Matt Smith Embodies a Surprisingly charismatic Bunny Munro in New Adaptation of Nick Cave’s Novel
Nick Cave was initially surprised by the effect Matt Smith had while portraying Bunny Munro, the central character from his 2009 novel, The Death of Bunny Munro. “In the book, Bunny’s not good at what he does – he wants to sleep with everyone he can and he’s an unsuccessful lothario who women treat like a joke,” cave explained. “Whereas Matt is hot and that adds a complexity that the original Bunny didn’t have becuase when Matt’s Bunny hits on women, thay kind of like it and he draws them in.”
The darkly comic story of sex,guilt,and grief is now a TV series starring Smith,known for his roles in Doctor Who and The Crown,as the titular character. The series depicts Bunny’s descent into chaos following his wife’s suicide, compounded by his kidnapping of his son and a desperate attempt to maintain a semblance of normalcy through his job as a door-to-door salesman.
Smith stated he committed to the role immediately after meeting Cave, viewing it as “an amazing prospect and challenge to play a man pushed to the edge by grief, sex and life.”
For Cave, revisiting this morally ambiguous character is a chance to reaffirm his view that Bunny is not simply a villain. The 68-year-old author maintains, “when I look at Bunny, I don’t see an aberration. He’s a flawed human being struggling with grief, his own legacy and all the things that make us human.”
The adaptation promises a nuanced exploration of a complex character grappling with profound loss and destructive desires.
