How Hans Zimmer gave Christopher Nolan “the heart” of ‘Interstellar’ after one letter
The partnership between director Christopher Nolan and composer Hans Zimmer has given birth to some of the most celebrated scores of the last 15 years. Zimmer’s work on The Dark Knight, Inception and Interstellar has come to inform the sound of modern cinema, with Nolan offering the German composer unparalleled creative freedom.
Many directors use temp scores (pre-composed pieces of music that fit the scene’s mood) while they wait for their composers to come up with some original music. Christopher Nolan doesn’t do that. As Editor Lee Smith told Collidor, “Hans comes in early and just records ideas and suites of anything that comes into his mind through conversations with Chris.”
Usually, composers adhere to a pre-established narrative arc developed by the director. Nolan, in contrast, allows Zimmer’s music to shape and inform his narrative. Few composers have been granted such authority, but that doesn’t necessarily make Zimmer’s work easier. In fact, when writing the Interstellar score, the composer was so desperate for some narrative inspiration that he wrote a letter to Nolan requesting a “metaphorical story” and a day to write “whatever came to me.”
A few days later, Zimmer received Nolan’s reply. “So this letter arrived, and there’s this beautiful story about what it meant to be a father,” Zimmer told Jonathan Ross. “So, I spent a day writing it and phoned his house at about ten o’clock at night on Sunday. His wife answered, so I said, ‘Emma, I’ve done it – do you want me to send it over?’ And she goes, ‘Oh, Chris is curiously antsy – he’s pacing around. Do you mind if he comes over?'”
Zimmer, keen to get some feedback on his work, agreed. “So he came over and sat on the couch, and I said, ‘Okay, I’ll play it to you.’ And I played him this fragile little piece that I’d written about my son really – the relationship I have with my son. And I get to the end of it and I’m going, ‘so, what do you think?’ Nolan took a moment then said, “Well, I better make the movie then'”. Meanwhile, Zimmer still had no idea what that movie was: “I’m going, ‘What is the movie?’ And he starts going on about space.”
Eventually, Zimmer interrupted Nolan to remind him that he’d only written a few minutes of “fragile, very personal” music. How could he possibly know what the movie was going to be from such a small fragment? “Yeah, but I know what the heart of the movie is now,” came Nolan’s reply. That tiny piece of music had provided Nolan with the thematic core of his film. He had everything he needed.
