Interview: Chris Roessner (2012 Black List) — Part 1
Chris Roessner has made quite a journey to professional screenwriter. His debut screenplay “Sand Castle,” which made the Black List in 2012, is a compelling story that takes us into a world few have experienced: Post-invasion Iraq. It’s a world Chris knows well as you will soon learn.
Chris was kind enough to spend some time talking with me about his background, the “Sand Castle” script and his approach to the craft of screenwriting. Today in Part 1, Chris talks about his winding path to Hollywood:
Scott: First of all, congratulations on writing a great script, “Sand Castle” that made it onto the 2012 “Black List.” Your life is also a great story. Growing up in Texas, you joined the Army. You served as a machine gunner during the 2003‑2004 invasion and occupation of Iraq, then you went onto college and eventually grad school in the area of filmmaking.
Let’s start at the beginning. Have you always been a movie fan?
Chris: I have. I think I caught the bug when I was eight. My mom started dating my stepdad, who I did not get along with very much at first. One of the things we did to bond was on Sunday mornings open up the newspaper and see when movies were playing, what time the showings were.
We would go to the local theater, buy a ticket for a movie at 10:00 AM then theater hop one movie to the next. It was one of the ways he could bond with me but wouldn’t really have to say anything.
Movies are the thing that most helped me bond with my stepdad, who I have a very great relationship with now. That’s when my love for film started, stealing movies with him. It was the best way to spend a weekend, especially back then because we didn’t have any money. [laughs]
Scott: What kind of films were you drawn to when you were younger?
Chris: I loved action films. Still do. I think there is, within every grown man, the 13‑year‑old boy who loves seeing things explode and seeing things get shot to shit
Scott: Did your love of action films play any part in your motivation to join the Army?
Chris: To be quite honest, my motivation to join the army is something I’m still trying to figure out. I joined the Army when I was 17. I’m 29 now. I’ve had all this time to think and still don’t have a legitimate answer. That’s one of those questions I spent a lot of time thinking about in writing “Sand Castle.” In the script, the main character comes to realize that one of the reasons he joined the military, went through this war experience, was to, in a way, earn the love of a father he never met. That’s very much my story. I didn’t meet my dad until I was 27. My dad was a career military guy, was an Army Ranger, was a Special Forces guy, and was very much that guy. He’s a very tough person.
What I discovered in writing “Sand Castle” was that my motivation to join the military had something to do with him. I created, over the years, a hyper realized image of him and allowed it to bully me.
I don’t think it’s an accident that I met him after my war experience, and not before.
Scott: You say you met your dad when you were 27. Did you know he was a military man before you enlisted in the army yourself?
Chris: I did. My mom and my dad actually met in the military. I was very lucky growing up because my mom, who’s a very tough lady, never said anything bad about my biological father. Just the opposite, actually. We only talked about how strong and capable he was, how dedicated he was to something larger than himself. I think that over the years I spun that narrative into something much larger.
I think a lot of young men draw motivation from their father, living up to their father. For me, I spent all of this time imagining him to be something quite large, so I had to do something quite large myself, to earn the right to have a conversation with him.
Scott: So you join the army. How aware were you of the likelihood that we were going to be going to war in Iraq and that you might end up serving there?
Chris: I signed up July 11th, 2001. When I signed up, it was a very different military than the one I would end up serving in; there was no war on the horizon. After signing up and after September 11th, I would spend the next three years of my life away from my family and on the other side of the world, far away from anyone I had any history with whatsoever. It was a very scary time, but I got to spend some formative years just learning how to be a man. Learning how to see the world and figuring out what my place in it would be.
So it was a blessing. But at the same time it’s very hard to only see your parents for two weeks in three‑years.
Scott: After you returned stateside, you ended up at USC?
Chris: Yeah. I went to USC and got my undergraduate degree in poetry then went straight to grad school. I did this program USC has called the Peter Stark Producing Program which is a two‑year Masters program in creative producing.
Scott: Poetry isn’t probably the first thing that comes to mind when we think of a person with a military background. How did you become interested in that?
Chris: I’ll be honest with you, I think if someone told me in high school that I would be a poetry major, I would’ve probably punched them in the face. War does something to you, though. I got to USC with this new perspective but I felt lost. I was looking for something to help me put my war experience into perspective.
I took a poetry class and I had a great professor. It was one of those great college stories where you stumble upon something that becomes life changing. Poetry was that. I spent a lot of time reading short stories and novels and poems from Great War novelists, if you can call that a category. I really connected to these people even though they served in much different wars than my own.
Scott: Going on to the Peter Stark Producing program at USC, what were you thinking there?
Chris: Having received my degree in poetry, and spending all that time work shopping poems, I didn’t want to get a Masters in screenwriting because I felt like I’d just spend another two years doing more workshops. If I was going to spend money and two years of my time at my program I wanted it to be a new experience. So, I went to the Peter Stark program, and it was the best education I could have asked for. It gave me two years of very intense but practical tools. A year of creative filmmaking and writing and development, then a year of just down and dirty business.
Tomorrow in Part 2, Chris reveals how he was inspired to write “Sand Castle” based on his experiences in Iraq.
Please stop by comments to thank Chris and ask any questions you may have.
Chris is repped by CAA and Management 360.
Twitter: @PokeyMiraLoma.