Brady Corbet on Vox Lux, gun control and Scott Walker

In Vox Lux, 13-year-old Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) survives a school shooting and is moved to compose and perform a touching song at the memorial service. TV cameras in the church broadcast images of a mourning teen that is also a nascent pop talent. Stardom beckons and is reached with the guidance of her older sister, Ellie (Stacy Martin), and no-nonsense manager (Jude Law). Some 18 years later, Celeste (now played by Natalie Portman) is preparing for a major comeback gig when terrorists massacre holiday-makers on a beach while wearing masks echoing her look. 

Writer-director Brady Corbet’s second feature was based on a story created by Corbet with his partner Mona Fastvold, who also co-wrote his debut, 2015's The Childhood of a Leader. It’s a wild, surprising and occasionally violent delve into fame, lust and infamy featuring the late Scott Walker’s last score, effervescent pop bangers written by Sia, and a bone-dry Willem Dafoe voiceover.

Corbet met us to discuss his film in a central London studio overlooking Broadcasting House two days after the Sri Lanka Easter Sunday bomb attacks in which 253 people were killed (at the time of writing). On the same day, Florida’s Senate voted in favour of allowing teachers to bring guns into their classrooms against the wishes of the survivors of the Parkland massacre, a school shooting on Valentine’s Day 2018 in which 17 students and staff were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the Florida town.

The Skinny: What first inspired the story of Vox Lux?

Brady Corbet: My previous movie was set at the beginning of the 20th century, about the rise of fascism in Europe. After working on that – which was shot in Hungary and edited in France – for a long time, I wanted to go home to New York and make a film about my own generation.

There are two pivotal depictions of terrorism in the film. What are you trying to communicate in these scenes?

The movie is about the defining trends of the 21st century. It’s disturbing to talk about terrorism, domestic or otherwise, as “trendy”, but it is. I find that I’m interested in cyclical aspects of the news cycle, in pop culture as well as world news. It’s strange the way that stories are grouped when you look at your Apple News updates. You have stories about what’s happened in Sri Lanka as well as stories about Beyoncé’s upcoming visual album.

The idea was to create a time capsule. When we look back at the events that defined the early part of the 21st century, my generation – especially as an American – will remember school shootings; we will remember 9/11, which changed everything, the way everyone lives all over the world. And I think that we’ll also remember Britney Spears.

School shootings are obviously a big problem in America. Are you in favour of gun control?

It’s just sensible to be pro-gun control.

How far would you take it?

It doesn’t even matter what I think. These things never even come to a vote. After Newtown [the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut in which 27 people were murdered, including 20 children aged six and seven], Obama promised that things were going to be very different. If he wasn’t able to accomplish anything, then this new guy is certainly not going to accomplish anything – quite the opposite, these things are becoming more extreme. I don’t own a gun. I grew up hunting with my family in Colorado, occasionally, but for me, guns are not part of my everyday life. I have a four-year-old in school so, no, I don’t want them anywhere near my children.

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So you certainly wouldn’t be interested in any of this mad talk about arming teachers or their assistants?

I don’t know anyone who supports that. I’m not even sure that Trump supporters are in support of arming teachers. It’s just ridiculous.

Having been a child star herself and having been in Black Swan, which shares similarities with this film, this is an intriguing role for Natalie Portman. Did she have any reservations about the part?

No, she didn’t. The screenplay had the same reaction that the film itself is having. It was a very divisive screenplay. People either loved it or they really hated it. It was gladiator-style. I was thrilled that she responded and dialled into it.

Jude Law’s part in the film is part-protective, part-Machiavellian. What did he bring to this role?

What you just described. I never like characters all bad or all good. I like the idea that you have a character that has watched a child grow up and the nature of their relationship has changed but it’s strange because he knew her as a child but then he’s fucking her when she’s an adult.

It’s a strange thing because it happens a lot. Young people are 15 or 16 years old, sometimes younger, when they first meet everyone as a child. Then cut to seven or eight years later or, especially, 15, 20 years later when they’re partying together with these people that were originally their caretakers. I’m not a moralist. An adult is a consenting adult, but I think that there is something quite perverse about it, so I was interested in that dynamic in their relationship.

Why did you feel you needed an actual pop star to create Celeste’s songs?

I reached out to Sia because she’s one of the only pop stars that I know that’s not only writing her own songs but is writing a lot of music for other artists. I also knew that she was a cinephile and might be interested in this kind of movie. We worked with her and her co-writers and producers for a long time in order to bring it to life.

What was your collaboration with Scott Walker like?

Scott is a major inspiration for me and always has been, that’s why I asked him to do the score for my first film. I loved working with Scott. It was one of the highlights of my professional life. He was a good friend of mine so his loss is deeply felt. It’s a bit fresh. Normally when I come to London I would see him so it’s a bit strange to not see him this time around.

Is there anything specific that he brought to his work with you?

He would always bring new ideas. I remember for the opening credits of the film he suggested doing it a capella. He had written a piece of music and we could record it with strings or we could do it with voices only. Vox Lux roughly translates to “voice and light”. It was amazingly effective. He and I liked the same films and had the same points of reference so I always found our conversations to be quite easy. We spoke the same language.

I decided that for my next film I’m not going to do an orchestral score at all. I think I’m going to make movies in a very different way without him from here on out. There’s just no way to replicate what Scott does.

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Vox Lux is released 3 May by Curzon Artificial Eye