HBO
In a TV panorama plagued by darkish, gritty dramas and cornball comedies, it’s refreshing to discover a present as humorous, soothing, shocking and downright idiosyncratic as Portray with John, and credit score for that triumph goes nearly fully to its creator and host, John Lurie.
Initially rising to fame because the founder and frontman for the Lounge Lizards jazz ensemble, the 69-year-old musician has additionally dabbled in each the flicks (performing in Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger than Paradise and Down by Regulation, and doing the soundtrack for Get Shorty) and on tv (with the short-lived, however now cult-classic Fishing with John, during which he traveled the world with mates like Willem Dafoe and Dennis Hopper). Furthermore, within the wake of changing into with continual Lyme illness, he’s turn out to be a devoted and achieved painter of eclectic works with titles like, Bobo didn’t consider in evolution so God turned him right into a flower., and Why has Godzilla’s performing not improved over 47 films?
Lurie re-introduced himself to small-screen viewers final yr by asserting that Bob Ross was mistaken as a result of everybody can’t paint, and regardless of its intense give attention to Lurie’s brush and canvas, Portray with John refuses to be an overt educational endeavor. Relatively, it’s a unusual and ruminative peek inside its creator’s thoughts. Mixing anecdotes about Lurie’s upbringing and early creative days in New York Metropolis with tales about his present life on the Caribbean island that he now calls dwelling—alongside long-time staff and compatriots Nesrin Wolf and Ann Mary Gludd-James—it’s a freeform enterprise during which something may occur at any second, whether or not or not it's Lurie attempting to lure a fearsome insect in his kitchen, crashing a drone within the lush jungle that encircles his property, or dancing like no one is watching on a yard platform.
Given the present’s upcoming Feb. 18 return, it’s clear that many tuned into its maiden run, and people followers will probably be thrilled to listen to that its sophomore engagement is one other unpredictable and charming success. Because of this, it was our supreme honor to spend a while with Lurie, who every week earlier than Portray with John’s Season 2 premiere spoke with us in regards to the joyous ethos that drives the sequence, his intuitive creativity, his hands-off partnership with HBO, and the private grooming demanded by TV.
You start Season 2 by welcoming viewers to “the present the place I don't educate you find out how to paint.” When will you educate us find out how to paint? Why received’t you educate us find out how to paint?
Properly really, I believe that I'm. However I’m not saying, “Now take the comb and do that.” By simply doing it, then individuals are extra more likely to attempt. “Oh, I may do that, or I may do one thing else.” It’s extra of a mild factor than, “Now get this bowl, and put it over right here.” Should you see anyone doing it, it’s extra more likely to lead folks to attempt. Even with the Olympics—I’ve been watching the Olympics, and it simply leads you to maneuver round a bit of bit extra, you already know what I imply?
It’s humorous you deliver up the Olympics, as a result of I used to be simply watching the video games, and after about 10 minutes, I stated, “I believe I may try this.” Which I clearly can’t. However there’s one thing inspiring about watching folks do nice issues.
A few of it's simply unbelievable. All people ought to attempt to do every a kind of occasions one time.
The one I used to be watching was the lads’s freestyle snowboarding massive air occasion, the place they ski backwards off a soar after which do about 18 rotations within the air, and I undoubtedly am not up for that.
Do the judges watch it in slow-motion or one thing? [laughs] No, severely. Possibly it’s only a actually skilled eye—“Oh, his heel hit there on the mistaken level, so we’ll take a half level off.” However the snowboarding—it’s like, rattling, man. And what else did I see? I even began stepping into curling a bit of bit in a approach, which sort of shocked me. And the Russian skater, did you see her?
John Lurie in Portray with John Season 2
HBO
Kamila Valieva, the one who examined constructive for a banned substance?
She’s constructive? The factor I noticed was good. She was good! I don’t just like the skating stuff, nevertheless it was like seeing perfection.
Let me ask you in regards to the present…
The present isn't good.
One among my favourite moments within the second season is your story about greeting folks in French Polynesia, after which being rebuffed by two French bikers, who don’t appear to appreciate that, “Life is that this extremely fantastic factor.” Is that the guiding ethos of the present—to make folks discover life’s wondrousness a bit of bit extra?
That’s what I’m hoping for, however are you going to make me say that out loud? However that's what I’m hoping for. That state of affairs, it really wasn’t me who began saying hey to folks. It was commonplace. They did it with one another. There are dolphins leaping on both aspect of you, there’s these crashing waves so the destructive ions are simply filling the air, and the solar’s taking place, and you may’t be in a foul temper. And I imply actually, massive dolphins, leaping on both aspect, and there’s simply no approach. Then the French individuals who didn’t say good night again that I chased—I suppose my method has matured a bit of bit.
