Cronenberg on celebrity and the fear of 'existential disappearance'

Internationally-renowned filmmaker David Cronenberg speaks to Jian about his new film Maps to the Stars that won Julianne Moore the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. 

Cronenberg is a director, screenwriter, and actor, and this fall we will also know him as an author with the release of his debut novel, Consumed.

The prominent Canadian director will talk to Jian about the darker side of Hollywood, his personal struggles with fame, and why he's decided to expand beyond film-making to novel-writing.

Losing your chance at immortality 

Cronenberg says his new film is really about desperation, ambition and a fear of existential disappearance. 

 "For an actress, if you're not acting, you don't exist. You physically exist, but in the important way to you, you have ceased to exist."

Although everybody must deal with their own mortality, the director argues that there's a sort of "pre-death" in Hollywood. 

"If you suddenly don't exist in the trades and Twitter and Facebook and people aren't talking about you, you're not on the big screen, you have lost that chance for immortality."

Watch the trailer for Map To The Stars in the window embedded below.