John Crowley’s eclectic and underrated career has spanned various genres and mediums. After kicking off his creative talents via the stage, he’s since transitioned into feature films and television, with credits including Intermission, Is Anybody There?, Boy A, Closed Circuit, and most recently, the Oscar nominated Brooklyn. He contributed to True Detective Season 2, and his sterling theater resume includes such diverse works as A Behanding in Spokane, A Steady Rain, The Pillowman, MacBeth, Into the Woods, The Crucible, and The Master Builder. He recently chatted with Nick about his career, his Irish roots, the amazing success of Brooklyn, and what the future holds. We hope you enjoy this informative Q&A!
Thanks for chatting with me, John. Ok, off the top, I just want to tell you how much I loved A Behanding in Spokane! My wife and I went to NYC and sat in the second row early in the run and that was just a blast. What was it like when you read that play for the first time?
Thanks so much! Yeah, that was a surreal one. It was like nothing I had seen or heard before. Coming from the great Martin McDonagh, you know you’re in for a treat, something special every time. But this just had that special combination of humor and drama, with a sort of Tarantino-inspired sense of quirky violence. It was a tricky tone to pull off on stage, but I think we nailed it. Audiences really sparked to it.
And what an amazing cast of actors you had to work with, that must’ve been a treat.
Yeah, we were blessed with some serious talent on that show, with Christopher Walken really running away with the entire piece. It was good and nasty fun.
How did you get your start in the film industry? Was it initially through the Irish film community?
Yeah, after starting in the theater, I moved into features and television, and yes, the Irish film world has been a big part of my understanding of the business and the artistic process. I’ve done projects like Intermission where we had an Irish crew and cast, and I’ve been able to do stuff like True Detective, this most recent season, which allowed me to expand a bit. I’ve done work in television in Europe as well.
I’ve long been a fan of Intermission, one of your early films with Colin Farrell. What was it like when you read that script?
Mark O’Rowe had really written something special, and I felt like it was a story that I knew exactly how to tell. It was an Irish production, and the energy was great, and I think we made a lasting piece that many people have found over time. Great cast of Irish actors, too.
Boy-A. I want to tell you how brilliant I think that film is. It’s so brutal and honest. It’s one of those small gems that I tell everyone to see. How did that come about?
Thank you! Yeah, that was a challenging piece, Peter Mullan and Andrew Garfield both had heavy loads to carry, and they both did it with serious resolve, and without ever backing down to the material. Challenging stuff for sure, with a script that pulled no punches. That was an interesting project because of its gestation, how it was on television here in the UK and then the Weinstein brothers saw and it and got interested and put it out in a small number of theaters in America. It’s a hard-hitting piece that has thankfully found a passionate group of supporters.
How did you first get involved with Brooklyn?
I had read the book for pleasure while working on the Broadway show A Behanding in Spokane and I immediately responded to it, in a very emotional way. However, the studios weren’t interested in making it, which presented some interesting challenges in getting it made. But people got it very quick with this project, or they just didn’t. It’s just not their business model, the studios, to make a film like Brooklyn. The financing came from a patchwork of sources, including Telefilm, The Irish Film Board, BBC, BFI, with some Canadian money in there, too. It was a true and classic independent production.
Were you nervous about how an intimate project like Brooklyn might be perceived by audiences who are growing more and more accustomed to CGI spectacle and bombast?
Nobody trusted this project except for a core group of people. I knew what we had because I had read the book and Nick Hornby’s wonderful script. It was a story I felt I could do justice. There was never a doubt in my mind. And audiences found it. It helps when your film is based on a beloved book, but I was always confident that audiences would be smart and patient enough to find our little film.
What was it like working with Saoirse Ronan? She really came into her own as a full blown leading actress in Brooklyn delivering one of the best performances in 2015.
Saoirse is wonderful. She’s so talented, and I’ve been such a fan all throughout the years. Her work in Atonement demonstrated a certain degree of stability, a sense of maturity that you rarely see in an actress that young. And she’s taken on interesting roles ever since, with Brooklyn serving as her big moment. I couldn’t be more proud of her. She anchored our film with a quiet reserve, this sense of nobility. And that’s not on the page, that’s something that comes from within a performer.
How do you feel that Ireland has progressed in terms of cinema? Are you happy with the current state of affairs?
The way it’s looking right now, there’s a lot of very interesting directors moving up the ranks. We’ve got confident filmmakers telling universal stories, without trying to be American in any sense of the word. There’s a filmmaking contingent in Ireland that’s very passionate about homegrown stories. And on the other end of it, you have Hollywood bringing over talents like Lenny Abrahamson and Fassbender and Saoirse – suddenly there’s this spotlight on Irish talent. And I think the result of all of this is a healthy funding situation in Ireland with quite a number of interesting projects getting made.
How connected are you to the Hollywood machine?
I’ve lived in London the last 18 years! Hollywood is important for my career, of course, and without some of the relationships I’ve made, I might not have gotten some work, or been considered for some jobs. But I like to think of myself as living outside of the intensity of the system, but ready to work with anyone if the material is proper.
Are you consciously looking for “Irish stories” to tell?
Not in the sense that a story needs to be Irish in order for me to be interested in it. I’m attracted to the universal quality of storytelling, and a film like Brooklyn, even with its Irish sensibility, is still a work that can speak to any nationality. It’s all about the experience and the journey for the character, that’s what attracts me to material. And while I am certainly drawn to Irish stories and homegrown material on a personal level, I certainly never set out to be known as strictly an “Irish filmmaker.”
How hard is it to move back and forth from the stage to the cinema?
It’s different yet similar. My experiences have been great on both sides, but I think it comes down to how you interact with the actors, and how they adjust to their roles and to their surroundings. I grew up in the theater, and sort of used my experiences there as a way to get into the film and television world. One thing prepared me for the other.
Do you have a preference?
No, not really, because both mediums allow for different levels of success, or failure. I like being challenged by the intricacies of both forms, and the experiences I’ve had from stage work has informed my film work, and vice versa.
You recently directed episodes of True Detective: Season Two, which reunited you with Colin Farrell. What was your experience there?
That was interesting because of the hype and the serious interest in the show. It had that water cooler effect, whether people liked it or not. And from the scripts, I knew that season two would be very different from the first. Justin Lin had set a very solid foundation for the other directors to step in and continue the story. I enjoyed working with HBO very much.
What are you currently working on now? Any new theater offerings or new films in development?
Next up is The Present, an updated version of Chekhov’s first play Platonov. I directed it at Sydney Theatre Company last August and it features Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh. We’re transferring it to Broadway later in the year. Meanwhile I’m at the early stage of development on a bunch of things, some TV and some feature films but I can’t say what just yet!
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