CANNES, France (AP) 鈥� Cannes is a short trip from Bono鈥檚 seaside villa in Eze-sur-Mer. He bought it with The Edge in 1993, and considers himself grateful to a coastline that, he says, gave him a 鈥渄elayed adolescence.鈥�
鈥淚 can tell you I鈥檝e slept on beaches close to here,鈥� Bono says with a grin. 鈥淚鈥檝e woken up in the sun.鈥�
But that doesn't mean the is a particularly familiar experience for the U2 frontman. He鈥檚 here to premiere the Apple TV+ documentary 鈥淏ono: Stories of Surrender,鈥� which captures his one-man stage show. Before coming, Bono鈥檚 daughter, the actor Eve Hewson, gave him some advice.
鈥淪he said: 鈥楯ust get over yourself and bring it,鈥�" Bono said in an interview on a hotel off the Croisette. "What do I have to bring? Bring yourself and your gratitude that you鈥檙e a musician and they鈥檙e allowing you into a festival that celebrates actors and storytellers of a different kind. I said, 鈥極K, I鈥檒l try to bring it.鈥欌��
Besides, Cannes, he notes, was founded amid World War II as an alternative to then-Mussolini controlled Venice Film Festival. It was, he says, 鈥渄esigned to find fascists.鈥�
Shifts in geopolitical tectonics was much on Bono's mind. He has spent much of his activist life fighting for aid to Africa and combating HIV-AIDS. U.S. President Donald Trump's has reversed much of that.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 irrational is taking pleasure in the defacement of these institutions of mercy,鈥� Bono said.
鈥淏ono: Stories of Surrender,鈥� an black-and-white film that begins streaming May 30, adapts the one-man stage show that, in turn, came from Bono's 2022 book, 鈥淪urrender: 40 Songs, One Story.鈥�
In the film, Bono is self-effacing and reflective, sifting through the formative influence of his father, U2's skyrocketing to fame and considering how ego and social work might be related. He calls it 鈥渢he tall tales of a short rock star.鈥� And as was the case on a recent sunny afternoon in Cannes, Bono makes a captivating raconteur.
Remarks have been lightly edited for clarity.
AP: You鈥檝e long maintained that globalization lifts developing nations out of poverty. What do you make of the shift away from globalization by many countries recently?
BONO: Well, that鈥檚 right. Globalization did very well for the world鈥檚 poor. That and increased aid levels brought a billion people out of extreme poverty and halved childhood mortality 鈥� remarkable jumps for quality of life for human beings.
But it鈥檚 also fair to say certain communities really paid the price for that 鈥� here in Europe, in the United States. And I鈥檓 not sure those communities were credited enough for weathering storms that globalization brought. So I understand how we got to this place, but it doesn鈥檛 mean that it鈥檚 the right place to be in.
Nationalism is not what we need. We grew up in a very charged atmosphere in Ireland. It makes you suspicious of nationalism and those animal spirits that can be drummed up. This is me speaking about surrender, 鈥淪tories of Surrender,鈥� at a time when the world has never been closer to a world war in my lifetime. At first I think it looks absurd, a bit ridiculous 鈥� now that has never stopped me in the past 鈥� but I think it鈥檚 OK to look ridiculous for these ideas. Like surrender, nonviolence, peace.
AP: Do you have any sense yet of Pope Leo XIV?
BONO: The new pope, he does look like a pope. That鈥檚 a good start. I just saw the other day his first piece and he was talking about stopping shouting, God might prefer whispers. I thought, 鈥淥h, this could be interesting.鈥� I鈥檓 more of a shouter myself. I come from punk rock. But I鈥檓 learning to turn that shout into a whisper in this film to get to an intimacy.
AP: The most moving parts of 鈥淪tories of Surrender鈥� are when you talk about your dad, who died in 2001. How have you feelings about him evolved with time?
BONO: Well, the accuracy of the put-down 鈥� 鈥淵ou are a baritone who thinks he鈥檚 a tenor鈥� 鈥� is so all encompassing. I was going to call the play 鈥淭he Baritone Who Thinks He鈥檚 a Tenor.鈥� He鈥檚 on my mind because he鈥檚 the reason I sing.
It鈥檚 a wound that will never close because after playing him on stage for all those nights 鈥� just by turning left or right 鈥� I always loved him but I started to really like him. He started to make me laugh. There was a gift, as well as the voice, that he left me. Would he forgive me for impersonating him in the Teatro di San Carlo, a sacred place for tenors, probably not. But here I am impersonating an actor, so.
AP: You've spent the last five years in some state of self analysis. First the book, then the stage show, now the film. Why?
BONO: Mission creep. I knew I had to write the book. The play was so I didn鈥檛 have to tour the book in normal promotional activity, that I could actually have fun with it and play all the different characters in my life. I thought it was really good fun. Then I realized: Oh, there鈥檚 parts of you that people don鈥檛 know about. We don鈥檛 go to U2 shows for belly laughs. But that鈥檚 a part of who I am, which is the mischief as well as the melancholy.
Then you end up doing a play with a lot of cameras in the way. Enter Andrew Dominik and he taught me something that I didn鈥檛 really understand but my daughter does: The camera really knows when you鈥檙e lying. So if want to tell this story, you better get ready to take your armor off. You鈥檙e going to feel naked in front of the whole school, but that鈥檚 what it takes.
AP: Coming out the other side, did you gain any new perspective on yourself?
BONO: Based on my behavior just in the past week, the answer to that question is probably: Must try harder. The pilgrim鈥檚 lack of progress. I would say that I understand a little better where I came from and that where I end up depends on how I deal with that.
I鈥檝e been calling it the hall of mirrors, when you try to figure out who you are and who鈥檚 behind the face. Then you just see all these faces staring back at you, and they鈥檙e all true. The real star of this movie is my dad. I sort of like him better than I like myself because humor has become so important to me. It鈥檚 not like everything needs to be a belly laugh, but there鈥檚 a freedom. People like me, we can sing about freedom. It鈥檚 much better to be it.
AP: You earlier spoke about the rising threat of world war. As someone who's often sang for and worked for peace, do you still have hope?
BONO: There鈥檚 a minister from Albania who said something that really stuck with me. She said: If you have a chance to hope, it鈥檚 a moral duty because most people don鈥檛. So, yes, I feel we鈥檒l figure our way out of this. This is a scary moment.
I think acknowledging that we can lose all we鈥檝e gained is sobering but it may be course-changing. I just believe in people enough. I believe in Americans enough. I鈥檓 an Irish person, I can鈥檛 tell people how to vote.
I can tell you that a million children dying because their life support systems were pulled out of the wall, with glee, that鈥檚 not the America that I recognize or understand. You鈥檙e on the front lines of Europe here. America came in and saved the day. Ironically, so did Russia. More people died from Russia fighting the Nazis than everybody else. Now they tread on their own sacred memories by treading on the Ukrainians who also died on the front lines. I think part of that is that history didn鈥檛 acknowledge it.
I believe there is integrity in the Russian people. They need to change their leader, in my view. I believe there is integrity in the Americans. They will figure it out. Who was it who said: If you give Americans the facts, they will eventually make the right choice. Right now, they鈥檙e not getting the facts. Think of it: a 70% decline in HIV-AIDS, Republican-led, Democratically followed though. The greatest health intervention in the history of medicine to fight HIV-AIDS has been thrown away. It was nearly there. To a space traveler, it鈥檚 like getting to Mars and going, 鈥淣ah, we鈥檒l go back.鈥� It鈥檚 bewildering to me.
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For more coverage of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, visit .
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
