Danny Elfman has a wild tale about how he composed his iconic score to 1989’s Batman, which he said involved freaking out several flight attendants. The Oscar-nominated artist was a recent gu…
“That hit me at the worst possible time,” Elfman began. “On the way home, the thing fucking hits me. And it was like, what do I do? I’m on a 747. How do I do this? I am going to forget this all. I’m going to land and they’re going to play some fucking Beatles song, and I’m going to forget everything.”
Elfman said he had his recorder that he took everywhere, so he used it. “I start running in the bathroom [and hum phrases] and I go back to my seat, and I’m thinking, I’m thinking. Ten minutes later, back in the bathroom,” Elfman said. “And then back to my seat and then back to the bathroom, because I couldn’t do this with the guy sitting next to me.”
At one point, Elfman opened the door and was greeted by a flight attendant who wanted to know if he was OK and did not seem to believe it when Elfman reassured he was not up to anything. “Ten minutes later, I am back in the bathroom, And I open the door and this time there are three flight attendants,” he said. “And they were probably going, ‘What the fuck he is doing so frequently? You can’t do that much blow. You can’t shoot up that often.