Cannes is a brief journey from Bono’s seaside villa in Eze-sur-Mer. He purchased it with The Edge in 1993, and considers himself grateful to a shoreline that, he says, gave him a “delayed adolescence.”
“I can tell you I’ve slept on beaches close to here,” Bono says with a smile. “I’ve woken up in the sun.”
But that does not imply the Cannes Film Festival is a very acquainted expertise for the U2 frontman. He’s right here to premiere the Apple TV+ documentary “Bono: Stories of Surrender,” which captures his one-man stage present. Before coming, Bono’s daughter, the actor Eve Hewson, gave him some recommendation.
“She said: ‘Just get over yourself and bring it,’” Bono said in an interview on a hotel off the Croisette. “What do I have to bring? Bring yourself and your gratitude that you’re a musician and they’re allowing you into a festival that celebrates actors and storytellers of a different kind. I said, ‘OK, I’ll try to bring it.’”
Besides, Cannes, he notes, was based amid World War II as a substitute for then-Mussolini managed Venice Film Festival. It was, he says, “designed to find fascists.”
Shifts in geopolitical tectonics was a lot on Bono’s thoughts. He has spent a lot of his activist life preventing for help to Africa and combating HIV-AIDS. U.S. President Donald Trump’s dismantling of USAID has reversed a lot of that.
“What’s irrational is taking pleasure in the defacement of these institutions of mercy,” Bono stated.
“Bono: Stories of Surrender,” an Andrew Dominik-directed black-and-white movie that begins streaming May 30, adapts the one-man stage present that, in flip, got here from Bono’s 2022 e book, “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.”
In the movie, Bono is self-effacing and reflective, sifting by the formative affect of his father, U2’s skyrocketing to fame and contemplating how ego and social work may be associated. He calls it “the tall tales of a short rock star.” And as was the case on a latest sunny afternoon in Cannes, Bono makes a charming raconteur.
Remarks have been evenly edited for readability.
AP: You’ve lengthy maintained that globalization lifts creating nations out of poverty. What do you make of the shift away from globalization by many nations not too long ago?
BONO: Well, that’s proper. Globalization did very nicely for the world’s poor. That and elevated help ranges introduced a billion individuals out of utmost poverty and halved childhood morality — exceptional jumps for high quality of life for human beings.
But it’s additionally honest to say sure communities actually paid the worth for that — right here in Europe, within the United States. And I’m unsure these communities have been credited sufficient for weathering storms that globalization introduced. So I perceive how we acquired to this place, however it doesn’t imply that it’s the appropriate place to be in.
Nationalism shouldn’t be what we’d like. We grew up in a really charged environment in Ireland. It makes you suspicious of nationalism and people animal spirits that may be drummed up. This is me talking about give up, “Stories of Surrender,” at a time when the world has by no means been nearer to a world conflict in my lifetime. At first I believe it appears to be like absurd, a bit ridiculous — now that has by no means stopped me prior to now — however I believe it’s OK to look ridiculous for these concepts. Like give up, nonviolence, peace.
AP: Do you’ve got any sense but of Pope Leo XIV?
BONO: The new pope, he does seem like a pope. That’s an excellent begin. I simply noticed the opposite day his first piece and he was speaking about stopping shouting, God may want whispers. I believed, “Oh, this could be interesting.” I’m extra of a shouter myself. I come from punk rock. But I’m studying to show that shout right into a whisper on this movie to get to an intimacy.
AP: The most transferring components of “Stories of Surrender” are if you speak about your dad, who died in 2001. How have you ever emotions about him developed with time?
BONO: Well, the accuracy of the put-down — “You are a baritone who thinks he’s a tenor” — is so all encompassing. I used to be going to name the play “The Baritone Who Thinks He’s a Tenor.” He’s on my thoughts as a result of he’s the explanation I sing.
It’s a wound that can by no means shut as a result of after enjoying him on stage for all these nights — simply by turning left or proper — I at all times liked him however I began to essentially like him. He began to make me snigger. There was a present, in addition to the voice, that he left me. Would he forgive me for impersonating him within the Teatro di San Carlo, a sacred place for tenors, in all probability not. But right here I’m impersonating an actor, so.
AP: You’ve spent the final 5 years in some state of self evaluation. First the e book, then the stage present, now the movie. Why?
BONO: Mission creep. I knew I needed to write the e book. The play was so I didn’t should tour the e book in regular promotional exercise, that I might even have enjoyable with it and play all of the totally different characters in my life. I believed it was actually good enjoyable. Then I spotted: Oh, there’s components of you that individuals don’t learn about. We don’t go to U2 reveals for stomach laughs. But that’s part of who I’m, which is the mischief in addition to the melancholy.
Then you find yourself doing a play with numerous cameras in the best way. Enter Andrew Dominik and he taught me one thing that I didn’t actually perceive however my daughter does: The digicam actually is aware of if you’re mendacity. So if need to inform this story, you higher get able to take your armor off. You’re going to really feel bare in entrance of the entire college, however that’s what it takes.
AP: Coming out the opposite facet, did you acquire any new perspective on your self?
BONO: Based on my habits simply prior to now week, the reply to that query might be: Must strive more durable. The pilgrim’s lack of progress. I might say that I perceive slightly higher the place I got here from and that the place I find yourself is dependent upon how I take care of that.
I’ve been calling it the corridor of mirrors, if you strive to determine who you might be and who’s behind the face. Then you simply see all these faces staring again at you, and so they’re all true. The actual star of this film is my dad. I type of like him higher than I like myself as a result of humor has develop into so necessary to me. It’s not like all the pieces must be a stomach snigger, however there’s a freedom. People like me, we are able to sing about freedom. It’s a lot better to be it.
AP: You earlier spoke concerning the rising risk of world conflict. As somebody who’s usually sang for and labored for peace, do you continue to have hope?
BONO: There’s a minister from Albania who stated one thing that basically caught with me. She stated: If you’ve got an opportunity to hope, it’s an ethical responsibility as a result of most individuals don’t. So, sure, I really feel we’ll determine our means out of this. This is a scary second.
I believe acknowledging that we are able to lose all we’ve gained is sobering however it might be course-changing. I simply consider in individuals sufficient. I consider in Americans sufficient. I’m an Irish particular person, I can’t inform individuals how you can vote.
I can let you know that one million kids dying as a result of their life help programs have been pulled out of the wall, with glee, that’s not the America that I acknowledge or perceive. You’re on the entrance traces of Europe right here. America got here in and saved the day. Ironically, so did Russia. More individuals died from Russia preventing the Nazis than all people else. Now they tread on their very own sacred recollections by treading on the Ukrainians who additionally died on the entrance traces. I believe a part of that’s that historical past didn’t acknowledge it.
I consider there may be integrity within the Russian individuals. They want to alter their chief, in my opinion. I consider there may be integrity within the Americans. They will determine it out. Who was it who stated: If you give Americans the information, they may finally make the appropriate alternative. Right now, they’re not getting the information. Think of it: a 70% decline in HIV-AIDS, Republican-led, Democratically adopted although. The best well being intervention within the historical past of medication to combat HIV-AIDS has been thrown away. It was almost there. To an area traveler, it’s like attending to Mars and going, “Nah, we’ll go back.” It’s bewildering to me.
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