Interview: Seth Lochhead — Part 1

Seth Lochhead’s original screenplay Hanna made the Black List in 2006 and was produced, then released in 2011, the movie starring Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, and Eric Bana. Seth’s background is an interesting one, so I was pleased when he agreed to do a Q&A with me. I was even more pleased by Seth’s responses which I am sure you will find both entertaining and informative.

Today in Part 1, Seth provides some details about his personal history and connection to movies and writing:

Where did you grow up and how did you find your way into writing as an interest?

I grew up in various parts of Canada (BC and Ontario) with a one-year sentence to that gulag archipelago known as Hawaii (I am pale and it was torture and whenever I went snorkeling fish with human teeth tried to eat me).

We moved around a lot so I became a painfully awkward and quiet human being whose interests tended toward watching hours and hours of television and movies (most memorably Magnum P.I…. the only solace of my prison sentence in Hawaii was that I might run into Magnum at any moment and ask him, “What you in for?” and we would become best friends and I would take over the helicopter piloting business from T.C. and finally be able to escape back to the mainland and start my life over. I was 6 or 7 at the time… I had big dreams).

Reading wasn’t my bag for the longest time. I was so awkward and quiet it was thought by some that I had a learning disability. It was just that I stuttered and tremored whenever they made me read out loud (you should see me pitch!). So I avoided it — reading in general — as much as possible. By the time I was 17, I had read 5 books (independent of English class) — one by Stephen King (Bag of Bones), 3 by Dead Koontz (Watchers being the most memorable because Corey Haim was in the movie and to me Corey Haim is awesome). And A Clockwork Orange. That was a fucking stupid choice since it wasn’t even written in English and my reading comprehension, if it wasn’t obvious, was lacking. I did get through it though (using the glossary) and that was the most satisfying thing I’d ever done, outside of playing football and, you know, kissing a chick for the first time on New Year’s eve about ten minutes after she’d vomited (she wanted a kiss and as an upstanding gentlemen I obliged). Anthony Burgess taught me a lot. He taught me words have power, but context is a language everyone understands.

What about your educational background including college? Any writing or film classes there?

Officially, I’m in my 13th year of a 4-year university program. I take one class a semester or try to when I’m not bogged down with work. I haven’t been back for a year or two now so I’m not sure I can keep claiming student status (I do use my student card and get discounts wherever they can be had).

I attended a writing program at Vancouver Film School in 2003 or 4. I’m not sure it’s right for everyone. You’re not going to go there and walk out their doors and be a screenwriter. You can, however, use that year and walk out of their doors with a script (if you plan right and don’t give a shit about grades). That was my plan. I was going to get a student loan and I was going to take a year and give writing a shot. I did it and the result was HANNA.

Although I’ve had some great mentors in my life, my main source of learning has been my OCD. I pursue the things that interest me even if they don’t seem applicable or advisable. Reading is a fucking miracle. After my wasted youth, I had no time for fluff so I learned quickly to go to the original thinkers. Why read Vogler when you can read Campbell? I’ve read all the screenwriting books out there (it was apart of the VFS curriculum), but they pale when they’re held up to the works that inspire them. To my benefit, and my ultimate — happy! — suffering, I always knew that to be in this business, to exist and last, you can’t think about writing as a checklist. You have to accumulate knowledge and then shove it, artfully, into the confines of the format (even if you have to split the seams, from time to time).

What are some of the most important or memorable movies from your youth?

I’m not the most emotionally literate human being (from an experience perspective). I’ve had very few life traumas that, you know, build character. I almost killed myself with stress and lack of sleep when we got our puppy last year. For the first week, I stayed up all night, every night, because I thought the puppy was going to die. It was unintentional experiment in sleep deprivation. The first 3 nights I forced myself to stay awake. The next 4, I couldn’t sleep no matter how hard I tried. I got sores on my mouth and I had emotional eruptions that covered all the spectrums — tears and joy — in a matter of minutes. The good news, the puppy lives! The bad news, because I believe Pavlov applies in this instance (to me, not the dog), I am forever conditioned to overreact to life’s obstacles. Long story short, I am this way because most of my youth was filled with life and death scenarios that lasted less than two hours.

