HIGH FIDELITY

As the record-store dramedy turns 20, director Stephen Frears hits rewind to talk to Buff about John Cusack, Jack Black and 2000’s time-capsule classic, which is still at the top of the list of Nick Hornby adaptations…

Stephen Frears revisits his 2000 classic. But is it in his all-time Top 5?

it always seemed to me that Nick Hornby’s writing was our secret weapon and if we stuck to it, we’d be alright,” admits director Stephen Frears, recalling the approach he took while adapting 2000’s zeitgeist-capturing comedy High Fidelity. Back in the early-’90s, Hornby’s story of a commitment-phobe record-store owner, endlessly obsessed with listing his favourite albums and seemingly baffled by the motivations of the opposite sex, struck a chord with audiences.

It also caught the attention of John Cusack, who diligently went to work adapting the novel for the big screen. It was a journey that would reunite the star with the director of 1990’s The Grifters, help introduce a then-largely-unknown Jack Black to the world, and effortlessly encapsulate the pulse and spirit of a post-’90s, music-loving generation. Although as Frears tells Buff, High Fidelity’s enduring success was all a bit of a happy accident.

“It’s always a fluke,” suggests the notoriously straight-talking director, visibly thawing while recalling his experiences creating the film. “It meant a lot to people and you didn’t want to bugger up something that was so important to their lives. I knew the book because I’d read it when it first came out and I thought John would be very good as Rob,” he says, recalling Cusack stepping into the shoes of High Fidelity’s relationship-weary lead. “John was crazy about pop music and the script he and his writers had written got right to the centre of the book, which was what was so good about it.”

Back in Black

This cut-to-the-chase method helped transition Hornby’s story from the dive bars of London to the beer-stained music halls of Chicago, a change that was neither here nor there to Frears. “It didn’t seem of any importance at all – and indeed, so it proved.”

With his lead and location set, Frears went about bringing Hornby’s work to life. First stop? Finding Rob’s slacker buddy Barry – a crucial role that needed to strike the right balance of humour, drama and musical chops. “I asked the writers who should play that part and they just said, ‘Jack Black,’” reveals Frears matter-offactly. “He came to see me and I thought he’d be great – then Jack lost his nerve.”

After seeing the likes of Steve Zahn and Philip Seymour Hoffman, Frears and Cusack’s attention once again returned to the still-unsure Black. “As I should have realised, Jack’s an extremely sensitive man. He said, ‘You didn’t make me audition and the audition gives me confidence.’ He then auditioned very badly – but we gave him the part. He was immediately brilliant and very hard-working. I didn’t know Jack’s work and it was only when we started filming that I realised how brilliant he was. We’d show the rushes at lunchtime and people would come from all over the studio to see him. He was wonderful.”

Rob’s intricately detailed store was built from scratch, with entire teams dedicated to securing the necessary record-sleeve clearances. “I lived down the road from Rough Trade so we asked people from the store to come and see the film; they said they wished they had a shop that big,” laughs Frears gruffly. “John and his writers were younger than me so they knew all the music stuff. I was the old man, even then.”

However, Frears’ expertise proved crucial when perfecting Rob’s habit of breaking the fourth wall. “It meant we could get to the essence of the book which was really an interior monologue about Rob’s inner thoughts,” suggests the director. “At first

I think John was rather sceptical about it, then he gradually came to see how effective it was.”

Timeless tunes

It was a technique that came in particularly useful when the production welcomed musical legend Bruce Springsteen into Rob’s fantasy world. “He was terribly nervous,” revels Frears, remembering The Boss’s small-yet-memorable cameo. “I was mainly looking after him.

He was relieved when it was over.”

Twenty years on and High Fidelity’s themes of complicated love and tricky relationships remain as potent as ever. Throw in the recent resurgence of vinyl and Frears’ film has adopted an unexpected relevancy. “I’ve captured the zeitgeist several times before but without knowing it. It’s always an accident,” he reasons. “Something happens that captures people’s imagination. My filming was done in innocence but I’m not surprised by it. John and his writers were so alive and vivid. It had a largely autobiographical element and they put themselves into it. Did I know what they were doing? Not particularly – but I had confidence.”

As for how Frears would rate High Fidelity in a top five all-time-greatest list of his own films? “No, no,” he says, quick to dispel the notion. “That was Nick’s generation – not my generation. My top five music would be Fats Domino or Elvis. It’d be ridiculous. I don’t think about things like that. It was good fun working with people I was very fond of,” he smiles. “I don’t know what the personal significance was – but it was really enjoyable.”

HIGH FIDELITY IS AVAILABLE ON DVD AND BLU-RAY NOW.