Hans Zimmer Talks Interstellar and Helping Christopher Nolan Find the Heart

During an interview with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe, the iconic composer Hans Zimmer discussed many aspects of his decades-spanning career, from his connection to Frank Herbert’s Dune to the backstory behind his involvement in Christopher Nolan‘s 2014 film Interstellar and why he believes that technology and music are inextricably linked.

His connection with film directors on their project’s text proved to be essential to his involvement in the 2014 Christopher Nolan science fiction epic Interstellar. In fact, his involvement seems to actually have been integral to the film’s creation. In his interview with Lowe, Zimmer details the interaction with Nolan that kicked off Nolan’s work on the film.

“Do you know how we started that?” Zimmer says, referring to Interstellar. He goes on, detailing one evening spent talking to Nolan during a party when Nolan initially brought up his rough idea for the project, telling Zimmer ‘”I have this idea. If I were to send you a letter with a story … it’s about a movie, but I’m not going to tell you what the movie’s about, nor will the story in the letter tell you what the movie is about … will you give me one day and write whatever comes to you?'”

RELATED: Hans Zimmer’s 9 Greatest Scores (Bwaaaaaam)

Zimmer agreed to the challenge and later received a note from Nolan himself which was intended to guide Zimmer’s work. Of the note Zimmer reflected, “it was very personal, and the story itself was about a father and a son and the relationship, or what it means to be a parent. I mean, there’s a line in it that once your child is born, you never look at yourself through your own eyes. You always look at yourself through your child’s eyes.” And for Zimmer, that concept pushed him to consider his own relationship with his own son, which helped him to compose what he called “a fragile, tiny little piece.”

He then contacted Nolan to come and listen to his work. He recalls playing the piece for Nolan and receiving immediate praise, with Nolan insisting that he “better make the movie” in response. However, after Nolan fully explained the lofty, intense sci-fi epic of a plot, Zimmer became skeptical of his own work. “Stop, stop. Hang on,” he recalls saying. “You’re talking about this thing of epic proportions, and I’ve given you this tiny, tiny little fragile thing.”

However, this tiny thing proved to be more than enough for Nolan, who understood that Zimmer had guided Nolan to the heart of the film that he had yet to make. “Now I know where the heart of the story is,” Nolan said, pointing to an essential truth of Zimmer’s work, that music should and must bring the heart of the film to the surface.

To see more of Lowe’s interview with Hans Zimmer, you can watch the whole interview here.

‘Dune’s Insane Making-Of Book Is So Big It Has Its Own New Score From Hans Zimmer

The absolute mad man!

Read Next

About The Author