The David Bowie song Christopher Nolan couldn’t live without
Director Christopher Nolan has such prestige that he’s been fortunate enough to work with some of the world’s biggest movie stars. From Al Pacino in Insomnia to Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception and Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar, Nolan has collaborated with creatives of all shapes and sizes, even the great David Bowie.
Nolan brilliantly cast Bowie as the inventor Nikola Tesla in his 2006 psychological thriller The Prestige, alongside Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. It told of two rival stage magicians who battle against one another to create the perfect teleportation illusory trick.
In his Desert Island Discs, Nolan chose his favourite David Bowie song, ‘Loving the Alien’. The opening track to his 1984 album Tonight, the material is one of two songs on the record that were written by Bowie alone. ‘Loving the Alien’ was also released as a single the year after the album was released.
Bowie had previously discussed the song, saying it “came about because of my feeling that so much history is wrong – as is being rediscovered all the time – and that we base so much on the wrong knowledge that we’ve gleaned”. Interestingly, the cultural icon had previously stated that he actually preferred the demo version of the track over the final album cut.
When appearing on the Desert Island Discs feature, Nolan also stated his happiness at being able to work with Bowie on The Prestige. “It’s one of my proudest boasts that I got to work with David Bowie,” he said. “If I could go back in time and tell my 16-year-old self that I would ever get to meet him, let alone work with him, I think my head would have exploded.”
Just after Bowie died in 2016, Nolan remembered what it was like working with one of his childhood heroes with Entertainment Weekly. “The experience of having him on set was wonderful. Daunting, at first,” he said. “He had a level of charisma beyond what you normally experience, and everyone really responded to it. I’ve never seen a crew respond to any movie star that way, no matter how big. But he was very gracious and understood the effect he had on people.”
The director added: “I came away from the experience being able to say I was still his biggest fan and a fan who had the very miraculous opportunity to work with him for a moment. I loved the fact that after having worked with him, I had just the same fascination with his talent and his charisma. I thought that was quite magical.”
Listen to ‘Loving the Alien’ by David Bowie below.
