Noam Murro

2008 has already been a good year for LA-based director Noam Murro. He was recently nominated for the DGA’s Director of the Year for the fifth time (he won the award in 2005)

I’m 46, but I unfortunately feel as though I’m 79.

I think I was a happy child. My first memory is of my parents bringing my sister home from the hospital... little witch. I was three.

I grew up in an upscale neighbourhood in Jerusalem in an artistic family. We played chamber music at the house four times a week, that sort of thing. My grandfather, who came from Russia in the 1920s, was a pretty good sculptor and was one of the founders of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design [Israel’s national school of art]. That’s how I got to study at the academy. I had zero talent but a lot of great connections.

When I was growing up, half of Jerusalem was extraordinarily orthodox, and had large numbers of Hassidic Jews living there. But the other half was not. I had a very secular Sabra upbringing. We observed Passover and the Seder and so on, but the only time I went to the synagogue was for my bar mitzvah. We used to buy our bacon at Mr Kranzsdorf’s – the one butcher in all of Jerusalem that sold schinken.

I did three years of military service. It’s mandatory in Israel and you don’t question it. You just do it. Basically, at age 18 your mother and father walk you to the parting point, they kiss you goodbye and your mother cries. You get put on a bus and they take you to a place where they start yelling at you. There’s a war in the middle of it all, and three years later they let you out.

Your home will always be where you are born. But the place I most want to live as an adult is New York. It’s there that I feel most free and it makes me smile like nowhere else.

I got into advertising by mistake. I’d studied architecture but I wanted to get into film and I thought maybe I could do that through advertising. Bob Jeffrey and Gary Goldsmith had a small agency in New York back then – Goldsmith Jeffrey – and they had the courage to give me a shot as a creative. I will always owe them for that.

Are my parents proud of me? I just got back from a two-week visit with my mother and the unequivocal answer is, hell no. My father is gone but I’m sure he’s disappointed too.

I love advertising, but when I’m watching TV and the ads come on I usually change the channel. The reason is that most of them suck. I really respect Jonathan Glazer’s work. There’s one ad in particular that he did for Wrangler [Ride], which is a stunning travelogue which covers a trip across the United States. It’s beautifully executed; I would say cinematic.

Without sounding pompous, the director I most admire is Fassbinder, because he did so much in a short amount of time. One thing I’m always amazed by is the way that he managed not only to frame himself in his stories, but also to frame a country – and a post-war country. It’s so effortless, yet it’s a remarkable achievement. His work is intense, yet so human.

In advertising, the toughest job isn’t the technical monster, but the subtle, quiet, deceptively easy aspects. It is hard because it sneaks up on you, and leaves you walking away, knowing the end result could have been better – stronger, funnier and smarter. Those are the jobs that are the real monsters for me.

Sometimes, when you wrap and you’re in the car on the way home, you wonder whether your work is being wasted: we did it, but for what? But I think that’s true of anything, so it’s not a judgment call about this industry. There is an anti-climactic nature to any creative expression, whether it’s in advertising, film or writing a book. It’s because you always leave a piece of yourself behind on any project.

I don’t have any specific heroes or mentors; my inspiration comes from myriad sources. Every day I read a book or see a movie and I’m inspired. That process never stops for me, honestly. Every day something or someone inspires me. But I grew up in a house where music was everything, and nothing moves me like classical music.

Humour is everything in my work. It’s where I begin when I first start on a project, where I try to stay while I’m shooting it (though that part isn’t always easy), and, with any luck, where we ultimately end up.

My greatest strength is my passion.

My greatest weakness is also my passion.

My favourite word is “please”.

I judge people by the way they look.

Money is a part of what moves us all but it’s not that important to me. I don’t think I’ve ever made a life decision on the basis of what the money will be like. The driving force behind what I do has nothing to do with money.

I would never work on an advertising campaign for cigarettes, because I used to smoke and I know how hard it is to quit. I went cold turkey eight years ago. It was fucking bloody hell.

What do I most use the internet for? It’s a four-letter word that starts with “p” and ends with “n”. And occasionally for shopping.

Directing is a tricky business. You’re trying to navigate the ship towards your vision, but if you constantly run between the engine and the kitchen and the bridge, nothing gets done. So what you have to do is make sure that when the ship sets off it’s going in a certain direction and if it starts altering course you just give it a bit of a tweak.

Robert Altman said that the directorial effort stops when you have done the casting. That’s really what I believe. When you have the right people in front of the camera, your job becomes a lot easier.

I guess the most obvious difference between shooting a big-budget ad and a feature film is the quality of the craft services you’re using. We have the movies beat in that respect. But really, movies are such a different political animal from commercials. At times, I actually felt I had less creative control on my movie than I ever had when working on an ad.

I don’t know why there are so few women directors and creatives in advertising. There should be no difference in numbers between the sexes. Maybe women are smarter than to want to get into this world.

I’ve been married to my wife, Yasmine, for 75 years, or is it 89? I believe the secret of a happy marriage is to travel a lot.

When you’re an Israeli, you are a political being. Period. Politically, I stand to the very far left. I’d like to see the Palestinians get a state and be able to live respectfully next to us.

The Iraq War? Oy vey schmeer Gevalt!

If I could relive my life I would… do everything differently.

If I could change the world I would… make smoking good for you.

The Flatline spot I did for Toshiba is not the way I imagine death to be; that was a romantic view of death. I view death more as a blank stare at the ceiling, going “Huh?” or “That’s it?” To tell you the truth, I’m scared shitless of death. I’m scared shitless, period.

When I die, I’d be really happy if I was taken back to Israel. But if they can’t put me in the Holy Land I would like to be buried at Willy Wonka’s factory.

My greatest happiness comes from my children [aged four and seven]. I think that when you become a parent you’re challenged in every way. It changes your perspective on everything.

You understand that you are no better than your own parents... which is humbling.

In the end, the most important thing is love.