I’M NOT THERE, the latest effort from writer-director TODD HAYNES, attempts to get inside the music and mystery of Bob Dylan by casting six different actors as reflections of the singer at various stages of his career. ALASDAIR DUNCAN recently caught up with Haynes to talk about the making of the project, and what the future might hold.

Just over two years ago, things were looking good for Todd Haynes. He’d completed a script for I’m Not There – a sprawling and ambitious examination of the music and mythology of Bob Dylan – and convinced some serious Hollywood stars – Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger and Christian Bale amongst them – to portray the man as a young poet, a religious evangelist, a media tart, and more. He’d taken the script to Cannes, and managed to build up significant buzz, as well as some healthy pre-sales. It was when he came back to America, in search of someone brave enough to fund the project, though, that everything screeched to a halt.

“That’s when the real roll-up-your sleeves and think-outside-the-box mentality took hold in terms of the financial strategies,” Haynes tells me. “It was scary. I mean, we did eventually get private equity participation that enabled us to shoot the film independently in Montreal, but we had to pull it off with quite a bit less than what was optimum. It was scary – I mean, all films are, but while this one came with its own special terror, it also came with extraordinary creative support from the actors, from the creative department, and ultimately, from the militant fight that the producers behind the film conducted on its behalf.”   

In a large part, it was also Todd Haynes’ fervent love of Bob Dylan that helped push the project to completion. “It was the mid to late ‘70s in LA – I was in high school and my love of Dylan helped me to establish a sense of creative independence.” When it came to making a movie about his hero, he knew that the standard narrative approach wouldn’t cut it. “The original idea really came in one bold swoop,” he says, “which was an overall concept. The multiple character idea was a way of really getting inside the questions of who Dylan is and what his music means.”

When I ask him about the many differences between I’m Not There and his previous directorial effort, the sober, Julianne Moore drama Far From Heaven, Haynes tells me that he makes two distinct types of film, with different instincts and strategies informing each. “The films that are more about musical and popular culture and the potential for surprise and radical expression that comes from those things have been characterised by that more open, less traditional narrative structure,” he tells me. “On the other hand, the films that are more about single subjects – which often take place in domestic settings, and often deal with female characters, and are maybe less optimistic – are characterised by that much more rigid narrative structure, and they feel more boxed-in and more oppressive because they follow the narrative so rigorously.” 

 Haynes, it seems, has a particular talent for casting intriguing women in his movies. Cate Blanchett, as a cocky young fame-whoring Dylan in I’m Not There, gives the performance of a career, and in the past, Toni Collette and Julianne Moore have shone in Hayes’ movies. When I ask if he sees any quality that all these actresses share, he is unsure. “My experience of it is completely project-specific and character-specific, so I really haven’t stepped back and looked for commonalities amongst these women that I’ve worked with, except that they’re all brilliant and they’ve all been really extraordinary creative partners.” Is there anyone he’d particularly like to case in a future project? He pauses for a second. “Any great actress makes me feel that way. Meryl Streep is an obvious choice…”

In a more specific sense, I am curious to know about Haynes’ plans for the future. In an era where television has increasingly begun to challenge cinema as a mode of artistic expression, I ask Haynes if he would ever consider taking on a TV project. “I haven’t given it too much serious thought, but it seems like, in the world of film, it’s becoming harder and harder for independent voices to get funding, whereas in the world of cable and television, there seem to be more opportunities, and more places for different kinds of expression. I’m an admirer of great television – all the shows from The Sopranos to Mad Men. I also love the very specific relationship television has with our domestic and personal lives, especially as film becomes a more rarefied alternative. For all those reasons, it intrigues me… I haven’t gone beyond that, but it’s not something that I would rule out.”

I’M NOT THERE opens Boxing Day.

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