Ezra Edelman
Appearances
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
Yeah, it's a little sad. It's a little sad.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
This is a real film. It's called The Book of Prince. It's nine hours long. It's a product of a lot of people's hard work and blood, sweat, and tears. Caroline Waterlow, Tamara Rosenberg, Nina Kristic, Brett Granato.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
I have no interest in putting on a film that is factually inaccurate. Like, oh, so the estate gets their opinion about the film put out for the world to see after they're getting their way, which is the film getting killed, and the film gets slandered in the process. And, like, that's not okay.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
The film will do generational harm to Prince. What does that mean?
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
I do believe the irony is this film would be great for Prince. And I think it would serve the estate and its bottom line tremendously.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
You know, what do you see when you visit Paisley Park? Oh, this is where a guy lived. But what you see is now a museum that's full of rooms that are named after albums. There are rooms that are full of his shoes. There are rooms that are full of his outfits. But there's really no mention of sex. There's really no mention of religion. There's a glossy...
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
thing that's being promoted for monetary gain this image that we continually need to traffic in of this person who wore glitzy outfits and glitzy shoes and made all this work all which is true but like it's so much deeper his struggles between good and evil and himself this struggle that you see in the music and the art and then how it played out in his life is
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
It's like, how can you not want to tell that story?
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
There's almost invariably, whatever people's responses are through the trajectory of this life and this story, they all come away being like, oh my God, I love this guy. I want to listen to more of his music. This is why I believe this is short-sighted.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
I believe that people can handle the truth and an honest portrayal of a brilliant artist and at times a flawed human.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
Exposed to the same level of scrutiny? for who they are and certainly on par with their white counterparts whose talent and accomplishments they match and or outdo. But at the same time, I reject the argument, first and foremost, because A, If I were making a film about David Bowie, I would set out to do the same exact thing that I did with Prince. Who was this person?
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
Why did he change characters? What was going on in his life at all those times? And was I sensitive, by the way, as a black man taking on a black subject, knowing that people might think, oh my God, why are you tearing this person down? But also, why is warts and all such a terrible concept? Why is it not okay to know about a human? Especially, again, we get to have it both ways.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
You just want to love his art but have him remain unexamined. But if we examine him and you maybe are going to appreciate that art that you love so much even more, You might appreciate the struggle. By the way, this guy got kicked out of his house when he was a teenager. He lived in the basement of his best friend. He created himself out of whole cloth.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
His will, his drive as a person, as an artist, the struggle he went through, that a guy, yeah, he happened to also be a genius, is unparalleled. That's also what the movie's about. Why can't we hold two truths together? It's not that hard. These things go together. His genius, by the way, would not have wrought Prince, would not have created Prince. Genius alone. No. Genius plus drive plus trauma.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
Those are the things that created Prince. Why is that a hard thing? Why can't we handle that? Why can't the world handle that? I don't understand it.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
You know, we are only as strong as our own shoulders, after all. And, like, it's like, am I built for it? I might be built for it as a person, but am I actually any more built for it? And so, trust me, it's not like this is a loss of innocence. I thought the world was great and people do the right things for the right reasons. But when it happens to you in this way, you're like, huh, okay.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
It does change you a little bit. It does sort of harden you.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
I think the film exists, I mean, I assume it exists at Netflix somewhere. I mean, this is the thing. Now it is, like, I would go back and change the last shot of the film to, you know, there's a motif in the film of, you know, Prince made a few documentaries or shot a bunch of stuff.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
And so each time though, he decided based on where he's at in life that they weren't going to actually ever be seen. So they went back in the vault. The point is everything goes back in the vault. You try to make a film, it goes back in the vault. So I would now, if I could change the film, the last shot would be this whole thing going back in the vault. And the vault door would close.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
You're welcome. I always enjoy talking to you, Sasha.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
Thanks for having me. I'm, I think, happy to be here.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
Again, you know my issues with this. It's like, I don't want to make this shit about me.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
You know, from the time I graduated from school where I, you know, wrote for a school paper, I always was interested in media and sports.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
I'm self-taught. I just like watch things. And so in some ways I have the brain of someone who's trained on watching narrative films.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
I do believe there's a way of informing, really informing, talking about things and having people learn, but do it in a way that also entertains them. And I kind of took that as my mandate.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
It's Prince. There was a vault of material. He is a mysterious figure whose story had never been told. And so for me, it really was trying to help fans and non-fans alike understand who this person is. And at the same time, in that understanding, help them understand his art more.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
You know, like, look, somebody who was around him for decades and met with us before we started filming basically was like, good luck.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
People, you know, people who are around him were not at liberty necessarily to talk freely and publicly, whether they wanted to or not.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
Even in death, people were reluctant because I think it's a natural inclination of some people whose names are made, were made because of their connection to him. So do I want to sully that through talking honestly?
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
And in fact, after many, many years of really persuasion and building trust... At the same time, people had a lot to say once they sat down because they had not really talked openly about him.
The Daily
The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
You start to investigate who the person was and you realize there are these chapters in his life.