“I wouldn't be here without the Sex Pistols,” Academy Award-winning director Danny Boyle said during a press conference for the FX limited series Pistol, now streaming on Hulu. Without the iconic punk rock band’s impact on pop culture, the director and executive producer of the series believes he would’ve followed in his father’s working-class footsteps. “They did not care about who they contradicted and how much they challenged the order of things. And it was particularly expressed obviously in Britain in terms of the monarchy and the way that British society was stratified. They literally rattled the gates of the powers. I remember that very clearly. There was a real sense of, ‘Wow, okay, this is really changing, and you're free. You're freer now than you were before, really.’ It meant a great deal to me. It changed my life, So it is a true privilege to work on this.”
(Miya Mizuno/FX)
“Kids like the Pistols grew up knowing that they were supposed to kowtow to this system,” series creator, writer, and executive producer Craig Pearce added about the revolution the band started. “They fitted into the system in a particular place, and their particular place was right down on the bottom. And they might have made jokes about it amongst themselves, but when there was authority around, there was just this thing of, like, you didn't… I remember Steve [Jones] saying in his biography that the biggest concern his mom had was if he was in an accident that he would have dirty underwear because that would reflect badly upon her. She didn't care if he was killed or not as long as the underwear was okay.” The message of the Sex Pistols empowered a generation to stand up for themselves and fight a class system designed to keep people in their place.
Pistol dramatizes the rise and fall of the Sex Pistols and the punk rock movement they founded. “[We had] two months of band camp, where we all worked with Rick and Karl, who were part of the band Underworld, who basically taught us how to be the Sex Pistols for two months,” actor Toby Wallace revealed, who portrays Steve Jones. “The gigs that we played in the TV show were crazy because we’d play at all these actual venues and we get 100 extras in or something. And Danny would do these speeches beforehand to rev up all the extras. And they were almost like poetic, kind of really empowering speeches that Danny would give. And all the extras would go crazy. They would love it…. I found every show that we did was kind of guided by how far the extras would take it. They were like the guiding force behind every single one of those shows that we did.”
“It is completely raw, so what you hear in the show is what the crew heard and what the audience heard, which is so unique,” added Christian Lees, who portrays Glen Matlock. “I have done musical gigs before where it takes some of the heart out of the performance when it's all prerecorded and you're miming. I just think it couldn't have been handled better by the crew and the training to actually just make us a band and just record it. And the sound trouble you guys must have went through to just actually record us live. And I think it helps in the show because that's what the Sex Pistols were, they were raw, and it feels like you're watching them live as opposed to the studio version of the tracks.”
(Miya Mizuno/FX)
As a lifelong fan of the Sex Pistols, Danny Boyle shared his memories of seeing the band perform live with the actors. “They were always within reaching, touching distance, whereas Bowie and other artists would have been their own thing that you could sort of almost praise,” Louis Partridge regurgitated, who portrays Sid Vicious in the series. “They were rugged and they were sort of down to earth in a relatable way which I have never seen before.” While Partridge was familiar with the band’s music, it wasn’t until he was cast in the series that he truly became a fan. “I wasn't a massive fan before, but I wasn't educated. And having Craig be here and Danny and then this whole show, and now, like, the context behind it is so important,” he explained. “What the show does so well is just inform you of everything that was going on, and I hope that it does the same for kids and anyone really who thinks they know about the Sex Pistols.”
“What really touched me was just this story that these five working-class boys that weren't supposed to do anything, and these five working-class boys revolutionized music, fashion, and culture forever,” shared Anson Boon, who brings John Lydon to life on screen. “Now that I know so much about them, it's impossible not to see them in my everyday life. If you go into a pub, their font is on a beer pump. All the major fashion houses still put safety pins in their clothes. It's everywhere. And I think that that story of the underdog really working on what they wanted to do, breaking of their situation, succeeding and absolutely dominating what they wanted to do, I think that will always be a story worth telling and it will never not be relevant.”
Speaking of John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, the musician attempted to prevent the series from being able to use the band’s music. “I have met John before because we put his music, both from Pistol and from Public [Image] Ltd, in the Olympic opening ceremony, and we met him and talked to him about that then,” Danny Boyle revealed. “He's a wonderful guy, and so I did reach out to him in January. We started filming in March, and I reached out to him in January, but I couldn't get past the manager, really. So you’ve got to respect that. And I hope if he does watch the series, that he'll realize, particularly Anson, I think, but all of us, how much we love his work, really. And in making the series, we have become more and more aware of that, of what he contributed. You know, there really is something of the Oscar Wilde in him or the Brendan Behan, he more appropriately wants to be compared to, that's very special in culture.”
FX’s Pistol is now streaming on Hulu in the U.S. and on Disney+ internationally.