Hans Zimmer Breaks Down His Illustrious Career

Zimmer re-teams with director Steve McQueen for this fall's 'Widows.'

Composer Hans Zimmer attends a press conference at Royal Theatre on July 3, 2018 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Oscar Gonzalez/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Composer Hans Zimmer attends a press conference at Royal Theatre on July 3, 2018 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Oscar Gonzalez/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto via Getty Images

Film composer Hans Zimmer has been on a high note for a number of decades, and Vice conducted an interview with the music legend about his career and his score for 2019 Oscar-hopeful, Widows.

The man behind the classic drone of Inception and the tense strings of The Dark Knight, as he tells Vice, prefers to stay out of the spotlight.

Zimmer describes his process as “unscientific.” He gleans most of what he needs to do from the acclaimed filmmakers he works with by getting to know them. “We sit around a lot and talk about life. I mean, really, we do! We talk about everything that bothers us and concerns us, or that we love or we don’t love,” Zimmer said. “Movies are sort of ultimately made in a moment.”

Widows will mark Zimmer’s second collaboration with director Steve McQueen, and also will bring his career full circle. That’s because one of Zimmer’s first jobs in the industry was as an intern, or “tea boy” as he cals it, for the television show on which McQueen’s Widows is based. He loved the woman-centric storytelling of Widows at the time, and recalls thinking, “This is an important piece of storytelling, and it’ll change the world.”

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