Sitting at his home in Oxford, Mississippi, acclaimed writer Nico Walker lights a cigarette, closes his eyes and starts discussing poetry. “I’m a big fan of poetry,” says Walker between exhales. “I love the sound of common words.”
Nico Walker may be a fan of common words, but his journey as an author has been anything but. Walker served as an army doctor during the Iraq War, and by the time he returned home, he had been on more than 250 combat missions and developed PTSD and depression, for which he turned to heroin. Drug addiction led to a life of crime, which led to a prison term. He started writing his first novel, the semi-autobiographical Cherry, while serving an eleven-year prison sentence for a series of bank robberies in the Cleveland area over a four-month period. It soon became an unexpected phenomenon (“we were thinking that maybe 1000 copies would be sold,” he recalls. The actual number is 100,000 printed copies.) And he won several accolades, including a PEN / Hemingway Award nomination. As a form of penance, Walker used the money from the book to pay the banks he stole.
The duo of directors, the Russo Brothers, took it, and after delivering some Marvel epics, adapted Walker’s work into a dramatic thriller. The film will be released this weekend in theaters and on AppleTV on March 12, with Tom Holland starring. GQ got in touch with Walker to discuss the film adaptation, what he’s working on now and how he’s dealing with writing during a pandemic.
You are a writer used to working in unusual circumstances. First in prison and now during a pandemic. Are there any similarities between the two?
It is similar in many ways. The message we get from those who try to keep us safe reminds me of prison. I can’t complain about that right now. I am relatively affected. I can work from home. I kind of feel like a tramp. I’m just sitting here, comfortable, asking for Doordash. So you have people who need to go out, work and feed everyone.
You refused to be an executive producer on Cherry. What did you think of the movie?
I ended up being an executive producer “on paper”. The Russians honored the contract by paying for the rights to the book. They didn’t necessarily use me in the film, which is their prerogative. I saw a little bit of the film. I’m not really trying to see this. I think the main reason is that I have my own idea of what this story is and I don’t want to replace it with someone else’s version. I know this is kind of selfish.
However, there is a precedent there. Steinbeck never saw Of rats and men on Broadway, for example.
I like John Steinbeck very much. Sweet Thursday and Tortilla Flat they are murderers. Steinbeck is actually underestimated, which means something. One of the first things I read in prison was a biography of Steinbeck. It was as big as a phone book. Anyway, I wish you all the best of luck with the film. I hope the spirit of the book is intact.
You already expected Cherry to become the sensation it is today?
It looked like he was getting something. This is not how things normally happen for me. It really took off in a direction that I had never thought of. Of all the published books, people were paying attention to what I wrote. It was a very surreal and unexpected experience. This is not how things happened for me.