Withnail & Her
When Bruce Robinson discussed his most celebrated work with his harshest critic - his daughter Lily.
First things first, I can’t take any credit for the short but entertaining post that follows. Rather kudos to Lily India Robinson who was asked by Zembla magazine to interview her father in the early noughties. Since her father is Bruce Robinson - BAFTA-winning writer of The Killing Fields and the man responsible for How To Get Ahead In Advertising, Jennifer Eight and something called Withnail & I - and he hadn’t spoken to the press for over a decade, this was all of of some significance.
With copies of Zembla now rarer than (Raymond) Duck’s teeth - I still can’t locate the issue featuring my profile of Tom Robinson - the following is republished in part to coincide with the release of the latest in a very welcome line of books about Bruce’s masterpiece - Toby Benjamin’s Withnail & I: From Cult To Classic - but in greater part because it’s a charming chat that’s in danger of going the same way as the diplodocus…
Lily: I’ve heard you say that, with writing, you sometimes find it very difficult to get ideas. But you’ve also said that you found Withnail very easy.
Bruce: Well, I found Withnail very easy when I wrote it as a novel. Because I wasn’t earning my living as a writer. I wasn’t published as a writer. I’d never done a film.
I’d never done a blood thing. I was an out-of-work actor so consequently I had nothing to prove and nothing to live up to. That was a spontaneous expression of ‘voices’. So I found Withnail a great joy to write.
And why did you make it so funny?
I used to rush home from wherever I was when I was writing Withnail because it was such a great, entertaining evening for me in [my] terrible, filthy flat. I used to sit there and just laugh at this story which was coming out.
How many scripts had you written before you wrote Withnail?
At least a dozen. But I used to write and, as I wrote ‘The End’, I’d chuck in on the pile and immediately write ’Scene 1’ on the next one. I didn’t stop. One of the big errors that I think young writers make is that they write something that’s half-way decent and then start obsessing over it, hauling it up and down Wardour Street. It’s a very important thing for a writer to do - keep writing, keep writing.
Why do you think Withnail was successful?
It obviously touched a nerve in people.
Did you ever imagine that it would be as big as it was?
No, of course not, I had no idea. I made all my mistakes with Withnail. I’ve never seen a fucking cent out of that movie which is a nightmare and a disaster. It’s made millions and millions of dollars and I wouldn’t mind my cut, but I’ve never got so much as a birthday card. It’s a pain in the arse but I’m not complaing about it in financial terms as if they’re the only terms that I’m incensed about it. It seems to me outrageous that this film should be so successful and that the person who devised it, wrote it and directed it should never see a fucking penny!
Where’s the rest of it? BBx