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MM Martin McDonagh On The Daily (NYT)

“When you get a play right, it's gone forever. It's beautiful in the moment… Weirdly, you put all your energy into those pieces of hopeful art and they're gone. And I think that's probably why I've stuck with films lately and why I'm probably happier artistically, is that they're there and I can see them.”

The Daily (NYT) · October 2026

“When you get a play right, it's gone forever. It's beautiful in the moment… Weirdly, you put all your energy into those pieces of hopeful art and they're gone. And I think that's probably why I've stuck with films lately and why I'm probably happier artistically, is that they're there and I can see them.” — Martin McDonagh, The Daily (NYT)

Context

Asked why leaving behind good work matters to his happiness, the playwright and filmmaker explains why he moved from theatre to film: a stage production vanishes, while a film stays.

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Transcript

The Daily (NYT) Around 18:16 into the episode
Martin McDonagh

Oh, I knew you were going to go there. I think so. I think every piece of work is you're sort of hoping to add to your canon of good stuff, I guess. And I think if you do enough of them or leave behind enough of them, that there's a route to happiness there, you know.

David Marchese

But why would that be a route to happiness, leaving behind good work?

Martin McDonagh

You got to have something, I guess. You know, you got to. And it comes back to like the hope of putting a good piece of work out there is sort of what I'm striving for. I think the more I've done it and the more, and maybe it's kind of having moved into films after like 10 or 15 years of doing plays, when you get a play right, it's gone forever. You know, it's beautiful in the moment, but you know, I can't show you the beauty queen of Lenan from 96 or the pillar man from London or here in 2001 or whatever. So that's weirdly, you put all your energy into those pieces of hopeful art and they're gone. And I think that's probably why I've stuck with films lately and why I'm probably more happier artistically is that they're there and I can see them and I know that people are going to be able to see them in answer to the legacy bit of the question. But it's not a bad thing though, is it? I mean, it's a pretty good thing if that's what your role has been in the artistic world is just leaving some good films behind. And what they take from a good one, I don't mind, but I want them to be full of…

David Marchese

Well, I want to ask a question about that. So the new film is also about a central male friendship. What ideas were you interested in exploring this time around?

Martin McDonagh

Weirdly, because the last one was Banshee's was sort of the end of a loving male relationship. This is like right still in the middle of a love affair almost. Sometimes I think of these two guys, Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich, as this old married couple in a way, who bicker and who drive each…

David Marchese

A lot of your male friends are in your work are exploring ethical dilemmas. Have you and a friend had to like work through an ethical problem in your life?

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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