Nowhere Boy Director Sam Taylor-Wood on Lennon, Passion, and Aaron Johnson

One interesting omission from Nowhere Boy is that Lennon's strict Aunt Mimi has a romantic relationship with her lodger in real life. In the movie, you show the lodger, but you don't show the relationship. Is that something you had hoped to incorporate?

Yeah, that was something that was really revealed quite recently by Julia Baird, Lennon's half-sister. We did actually shoot much more of that relationship, but in essence, it felt like we were running off on a tangent, trying to expose her. Also, I thought that having it implied was as powerful as actually seeing it. If we'd seen it, I think it might have created this whole other personality for Mimi that would have undone what we'd set up.

I was really impressed with Aaron's performance near the end of the film when he records that Quarrymen song "In Spite of All the Danger" -- there's so much that washes over his face in just one long take. Did you have any trouble getting the rights to that song?

Oh God, yeah. Mildly naively, I went into it just assuming that they were going to give us the rights. I had no idea! I'd never dealt with that before -- when we made the short film, we used Buzzcocks records and they were there from day one, being supportive. Of course, I'm dealing with a much bigger machine [with Nowhere Boy]. I had to shoot that knowing that I might have to cut it, and it was his best scene, for me.

So you didn't have the rights before you shot it?

No! We didn't have the rights to "Mother," either, which was the closing song, until a month after we finished editing it.

Did you make a conscious decision to finish the film and use that product to seek the rights?

It just hadn't happened. I mean, to be honest, with "Mother," we had to have the rights from Yoko Ono and have her blessing. I could only hope I didn't offend her -- I made the film lovingly -- and I had hoped that she felt that too. And she did, and she took Sean to see it a second time. They made the decision and they had never given the rights before, they'd always held it back, so it was a big blessing for us. With "In Spite of All the Danger," it was the same, I had to get Paul McCartney's decision. It was a quiet seal of approval -- I didn't need them to all come out of the woodwork saying "Great film!" or anything. They gave us the rights, so they must like it.

I know that you'd originally intended to make your first film with Anthony Minghella. What happened there?

I had met him very briefly -- we were both on a jury for a film awards. I was really outspoken because I was an artist -- I wasn't from the film world -- so I didn't need to worry about who was in the running. [Laughs] Afterwards, he said, "Have you ever considered making a feature film?" and I said, "I've thought about it a little." He suggested we make a short film together, so he produced Love You More and I directed it. He wanted to make a feature film as that kind of team, and it was like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -- I had the golden ticket suddenly. He found this book he liked, and we went quite far, and then sadly he died. After that, I couldn't deal with the material, because it was already about grief. I just thought, "I can't."

Do you think it's something you might eventually come back to?

I don't think so. I think it's too emotionally unsettling, in a sense. I took it quite hard, as you would, and it's such a sad story that it would just remind me of it too much. I'd be an emotional wreck.

So do you know what your next project will be yet?

I've started reading, but again, there's very little out there that's interesting. I definitely don't want to make something that's factually based about someone who's so big.

I would imagine you took that as far as you could go already.

I wanted to be able to really run with the story [on Nowhere Boy], but I thought, "I can't! It'll just get killed for it." [Laughs] I want more freedom!

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