Editor’s Note: ‘Freshly Press’d’ is our new title for moments when we’re invited into press conferences for upcoming titles. This helps us separate it from the 1on1’s but also gives these conversations their own identity! Enjoy.
Stephen King has written some of the most iconic horror stories of the last century. But it’s tales like The Life of Chuck that remind us what a truly brilliant storyteller he can be.
Directed by Mike Flanagan, The Life of Chuck is an adaptation of a short story by King that celebrates the life of Charles ‘Chuck’ Krantz (Tom Hiddleston). Beginning at the end, Life of Chuck follows Krantz as he experiences the wonders of life, celebrating the minutiae of the everyday and, most importantly, the truth that ‘we contain multitudes’.
It’s no secret that Flanagan has a deep love and appreciation for King’s work. Having adapted King’s Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game prior to Chuck, the director seems to know how the iconic author’s mind works. Yet, although King is best known for his horror, Flanagan recognizes that what makes his work relevant is his focus on love.
“There’ a tone that Steve achieves in a lot of his kind of non-horror work,” he begins. “I’m thinking about The Body, which became Stand by Me. Or Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. The Green Mile, to an extent, although that’s a little more supernatural. It’s that when he’s being earnest, he isn’t being maudlin. He isn’t overdoing that and, when he’s being apocalyptic in the story, he’s being gentle at the same time. And I think he creates the poles that you have to kind of make sure you’re staying between when it comes to tone. But fortunately, I think constant readers will recognize that Steve has that. He very famously says ‘there’s no horror in the world without love’. You know, his stories, even the scary ones, aren’t about the monsters. They’re about the people. Like, it isn’t about the clown. It’s about the kids. It’s about the friendship. It’s about the love. You know, I think as long as you keep that in mind, it’s very easy to kind of zero in on his tone.”
Of course, with any adaptated screenplay, tough decisions must be made. As such, knowing what to cut from the script and where can be a challenge. Even so, the director believes that he found the right balance between honouring King and adding to the story.
“I’m such a King fanatic. My mission is always to preserve as much as possible,” Flanagan recognizes. “But, you know, translating a story like this to the screen, you’re gonna have to make changes. It’s all about what fits into the heart of the story, and this one, more than anything, we had an opportunity to add. The story kind of just barely fit into a feature length format, so, you know, we were able to supplement it with some other things, like the Carl Sagan references that aren’t in the story that are really important to me. But yeah, I’m always watching it from the point of view of the Stephen King fan I am to kind of figure out how mad at me I would be if I was just seeing the movie in a theater having nothing to do with it.”
As a performer, however, bringing knowledge of your character’s journey before it happens to them is a tightrope walk. Given the film operates essentially in reverse, Hiddleston’s performance contained a certain sense of knowing. However, the actor also believes that this also gave him the opportunity to infuse even greater joy into the role of Chuck.
“Well, I think what was crystallized for me when I read the script for the first time was that feeling that we all share, or it’s a knowledge none of us have,” says Hiddleston. “Which is none of us know what the last day of our lives will be. None of us know how it’s gonna end. And we all live, each of us every day in that uncertainty. And we do the best we can with the life we have. And that awareness, I think, is something that comes in and out of focus in our lives. That actually this is not a dress rehearsal. What’s the Voltaire quote? We all have two lives, the second begins when you realize you only have one. And you don’t know when that life is gonna run out.”
“And I don’t know that Chuck knows that it’s going to end at the moment of putting his briefcase down and moving his hips to the beat of the drums,” he continues. “But I knew on Chuck’s behalf. And what Mike’s screenplay and what Stephen King’s story describes so beautifully is the magic of those small moments in our lives which will become the brightest stars in our memories in the last hours of our lives. And so there was this, I had this awareness of the preciousness and the fragility of living, but also the magic and the majesty of connection in the every day. And so, I’m just getting to dance that out, I suppose, as Chuck. And it’s so beautifully described in the story, that this moment on the sidewalk on a Thursday afternoon is maybe a moment of an expression of the most intense freedom of his entire life. He’s completely free. He’s completely in the present moment. He’s completely alive. And in six months’ time, his life will be over.”
Flanagan agrees that it’s this existential component of Life of Chuck that gives the film its sense of hopefulness, even in the midst of sadness. To him, there’s a genuine belief that our lives are the summation of our relationships, creating multitudes within our soul.
