Highlights from The Associated Press’ interview with Stephen King
NEW YORK (AP) — Stephen King recently spoke to The Associated Press about the new film adaption “The Life of Chuck,” his latest book “Never Flinch” and other topics.
Here are highlights from that conversation.
On ‘The Life of Chuck’
Over time, King has developed a personal policy in how he talks about the adaptations of his books. “My idea is: If you can’t say something nice, keep your mouth shut,” he says. Every now and then, King is such a fan of an adaptation that he’s excited to talk about it. That’s very much the case with “The Life of Chuck,” Mike Flanagan’s new adaptation of King’s novella of the same name published in the 2020 collection “If It Bleeds.”
“The Life of Chuck,” which Neon releases in theaters Friday (nationwide June 13), there are separate storylines but the tone-setting opening is apocalyptic. The internet, like a dazed prize fighter, wobbles on its last legs before going down. California is said to be peeling away from the mainland “like old wallpaper.” And yet in this doomsday tale, King is at his most sincere. “The Life of Chuck,” the book and the movie, is about what matters in life when everything else is lost. There is dancing, Walt Whitman and joy.
“In ‘The Life of Chuck,’ we understand that this guy’s life is cut short, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t experience joy,” says King. “Existential dread and grief and things are part of the human experience, but so is joy.”
On his life as a moviegoer
So vividly drawn is King’s fiction that it’s offered the basis for some 50 feature films. For half a century, since Brian De Palma’s 1976 film “Carrie,” Hollywood has turned, and turned again, to King’s books for their richness of character, nightmare and sheer entertainment. He’s also a moviegoer, himself.
“I love anything from ‘The 400 Blows’ to something with that guy Jason Statham,” King says, speaking by phone from his home in Maine. “The worst movie I ever saw was still a great way to spend an afternoon. The only movie I ever walked out on was ‘Transformers.’ At a certain point I said, ‘This is just ridiculous.’”
On contemporary anxieties
The kind of climate change disaster found in “The Life of Chuck,” King says, often dominates his anxieties.
“We’re creeping up little by little on being the one country who does not acknowledge it’s a real problem with carbon in the atmosphere,” King says. “That’s crazy. Certain right wing politicians can talk all they want about how we’re saving the world for our grandchildren. They don’t care about that. They care about money.”
On social media, King has been a sometimes critic of President Donald Trump, whose second term has included battles with the arts, academia and public financing for PBS and NPR. Over the next four years, King predicts, “Culture is going to go underground.”
In “Never Finch,” Holly Gibney is hired as a bodyguard by a women’s rights activist whose lecture tour is being plagued by mysterious acts of violence. In the afterward of the book, King includes a tribute to “supporters of women’s right to choose who have been murdered for doing their duty.” “I’m sure they’re not going to like that,” King says of right-wing critics.
On ‘Never Flinch’
King, 77, has now written somewhere around 80 books, including the just released “Never Flinch.” The mystery thriller brings back King’s recent favorite protagonist, the private investigator Holly Gibney, who made her stand-alone debut in “If It Bleeds.” It’s Gibney’s insecurities, and her willingness to push against them, that has kept King returning to her.
“It gave me great pleasure to see Holly grow into a more confident person,” King says. “She never outgrows all of her insecurities, though. None of us do.”
“Never Flinch” is a reminder that King has always been less of a genre-first writer than a character-first one. He tends to fall in love with a character and follow them through thick and thin.
“I’m always happy writing. That’s why I do it so much,” King says, chuckling. “I’m a very chipper guy because I get rid of all that dark stuff in the books.”