Christopher Nolan has admitted that he doesn’t have a normal smartphone and prefers to use a burner cell.
Nolan, 53, dropped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, where the titular host grilled the idiosyncratic Oppenheimer director about a variety of his notorious quirks.
‘There’s a mystique that’s been built around you over many years and your process,’ Colbert prefaced the line of questioning.
Among the factors playing into said ‘mystique’ is that the British director has avoided adapting commonplace technology, using neither email nor smartphones.
‘I don’t have an email address – I never use email,’ Nolan confirmed.
‘I don’t have a smartphone. I will carry a pay-as-you-go like dumb-phone thing when I need to,’ he continued.
‘So you have a burner phone?’ the host shot back.
‘Yes, I suppose you could put it that way,’ Nolan agreed.
‘Do you work with the cartels?’ Colbert quipped.
‘I was inspired by The Wire, definitely,’ the director admitted.
‘And when you’re done you break it up and put it in two trash cans?’ the TV host pressed.
‘Jason Bourne-style,’ the director jokingly affirmed.
Colbert also asked the Memento director if it was true he insisted on being present alongside actors as they read his scripts for the first time.
‘You’ll either fly to an actor or have them come to you, or you’ll stay on-site as they read the script the first time?’ Colbert questioned the Tenet filmmaker.
‘Yes,’ Nolan confirmed as he further explained that the strategy was ‘to keep the script private, to not email scripts around. It’s mostly for that.’
‘And also to really try and get that immediate reaction and look in the eyes of the person who has read it and see, “Do they see the way I see it? And can we find common ground creatively here?”‘
The director admitted that, while the scenario may create ‘a little pressure’ for his prospective cast members, ‘people can rely on my ability to listen to them say, “I love it, it’s great, I want to do it,” and realize that no, they don’t. And that’s fine!’
Nolan also confirmed that he printed scripts in red and black ink so they couldn’t be photocopied.
Another rumored eccentricity about the director’s preferences that Colbert brought up: ‘You don’t allow cell phones or Uggs on set?’
‘Ah, the Uggs controversy,’ Nolan sighed.
‘I don’t allow cell phones on set – I try to minimalize distractions on set.’
‘Uggs are distracting?’ Colbert prodded.
‘They can be for the other actors, yes. Because, even though we are engaged in this absurd process where this wall is real, but there’s lights and there’s a guy with a microphone or whatever, you’re asking the actor to focus in on the reality,’ the director elaborated.
‘And so, everything you can do – like wearing the correct shoes, you know whatever, and not changing your trousers… so anything we can do to keep that reality, to keep that bubble intact,’ Nolan continued.
He further elucidated of the on-set rules: ‘It’s for the cast and it’s for me. You know, I’m in there with them, trying to concentrate, trying to see the reality of it.’
Nolan’s latest blockbuster, drama-thriller Oppenheimer about the invention of the atomic bomb, is a hot contender at this year’s Oscars, nominated in 13 categories including Best Picture, Best Director and Cillian Murphy for Best Actor.
Accepting the award for best director at the Golden Globes last month, Nolan broke down as he brought up the memory of the late Heath Ledger, who gave a legendary performance as The Joker in Nolan’s first major blockbuster, 2005’s Batman Begins as well the critically acclaimed sequel, 2008’s The Dark Knight.
Addressing the audience from the podium, Nolan noted that he’d only ever given a speech at the Globes on behalf of Ledger.
Ledger died at age 28 from a drug overdose just months prior to the second film’s release. He won a posthumous award for Best Supporting Actor at the 2009 Oscars for the role.
