Pharrell Williams: ‘I don’t have the mental endurance to create film scores’
Pharrell Williams says he doesn’t have the “mental endurance” to create film scores.
Pharrell Williams says he doesn’t have the “mental endurance” to create film scores.
The N.E.R.D. singer, 49, considers movie composing a “marathon” and thinks his speciality is the “three- to five-minute” song “race”.
He told The Guardian newspaper’s G2 supplement in a question-and-answer session with fans when asked if a ‘Star Trek’ film would be his ideal movie to score: “I am a Star Trek fan, but scoring is a whole other thing. It’s not for me.
“There are all kinds of races: relay, marathons, cross-country, sprints. A film is a marathon. Every step has to be pencilled in to take people on a journey.
“A 15-second jingle would be a sprint. My speciality is the three- to five-minute race.
“I don't have the mental endurance to stay on something as long as a film score. There’s a reason Hans Zimmer has two Oscars.”
When asked to name the greatest music producer of all time, and to say if he agreed with philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche that life without music would be a mistake, Pharrell replied: “Quincy Jones, obviously! Life without music would be like a human being without sense. I was always making music as a kid, but never thought I could do something with it.
“I always knew I was going to do music, I just never knew what – whether I would end up as a terrible music teacher or an art teacher who was always asking his friends to come over and play on the side. But this was how it was written and I give thanks every day.”
Dad-of-four Pharrell also said female artists should have “more agency” in the music business, adding “the idea that women only make 70 cents on a man's dollar is still unacceptable”.
He added about supporting non-gendered awards: “There’s something nice about celebrating woman as an individual species.
“If the Academy Awards combined best male and female actor, that would be cool, because that’s something that needs to happen as a response to patriarchy and gender favouritism.
“But we shouldn’t lose sight of the gift that is the feminine aspect of women.”
