To those who came of age in the late '90s and early 2000s, Kurt Cobain is a mythological figure. Like Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, or Bob Marley, the Nirvana frontman, who committed suicide at age 27 in 1994, was and remains an ever-present fixture on teenagers' bedroom walls. Even today, he's a rock deity. But who was the man beneath the flowing blond hair, whiskey-soaked voice, and palpable angst? With his new documentary film, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, director Brett Morgen aimed to answer this question. Exploring Cobain's entire life—his tumultuous childhood, Nirvana's rise to fame, his crippling drug addiction, and his untimely death—the film is a tough watch. Morgen wouldn't have it any other way. "Rather than mythmaking, the idea was to strip away the layers to try to reveal the man," Morgen says of Montage of Heck, which is out in select theaters this weekend and premieres on HBO May 4, "and in this case the man is so much more interesting than the myth."

Morgen has been working on the film for the better part of the last decade, with the consent of Cobain and Courtney Love's only child, their daughter Frances Bean. Understanding he was giving the now-22-year-old a deeper look into the father she never knew weighed heavily on Morgen. But in the end he heeded her advice to "make it honest." "I just really trusted my relationship with her and went with my instincts and my guts," says Morgen, who previously made the acclaimed 2012 HBO documentary on the Rolling Stones, Crossfire Hurricane. "What's the point of trying to shy away from the truth?"

In an emotional conversation below with Esquire, Morgen discusses his motivation for making a film on the Nirvana singer, why he was shattered after its debut screening at Sundance, and why he believes Cobain is one of the most successful artists of his generation.

ESQUIRE: There was such folklore around Kurt Cobain. That must have made it both an exciting and challenging prospect to make a film about him. What was your own experience with Cobain and Nirvana?

BRETT MORGEN: I was a casual fan. I'm the same age and of the same generation as Kurt so I experienced Nirvana as it was happening. I saw them play in 1990 in my school cafeteria at Hampshire College for about 150 people and then I saw them at the Forum in 1993. But going forward to 2007 when I started working on the film, I hadn't really thought about them much. I was approached by Courtney [Love], and really what drew me to the project was Kurt's art. It was the opportunity to tell a story that I hadn't seen before. For most of my career I've been really interested in reaching the boundaries of non-fiction and finding new ways to present material. And with Cobain I had an opportunity to tell a story from the inside out rather than from the outside in. Kurt was so prolific and so expressive; he crossed so many forms of media that he left behind this sort of oral and visual autobiography of his life. At the point that I was approached by Courtney I had concerns about "Is there anything left to say? Should we just let him be?" But as I went through stuff it became clear that there had been films made, a couple documentaries about Kurt, and there had been books about Kurt, but all of them were missing the one thing that makes Kurt so relevant to us. And that's his music and his art. Kurt could often be deceptive or sort of withdrawn or uncomfortable in his media appearances, but the one area that I thought he really opened up and became clear was in his art.

Kurt Cobain as a child in Montage of Heck.

You spoke with his daughter, Frances Bean, before starting work on the film.

Frances said, "Go make the film you want to make." So it was this incredible opportunity to tell the story in a manner that I felt Kurt deserved. Which was honest. Because if you're doing a film about someone like Michael Jackson you're selling fantasy. But Kurt couldn't be more different. Rather than mythmaking the idea was to strip away the layers of the mythology to try to reveal the man. And in this case the man is so much more interesting than the myth.

Exactly. We think we know these rock stars but fail to ever really examine who they were as people.

Kurt only was in the public eye for three years and even within those three years most of that time was spent on a retreat. We know about his youth predominantly through his own mythology of his life. But one of the first things that I did when I was making this film was I screened through his childhood home movies. They cover his life from probably about six months to eight years. And it became clear immediately that what I was seeing was in stark contrast to the way he talked about his youth. Kurt would say often say, "I had a happy childhood until my parents divorced." But as I looked at the raw footage, a different story started to emerge. Later after interviewing [his mother] Wendy [O' Connor], it became clear that problems started much sooner than Kurt had professed. By two or three years old, he was, in her opinion, acting up and started showing signs of hyperactivity. And so right there, 20 minutes into screening the material, I started to see a different story

Given that Kurt died when Frances was an infant, this is in many ways an introduction for her to her father. That must have carried with it intense pressure to get it right.

