David Byrne reveals why he’s only directed one movie: “You get waylaid”
In 1986, David Byrne directed and starred in his only film, the surreal comedy and musical True Stories. Now, he’s revealed why he never added another movie to his repertoire.
In the film, Byrne stars alongside John Goodman, Swoosie Kurtz, and Spalding Gray as an unnamed stranger adorning a cowboy hat who visits the fictional Texas town of Virgil.
In a new interview with The Guardian, the ‘Psycho Killer’ vocalist reminisced on making the movie, sharing, “It was very artistically satisfying, and I had a great time doing it.”
As to why it remains his only directorial credit, the performer admitted, “Part of the problem is of my own making. I’d paid for the script-writing, the research, looking at locations and all that stuff, but after that people in LA said: ‘Now you’ve done a film you can get somebody else to pay for that’.”
He added, “Which I did, more than once, but if somebody’s putting up some money, they want a say in what you do. Sometimes, they can be helpful. Other times, you get waylaid.”
Amid the back and forth, Byrne admits that he ended up thinking “Damn, I could be writing a record and doing a show at this point.”
Therefore, Bryne gave up on his filmic aspirations and instead “went back to” the world he knew best.
However, looking to the future, he added, “I would love to do a film with digital cameras, editing on a computer. You don’t need big editing machines now. You still need actors, locations, the writing, sets, and everything else, but you have more control over it than you used to. So, yes, I hope to eventually make another film.”
Bryne has been busy with live performances this year, including a recent appearance at Roskilde Festival in Denmark; next up, he will appear at The Piece Hall in Halifax on July 18th, before appearances in Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Latitude Festival in Southwold.
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