{"id":269453,"date":"2025-11-07T19:36:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T19:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/269453\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T19:36:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T19:36:07","slug":"matt-smith-is-so-hot-its-problematic-inside-the-tv-version-of-nick-caves-disturbing-sex-filled-novel-television","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/269453\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Matt Smith is so hot it\u2019s problematic\u2019: inside the TV version of Nick Cave\u2019s disturbing, sex-filled novel | Television"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Cave claims that at least four different production companies have tried to turn his frequently hilarious, always disturbing, sex-filled novel The Death of Bunny Munro into a film or TV show in the 16 years since its release. The problem? \u201cNo\u00a0one would play the character!\u201d he says, sitting, impeccably suited as always, in a room at London\u2019s Corinthia Hotel. As it turns out, the material was just waiting for the right actor. Step up Matt Smith<\/a> to play the titular sex-addicted travelling makeup salesman.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising that it ended up being Smith. Since his Doctor Who days, he has tended to pick roles that trend slightly twisted \u2013 and the role of Bunny, who in Cave\u2019s book is depicted as a borderline animalistic misogynist who sweats pure ethanol, fits the bill entirely. \u201cI think it\u2019s important to tell stories that feel challenging and difficult and polarising, and I thought this would be all of those things,\u201d Smith says animatedly, clad in head-to-toe black in contrast with Bunny\u2019s rakish suit. \u201cBut actually, at its heart, it\u2019s about a father and son, and it\u2019s really beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

First published in 2009 \u2013 after initially being written as a film script for Australian director John Hillcoat \u2013 The Death of Bunny Munro follows a sex-obsessed salesman who, after driving his wife to suicide through his constant infidelity, kidnaps his bookish son (played brilliantly by Rafael Math\u00e9) when social services attempt to take him away, and brings him on a surreal road trip around Sussex.<\/p>\n

The book is defined by Bunny\u2019s shocking inner monologue and seemingly amoral view of the world; the Sky adaptation, directed by Isabella Ekl\u00f6f and written by Pete Jackson, presents a slightly toned-down take. A\u00a0lot of the sex is conveyed through sound and dialogue; some moments from the book, such as Bunny\u2019s rape of a woman who is under the influence of heroin \u2013 a scene for which Cave was nominated for the Bad Sex award<\/a> \u2013 are implied rather than depicted in lurid detail. This results\u00a0in a slightly more\u00a0sympathetic Bunny, though he is still an undeniable creep, willing to abandon his child for long\u00a0spells to seduce bored housewives, and intent on teaching his son how to be a lech.<\/p>\n

\u2018I changed every swear word to frig or flip or sugar\u2019 \u2026 Bunny Munro (Matt Smith) and Bunny Junior (Rafael Math\u00e9). Photograph: Sarah Weal\/Sky UK, Clerkenwell Films<\/p>\n

Being set in 2003, the show is also an endearing period piece, filled with clunky Nokias and classic Kylie tracks blaring out of car radios. Smith says he feels the show is \u201ca really faithful adaptation\u201d, though he acknowledges that the book, which is mired in Bunny\u2019s almost free-associative thoughts about women, was incredibly tricky to film. \u201cThe pollution of his thoughts, and the danger of his thoughts, are really difficult to translate to a character that you\u2019re going to stick with,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Bunny\u2019s uniqueness, though, was fundamentally appealing. \u201cI thought the language of the book was beautiful \u2013 I read it quite quickly, and I was like: \u2018Wow, fuck. This is gonna be a challenge, because he\u2019s pretty out there, but what a great challenge.\u2019 I\u2019d rather do that than something that feels predictable,\u201d says Smith. \u201cHe\u2019s quite an operatic character \u2013 he\u2019s out there and does mad shit \u2013 and they\u2019re the ones that I\u2019m drawn to, otherwise we\u2019re just left with this homogenised, dumbed-down nonsense where no one pushes it too far. This felt really original.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Smith declines to identify what he deems \u201cdumbed-down nonsense\u201d, he does elaborate: \u201cI think we have a tendency to overexplain and try to predict people\u2019s tastes in telly sometimes,\u201d he says. \u201c\u2018Let\u2019s make it so everyone likes it,\u2019 you know? Some people will like this, some people won\u2019t \u2013 I\u2019m totally fine with\u00a0that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cave feels that Smith\u2019s version of Bunny Munro is \u201cmore transgressive than my version, because my version is just a lost individual and a terrible person, and he\u2019s not attractive and he\u2019s not good at what he does.\u201d Smith, on the other hand? \u201cThe problem with Matt is that he\u2019s handsome and sexy, and that makes the whole thing slightly more dubious, because he\u2019s doing the same things,\u201d says Cave. \u201cBut women actually like it in the show \u2013 you can see the sort of pulling power that he has, and I find that more discomfiting in a way. There\u2019s something about the fact that Matt is hot that is quite problematic.\u201d<\/p>\n