You punctuate one hilarious Season 2 bit with, “Thanks for the cash, HBO!” Do you get any suggestions from them?
I used to be questioning how that was going to play with them, however they’ve been nice, really. HBO—have they got a status for being nice?
So far as I do know, folks love working with the community.
At first, I used to be insecure. I wrote this e book known as The Historical past of Bones, and every little thing is as sincere as I could be. Then the Barcelona lecture factor, the place I give this lecture that I don’t know what I’m speaking about, and the factor with quarters popping out of my nostril is a curse from God [both of which are stories told in Season 2], each of these have been in the identical episode at one level, and I used to be nervous. I assumed, shit, is that this going to come back off like this man is a liar, and he’s not blatantly sincere on a regular basis? I requested a extremely high-up individual from HBO, and he or she was like, “It’s your imaginative and prescient, you do what you need.” Wow. That’s nearly an excessive amount of accountability, as a result of normally you need to be preventing towards the powers-that-be a bit of bit. So really, when HBO gave me this cash to do that factor, and I may do something I would like, I really feel like I ought to have made one thing even higher, you already know what I imply? [laughs] I can’t blame anyone for it not being higher. It’s all my fault.
Do you nearly really feel such as you’re getting away with one thing, with HBO? Are you able to consider they’re providing you with this a lot freedom?
No, I can’t. However it’s too unhealthy I’m getting it at 69 with my well being falling aside, as a result of it’s what I wished my complete life—the inventive freedom and, additionally, a venue. As a result of you possibly can have inventive freedom, however usually there’s nowhere to place the factor. It turned my life round, too. It was actually a pleasant factor.
Do you are feeling like Fishing with John helped the brand new present come about indirectly? They’re very completely different in lots of respects, however they do have an identical power, since each are steeped in your persona.
Just a little bit, nevertheless it nearly goes again to the East Village within the early Eighties, making these Tremendous 8 films that have been nearly dwelling films. It’s bought nearly an East Village Eighties ambiance round it. However what occurred to me, as a result of I used to be sick and out of every little thing for 20 years—every little thing is completed in a different way now. The way you edit, each technical factor. So, I used to be a novice swiftly, whereas I really knew what I used to be doing at one time. Now that shit’s all like, okay grandpa, we don’t do it like that anymore. Digicam angles and sound and light-weight, I do have some director talents. However I by no means even thought of Fishing with John once I was doing it, aside from the title. I didn’t actually give it some thought, as a result of now I’m speaking into the digital camera, and with Fishing with John, I’ve bought my again to the digital camera. However I learn your factor proper earlier than we did this, and also you saying it was a “religious companion,” and it's, as a result of it’s me.
Was there one thing you wished to do in a different way in Season 2?
Not fairly. Once we have been enhancing the primary season, it was an excessive amount of of this previous man simply sitting at a desk speaking. It’s going to be boring to the attention. So, we added the elephant factor, and we had issues the place we may get away from the desk. And this time, the “Cowboy Beckett” and the synchronized swimming and some different issues—I assumed it made it a unique present. As a result of all these folks have been saying [about Season 1], “Oh, it was so calming, and soothing and meditative,” and now it’s a bit of jolting in a approach, as a result of it jumps from factor to factor. So, I wasn’t certain how that was going to hit folks. However I can’t inform—I’m so in the midst of it, I actually can't inform. I used to be shocked on the response to the primary season. I knew some folks would really like it, however 100% on Rotten Tomatoes was not what I used to be anticipating! We have been simply doing this factor. Me and [cinematographer and editor] Erik Mockus, we weren’t actually making a present. We have been identical to youngsters in a front room making a fort, and he was so good at every little thing, after which it simply blossomed into this factor. Then Adam McKay despatched a few of it to HBO, they usually wished it, and I used to be like, actually? So now we bought a Season 2.
However then you definately’ve bought a schedule to satisfy, and I sort of fucked up a bit of bit, as a result of the work must be crucial issues to me, however the present turned extra necessary than the work at the moment. So, there’s one portray that I’m actually not pleased with within the present, however there simply wasn’t time to do higher. Whereas in Season 1, we have been fairly far alongside earlier than Erik began filming me. I sort of hypnotize myself once I’m creating, and I don’t like myself being filmed throughout that a part of the method. However he can movie me doing a background, or if I’ve bought a bunch of squares to paint in, that’s nice.
