Nicolas Winding Refn: ‘I really love Jason Statham’

It’s been two decades since Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn first startled viewers with Pusher (1996), his tough portrayal of the Copenhagen criminal underworld that led to two fierce sequels. Since then his distinctive, edgy body of work has been bolstered by a number of key characteristics.

At the fore are memorably bold, often violent headline performances from the likes of Tom Hardy in Bronson (2008) and Ryan Gosling in Drive (2011) and Only God Forgives (2013). Strong leads meanwhile are augmented by sizzling, elliptical but all-too-brief Christina Hendricks support roles (Drive and forthcoming release The Neon Demon). Sonically, Cliff Martinez’s enigmatic and sultry scores evoke glamour, paranoia and occasionally terror in Drive, Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon. Refn’s films also often contain an visceral visual beauty, even if they are occasionally gruelling to watch, but with his new film Refn has made beauty the actual subject matter too.

The Neon Demon tells the story of 16-year-old Jesse, who hits LA as an aspiring model and soon gets caught up in the incessantly back- and frontstabbing, uber-bitchy world of high fashion. Elle Fanning is at her scintillating best in the lead role, while Jena Malone’s cunning makeup artist Ruby is the pick of a selection of juicy support roles (Abbey Lee and Bella Heathcote are also superb as Jesse’s scathing model “colleagues”).

It’s refreshing for a Refn film to finally put female roles at its centre, while behind the camera the film’s often jaw-dropping, hallucinatory visuals appear courtesy of cinematographer Natasha Braier. At times the stomach-churning intensity of certain scenes may be too much for some viewers. This writer’s guest at the London premiere in May was unable to finish watching the film when a particularly gruesome on-screen sight caused a hasty exit towards the bathroom.

We caught up with Refn for a quick chat while he was on promotional duties for The Neon Demon in Los Angeles, where both that film and Drive are set. Refn ironically refers to Hollywood as “the Mecca of culture” but also cheerfully says “you can’t go wrong with sunny California,” when discussing the beautiful light in the Golden state. Despite the tentative phone connection between LA and London, the Danish director seems happy, at least partly because of the recent US arrival of his seven-year-old daughter (the younger of two) who could occasionally be heard playing merrily in the background during our conversation.

I don’t really know anything about fashion. My wife buys my clothes. You know, Prada makes me look good. I thought that I didn’t so much want to make a movie about the fashion world, I wanted to make a movie about beauty. The fashion world was just a really good backdrop; just the heightened version of the obsession. Beauty is everything. It’s a subject everyone has an opinion about. It instructs everything in our culture.

I wanted to make a movie about the future, so there’s very little technology in it. A lot of it is that in the future, narcissism and all those things will just be part of our society. My generation saw the digital revolution coming, our children’s generation were the testing grounds for the digital revolution, with the idea that what we were seeing was essentially artificial. But I believe that the next generation after my children will be seeing the future where there is no difference between the artificial and the real, it will all be mutated together.

The difference is that it’s becoming acceptable. It’s a virtue now; it’s encouraged. When I grew up, it was taboo. That has completely changed. Which on the one level is very refreshing, but also quite scary. But that’s what so great about the future, you don’t really know which way it’s gonna go. A digital revolution has created a whole new world, where the possibilities are beyond our imagination.

I was making the book while I was making the film and every time I would get stuck creatively while in the pre-production phase I would always go back and just browse through the book.

Well, there is always a little bit of everything. Not much specific but there was just, you know, I get inspired by everything. I just make films based on what I would like to see. You know, I close my eyes, and I just imagine what it would be like being a beautiful girl.

I would like to do a spy movie. I just thought it could be fun to do one.

I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet.

Is that with Jason Statham?

No, but I really love Jason Statham. He’s great. So funny.

It’s a great cast.

No, it’s too early. I mean, I’m just working on it now. It’s a slow phase of development. But I’ll get more into in once I’m back in Europe in August, to figure out how to do it. I’m doing it with my good friend [producer] Rupert Preston, so that’s always gonna be very pleasurable.