All ears \u2026 Matt Smith as Bunny Munro. Photograph: Sky UK, Clerkenwell Films<\/p>\n

Math\u00e9, who plays Bunny\u2019s nine-year-old son Bunny Jr, is one of the highlights of The Death of Bunny Munro, holding his own even when paired with the go-for-broke Smith. Smith says that working with a child actor on such explicit material was an eye-opening experience for him. \u201cWe were really lucky in that we had a brilliant young actor in Raf, who\u2019s smart and understood the emotional complexity of the story, even at such a young age,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to be careful about what you reveal to him \u2013 so, for instance, you shoot the scene in the strip joint with the beers and strippers and the naked people first, and then he comes in, and he doesn\u2019t see any of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continues: \u201cSo you\u2019re shooting two sides of a coin all the time. And then I would swear on my takes, and on his takes, I\u2019d say the word frig or flip or sugar. It was the first time I\u2019ve ever been in a story where children have had to witness that level of depravity, and you\u2019ve got to be conscious that he\u2019s nine years old,\u201d he says. \u201cEven if it is a story, you don\u2019t want to expose him too early to things he shouldn\u2019t be anywhere near. But his parents were amazing, and they navigated that whole thing beautifully \u2013 we really looked after him. Without him, there\u2019d be no show really.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Death of Bunny Munro is, in some senses, a morality tale \u2013 a tragedy about a man whose appetites, and inability to care for his family, eventually send him to ruin. Around the time of the book\u2019s release, Cave said he was inspired by a certain kind of British man who\u2019s \u201claddish, sex-obsessed, thinks that breasts are kind of funny\u201d, and that he wanted to show where that kind of misogyny could lead. Cave says he doesn\u2019t \u201creally relate to that quote any more. I\u00a0don\u2019t stand in judgment of Bunny Munro any more. I just have a different way of seeing people, and part of that is that we are essentially broken, all of us, to lesser or greater degrees,\u201d he says. \u201cI think we live in a time where there\u2019s a feeling that we should be condemning the transgressive personality wherever we see it, and I find that personally quite difficult to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lothario \u2026 Bunny Munro (Matt Smith) is relentless in his pursuit of women, including Georgia (Olivia Brady). Photograph: Parisa Taghizadeh\/Sky UK, Clerkenwell Films<\/p>\n

Smith wasn\u2019t looking back to any particular antiheroes when conceiving of Bunny, in part because \u201che\u2019s a lot of men wrapped up in one. I recognise a lot of different men in him,\u201d he says. \u201cHe\u2019s a really complicated, deeply troubled, sad human being. He\u2019s in the nexus of this tornado of grief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now is the perfect time for a Bunny Munro series, says Cave, because of that feeling. \u201cI think the world is hungry for things that step outside the expectations of our culture these days \u2013 I just get the feeling that people are looking at ways to test the puritanical nature of our present culture,\u201d he says. \u201cEspecially with young people \u2013 I\u2019m surrounded by young people because I have kids in their early 20s, and they\u2019re much looser and freer about things these days, and they take a certain pride in that. I think that\u2019s good, as far as I\u2019m concerned \u2013 that encourages a more healthy, artistic, free society.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bunny Munro book was considered controversial on its release, in part because of the sexually charged, objectifying way Bunny fixates on Kylie Minogue and Avril Lavigne. Cave ended up apologising to both women on BBC 6Music, although he says \u201cthat may have been tongue in cheek. I\u00a0never met Avril Lavigne, and I hope she isn\u2019t really offended, or was not embarrassed by that \u2013 I would really hate that. I hope she wasn\u2019t upset \u2013 maybe she just thought it was funny,\u201d he says. \u201cI know Kylie, I asked Kylie what she thought, and she was like: \u2018Well, I\u2019ve actually not read your book yet.\u2019 And this went on for years. She says: \u2018It\u2019s next to my bed, but I haven\u2019t got around to it.\u2019 So I don\u2019t know if she ever really read it, but I guess she still likes me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pure transgression of Bunny as a character \u2013 which led to such controversy after the novel was published \u2013 is what attracted Smith to the role in the first place, and why he\u2019s thrilled he got to play him. \u201cIt\u2019s always been hard to find parts like Bunny Munro; they\u2019re rare, really rare. That\u2019s the type of stuff I\u2019ve always been interested in,\u201d he says. \u201cI remember all that in-your-face theatre in the 90s, I used to love all that. There was something about it that\u2019s appalling \u2026 but it made me sit on the edge of my seat. That\u2019s what Bunny can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Death of Bunny Munro is on Sky\u00a0Atlantic on 20 November.<\/p>\n

The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave (Canongate Books, \u00a39.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com<\/a>. Delivery charges may apply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nick Cave claims that at least four different production companies have tried to turn his frequently hilarious, always…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-269453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}