Interview [Part 2]: Brian Duffield

In Hollywood development circles, Brian Duffield is a popular figure. As evidence, two of his original screenplays have made the Black List: Your Bridesmaid is a Bitch and Jane Got a Gun, putting him on the 10 Screenwriters to Watch in 2013 list. In addition, he sold his spec script Monster Problems to Paramount in 2012 and has written on a big budget franchise movie: Insurgent. And if that’s not enough, Duffield is slated to make his debut as a director on his own script Vivien Hasn’t Been Herself Lately.

Brian is an active presence on Twitter (you should definitely follow him: @BrianDuffield) and we’ve gotten to know each other over the years, so I was pleased to have the chance to interview him.

In Part 2, we dig into Brian’s script “Monster Problems”:

Scott: Let’s jump into Monster Problems as long as we’re talking about it. That’s really fascinating what you were just saying there, your process. How you went from that. It’s interesting because I remember reading a summary of it in the trades when it sold and it’s described as a post-apocalyptic road movie in the vein of Mad Max and Zombieland with a John Hughes-esque love story at it’s center.

Brian: I’ve still never seen Mad Max, so I don’t know what that’s about.

Scott: When I read it, I thought it’s “The Odyssey” meets Jurassic Park.

Brian: That’s cool!

Scott: Because he’s trying to get back to his Penelope, Odysseus, and he’s got this journey in which he has to face all these major obstacles including some, literally, monsters. Then for you, I know, I’m following on Twitter, that you are a huge Jurassic Park fan.

Brian: Yeah, definitely.

Scott: How much fun for you to physicalize those things that are inside himself outside himself in the form of a Cereberus Rex, right?

Brian: I can get really nerdy about how all the different monsters represent different dating obstacles. There are really specific reasons. I created like 20 or so monsters going in and then whittled it down by like 5.

Weird, nerdy teen stuff that I’ve never told anyone and that I probably never will tell anyone, but that’s how I came up with it. They’ll probably all get cut out just to hurt me.

Scott: You’re saying the actual monsters you came up with, Brian, where in some ways tied to dating experiences and whatnot? They sort of arose from that?

Brian: Yeah, yeah, in terms of either dating obstacles or the kind of people you wind up dating and trying to find relationships with and they’re not the right fit.

The biggest and most important thing about the monsters in Monster Problems was that all the monsters were single. It was an idea that I, well, it’s also a Jurassic Park idea to some extent, but it’s also something that I just wanted to build out thematically so he’s not just fighting what could just be cool monsters, but I wanted a reason as to why it was this kind of monster even if it’s never addressed or discussed. These creatures have made a lonely world a lonelier place, and it would be really boring if there were just packs of monsters hanging out. We’ve all seen that before. I thought it would just be funny, and hopefully a little meaningful, if Joel almost relates more to the monsters than he does to people.

I think that’s true to how I try to write, especially if I’m writing in genre. I definitely want it to reflect the character as much possible in whatever situation it is.

Scott: I think it’s one of those themes that you see in your writing which is, for lack of a better word, your stories are very personal. It’s like you go beyond this idea of we’ll create a sympathetic protagonist. You really ground the story in the life of the protagonist.

Just like what you’re talking about there. The very idea of creating a set of monsters that is somehow reflective of some of the psychological issues that the protagonist in Monster Problems, Joel, has had to face. That’s very character grounded. In fact, this idea, the basic premise that there is a post-apocalyptic world, these monsters have basically trashed our Earth so there are these pockets of humans that are living together.

Joel, the protagonist lives with this group, but he’s essentially a loner amongst these survivors, each of whom seems to be making out and he’s not, but there is this girl on a short wave radio that he knows in this other group that he essentially has a fantasy relationship with.

That sets the goal for him. Now he has to go find her, but, again, it’s grounding it in a very personal way. Does that idea of personal storytelling, does that resonate with you? Does that feel like something that you do?