The Never Ending Story still fucks with me. Spoiler: Atreyu is dead. Artax is dead. They’re all dead. The nothing consumes all!

Apocalypse Now. It was my Dad’s favorite movie and so it became my favorite movie (I’d watched it once a year until Coppola released redux and ruined everything — I haven’t seen it since). It was the first time I’d experienced something so raw and covered in sweat. It was the first time I experienced Brando and Hopper and Sheen. It was so realistic to me, but I had no prior knowledge of Vietnam, or Heart of Darkness for that matter. It was, to me, a heightened reality that spoke truths I still can’t articulate (nor, me thinks, would I want to).

Return of the Jedi. It was my first star wars movie and it was awesome. Watching it in isolation, out of context of the other pics was a blessing in disguise. Luke’s face was all fucked up. Leia in a metal bikini. Han frozen. I had no fucking idea why this was happening, but, damn, did I want to find out. Sometimes it’s nice not knowing.

Magnolia. The first time I watched it, I watched it three times back to back. 9 hrs plus in one day. I’m not sure it holds up, but there was something that drew me in. Anderson was a young dude and he was putting it on the line. He was trying, pretentiously/ambitiously (I believe pretention and ambition live in the same part of the brain), to say something. I think it was that scene with Donny (William H. Macy) in the bar when Thurston Howell says, “It’s dangerous to confuse children with angels.” (No, I didn’t pull that off the top of my head. Behold, the wonder of YouTube). That one line and Donny’s response to it, to me, sums up the entire picture. Each thread, each character was dealing with his or her past — dealing with the experience of their childhoods and how that builds to create the person in the present, how it influences choices and actions. As Donny sums it up, “…we may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us. And, no. It’s not dangerous to confuse children with angels.” That was pretty revelatory to me. It’s something I think about a lot.

Shakespeare in Love. Dude, this movie made so much sense to me. A writer uses the magic of his words to get laid. It was at that moment I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life: Gwyneth Paltrow*.

Are there writers or filmmakers who have been especially strong influences on you?

So this is a hard question because 1. Everything influences me! And 2. I only discover certain influences as I’m writing. Meaning, if I read a book or I lift some weights or I get sick — if I’m writing at the time — it usually, in some form, makes its way into my work. Sometimes I’m aware of it, sometimes it’s only in hindsight. For example, I just finished a draft of SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS and I can tell you my influences included but were not limited to Eisenstein’s Andrei Nevsky, Tarkovsky’s Ivan’s Childhood, the Samurai film Sword of Doom, The Neverending Story, the trailer for Come and See, my tumblr stream full of photos (Buffalo and vast landscapes and abandoned architecture), my sleep deprivation, my travels, any intense physical activity (I love to lift weights and sweat hard because I tap into the more visceral side of myself, something film has the ability to do on certain occasions — see: There Will Be Blood, don’t see: Transformers 2).

But, again, I must emphasize, all of these influences come in hindsight. As I’ve gained experience, I really try not to be too conscious of my influences because I don’t want them to stifle whatever thread I’m trying to explore. I need to be open to everything and the more you’re influenced by any one source (a film, a how to guide, a personality), the more closed off your world becomes, the more you become a missionary for someone else’s ideas**.

* A joke, yes. But I was 16 years old and my brush with New Year’s eve vomit had not yet come to pass. I would also discover later that Woody Allen — one of the best screenwriters ever! — had similar aspirations (to get laid) and, as it does, it brings me comfort to know that I am not alone.

** By “you”, I mean “I”.

Tomorrow in Part 2, Seth talks about how he wrote Hanna and got it in front of industry insiders.

Please stop by comments to thank Seth and ask any questions you may have.

Will is repped by WME.

Twitter: @SMLochhead.