Filmmaker Christopher Nolan has long been on the anti-smartphone train, and he’s confirmed that in the year 2023, he still isn’t using one.
But, as he told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Friday, that doesn’t mean he’s anti-technology.
“I think technology and what it can provide is amazing,” Nolan said. “My personal choice is about how involved I get. It’s about the level of distraction.”
The “Oppenheimer” director added that “being on a smartphone all day wouldn’t be very useful” while he’s writing scripts or otherwise working.
(Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP
Nolan made similar comments back in 2012, when he said he simply never got into the cellphone game.
“It’s not that I’m a Luddite and don’t like technology; I’ve just never been interested,” he told Backstage, around the time “The Dark Knight Rises” was released. “When I moved to L.A. in 1997, nobody really had cell phones, and I just never went down that path.”
By 2020, Nolan acknowledged that he’d given in just a little and obtained a flip phone, which he carried “from time to time.”
“I’m easily distractible so I don’t really want to have access to the internet every time when I’m bored,” the director told Vanity Fair that year.
Nolan also eschews email, with THR explaining that he hand-delivered scripts to “Oppenheimer” stars like Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr.
“People will say, ‘Why do you work in secrecy?’” Nolan told the outlet. “Well, it’s not secrecy, it’s privacy. It’s being able to try things, to make mistakes, to be as adventurous as possible.”
“Oppenheimer” is set to hit theaters Friday.