“I’ve heard [Stephen King] put it another way too,” Flanagan points out. “He said at one point, when a person dies, a library burns down… I think [that] is beautiful. You know, the idea that we contain multitudes and, in the case of this story, he means it both literally and kind of beautifully metaphorically. That idea of the universe inside of each of us, the universe we build as we make our way through life. You know, it’s such a beautiful concept. I find it so comforting, and with anything with adapting Steve, it’s just about tapping into that beating heart that he naturally has. And this, to me, is one of his most heartfelt stories maybe ever.”
Having said this, it’s this value of the human spirit that Hiddleston believes makes the film so special. Echoing Flanagan, he too feels that there’s something magical to life that reminds us how important every one of us is to the world.
“I think the thing that I was so moved by, to Mike’s point, is we contain multitudes,” Hiddleston explains. “It’s true of all of us. None of us are one thing. None of us are the job that we do or the role that we play in our family or in our social circle. We all have, inside the soul of every human being, is an internal world of infinite connections, memories, experiences, and possibilities. And we should never submit to the reduction that we’re just one thing. Our lives are magic. Yes, our lives are full of struggle and suffering and grief and pain and loss, that’s true as well. But they’re also magic. And there’s so much joy there. And that’s the bit I found moving is that Charles Krantz, to the external world, he seems to be the gray man in the gray suit. Mr. Businessman, walking to the business conference with his business briefcase. He’s never gonna stop and listen to the music. But actually, inside the soul of this, you know, accountant who loves his job and loves his wife and loves his son, is this dancer. And that might be true of anyone you know or anyone you see on the street, is inside that human being is greater breadth.”
Although the film opens with the end of the world, Life of Chuck takes every opportunity to look back on what it means to live for the moments today. For example, in one of the film’s lighter moments, characters are left despondent over the loss of the internet (and, more specifically, use of PornHub). Yet, even so, Hiddleston points out the King uses this moment to reflect on the way that we connect with one another.
“I think the thing in the story that hit me when I first read it, when he goes into the details of what it means that the Internet is gone, that that connection is gone, it is impossible for me to imagine a world without the Internet,” he suggests. “And I grew up in a world without the Internet. It’s very strange to me. The other thing that struck me, though, is Charles Krantz is dying of a brain tumor. And so the disruption of connection, the disruption of the Internet took on a whole other meaning for me… So, you know, I think Steve hits on something incredible about we now live in the most interconnected existence, you know, human beings have ever known. How we’ve used that connectivity, you know, can be a bit disappointing. And the loss of that connectivity is something that’s so hard to imagine. But we are dismantling and losing this incredible Internet, this incredible connectivity, this connected world that we’ve built with each other. We all lose it at the end… And maybe Stephen is asking questions like, perhaps we don’t [connect with one another] enough. That we have the resources we need, but we lean on our technologies, which are simulating real connection, but they’re not actually the substance of human connection.”
In the end, Flanagan can’t help but radiate joy when he speaks about the finished product. Stemming from his experience in the Pandemic, there’s no question that he believes that a film like this has the opportunity to truly speak to not only this generation but the ones to come.
“This movie’s so much better than the one that I imagined…,” Flanagan beams. “You know, I read the story in April 2020, and it felt like the world was ending in a major way. And I was locked in my house in Glendale reading this. And for the first few pages, I didn’t think I could continue reading it. It hit that close to home. And I think that’s something interesting about this, that it hits hard now. It hits harder and different today than it did then. And when we shot it. The thing is, the movie that kind of came to life in my imagination while I read it was beautiful and joyful. And I thought it was going to be so dark at the beginning. And I ended it feeling so light and grateful with tears on my cheeks.”
“All I wanted was to take that imaginary movie and try to put it on a screen,” he follows. “But I was utterly unprepared for what these tremendous actors would do as they brought it to life. I felt like I was seeing it anew at the monitor every day. And people say this ‘cause it’s something you say in press, but I’m being entirely genuine when I say, this is my favorite thing I’ve ever worked on. It means the world to me. It’s the thing that I’m the happiest to leave in the world for my kids, who I think are gonna need this someday and need a message like this.”
“We were making something that we hoped would outlive us, and I hope it does.”
The Life of Chuck is available in theatres on Friday, June 13th, 2025.
