Director Derrick Borte enjoys a challenge, and after his debut helming the Demi Moore-drama The Joneses he’s taking audiences back in time to the 1970s with London Town. His rollicking examination of a young boy discovering the Clash as well as his own identity is a solid drama with great music and a searing performance from Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Borte sat down to talk with Spectrum Culture about the film, balancing an individual story with live characters, and more.
Let’s start with the most basic question: What was the impetus for you to direct the film?
It’s kind of a strange story. My agent was asking me “What’s your dream project” and just off the cuff I said I’d love to find a project about a kid discovering the Clash. He said there just so happened to be a script out there and he sent it to me. I loved it for the reason being I felt it kind of reminded me, partially, of my story in terms of discovering the band and changing my life, albeit under different circumstances. I connected with the script and knew I had to make the movie. I met with the producers, they liked my take on it, and five or six years later here we are.
I’m assuming changes were made to the initial script through the filmmaking process. Were tweaks made or was it translated faithfully?
First, I think Matt Brown wrote an amazing script, so that’s where it all begins with me. Is the script great? The script was great and once the realities of production start showing up there’s the occasional tweak. He’d written a great script to begin with so I was fortunate to have a great place to begin.
There’s a subplot regarding the political tone of Britain at the time, dealing with immigrants and the supposed degradation of London. Obviously this was made before the current election in the U.S., but was any of that seen with an eye towards the politics of today?
It did not go unnoticed to me that there were quite a few parallels with the political, racial, social climate of London in the late ‘70s and the United States today. I thought there were quite a few parallels that were worth exploring, and yet it was the backdrop so it wasn’t the A or B story of the film. Strangely enough, a year later they seem even more poignant. It’s definitely a big part of the film.
There are many layers regarding Shay’s story, his coming of age, as well as his relationship with Strummer. What were the challenges of not turning this into a Joe Strummer/Clash biopic, but truly focusing on Shay’s story?
It came up in conversation but really the Clash, their music and the effect it had on other people, to me, was always a better story than the story of the band itself.
And you already have so many rock biopics about that time period, as well.
It’s really there’s not a tragic supernova of conflict like there was in Sex Pistols, which they explored in Sid & Nancy, regardless of what anyone might think of the movie. There’s much more material for a biopic than with a lot of other bands. I felt like the Clash, their music and the effect it had on other people, was bigger than the band.
This comes along at a time when the British music scene has already been touched on with Sing Street. I also found shades of Pirate Radio in the film. Was there a conscious decision to separate from other movies that have focused on that time and place?
There’s always, when you’re making a film, touchstones of other films. With this film there are elements of Billy Elliot, Almost Famous. The chemistry between writer, director, producers, actors and crew is always going to be different, so I think the film becomes what it becomes. It wasn’t like I made a conscious decision not to do something or do something based on other films.
You said you wanted to make a movie about a kid discovering the Clash. What’s the appeal for you about that time, that place?
The appeal of the music is when I was 14 years old and heard the Clash for the first time, within moments I knew this was the music I was supposed to listen to. It had a profound effect on me in a way that I would not have anticipated, and still does to this day. Basically, there’s no better way to tell this story than when and where it was happening originally. Me as a teenager in Virginia Beach hearing the Clash for the first time is not nearly as interesting as a teenager in London hearing the Clash for the first time.
What was the directing process on this like in comparison to your first film, The Joneses?
Every film, every production, whether it’s a commercial or feature film, has its own set of challenges. I try to learn something new every day on-set from anyone I can learn from. While in some ways I’m much more experienced than I was when I made The Joneses, there were different challenges here. That film was challenging in that it was my first feature with some pretty heavyweight talent around me, but I just embraced it and prided myself on being the dumbest guy in the room and realizing I could learn from everybody. It’s served me well and I continue to this day to approach it that way, in that film is a collaborative effort. There are no bad ideas, you just embrace the process and have great people around you, empower them to do what they do best, manage it all—the creative, the personalities and the logistics altogether—in a way that inspires them to go to great lengths for you. That’s the way to end up with something you feel good about.
You have such a great cast assembled here—Dougray Scott, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Daniel Huttlestone. What was capturing their performances like? Did you guide them in anyway?
Thankfully we had rehearsal time, prep time, to explore the characters together. I never want to micromanage a performance as much as empower people to do their best work. I’ve said this before, but I think if I hold on to my vision of something with a tight grip there’s only two things that can happen: I can either hit that marker or fall short of it. If I relax my grip and have great people around me and empower them to do great work, that’s the only way I’m going to be able to go beyond my vision of something, to have happy accidents happen, to have great collaborative results in terms of exploring the characters and materials during the process. I love that part of the process which is just talking about things, exploring the material and characters, and just trusting in the process and trusting in myself that I’ve got the right people around me and created the right tone on the set for wonderful things to happen.
Were there any happy accidents captured on camera or that just missed the mark you can share?
Oh, I’ll never tell. Everything was completely, meticulously planned for every step of the way!
What’s next for you? The Joneses and London Town are two vastly different films; you haven’t really fallen into a niche yet. Is there a dream project or genre you’re hoping to work within?
I definitely try to go for story and character over genre. Inevitably, I gravitate to a wide variety of material. I’ve got a few projects in the works that range from a Western to a thriller; it just depends on how the stars line up. I just want to be challenged everyday and work on fun, interesting things with people I enjoy being in the trenches with [and] not put myself in a box in terms of what I’m going to do next.
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