Composer Henry Jackman Talks 'Cherry,' 'Captain America,' and Working with the Russo Brothers
The role that music plays in telling the type of story at the heart of “Cherry” cannot be overstated. Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, from a screenplay co-written by their sister, Angela Russo-Otstot, and Jessica Goldberg, and based on Nico Walker’s novel of the same name, “Cherry” stars Tom Holland in a career-best performance as a PTSD-riddled Iraq War veteran who becomes addicted to opioids and robs banks to fund his addiction. One of the film’s other major highlights is a spiraling, euphoric, Vangelis-inspired score from frequent Russo brothers collaborator Henry Jackman.
Born in London with a spark for music that he has spent a lifetime nurturing, Jackman came up in the London drum and bass scene before working as a producer for some of England's finest artists. Jackman produced Mike Oldfield's "Voyager," as well as, by all accounts, one of the greatest albums to never be released: Seal's "Togetherland." Jackman then went on to work under his mentor, Hans Zimmer, on several film scores before finally becoming a successful and highly sought-after film composer in his own right. His formal music education mixed with his time cranking out U.K. breakbeats led to a distinctive blending of string orchestras with electronic synths and textures making him one of the most versatile and experimental voices in film music. Outside of his work with the Russo’s, Jackman is a frequent collaborator of Matthew Vaughn, scoring the likes of "Kick-Ass," "X-Men: First Class," and both "Kingsman" films. He’s also lent his talents to such projects as "Captain Phillips," "Kong: Skull Island," “Uncharted 4,” and "Big Hero 6", just to name a few career highlights. Jackman’s a composer of two worlds: classical and electronic.
However, it is Jackman's collaborations with the Russo brothers that are arguably his most well-known scores. "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "Captain America: Civil War" manage to showcase Jackman's signature sound while honoring the legacy of Captain America and the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. "Cherry" expands on his collaborative success with the Russo brothers, and is possibly his greatest work to date. While speaking to us about his work on "Cherry," Jackman spoke very enthusiastically about the process of creating such a memorable and rich soundscape.
“Cherry” unfolds across multiple acts of the titular character’s life, from his days in college to his time in the army during the Iraq War, through to his developing addiction and desperate turn to crime. Jackman’s score reflects this modulating downward spiral, morphing with the passage of time and becoming more twisted as Cherry sinks further and further into PTSD, addiction, and crime. “We knew it was gonna be so eclectic, musically,” said Jackman. “The way [Joe and Anthony] put the picture together was so interesting, with a different tone and style for the different chapters of Cherry’s life, [but with] a unifying element.” Expanding on how he achieved this musically, Jackman continued, “[‘Cherry’] has a lot of different tones. There’s a lot of analog synths, there was another piece that I wrote which was like an indie-rock love ballad for the [scenes with] Emily [played by Ciara Bravo].”
“Cherry’s” soundscape never deviates from the core idea of emulating the internal. It’s music that ebbs and flows depending on the emotions and mental state of the main character grounding the film in Cherry’s subjective experience. “Music [is always] from the perspective of Cherry,” said Jackman, “like when the movie moves to Iraq. It would’ve been tempting to write music that’s more objective, [but] the really key thing is it’s still inside [Cherry’s head, rather than] a universal musical description of war. It’s an extended version of him being a fish out of water.” This continues to guide the score, right into the final act of the film and the deepest parts of Cherry’s drug addiction. “I was [incorporating flaws in the music],” said Jackman, “to try and get to the bottom of the incoherence of the drug experience. There was a layer of making it physically not stable.”
Something that helped move the process of scoring “Cherry” along in a smoother, more collaborative way is the type of working relationship Jackman has formed with the Russo brothers, one which promotes creativity and bold swings because of an open and receptive work environment. For Jackman, this experience goes all the way back to the making of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”. “It was clear [the score] was gonna be completely different [from Alan Silvestri’s work on ‘The First Avenger’],” said Jackman. “I thought, ‘I’m just gonna go for something really radical’, because [the Russos] aren’t conservative. I spent ages on the ‘Winter Soldier’ suite, [which] is not a pleasant thing to listen to, it’s not melodic, and no motif shows up for at least three minutes. I played it [for Joe and Anthony], and I thought ‘maybe I’ve gone too far,’ [but] then Joe went ‘I love it!’ I think that formed a creatively open-minded, confident collaboration.”
“It’s actually less creative if someone tries to give specific instructions,” said Jackman regarding why a director doesn’t necessarily need to have a technical knowledge of music, “[rather than] an overall vision of what the score needs to do. If you can’t get a straight answer for what the overall vision is, you’ve got a problem. Joe and Anthony have a really straight idea that is bold. They’ll have their own journey of working their way through something, but the basic vision is something they figure out early, [and] in the face of opinions they don’t agree with, they hold the line, and that’s how interesting films are made.”
In addition to diving much deeper into Jackman’s incredible “Cherry” score, we also discuss “Pokemon Detective Pikachu,” the “Kingsman” films, why more and more electronic artists are making the jump to film composition, and much more. The composer also teases some upcoming projects including his involvement with Locksmith Animation’s upcoming “Ron’s Gone Wrong”, as well as his involvement with the next Russo brothers project.
“Cherry” hits theaters on February 26th, 2021, followed by its streaming debut on Apple TV+ on March 12th. Check out our interview with Henry Jackman below!