Edward Norton on the advice from Thom Yorke that helped him slow down

Edward Norton says Thom Yorke is part of the reason he eased off work when his children were born, in 2013 and 2016. Talking to NME about Motherless Brooklyn, the film he wrote, directed and stars in, he remembers Yorke telling him that going back on tour about four months after his first son was born was the biggest mistake he ever made.

We did not get into this to be suits. If you have our life and you don’t take the time [to live] what the fuck is wrong with you?

Thom Yorke (as Edward Norton recalls him)¹

They met in 1997. Michael Stipe phoned Norton and told him to come to Irving Plaza in New York that night, and introduced the two there. The show was on 9 June, a week before OK Computer came out, and it was the first time the band played the album's songs in America. They grew close, Norton says, around the time Fight Club came out in 1999.

I caught wind of the fact that Thom and those guys would watch it on their bus. There was a sort of mutual admiration society thing.

Edward Norton¹

He says they have been to Glastonbury together since, and sometimes surf with their children in California. Even so, Norton was afraid to ask Yorke for a song for his film and expected a no, until “Daily Battles” arrived unannounced at 6am. The song runs right through the film. One of its lines became the way Alec Baldwin's character is introduced.

Sometimes people think Thom’s being prickly, but he’s just disciplined.

Edward Norton¹