Nick Cave is a man of many talents. As leader of the Bad Seeds, his songs have accompanied a thousand weddings, breakdowns (and key Peaky Blinders scenes), and in recent years has built up an impressive library of film scores, too. But his literary achievements are just as impressive, authoring several cult-classic books.
Now one is getting the live action treatment — 2009's The Death of Bunny Munro - which was met with some serious critical praise from The Guardian to The Times. More than a decade later, it’s hitting our screens, with Matt Smith taking on the enigmatic and fractured role of Bunny, adapted by Pete Jackson and peppered with Nick Cave creativity.
As part of the opening night of London’s Literature Festival, we headed down to The Royal Festival Hall on Southbank to hear Nick and Matt chatting about the making of the series, fleshing out characters for the screen, and complementing one another on their talents.
1. It’s not the first time they’ve tried to get it made, but it didn’t work until Matt was onboard
Like all creative zingers, there was a lot of interest in adapting Nick Cave’s debut novel over the years, but, in the words of Cave, “no one was mad enough to play the main character”. The whole series hinges on the intoxicatingly flawed Bunny, charismatic and disastrous, a smooth-talking, womanising salesman who is also struggling with alcohol addiction and raising his son, following the death of his wife.
For Smith, it was the role of a lifetime; “[Bunny] is a polarising person, but I loved him. Parts like this don’t come around that often,” Smith revealed.
2. Nick Cave was an exec producer… and he found it pleasingly low maintenance
It feels like there’s barely a movie that comes out without one of the main attached stars having an executive producer credit. And yet despite its ubiquity, no one really knows what they do, exactly. Turns out, Nick Cave was no different - and even after having fulfilled his EP role, he’s not exactly the wiser.
“I was an exec producer, but all I got was a load of emails,” Cave admitted. “And all I sent back was a note saying: awesome.” Which is exactly what you want in a senior manager. “I just f*cked off and let you guys get on with it,” Cave laughed to Matt. “And that's a great manager,” Matt chuckled.
3. The original book was written pretty much exclusively on the back of the tour bus
The show's dialogue is true to the book, with the language being unfiltered, raw, and darkly funny; it turns out that the inspiration behind it wasn’t so much pure imagination but overheard conversations.
“I wrote the novel on the back of a tour bus with the band,” Nick explained: “That’s where a lot of the dialogue came from.” A lot of the language in the books was directly written from conversations happening around him back in the noughties, whilst he was on the road. Suddenly, the series’ poignant authenticity makes a lot more sense.
4. For them, it's British TV over American
“There’s a realness to British TV,” Cave revealed. The Death of Bunny Munro, both in book form and in the new TV series, is set against the fading backdrop of Brighton and Hove, and for the duo, it couldn’t have been anywhere else.
Having been a Brighton local for many years, Cave said he just couldn’t imagine having Bunny existing anywhere else, and when it came to filming, there’s nowhere else like it. Succinctly, he just summed it up, saying that: “There are a lot of depressing seaside towns in this beautiful country.”
5. Nick Cave’s next writing project is a new record
The one thing Nick Cave and the Shortlist team unarguably have in common? We’re all always writing. Whether it’s books, diaries, or songs, the artist's inspiration and creative urge never dries up. The next thing he’s going to release? “A record,” Cave confirmed. “I’ve said it now,” he joked, “so now I have to do it.” Correct.
6. They had to have two versions of the script - and a swear jar
Nearly the entirety of the series follows Bunny’s relationship with his son, Bunny Jr., whilst they’re on a road trip around Brighton, meaning Smith was working with industry newcomer, nine-year-old Rafael Mathé.
Unsurprisingly, with a nine-year-old on set - and it being a misogynistic, alcohol and drug-fuelled set at that - they had to get creative to keep him shielded. “I got outboxed and outfoxed by a nine-year-old every day,” Matt laughed, reminiscing on working with Rafa.
“We almost had two different scripts,” Smith revealed, explaining how they worked around the more explicit scenes. “Then we would do two different takes - one clean, and with all the swearing. But I kept forgetting, and swore anyway!”
With a swear jar on set, it must have cost him a fortune.
7. They think people are too hard on Bunny
It’s no secret that people love a flawed character: serial killers in true crime, your ex, literally everyone in The White Lotus. Like Nick Cave, the public also has a lot of love for broken people, even if it’s because it makes us feel morally better.
“It’s about a man in the tornado of grief, but it’s also about how a kid navigates that too,” Smith explained, diving deeper into the motivations and actions of his gloriously complicated character.
But despite the cocktail of grief and insecurities that plague Bunny, “people are - or were - harder on [him] than they were on Charles Manson,” Matt Smith pointed out, “It’s like, guys, they’re f*cking serial killers.” It is perhaps an interesting comment on humanity, — why do we lean harder on an admittedly scandalously irresponsible failing father over more clear cut criminals?
8. It's very autobiographical
There was quite a lot of speculation at the time about how much Nick Cave’s own experiences and challenges had inspired the role of Bunny, not only having raised (and lost) a son living in Brighton, but also battling with his own addictions, which he has spoken about.
During the conversation, though, he very casually revealed that the whole thing “is very autobiographical”, especially the parts which expose “learning the way a parent can hide the bad stuff they’re going through.” He went on to expand, saying how “the whole thing is on steroids” with its depictions. And whilst it draws influence from Cave’s own life, and centres around a father and son duo, he “hopes women can see that it’s a human thing, not just a man thing - about that struggle of trying to raise a child whilst still an addict.”
9. Screenwriter Pete Jackson also makes a cameo, and it’s fabulously camp
Pete Jackson sort of looks exactly how you’d imagine an English screenwriter to look - somewhat unassuming, casual, put together. We even had a good 10-minute yap with him one-on-one about the show, so you can imagine our absolute flabbergasted shock when it was revealed (by Smith) that Jackson actually plays the figure of the devil who runs around, dancing (again, surprisingly fluid and strictly-esque) in the series.
10. Matt Smith and Nick Cave could have a second act as a comedy duo
It almost felt staged, the way the two bounced off one another, with Matt Smith still simmering with a baseline fangirl-ism, and Nick Cave the most deadpan fan of Smith ever. This has never been better illustrated than when about 10 minutes into the chat, after watching the first two episodes (presumably not for the first time), Cave turned to Smith and just went: "You're good, man." Promptly followed up a few minutes with: "Matt Smith is a very sexy guy… he’s a living fire emoji”, to which Smith looked like a labrador at a barbecue when a plateful of sausages has been dropped. The compliments - and indeed the whole chat - were peppered with Smith just going: "I mean, it's bloody Nick Cave!" every couple of sentences, understandably.
And somehow the tangent of all tangents, the pair ended up talking about the 90s, and dreaming, which bore the now iconic moment from Cave, saying: “I don’t dream often but when I do, they’re always about Kylie Minogue in hot pants. There’s your pull quote.” He wasn't wrong.
The Death of Bunny Munro will launch on Thursday 20 November on Sky and streaming service NOW.
Skip the search — follow Shortlist on Google News to get our best lists, news, features and reviews at the top of your feeds!
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
