DAVID CRONENBERG: …Me and John Landis and John Carpenter being interviewed by MIck Garris. And after the end of it, both Johns—Landis and Carpenter came to me and said “you said stuff that we would never, ever say.” I said, “What do you mean?” “We would never call ourselves artists the way you were.” I said “Well, you know—that’s what I’m doing.” “We would never admit that,” they said.
NOAH COWAN: Admit it.
DAVID CRONENBERG: Yeah. “We would never admit.”
PIERS HANDLING: Hmm.
DAVID CRONENBERG: And that was the thing. That’s the sort of American Hollywood approach, whereas I’m thinking “I’m an artist, I’m trying to create art. Whether I’m succeeding or not, it doesn’t matter. And the fact that I’m doing it within the horror genre it doesn’t matter.” So I talked about being an artist and art. And they were shocked. I saw it on their faces, but I didn’t know what it was, or why they were being so shocked. And exactly that. Because it’s sort of fun stuff, genre stuff—that was allowed if you were a horror filmmaker.
