‘It’s such a low-budget film but it’s bizarrely prescient’
Coming-of-age movie Days Of The Bagnold Summer is directed by Simon Bird. He tells Georgia Humphreys why the film feels very relevant right now
about gangs of carefree girls blasting Ironic out of car windows to actually needing to hear and believe the more subtle mantras of You Learn: “Melt it down (you’re gonna have to eventually, anyway)” — something I needed to hear when coming to terms with my own actions following a particularly heartbreaking relationship ending.
“I think in general the common denominator through the whole record is really just me unwittingly giving myself permission to be human. I’ve always been terrified in real human being relationships, humans terrify me.” She’s somewhat conflicted when I ask whether she would define herself as an introvert.
“It’s a strange combination,” she says. “I feel like I was born with my foot on the gas pedal and my other foot on the brake.
I’m the girl who wants to jump off the cliff but I run down and make sure the water’s deep enough. I love racing motorcycles but I did every single safety training you could possibly take.
“The pressure was intense, I remember after the tour for Jagged Little Pill ended, any grocery store, any bookstore, anywhere I would go, the first question was, ‘Hey, when’s your next record coming out?’ as though my face had transformed into a cassette tape and that’s all they can think. It was a bit like, ‘Oh God, what if I don’t want to write this next record? What happens then?’ It took a while for me to push through that oppressive expectation.”
Fast-forward 25 years and Morissette is touring the record worldwide again, this time with three children and a husband in tow. She says she has the impression the audiences are full of people who have followed her for many years, and feels she and the crowds are part of a big “inside joke”.
The US leg of the tour has already been officially postponed, and although no formal announcement about the UK and European dates has been made, Morissette said she doesn’t know whether she will be coming to London this year, but promises emphatically that she will fulfil the dates.
The singles released thus far from Morissette’s forthcoming album feature bear the hallmarks of her early work: poprock hooks and melodies fused with harrowing subject matter. Reasons I Drink, a raucous piano-based singalong, is no exception, covering the issues of excess to the point of self-harm.
“The contrast sometimes happens because if the music is what I call a primary colour, combined with a happy tune musically, it can be too much — it’s too much for me. It’s unconsciously done but I want to contrast it a bit and cut the bite a little bit, or cut the literal. Sometimes if something’s too literal I don’t like it.
“I’ve been asked over the years to write certain songs for things that need to be a little less autobiographical, a little more lighthearted, and Lord knows I’m lighthearted! But I can’t really do it. It has become easier and easier, there was a time when the night before a record was coming out I would wake up with a full panic attack. It was almost like clockwork the night before a record … so we’ll see on July 30 if I’m up all night freaking out or not.”
Such Pretty Forks in the Road is released on July 31
Simon Bird admits it’s a shame that his feature debut as a director isn’t getting a “proper cinema release”. However, the 34-year-old Guildford-born actor — star of The Inbetweeners and Friday Night Dinner — was able to take the coming-of-age story to a few film festivals before the coronavirus pandemic began.
So, luckily, the cast and crew did get the experience of watching it on a big screen, and witnessing the audience reaction.
And now, with cinemas still currently closed during lockdown, Days Of The Bagnold Summer — which stars Monica Dolan, Earl Cave, Rob Brydon and Tamsin Greig — is being launched digitally.
“Ultimately, it’s such a lowbudget film, it’s main home was always going to be online,” reasons a chatty, amiable Bird.
“And then, on top of that, it’s so bizarrely prescient as well; it’s about somebody whose summer holiday plans are cancelled and suddenly finds themselves stuck at home with their mum. So, for that reason, it feels like it’s probably relatable to a lot of people.
“As it goes, it’s alright for our film; I feel sorry for a lot of other films that are less lucky.”
The funny and tender story — which is adapted from the graphic novel by Joff Winterhart — follows heavy metal fan and teenager Daniel (Cave), who was due to spend six weeks of summer with his dad and his dad’s new wife in Florida.
When he has to spend it with his mum (Dolan) in suburbia instead, it leads to an epic war of wills as they each deal with private tragedies, and pursue their personal passions.
The screenplay was actually written by Bird’s wife, author Lisa Owens (the pair married in 2012, having met at Cambridge University, and have two young children together).
“It was an amazingly smooth process actually, and we’re still happily married!” he quips.
When it comes to his previous directing work, back in 2016, Bird made a short film — a darkly comic fairytale called Ernestine & Kit.
But he admits he felt like he had to prove himself throughout the process of making Days Of The Bagnold Summer.
Trying to get funding for the film was “the most stressful and difficult process”, he continues.
“Actually, being on set and all that stuff came weirdly naturally and I felt quite comfortable
Food for thought: Monica Dolan as Sue and Earl Cave as Daniel in Days Of The Bagnold Summer. Below, Simon Bird
doing it. I didn’t feel comfortable raising the money.
“And you slightly have to fake it until you make it, you have to convince people that the film is going to be really successful and make loads of money when in your heart of hearts you’ve got no idea that that’s the case at all, or don’t really believe it.”
Bird knows that Will Mckenzie — his character in The Inbetweeners, which ran from 2008 to 2010, followed by two films in 2011 and 2014 — is a part he will be asked about forever.
The Channel 4 sitcom, which followed the escapades of four hapless school friends, had a huge fanbase, and has cemented itself as a national-treasure sitcom.
Was there a part of him that thought turning to directing would be an effective way of taking control over how people see him?
“I guess thoughtfully.
“Maybe that is on a subcon- scious level. I never thought of it as, ‘What can I do to distance myself from The Inbetweeners?’, because I knew it was something I wanted to do.
“I guess it’s just natural that I will distance myself from The Inbetweeners, because that’s not my thing; I didn’t write it, it’s just an acting job I did for a few weeks every year.
“Despite that, I think for my first project I have chosen something which unfortunately does have quite a lot of similarities to The Inbetweeners, in that it’s contemporary and suburban and there’s a teenager in it.
“But that was not deliberate... this was the story that most jumped out at me for whatever reason.”
Bird recalls how seeing The Inbetweeners creators Iain Morris and Damon Beesley — who
so,”
he
muses, also produced the show — directing The Inbetweeners films made him realise he could have a go at directing.
“They are just such normal people,” he says.
“When they started doing it they were in their early 30s, so I was like, ‘Oh right, it’s not some super skill that you need to have done years of training for, it’s sort of doable’.
“And, if you surround yourself with good people who do the technical stuff and you have a clear vision of what you want to do, it’s possible.”
He says the casting directors for Days Of The Bagnold Summer really pulled it out of the bag with Brighton-born Cave, who is only 20 and is actually the son of Australian singer-songwriter Nick Cave.
“I’d never heard of him or seen any of his stuff and that was obviously the part that we were most worried about,” he says.
“We saw lots of kids and a lot of them were amazing, but a lot of them were doing the classic grumpy Kevin And Perry Go Large teenager thing, whereas someone like Earl, he does that, but you can see underneath he’s really sweet and nice, as he is in real life.
“So, I hope that’s there in the film, even though he’s quite narky with his mum it’s clearly just a phase, and you can see Daniel has a sense of humour.”
Bird would love to do more directing work in the future, calling it “really fulfilling”.
“I’d like to still be an actor as well because I love acting and in an ideal world, I’d be able to do both things in parallel,” he says.
“I was about to say that’s the plan but really there is no plan. We’ll see what happens.”
Days Of The Bagnold Summer is available on digital now