The Daily Mirror John Williams article (aka the "John Williams has never seen Star Wars!" thread)

[Not Mr. Big 2536]

Not sure where else to post this.  Strange interview. 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/star-wars-composer-made-very-9497097

[crumbs 6732]

This must be an old interview rebadged. He's quoted as saying he's finished on Star Wars and already looking at Spielberg's next film?

[Stefancos 10193]

It doesn't even sound like Williams.

[Not Mr. Big 2536]

It really doesn't.  Did they interview a John Williams twitter parody account or something? 

 

 

On 12/22/2016 at 1:38 AM, crumbs said:

This must be an old interview rebadged. He's quoted as saying he's finished on Star Wars and already looking at Spielberg's next film?

 

That's what I thought.  In-between TFA and The BFG?  Or perhaps AOTC and MR... 

[artguy360 907]

This interview is hilarious! It's all things we've heard JW say before but presented with so little context or tone that it makes him sound like the post negative, depressed composer in the world. 

[crumbs 6732]

It says he was 83 too, he's 84 now.

 

And yes, very weird interview. We all know he's modest but there's so little context in this interview that he comes across as resentful and bitter about his own work.

 

The part about how lonely a life it is was very odd.

[Not Mr. Big 2536]

On 12/22/2016 at 1:42 AM, artguy360 said:

This interview is hilarious! It's all things we've heard JW say before but presented with so little context or tone that it makes him sound like the most negative, depressed composer in the world. 

 

Maybe he is... 

[artguy360 907]

Lol, the whole interview sounds like he's lamenting. "its too hard, working alone all day, holding this pencil, my fingers ache, I never get it right..."

[Stefancos 10193]

There's no such thing as too hard! Ladies...

[KK 2362]

Lol

 

That does not sound like Williams, neither in spirit nor diction. Does Williams use the word "weird"?

 

Must be some kind of joke.

[artguy360 907]

The interview starts out not sounding like JW at all but by the second half its very clearly his voice. The whole interview is just really poorly presented and the writer does little to communicate JW's tone or expressiveness. Literally its all stuff we've heard JW say before but it sounds totally different.

 

[KK 2362]

Well content-wise, maybe. He's always been humbe, but never a whiner and I've never seen him downplay his achievements as much as this article seems to dictate. Maybe he was misquoted, or this is really poor paraphrasing.

[artguy360 907]

That's what makes the interview hilarious. It's a peak into the dark side of JW.

[MikeH 556]

That interview is word for word his interview with Tavis Smiley from last December. 

 

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/composerconductor-john-williams/

[crumbs 6732]

Didn't he mention TFA was the first SW film he'd seen once completed? Because he went to the premiere?

[BloodBoal 7509]

Quote

Oscar winner composer John Williams has also written scores for The Imperial March, Rebel Fanfare and Overture

 

I had never heard of these movies before. Has anyone seen them? Are they any good?

[crumbs 6732]

It reads a lot like one of those computer generated articles you hear about (basically an automated article that copies quotes from the internet based on keywords and auto-generates news articles).

[BloodBoal 7509]

I have no idea what you mean...

 

Quote

Williams revealed: "When George (Lucas) asked me to write the music for Harry Potter, I told him: "You need a better two-note theme than me for this film!" and he replied: "I know, but they're all on Schindler's List".

 

[Quintus 4473]

1 hour ago, MikeH said:

That interview is word for word his interview with Tavis Smiley from last December. 

 

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/composerconductor-john-williams/

 

Turns out people here don't know the Maestro like they think they do. 

[mrbellamy 3993]

Lmfao that's a terrible article. It is all his words but recontextualizes everything he said in that interview, most egregiously the line "I don't know. A lot of them are not very memorable and so on. It's probably the most popular music I've done." The first part was actually an aside about the 100 or so films/scores he'd done in his entire career, and then he went back to SW's popularity (about 21 minutes into the interview). They just clipped that quote and it made it look like he's dismissive of his Star Wars themes and bitter about their popularity 

 

Williams should sue for libel!

[Alex 1468]

It's the Daily Mirror, a notorious rag of a newspaper

[Muad'Dib 1200]

It's clear now. They interviewed William Ross.

[Blumenkohl 969]

6 hours ago, artguy360 said:

This interview is hilarious! It's all things we've heard JW say before but presented with so little context or tone that it makes him sound like the post negative, depressed composer in the world. 

 

"Williams then stood up on the conference table, ran towards the far end window and jumped."

[Will 1721]

I saw a tabloid article called "John Williams Has Never Seen Star Wars" recommended on my phone (which actually linked to the "original" Mirror article) and I came over here to figure out what the hell happened. I figured there was no way JW would give an interview to a tabloid!  

 

Anyway, I laughed out loud at almost every sentence in that article. Williams sounds like some of the kids at my high school during first period, who complain about how tired they are, complain about everything we do in class, etc. (Not that I have never done those things!) 

 

And it's hilarious that it's apparently from the ultra positive Smiley interview. Bad sourcing by the Mirror to not even mention where they got the quotes, too. 

