#263: Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky — Exploring Creativity, Ignoring Critics, and Making Art

Darren Aronofsky (@DarrenAronofsky) is the founder and head of production company Protozoa Pictures. He is the acclaimed and award-winning filmmaker behind both cult classics and blockbusters, including Pi (which earned him a Best Director award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival), Requiem For a Dream, The Wrestler (the third U.S. film in history to win the esteemed Golden Lion award), Black Swan (which won Natalie Portman the Academy Award for Best Actress and garnered four other Oscar nominations), Noah (His biblically inspired epic that opened at number at the box office and grossed more than $362,000,000 worldwide), and his latest, mother!, a psychological horror-thriller film starring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, and Michelle Pfeiffer.

In this episode, we explore a wide range of topics, including:

• His creative process and "nomadic writing"
• Work environment and highly unusual desks
• The "Month of Fury"
• How to navigate tough conversations over creativity and control
• Psychedelics
• Dealing with critics
• And much more...

Many thanks to Peter Attia for making the introduction -- check out his three previous appearances on this show here.

Please enjoy!

Show notes and links for this episode can be found at tim.blog/podcast.

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