Some members of the Brotherhood of Steel witness the Vertibirds landing in one scene of the series.
Courtesy of Prime Video
GQ – Sei grew up in London in the 1980s, but you got to go to Florida to visit your grandmother every year before moving to Chicago. You stated that America seemed like “the future” at the time. Do you find that your origins have given you a different point of view?
Jonathan Nolan – The faith of the converted endures everything. I love the country with the stars and stripes and I think it is also thanks to my very particular point of view. It’s been interesting to realize how conventional wisdom about the United States has changed over the course of my life. Things were no longer the same after September 11th and changed again after Donald Trump took the field.
Also Fallout contains its fair share of nostalgia. Specifically it is about an America that has never experienced the Vietnam War or Watergate; there was a civil rights movement, but in very different forms. AND the crisis of conscience and trust that America experienced during the seventies did not concern the chronicle of this series.
When me and Todd Howard, director of Bethesda Softworks as well as executive producer of the saga of Fallout, we sat down in 2019, unfortunately we had no idea how important the gaming world would become. Today, we seem to live in a completely changed universe, in which the perception of Russia is completely different from that widespread during the period in which I had lunch with Todd. Right now, it seems as depressing as it is touching.
You just made a connection to Russia. What similarities are there between the nuclear specter of the Cold War and today’s fears, after the invasion of Ukraine?
I know my brother talked about it during the promotional tour for Oppenheimer. NWe have never been in nuclear danger like we are now. Regardless of how things turn out with Russia in the near future, it is very difficult to imagine a more stable nuclear deterrence. In reverse, it seems that all the balances are changingas demonstrated by the atomic threats heard during the very first days of the Russian invasion.
President Joe Biden also made this comparison.
Well, he’s been there, hasn’t he? Many think Biden is too old, but the life experience also serves as a reminder of how much everyone else seems to have removed. And that is that the stakes have never been higher.
Effectively the feeling that everything could end at any moment, typical of the 80s, is something alienating, especially if it enters into your growth in various ways. I hoped my children wouldn’t go through it, even though over the years the situation has become increasingly unstable and dangerous.
The video game series by Fallout can boast millions of fans, even online. How did you manage to maintain a balance between giving homage to fans of these products and the need to make them accessible to the general public?
No doubt, we approached this adaptation as enthusiasts. However, I believe that you can also adapt a product that you may not be a fan of in a workmanlike manner. Chris is also very passionate about Batman, but as a director he approached a symbolic character with the utmost respect. As long as he follows this path, he remains safe.
In most cases, caring too much about fans doesn’t lead to anything good. [Durante la lavorazione de Il cavaliere oscuro], my brother Chris spoke at length with Heath Ledger and the two got along perfectly from the beginning. Then the news of the actor’s choice was leaked online and at that point, the set of bad faith opinions, due to Brokeback Mountain, or perhaps to harsh and pure homophobia, without forgetting the nonsense of the fans and the long wave of the Internet sewer have created a perfect storm. The disappointment that I have carried with me because of the Internet over the last twenty years is a damned bottomless pit, especially the unparalleled ability of this tool to throw everything into confusion. So, already during the 2006-2007 film season, I learned not to care, also thanks to Heath Ledger. I learned to assert myself and defend my ideas. If we are terrified by cancel culture, or you worry too much about pleasing everyone, you risk ruining everything. Ultimately, you shouldn’t get too carried away. And then, online happiness is not of this world.