'Interstellar' director Christopher Nolan doesn't own a mobile

Director who took us into space says he ‘couldn’t be bothered’ with smartphones and email

Christopher Nolan says he ‘couldn’t be bothered’ with smartphones and email (Getty)

Christopher Nolan has taken audiences through the outer reaches of space and into black holes using cutting-edge visual effects.

Yet the visionary British director behind the blockbuster movie Interstellar remains unconvinced he needs the basic personal technology of even a mobile phone or an email account, saying he “couldn’t be bothered” with either.

The 44-year-old director of films including Inception and the Dark Knight trilogy has explained why he prefers not to have a mobile phone, telling The Hollywood Reporter: “It gives me time to think. You know, when you have a smartphone and 10 minutes to spare, you go on it and you start looking at stuff.”

Nolan said that when he moved to Los Angeles to start making films in 1997, few people had a mobile phone and he “never bothered” to get one.

“I’ve been very fortunate to be working continuously, so there’s always someone around me who can tap me on the shoulder and hand me a phone if they need to.” The director of the Batman films, which are packed with gadgets, has previously referred to mobile phones as “just toys for grown-ups”.

Nolan said he never used email because “I don’t find it would help me with anything I’m doing. I just couldn’t be bothered about it.” Warner Bros assigned Nolan an email address but he only realised several years later, and saw there were thousands of messages in the inbox. He made the studio close the account.

Interstellar has so far taken $653.4m (£426m) around the world. But Nolan revealed that his favourite film of 2014 was one of a completely different and non-techy nature: Boyhood, the “extraordinary” Richard Linklater film depicting a child’s transition into being a young adult.