Within the first season, you stated you had hoped the present could be academic close to portray, however then you definately realized that you simply largely did your work from instinct. Is that the way you make this present too, by instinct?
Completely. And it’s additionally, we’ve bought all these sections, and one of the painful issues was the sequencing of it—what goes in episode one, what goes in episode two—and it wasn’t coming. I simply knew that ultimately, my instinct would current it to me. I simply knew that. I had confidence that it could be like a puzzle that had prearranged for me, like a Wordle, and ultimately it could fall into place. Additionally, me and Erik, we’re at all times saying now we have to take what we’re given, relatively than attempting to make one thing occur that didn’t fairly occur.
I actually like this concept of doing these 20-minute items of music. If we do a Season 3—and I don’t know if we will pull this off—however I need to have 20-minute items of music, after which I’ve bought earphones in, and I’ll inform a Marvin Pontiac story, or do just like the small automotive factor [from Season 2]—we’ll really speak about what I’m portray whereas I’m portray, with these African-y sort of grooves going beneath me, which I’ll hear in my ear. So, I’m portray a cow and a tree, and it’ll go together with the music. I ponder if I can pull it off—it’ll be like an opera. Twenty minutes of music for every present, after which I’ll plug it in. That’s what I’m hoping to do for the subsequent one.
Have you ever mapped out concepts for a possible third season, or do you enable it to occur spontaneously?
I jot down concepts, like what story am I going to inform now, as a result of I’ve bought to have one thing ready; it doesn’t simply pop into your head. Should you rehearse them a couple of instances, however don’t allow them to get stale, it’s necessary, due to the way you construction the story, and the rhythm of the story. There’s a motive [Dave] Chappelle is so good—he rehearses these! He runs it, he runs it. Spalding Grey, he wasn’t nice, however you must rehearse that, despite the fact that it’s simply you telling a narrative. So, it must be each: that an concept comes into your head now, and the viewers can see that as you’re excited about it proper at that second, however you additionally need to have that construction, as a result of I'd in any other case inform that story and be like, fuck, I left this half out and now now we have to reshoot that factor, and now perhaps the sunshine doesn’t match or one thing.
Within the new season, you recall noticing your ear hair in a Season 1 episode—which prompts you to pay extra consideration to your grooming. Have you ever gotten further notes about your fashion since that episode? And is it robust to look at your self on this approach?
God, I’m so sick of myself, particularly after the e book and the audiobook and now watching myself. Once we edit it, I don’t even see it as me. However no, HBO doesn’t say something. My voiceover man, once I was about to go off to HBO, and we’d already shot it, he says, you actually need to shave the hair in your ears. And I’m like, it’s already shot, Steven! I’ve been with him for 30 years, he’s nice. However we’re not going to reshoot it to groom me. However I’d look within the mirror earlier than, and reduce the hair out of my ears and nostril, and we modified the sunshine a bit of bit. It appeared fairly unhealthy at first. I hadn’t been sleeping, so I had these gigantic circles underneath my eyes, and I'd placed on this make-up that Nesrin had unnoticed for me to cowl these.
soccer if my life by John Lurie
HBO
You’ve talked in regards to the sociopathic mindset required to talk into the digital camera. Have you ever gotten extra comfy with that as you’ve carried out extra episodes? We’re doing it now [via Zoom]…
Yeah, nevertheless it’s about the identical as this. You don’t really feel 100% comfy proper now, proper? I imply, I don’t. I’m on digital camera for you, you’re on digital camera for me, and it’s a bit of bit like that. Additionally, we will simply throw away no matter comes out horrible. However simply sitting there and speaking into the digital camera doesn’t hassle me that a lot. Really, what was onerous was, I wasn’t feeling good—I had labored too onerous—and I needed to do the audiobook for The Historical past of Bones, which was daunting as a result of it’s lengthy. Then I did the music, and people two issues overlapped, so I used to be exhausted by the point it was time to shoot. Bodily, I used to be not properly. So, whereas it doesn’t take a variety of effort to take a seat there and be charming in my curmudgeonly approach, to not be struggling simply sitting there and doing it, that was troublesome. As a result of it’s no good even when I’m hiding it; it may well’t be that. I noticed that you simply tweeted that you simply had the distinction of talking with Steven Soderbergh…
You stated honored no less than twice, so I would like greater than honored. Everytime you retweet this, I would like greater than honored.
Like super-honored?
No matter is greater than honored. [laughs]