Keith McNally interview

The Guardian interviews McNally about why he periodically leaves his successful business career to peruse acting and directing.

I got so depressed about being in New York not doing what I wanted. By the late 80s I had the Odeon, Cafe Luxembourg, Lucky Strike. I had Nell’s where Rose Gray [later of London’s River Café] cooked. But I didn’t care.

I had to stop for six months. I wrote a script [End of the Night, about a man whose life is falling apart], realized it would take forever to get made so I borrowed $500,000 for a new restaurant and used that. It was selected for Cannes. It got good reviews and I made the money back. So we moved to Paris and I made Far from Berlin, in Berlin. It took two years and flopped, my marriage broke up. It was my fault.