A theme of the film is the gift—and the burden—of memory. Your character’s flashbacks to a happier time of beauty and calm seem to both sustain and torture him. In one of those flashbacks, your wife, played by Charlize Theron, argues that mere survival isn’t enough for her. Living in utter fear and deprivation, she seems to feel, is not really living. Your character doesn’t agree. Do you?
I don’t, but I understand her point. By the way, I think that the movie makes slightly clearer than the book does that her point of view is the most logical, rational one in that world apparently devoid of hope. Charlize did a very good job showing us the sincerity and truth of her character’s position. When her character essentially asks mine how and why I plan to survive in a toxic environment populated by murderous rapists and cannibals, my character does not really have an answer. It is his instinct to survive and protect his son that drives him. While he may not know exactly how he or his son can manage to survive, he definitely knows why it is worth trying. The simplest way to say it, “sappy” as it sounds, is that he understands, as does his son, that the impulse to be loving is reason enough to live on.
Have you written any poetry lately? Anything you’d like to share?
Quite a bit, but all in Spanish. I am still fine-tuning them, and the translations I am making into English of them, so maybe I will wait a little longer to offer them.
How do you say “apocalypse” in Danish?
From the Bible, it is “åbenbaring,” but the more-or-less scientific term is “apokalypse.”
