'We were so opposed': why Zadie Smith and Claire Denis fell out over High Life
The oft cited excuse of "creative differences" when projects fall apart in the entertainment industry appears to genuinely be the case in the fallout between French director Claire Denis and British novelist and essayist Zadie Smith on Denis’ latest film High Life, a science-fiction drama starring Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche and Mia Goth.
When Denis’ first English-language film was announced in 2015, Smith was originally set to help co-write the script with her husband Nick Laird, but at a press conference at the New York Film Festival, Denis explains that they clashed as soon as they began working together. “We were so opposed on every idea,” said Denis. “There was not a word we could share.”
The major sticking point between Denis and Smith was over a crucial plot point. Smith wanted the main characters, a group of criminals, to return to Earth. Denis was vehemently opposed to this direction; “nothing against her, but she wanted the people of the ship to — she wanted them to return to Earth. ‘Going home,’ she kept telling me. I said, ‘What the f___k do you mean, going home?’ There is no one alive there, you know?”
They even argued over the title of the film, which Smith wanted to be called A New Life. Eventually, Denis and Smith’s opposing perspectives led to the collapse of their collaboration although Laird stayed on as a script consultant.
Denis further stated at the conference “I really tried, honestly tried. But sometimes people, they have different perceptions of the world… [we] are on the same planet, but not living the same life, for sure.”