 

This is just another example, I suppose, of what my dad always says, "Whenever I know anything about the topic, I can always tell they get it wrong." (Or something like that) (although this is a tabloid, not the New York Times, so you expect that sort of thing)

[Quintus 4473]

13 hours ago, alextrombone94 said:

It's the Daily Mirror, a notorious rag of a newspaper

 

Lol it is, and Conrad Pope just shared the very article on Facebook. 

[KK 2362]

Yeah, it's hilarious. The JW fans on Facebook are freaking out.

[crumbs 6732]

1 minute ago, Quintus said:

 

Lol it is, and Conrad Pope just shared the very article on Facebook. 

 

Like, as a joke? Because it sounds so ludicrous?

[KK 2362]

No, as a display of his "modesty" I believe.

[leeallen01 1524]

But I thought Williams violently masturbated daily whilst listening to the Imperial March?

 

The dream is crushed!!

[Blumenkohl 969]

14 hours ago, Quintus said:

Lol it is, and Conrad Pope just shared the very article on Facebook. 

 

I imagine like most people his age, his Facebook broadcast is filled with cute list shares from sources no reputable human would go to.  

[crumbs 6732]

We should invent an article with fake Williams quotes, telling Disney to leak the Episode VIII scoring sessions. That might work!

[Biodome 218]

So this interview by John Williams caught my attention: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/star-wars-composer-made-very-9497097

Similar versions are circulating in other news websites.

 

Now, I know that John Williams is really careful when talking about his work, and is extremely humble, but the way he answered the questions in the article seems to contradict some of his earlier interviews, and parts of it sound strange. For instance, there isn't even any single discussion or questions on Episode VIII, which he had just started working on. This makes me wonder whether this is actually a real interview by John Williams, or a fake one? Has anyone got any ideas?

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 5141]

Something definitely seems amiss here. Like a modern version of that foreign magazine interview where he was appalled at the editing of his score for The Phantom Menace.

 

Perhaps he was having a bad day.

 

Or perhaps...

 

 

[Jay 13592]

The Daily Mirror took quotes from JW from the recent Tavis Smiley PBS interview and crafted their own made up story. We discussed it already here:

 

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/26905-john-williams-begins-recording-star-wars-episode-viii-score-today-in-los-angeles/&do=findComment&comment=1305566

[mrbellamy 3993]

Too bad this thing is actually circulating.

[KK 2362]

Yea, and people are definitely buying it.

[MikeH 556]

Here's some money John, go see a Star War. 

[Amer 934]

Yes, definitely a fan made write up and some one even got paid for it!. 

[Naïve Old Fart 3688]

For fuck's sake, its the Mirror!!!!!!!!!!! 

[Disco Stu 9373]

I'm not a psychologist but I have diagnosed Williams with a mental condition that I'm sure he's suffering from: Pathological Humility.

[Incanus 5078]

1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

I'm not a psychologist but I have diagnosed Williams with a mental condition that I'm sure he's suffering from: Pathological Humility.

It's awful to see your greatest idol suffering from such a difficult ailment. Truly.

[Jay 13592]

Everytime I go to Facebook now, I see a different site discussing this Mirror article, like this one

 

http://comicbook.com/starwars/2016/12/23/john-williams-admits-hes-never-watched-a-star-wars-movie-in-its-/

[mrbellamy 3993]

Lol same. This is getting annoying. 

 

I made a comment there and a couple other places. Hopefully they'll correct it.

[Hedji 149]

According to Movieweb.com John Williams has never watched a completed Star Wars film.

 

Quote

"I let it go. I have not looked at the 'Star Wars' films, and that's absolutely true. When I'm finished with a film, I've been living with it, we've been dubbing it, recording to it, and so on. You walk out of the studio and, 'Ah, it's finished.' I'm not particularly proud of that, I have to say, but it's also part of the fact that I finished 'Star Wars' now and I'm already working on Spielberg's new film and I don't want to listen to music or see films."

 

Think that's a real quote, or baloney?

[Thor 2686]

There are several threads on this already. It's baloney -- emanating from a poor Daily Mirror transcription of the Davis interview last year.

[BloodBoal 7509]

This thread should really be pinned, and its title put in capital letters, else we'll keep on seeing people creating a new thread to talk about that article!

[Naïve Old Fart 3688]

20 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

I'm not a psychologist but I have diagnosed Williams with a mental condition that I'm sure he's suffering from: Pathological Humility.

 

No, you're not a psychologist, are you. 

Psychologists do not diagnose mental disorders ("mental condition"?!),  that is done by psychiatrists. 

[Quintus 4473]

11 hours ago, Thor said:

There are several threads on this already. It's baloney -- emanating from a poor Daily Mirror transcription of the Davis interview last year.

 

It's gone global, they're even debating it on the Matthew Wright Show on Channel 5 this morning. I'm certain Williams will be mentioned in the Queen's new year's honours list after this. 

[Mr. Breathmask 444]

Time to debunk this thing on the Main Page!

@Ricard?

[BloodBoal 7509]

John Williams should do a public declaration on Fox News!