Aronofsky is sitting across the room from Patrick Grim, hardcore epistemologist and well-published philosopher of mind. The two are scheduled to discuss questions of Immortality as part of the dubious Brainwave series. Grim at least, looks ready to deliver. He’s sort of a cowboyish bohemian-academic with long hair, blinding white socks and a devilish grin: Billy Bob Thornton with a Ph.D.

And indeed, he digs right in, asking Aronofsky about the divide between Western-style immortality and Buddhist reincarnation theory—where does The Fountain stand? Aronofsky sips tea and says he wish he’d brought coffee instead. He knows they did some research on Tibetan Buddhism for the film but can’t remember what they found. Grim doesn’t let up, though, and eventually—possibly as a defensive maneuver — Aronofsky starts insisting that the film had nothing to do with spirituality or the soul. The Fountain, he says, is really just about dead matter, decomposing and recomposing.

— Eli Epstein-Deutsch, Sound of the City - Live: Director Darren Aronofsky at the Rubin Museum