don’t really care, to be honest. At the end of the day, I’ve got to get on with it and do what I’ve got to do. The whole dark, gothic thing, I don’t know. It’s only an image that I have to people who aren’t really acquainted with what I do, in a way. People who know my music and know what I’ve been doing for the last whatever, understand that what I do is full of humor and light and this sort of stuff. There’s a dark element as well, but there’s more to it than that.

That concludes our interview but we’d like to thank Nick very much for talking with us. Be sure to check out Lawless, now in theatres.