Juno Temple’s victims are stronger than most people’s heroes. Despite being only 25, the daughter of acclaimed music director Julian has pushed herself harder than most, with her on screen roles including appearing as one of Frank Miller’s doomed femme fatales in Sin City 2 and the childlike ‘retainer’ for Matthew McConaughey in Killer Joe.
Her latest role continues this trajectory: in her new film Horns she plays Merrin Williams, the late girlfriend of Daniel Radcliffe’s tormented DJ Ig Perrish. Sitting in the London’s Soho Hotel, Temple has been chatting about the punishing performance all day and is flagging a little. “Downing a coffee right now, which is going down a treat," she says with a smile as Gigwise walks in. "I’m prepping just for you.”
To mark Horns arrival in cinemas she talks Gigwise through the best record store in California, growing up with Joe Strummer and what its like talking to Martin Scorsese about the Rolling Stones.
Gigwise: Daniel Radcliffe said there was one song you listened to on repeat before an emotional scene in Horns: what was it?
Juno Temple: It’s a remix actually - I think it’s Cousin Cole remix of Bruce Springsteen ‘On Fire’. It’s really beautiful and helped me get into that scene. Am I a huge Springsteen fan? Not hugely. My boyfriend’s a huge Springsteen fan but also, being English, I didn’t find him until much later in my life. You should google it though, it’s really good. There’s a change in beat that sounds actually very sad to me when combined with his lyrics: in that moment, they enhanced this idea of loneliness. It’s got a complete different tempo and sounds nothing like [Springsteen's original].
It seems almost sacrilegious to remix Springsteen.
I really love it. But maybe you’ll hate it.
You’re working with Martin Scorsese on a Seventies rock'n'roll drama. Did you have a Rolling Stones chat?
He is a music fanatic: getting to sit in a room with him and just chat about music and movies is one of the coolest 2 1/2 hours I’ve ever had in my entire life. He told me that he has some original EPs from the Rolling Stones from back in the late Sixties that are in such mint condition that the glitter is still all there!
What’s your favourite album of all time?
I think The Idiot by Iggy Pop is one of the best albums ever created. I love that album so much I could listen to it endlessly. I think he had so much energy. He expelled this kind of electricity which is so delicious. Both The Idiot - and Let it Bleed - do something internally for me. It’s almost like the texture of my body changes, my blood moves at a different pace and you almost forget where you are, as you get lost in this album. They’re both very sexy albums and I love them... a lot.
What do you and your father agree on musically?
My Dad is a huge music man and really opened my eyes to music. I grew up listening to such amazing music but was oblivious to it. When I was a teenager I was like, “I want to listen to weird Eighties pop shit”. Gary Numan’s ‘Cars’ : I was obsesed with that song! My Dad was just ‘Ugh! Maybe we can just change it up a little?”
Then what happened was Eminem came into my life in a big way and me and my Dad had a big bonding thing over that: my Dad loves Eminem and Tupac. If you get into Nineties hiphop it’s just fucking great. So music is a big part of my life because of my father for sure: I have a lot of memories of musical moments with my Dad.
What’s been your favourite gig of all time?
I went to see Neil Young. He played ‘Harvest Moon’ on Hank Williams guitar and I wept like a baby. I couldn’t breathe. It was like a one man show: he was on a stage, no band members, nothing just with his guitars, his piano and his harmonicas. And he tells you stories. It was one of the most magical experiences: I’ve got chills right now just thinking about it and I’m wearing a warm dress. It was so beautiful.
He’s famously erratic: you never know which Neil Young is going to show up
It was fantastic but someone was a little rude in the audience and he gave them what for. Damn straight! Shut up and listen! Sorry but [if it had been me] I would have spat on them. “Be quiet! Shh! Talking!”
What’s your favourite soundtrack?
Soundtracks are hard: you’d have to give me time to get back to you. The way he uses music in movies, changes every moment in the scene. A marriage between music and movies is the most titillating thing on the planet. Theme songs? I’m a huge fan of Badlands and True Romance: True Romance is actually my ring tone. Who wouldn’t want to run off, fall madly in love and commit bad crimes in the dirty south?
What’s your favourite record shop?
Amoeba is a great music store because you can find anything and everything there. I desperately want to get all the Dandy Warhols albums on vinyl because I’m a huge Dandy’s fan and music just is better on vinyl.
Their Dig! documentary was so fascinating. They say you should never meet your heroes and there are reasons in that: the thing that is important with music separating music from who the bands are too is also very important. Because some people come across as the loveliest people on the planet and some people come across as dicks. You can get it wrong. It should never [influence] your choice of music.
After all, lots of horrible people have made some great records
I couldn’t agree more.
Can you describe when you’ve been star struck meeting a musician?
I was truly blessed to grow up with Joe Strummer around my house a lot. And I think something that I remember being a weird moment for me was when I realised that the Clash was a big deal. I must have been about 12 and it was when I was walking round my local town Taunton and people were wearing Clash hoodies: I was like ‘That’s Joe’s band! How weird! Shit: I should talk to him more about that!”
Horns is out in cinemas now. Read Gigwise's interview with Daniel Radcliffe here.
