Would adding this bit open a can of worms? You can’t just glance at Michael Jackson.
I mean everyone from Beyoncé to Kanye [West]even though he worked with all these people and you can’t just dip your toe in it, it’s both unsatisfying and more like, “Well, so what? Let’s go deeper into this story.” I always see these things as narrative quicksand.
Did you just have to call about it?
It wasn’t like I was ever going to interview Kanye.
It’s not like Kanye had any – or Puff, another controversial figure – Pharrell never had a deep relationship with any of them.
It’s amazing that this film is coming out at a time when many of the people involved are part of an industry that’s going through some turmoil right now.
This kind of reckoning taking place in the world of hip-hop is long overdue.
Pharrell is almost the opposite. He has been married to the same woman for 20 years. He never took drugs. He doesn’t drink. He’s like a health freak.
Not what you usually see in music documentaries.
It’s more of a question: where is the friction in his life?
So in terms of the customary kind of rock and roll history, it’s not that kind of history. He has no such history.
How to deal with this? Stories need tension, something to overcome, some deep, murky truth.
You need tension, but for me it was all this dramatic tension around creativity that I think is real.
My mentor, Peter Guralnick, a fantastic writer, told me early on that the least engaging things in stories about musicians are sex, drugs, and being ripped off by the record company, because they all have the exact same story. And what’s engaging about these things?
If you look at every film I’ve made, it’s always been about things that go beyond those things… My documentary on Steve Martin, the last one I made, is very similar. It’s not about fame or drugs or anything else. Steve is spotlessly pristine. But the point is, how do you struggle with your voice, how do you get inspired?
Well, you mentioned a while ago that you felt like you were done with music documentaries, but your next one will be about Paul McCartney. How did you end up on this path?
I couldn’t say no. I’ve been a Beatles fanatic my whole life.
But this is a movie about the period after their breakup, right?