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| Maker of Russell Brand film: 'He wants what we all want – for our lives to matter' | Maker of Russell Brand film: 'He wants what we all want – for our lives to matter' |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| Ondi Timoner, the acclaimed film-maker behind the revealing new Russell Brand documentary, has spoken of the fraught interaction that led to the comedian severing all ties with the project. | |
| Brand: A Second Coming, which is released in the UK on Friday, follows the meteoric rise of Brand as he moves from the realm of comedy and Hollywood fame to disaffection and his attempt to bring about major social change and political revolution. | Brand: A Second Coming, which is released in the UK on Friday, follows the meteoric rise of Brand as he moves from the realm of comedy and Hollywood fame to disaffection and his attempt to bring about major social change and political revolution. |
| However, despite bringing Timoner on to the film project in the first place, once the final cut was put together, Brand described it as “intrusive, melancholy … painful and sad” and has since refused to be associated with the film at all – even encouraging those interviewed in the documentary to boycott the London premiere. | However, despite bringing Timoner on to the film project in the first place, once the final cut was put together, Brand described it as “intrusive, melancholy … painful and sad” and has since refused to be associated with the film at all – even encouraging those interviewed in the documentary to boycott the London premiere. |
| “He asked me and wooed me into making this film but then didn’t like being documented,” said Timoner. “He knew he needed to finish this film somehow, he needed to let go, so he gave over creative control to me but when it came down to it, he couldn’t deal with it. So when he finally did let go, that meant letting go of the whole project and never speaking about it again.” | “He asked me and wooed me into making this film but then didn’t like being documented,” said Timoner. “He knew he needed to finish this film somehow, he needed to let go, so he gave over creative control to me but when it came down to it, he couldn’t deal with it. So when he finally did let go, that meant letting go of the whole project and never speaking about it again.” |
| The film, which was cut from thousands of hours of footage following Brand over two and a half years, was described by Timoner as a “complex film about a very complicated individual”, but she was adamant she had never wanted this to be the “Russell Brand disaster movie”, as it has been glibly referred to. Brand, says Timoner, is “a visionary, but an impossible visionary”. | |
| Brand had been attempting to make a film about how to find happiness and invited Timoner to join the project. Despite knowing very little about the comedian, she agreed but only on the condition that Brand’s own struggles with fame could be the focus of the film. | Brand had been attempting to make a film about how to find happiness and invited Timoner to join the project. Despite knowing very little about the comedian, she agreed but only on the condition that Brand’s own struggles with fame could be the focus of the film. |
| During her time following Brand as he toured with his comedy show Messiah Complex, Timoner captured the comedian at his lowest ebbs, including locking himself in a bathroom in a state of anxiety moments before going on an American talkshow, and struggling with the emptiness of fame as his marriage to the popstar Katy Perry broke down. | |
| Having built a career on following egotistical, brilliant and troubled men as subjects for her documentaries – from Anton Newcombe of Brian Jonestown Massacre in her award-winning documentary Dig!, or dotcom millionaire Josh Harris in We Live In Public – Timoner said she chose them as subjects because she was interested in both the drive and the flaws that made geniuses human. | |
| “My fascination is with impossible visionaries because they take on impossible challenges,” said Timoner. “Russell said to me once: ‘Insanity is listening to the voices in one’s head over the voices outside – and I’ve always liked that I tune into my own frequency.’ I don’t believe that Russell Brand is insane but he does think that he always knows best, and that might be his achilles heel.” | |
| She added: “What he wants is what we all want – for our lives to matter, that we’re not forgotten, and he is desperate for that to be the case. He wants immortality like he sees in Gandhi and Malcolm X.” | She added: “What he wants is what we all want – for our lives to matter, that we’re not forgotten, and he is desperate for that to be the case. He wants immortality like he sees in Gandhi and Malcolm X.” |
| Indeed, during one particularly revealing moment in the film, Timoner’s voice is heard from behind the camera. “I think you think you’re better than almost everybody,” says Timoner, addressing her subject. “And I do think in a lot of ways, you’re more intelligent than most people.” | Indeed, during one particularly revealing moment in the film, Timoner’s voice is heard from behind the camera. “I think you think you’re better than almost everybody,” says Timoner, addressing her subject. “And I do think in a lot of ways, you’re more intelligent than most people.” |
| It is not an accusation from the film-maker, but is simply an observation acknowledged by Brand himself. “On some days I think all sorts of crazy, narcissistic things about myself but that’s not the person I’m interested in building,” says Brand in response. | |
| Once she had finished filming in November 2014 Timoner put together a first cut of the film that she sent to Brand. She says it was then that he became troubled by the personal nature of the film and asked her to remove vast swaths of material, some of which she agreed to but some of which she felt was important to keep in. | |
