Director Mark Pellington discussed working with Pearl Jam on the iconic “Jeremy” music video in a new Songfacts interview with Greg Prato.
“They got involved again in the editing when it all became censored and MTV made us edit out the gun going in the mouth. That created the great confusion, which made it appear like he brought the gun and shot his classmates, which was a huge misinterpretation and years later connected ‘Jeremy’ to school shootings, which was not it at all. Yet, people like to make the connection.
I’ve never seen a video that still gets written about so much. Maybe it was the underbelly of disenfranchised youth. The timelessness of that, if you think about it – from James Dean and Montgomery Clift and those kind of icons. It predated the whole shooter mentality of ‘angry young white kids.’ So in that time, a kid taking a gun into a classroom was way ahead of its time. Pre-Columbine. And when there is a school shooting, it often gets mentioned.”
He also discussed the ‘Jeremy’ actor Trevor Wilson dying in August 2016.
“I sent a long text to Eddie and told him about it. It was a real tragedy – he drowned in Puerto Rico. I corresponded with his mom. It was a shame.”
“I was surprised – and I’m sure a lot of others were, as well – that Trevor didn’t pursue a career in acting after that video.”
