The RED Era - 10
Junnipeg was written and directed by Xenophilius Lovegood, and it premiered in 1981. It stars Mary McDonald as June, a nineteen year old girl who falls in love with her college professor’s husband, thirty-three year old Sam Wales, who is played by Lawerence Nott.
JAMES: I believe we had around four or five songs written for 1979 when Dumbledore got a call from Xenophilius Lovegood.
REMUS: He was the director of a movie we hadn’t heard of, and he asked to meet with us and Dumbledore. We weren’t really sure why.
PETER: I thought he’d want to talk about photoshoots or something, so I showed up maybe fifteen minutes late and extremely hungover.
SIRIUS: Of course Pete walks in with sunglasses at ten o’clock in the morning. Once we were all there, Xeno looked at us with this really big, really creepy grin.
REGULUS: He asked me how old I had been when I had written “All Too Well”, which is kind of a tricky answer because it took so long to perfect the song. But I told him the general truth, which was that I was seventeen years old.
XENOPHILIUS LOVEGOOD (Director): Junnipeg is my baby. Not to sound all presumptuous, but it’s a classic. Actors watch it, directors watch it, writers study the script. I’ve never made anything like that before.
So after we finished filming it, we needed music. And I knew it couldn’t be any old song. I knew it needed to be as heart-wrenching as the film, which if you’ve somehow never seen it, is about true, pure unrequited love. I was about to start asking people to write a song when I heard “All Too Well” on the radio.
I was a bit late to the trend, but once I heard it… it clicked. I knew that was my song, all ten minutes of it. It took a bit to see if we could even use it, with copyright and whatnot, but I eventually got a hold of Dumbledore.
So I insisted on trapping these boys into a meeting to beg them to use their song.
PETER: I love Xeno. Truly. But good God! He scared the shite out of me when I first met him. I mean, you’ve seen him. He’s freakishly tall, and he dresses like he blindfolded himself in a costume shop and picked up random shit. I knew he was a director, and I literally thought he was going to put us in the movie.
XENOPHILIUS: I turned to these boys—so young and fresh and free of anything—and asked them if they would like their song in the movie of a lifetime.
REMUS: I remember thinking he was an arrogant little shit. He said the movie of a lifetime, and of course he’d say that about his own damn movie.
XENOPHILIUS: I could see the skepticism on their faces. But I knew the movie would be a hit. I knew it would make them even more famous than they already were.
PETER: He told us that the worst thing that could happen was that more people would know who we were. And he wasn’t wrong. So I asked if we could have a couple of days to think it over.
We piled into the car, and I said, “Who thinks we should do it?”
JAMES: I didn’t see why we shouldn’t. As crazy as Xeno sounded, he was right. It would get our name out there.
REGULUS: I wasn’t completely sold. I didn’t want my song to be the cover for some other story. It was my story. And Xeno said the movie was good, but of course he would. Would you ask someone for their song and tell them it’s a terrible film?
PETER: Sirius and I agreed with James.
REGULUS: Of course Sirius agreed with James.
REMUS: I was with Regulus. “All Too Well” is a very vulnerable song, and I didn’t really fancy the idea of people calling it the “movie song” or some shit like that. I said it didn’t really matter what we thought because it was Regulus’s song.
REGULUS: God bless Remus Lupin. [laughs] He’s our voice of reason.
JAMES: We all looked at Reg to decide, and I know he knew we wanted to do it. But I also knew he wouldn’t do anything he didn’t want to do. It’s not him.
REGULUS: I didn’t want my song to be in some terrible movie. But at the same time, if it was a good movie… It would be good for us. And I told them just that.
REMUS: I suggested we ask to watch the movie first.
REGULUS: Like I said. God bless Remus Lupin and his voice of reason.
JAMES: We called Albus when we got back home and asked if Xenophilius was willing to let us watch the movie to decide.
XENOPHILIUS: I immediately agreed. I didn’t simply want “All Too Well” for the movie. I needed it. So three days after I met them, we all sat down to watch Junnipeg . I told them we were still in the process of editing a few things, but the movie was pretty much finished.
SIRIUS: Xeno was a nervous wreck.
XENOPHILIUS: I wasn’t nervous because I didn’t have faith in Junnipeg . I was nervous because I had a group of twenty something year old boys judging my life’s work. I’m going to be honest, I’ve always been afraid of young people, even when I was young myself.
When [my daughter] turns twenty, I think I’ll pass away in fear.
REMUS: I don’t consider myself to a film critic by any means, but Junnipeg was the best movie I’ve ever seen in my fucking life.
PETER: [scoffs] I bet Remus told you he’s not a critic, right? He might as well be. He once got angry watching Home Alone with me when it came out. Damn near made me cry. I really like Home Alone .
Oh, but I really did like the movie. Mary McDonald was fantastic in it. I have a lot of respect for actors because they have a tough job. We play instruments, and there’s no acting in that. But actors? They have to make you believe in the story.
And boy, did Mary McDonald make me believe in heartbreak.
SIRIUS: I loved it. It was a beautiful film. It’s my favorite movie of Mary’s. You could just feel the heartache seeping out of her.
JAMES: I cried and cried. I cried more than Peter, which is saying something.
I obviously still cared for Lily. And watching Mary’s character June… It felt like looking in a mirror. I could feel every emotion she was feeling, and I knew every single person in the room felt it too, even if they hadn’t experienced a heartbreak like that.
To this day, I think it is the best performance I’ve ever seen by an actor. And no, I’m not saying that because we’re friends. I’m saying that because it’s true.
REGULUS: I know everyone probably told you that we loved it and that James cried so hard he almost threw up. And that’s true. But I didn’t just love Junnipeg . I lived it.
I knew exactly what it was like to love someone who had decades of life before you were even born. I knew what it was like to judge every move you made because you didn’t want to seem childish. I knew exactly what it was like to feel inferior.
The moment Mary’s character June delivered that monologue about Nott’s character Sam… I’ve said something like that before.
JAMES: After the movie ended, we met in the car and unanimously agreed. “All Too Well” belonged in Junnipeg.