I mean, to be honest, I don't think I ever felt pressure. But it felt personal because I'm a father of three kids. And I don't think this film would be the same if I weren't. There were things in Kurt's story that I would have missed if I had made this film 14 or 15 years ago. Perhaps to a certain extent I was trying to give Frances something that I would want my own child to have if I wasn't here. What was so brave on Frances' part was her one dictate to me: "make it honest." She felt like everybody thinks Kurt is this saint. But he's not. He's fallible. And that's what makes us human. So what's the point of trying to shy away from the truth? We're certainly not going to hurt his feelings anymore.

"No, man, Kurt is worthy!"

What were some other challenges you faced in making the film?

The thing with Kurt that's so intimidating is that everybody feels this need to protect him. And I'm referring to people who don't know him, to fans. That's how deep his connection is. But really there's only one person who should have say in these matters and it's his next of kin: It's Frances, his daughter. I just really trusted my relationship with her and went with my instincts and my guts.

I was actually pleased to see the film was not always pretty or easy to watch as I imagine HBO could easily have stepped in and pushed you to make a different film.

I did talk to HBO and Universal about that and I had final cut with both of them so that was not an issue. I think I was slightly informed by the experience in Crossfire Hurricane. I'm very proud of Crossfire Hurricane, but I didn't have total control over it. At the point Montage of Heck got financed I had already been traveling with it for five years. So there was nobody pushing this up the hill. If I didn't continue to pursue it, it was over. And so while it wasn't a daily undertaking, it still was mine and I didn't want to give it away. The experience of Crossfire Hurricane led me to the point where I had to say to all involved parties, "I need to have control." I want to share something with you that I've never told anyone.

You talked about how the film is not always pretty and when the movie is over, even if people have read about it and have an idea of what they're about to experience, it's quite different than actually experiencing it. I think at the end of the film audiences tend to be stunned. To this day I've done so many Q&A's over the last four months and every time, even though I know what the reaction is going to be, it is so unnerving to be there as a director. Because normally you make a film, and at the end of a film you can tell if people like it or not by the applause level. But this isn't a film that invites you to applaud. And so almost every time I stand before an audience and screen this film, I leave the theater and I'm shell-shocked. The first screening of this film at Sundance I remember sitting there with my wife and even though I knew that it would probably be a muted response at the end, as the credits started to roll I turned to her and I said, "They hate it. They fucking hate it." I did a Q&A and when it was over I darted. I didn't talk to one person. And I ran to the car and I was in this state of shock. I turned to my wife and I said, "What the fuck happened? I gave everything I had to this film and I don't know what went wrong." And then I went on Twitter about two minutes to gauge the reaction and it was blowing up. My wife said, "I told you, you fucking idiot! You can't applaud at the end of this movie." That said, I still had the same reaction last night at the Tribeca Film Festival. This is 40 appearances later and I still have that feeling of unease.

I actually find the film extremely inspiring.

It's a different type of film. I think you're sort of stunned, but I personally don't find the film depressing. I find the film to be like life itself: There are moments of joy and moments of inspiration and moments of humor and levity and they're intertwined with these moments of depravity and angst and pain.

The reaction from audiences you've been seeing is completely normal. Perhaps even complimentary. The film challenges you to put your own life—the positives and negatives, the failings and successes—into perspective.

At this point we've opened the film theatrically in many countries and the response has been insane all over the world. We've been selling out theaters in small towns in the UK mid-week. It's incredible the outpouring of love and support that this film has. Generally in these sorts of situations you get together with your team and high-five each other. But this isn't that experience. Nobody is drinking champagne. There's a pall of sadness that hangs over me every time I have to talk about this film. I'm just now getting to the point where I can talk about it without breaking down. This was a really emotional rollercoaster, the whole journey. Eight years. And to see the response, it has little to do with I did and everything to do with Kurt. What a beautiful soul and how much he's touched us. It fucking kills me when I hear people say things like "Oh he only did a couple albums" or "He's not worthy of our focus." No, man, he is worthy! For 20 years people have been hanging posters on their wall and the image on that wall, there's been a lot of fantasy and projection associated with it. But now that we get deeper beneath it's not like you'd want to take the poster down. You actually have a greater appreciation for him. That's Kurt. He's come to represent and provide comfort for the disenfranchised, the downtrodden, the uglies, the misfits. He's helped a lot of people feel comforted, like they're not alone. And that is so powerful. It is such a gift. And in that sense he should be considered one of the most successful artists of my generation.

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