| “Russell just didn’t want anything included which would show him as vulnerable,” she said. “I still have a lot of respect for Russell Brand. He wrote to me and apologised to me for any pain that he is causing me by refusing to be associated with the film. The first thing he told me was that he thought it was an incredible film but ‘unfortunately it is about me’. There are certain scenes in this film that he never wanted seen but if I had let him make all the changes he wanted, there would be no movie.” | “Russell just didn’t want anything included which would show him as vulnerable,” she said. “I still have a lot of respect for Russell Brand. He wrote to me and apologised to me for any pain that he is causing me by refusing to be associated with the film. The first thing he told me was that he thought it was an incredible film but ‘unfortunately it is about me’. There are certain scenes in this film that he never wanted seen but if I had let him make all the changes he wanted, there would be no movie.” |
| Among the footage that Timoner agreed to remove from the documentary was a montage of footage with Brand and Perry in India before they were married, playing with monkeys and laughing together. “It was really sweet footage and I told him that this was how I can show that you loved her, this is all I have to show the depths of your relationship,” said Timoner. “But he said: ‘I know that I loved her. I don’t need to show that I loved her.’ And I had to respect the pain that is associated with the film, the pain of the breakdown of a marriage, so I took it out.” | Among the footage that Timoner agreed to remove from the documentary was a montage of footage with Brand and Perry in India before they were married, playing with monkeys and laughing together. “It was really sweet footage and I told him that this was how I can show that you loved her, this is all I have to show the depths of your relationship,” said Timoner. “But he said: ‘I know that I loved her. I don’t need to show that I loved her.’ And I had to respect the pain that is associated with the film, the pain of the breakdown of a marriage, so I took it out.” |
| Timoner claims that Brand also refused to let her interview Perry, and his former girlfriend Jemima Khan, for the documentary, even though she says they were both willing to do it. However, she did not go along with all of Brand’s instructed changes, and the documentary features archive footage of the comedian, high on drugs, climbing on top of a police van and stripping naked – though Timoner respected his request that the shot of his penis be taken out. She also kept in footage of a comedy show Brand did in Edinburgh in 2001, at the height of his addiction, where he starts cutting himself with glass and screaming at the audience, footage Brand said he wanted “burned”. | Timoner claims that Brand also refused to let her interview Perry, and his former girlfriend Jemima Khan, for the documentary, even though she says they were both willing to do it. However, she did not go along with all of Brand’s instructed changes, and the documentary features archive footage of the comedian, high on drugs, climbing on top of a police van and stripping naked – though Timoner respected his request that the shot of his penis be taken out. She also kept in footage of a comedy show Brand did in Edinburgh in 2001, at the height of his addiction, where he starts cutting himself with glass and screaming at the audience, footage Brand said he wanted “burned”. |
| Throughout the project, Timoner said Brand struggled with the concept of being filmed, often hiding from her or sending her out of the car or away from situations as he suddenly appeared fearful. Yet, he would then always call her back, keen for a certain moment or conversation to be captured – and referred to Timoner as his “ginger ninja shadow”. | Throughout the project, Timoner said Brand struggled with the concept of being filmed, often hiding from her or sending her out of the car or away from situations as he suddenly appeared fearful. Yet, he would then always call her back, keen for a certain moment or conversation to be captured – and referred to Timoner as his “ginger ninja shadow”. |
| While Timoner said she bore no malice against Brand for cutting himself off from the project, she said she was angry at him for preventing those involved in the film, Brand’s mother and various friends, from attending the London premiere. | While Timoner said she bore no malice against Brand for cutting himself off from the project, she said she was angry at him for preventing those involved in the film, Brand’s mother and various friends, from attending the London premiere. |
| “I know his mother would have loved it,” she said. “And I felt like him getting her and others to not come to the London premiere was simply selfish, I felt it was bratty and the first thing I felt was actively vengeful on me a little bit, rather than him just protecting himself.” | “I know his mother would have loved it,” she said. “And I felt like him getting her and others to not come to the London premiere was simply selfish, I felt it was bratty and the first thing I felt was actively vengeful on me a little bit, rather than him just protecting himself.” |
| Asked whether she does believe that Russell Brand can change the world, Timoner is understandably wary in her answer – she hopes he will eventually make peace with the honesty of her film and has no intention of alienating him any further from the documentary. | Asked whether she does believe that Russell Brand can change the world, Timoner is understandably wary in her answer – she hopes he will eventually make peace with the honesty of her film and has no intention of alienating him any further from the documentary. |
| “Russell doesn’t believe artists or social commentary can change the world, so he’s going to have to come back as a politician, and get involved in this system that he railed against, if he wants to really change things.” Timoner pauses. “He might be able to do that – I would never underestimate Russell Brand.” | “Russell doesn’t believe artists or social commentary can change the world, so he’s going to have to come back as a politician, and get involved in this system that he railed against, if he wants to really change things.” Timoner pauses. “He might be able to do that – I would never underestimate Russell Brand.” |
| We approached Brand’s spokespeople for a comment but received no reply. | We approached Brand’s spokespeople for a comment but received no reply. |
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