Bossing It

WESTERN STARS Bruce Springsteen croons about his on-song directorial debut…

What were you trying to do with this film?

When we were initially discussing the shoot, we figured we’ll do what you would normally do in a music pic – you know, people will talk about how great I am to work with, what a pleasure and honour it was… the usual bullshit. It didn’t quite feel right. So one night, in front of the TV, I wrote that whole script in a couple of hours. I was sitting there, thinking, “Well, maybe these songs [from the Western Stars album, released in June], because they’re new, need individual introductions.” And then with [co-director] Thom [Zimny, Springsteen’s longtime filmographer], we put together the images and shot the footage and, suddenly, we had this whole other sort of film that excited the two of us.

So where did you film the footage?

That’s actually upstairs in my barn. It was just a kind of gritty and intimate… which is what a lot of the songs are. The filming really deepened the emotional content of the record. If you listen to the record, it’s its own experience. But making the film allowed me to tell a story that I hadn’t directly told before.

You also have your own home videos in the film…

When you get to the end of the film, those are my honeymoon tapes which we just happened to find! It kind of completes that story. The film is about taking that journey to making your peace with having a life, and being able to enjoy that life along with all the pain and the happiness that it brings.

ETA | 28 OCTOBER / WESTERN STARS OPENS THIS MONTH.