Legendary director Cameron Crowe discussed Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder in a new Rolling Stone article about Singles.
“Similarly to Bridget [Fonda], Chris Cornell was somebody who I just thought, ‘This guy belongs in the movie.’ I loved Soundgarden – they were the greatest live show I’d seen. I had real strong feelings about Soundgarden and about Chris with this huge heart of his. He was accepting Eddie [Vedder] into Seattle and he was helping me know what it was to live here, at this time and this place – that feeling of, this guy really matters to this city.
So we wanted him for [the Citizen Dick singer Cliff Poncier] part for a while, we worked with him and he’s good! But it just felt like there was going to be months and months of rehearsals and commitments, and at a certain point I thought, maybe we can have the best of all worlds. Chris can be a character who plays, and we don’t have to make him play a wannabe musician. We can just have him be Chris. And then with Matt Dillon in the role you can kind of spoof that character without spoofing Chris himself.”
He later said, “I’m really proud of his score stuff, and Chris Cornell’s too. They’re both really sensitive guys, in terms of being able to capture emotions on film, and they both really took to it.
As for Chris … for any of us lucky enough to know him or experience his gift, there’s no past tense. He’s that vivid of a guy. I can’t talk about him in the past. I talk about him in the present and I always will.”
