Golden Globe nominee on 'surreal' Hollywood experience

A musician from Shropshire who narrowly missed out on winning a Golden Globe award said it was "surreal" to create the music for a Hollywood blockbuster.

Joscelin Dent-Pooley, known professionally as Jerskin Fendrix, was nominated for Best Original Score for composing the music for Poor Things.

The sci-fi black comedy film, starring Emma Stone, was released in January.

Mr Fendrix, who grew up near Market Drayton, said an opportunity to work on the film had come in the pandemic.

He said the film's director, Yorgos Lanthimos, had a "really wide taste in all art forms" and had heard an album he had released in 2020.

"I think he was looking for someone, a composer to collaborate with on this film, and he just got in touch after he heard this album," he explained.

The musician and composer attended Adams' Grammar School in Newport, before going on to study classical music at Cambridge University.

He told BBC Radio Shropshire he had listened to a wide range of music growing up and had played the piano and violin.

"A lot of what I discovered was on the internet and hanging out with friends, in like a field or a house - listening to new albums on Bluetooth speakers," he said.

Poor Things was nominated for seven awards at this year's Golden Globes, but missed out on the award for Best Original Score which was won by Oppenheimer.

Mr Fendrix said he had watched the film "at least a hundred times at this point."

"It's very hard to watch objectively," he said, "Visually it's extraordinary, the camera work, the set and the costumes.

"Overall, I think it's just like a really unusual and beautiful, surreal, artistic experience."

He added he was working on other films and had "quite a few things in the fire".

"I am working on a project which is related to Shropshire, so that will be generally announced by the end of the year," he said.

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