Brian: Absolutely. I think for me that’s where my best work has always been, especially for Monster Problems. I think that for those things I was very much going through totally different experiences at the time.

I think song writers, Taylor Swift, well, not Taylor Swift, I think I’ve over used that example before, but song writers always sing about the crap they’re going through. I feel that for me as a screenwriter it’s no different except I’m really tone deaf at singing so that’s just been the avenue where I can deal with those issues and those fears, and it’s also how I make my living.

I can have fun with it and put giant monsters in it sometimes which is always a joy. I think if it’s not personal, I don’t really care, and if I don’t care about it I can’t expect anyone else to. I think it’s always come from that area. For me it has to be as personal as possible for it to work.

If it’s not that personal to me then I can’t expect it to connect. I can’t expect some reader to respond to it if I’m not responding to it on a personal level. I think probably why people like my writing is because they connect with it.

It’s funny, sometimes I’ll meet execs and they’ll assume things are way too true to life than they actually are. When Bridesmaid came out I had a couple of execs tried to set me up with people, which was hilarious. No one did. No one succeeded, at least, but it’s funny.

Scott: You know, it’s interesting. Let’s talk about that sort of personal screenwriting. In Monster Problems, basically at the end of a battle with a monster and you almost shift the perspective to the monster and realize that they’re about to die and it’s sad.

Even in the process, you yourself as a screenwriter can identify with these quote-unquote nemesis-like characters. Does that feel like something that you went through in your process?

Brian: Yeah, in Monster Problems especially, it was because I was single. My dog even gets lonely, so I tried to put that in all different monsters so even if they are trying to eat Joel or Boy, the dog, there is also this kind of excitement that they have, that there is someone else to spend a little bit of time with. Especially a couple of monsters in there where it seems really sad when they die and I think if you kind of go back, there’s no point where they’re actually harming or even intentionally harming Joel or Boy if they are, I think it is unintentional or Joel did something to piss them off. The different monsters along the way have this need for companionship and they interpret it poorly because they’re monsters. Just like most guys.

Scott: You also did this with Boy, the dog. At one point you go into the dog’s POV to see a memory of essentially why he, the dog is so lonely? You even said in scene description, “The saddest dog in the history of cinema.”

Brian: Maybe more than any character I have ever written, people talk to me the most about Boy. Up until days before I handed in my first draft of the Monster Problems, Boy was an anthropomorphic dog-boy. He was like a little child werewolf that just started following Joel around with two legs and the same characteristic and the same everything as the dog has in the final script. He didn’t talk or anything, but I never thought of him as a pet. I didn’t have my puppy at the time, so I was unfamiliar with pet obsession.

There’s a lot of world building in Monster Problems, and it felt like having a creature character took it a degree too far into nerd territory, where it takes away from Joel because suddenly you’re paying attention to a little CG dude all the time. It could have been cool but it kind of took away from Joel and now you are paying attention to this new creature beside him the whole movie where if it’s a normal dog, you kind of go with it. It was really just a matter of deleting two or three lines throughout script to turn him into a regular dog.

I wish I could take all the credit for being, like, “You’re really clever giving him like this great arc for a dog.” I totally backed into it by accident by starting him off as a mutant with a character arc and wound up editing it down to a dog. I really just backed into that one so it was just… It’s just how I like to write; kind of starting off from one place and figuring out the best route to go.

Scott: One way you that you keep the story focused on Joel is that you did voiceover narration. He’s writing a series of letters to this girl that he’s fantasized about. How is that using voiceover narration? Did you enjoy that?

Brian: No, it was really tough for me. I’d be thrilled to never use voice over again. I think the middle act of Monster Problems is the toughest act of anything I’ve ever had to write. It was really hard to have a character going through this kind of metamorphosis that he is going through while he’s only talking to a dog who can’t talk back to him. It was really hard to continue the tone that I wanted and so the letters came out of that. I thought about The Lord of the Rings a lot, where it’s kind of like Frodo and the ring. Every couple of minutes you get reminded about the ring and how it’s affecting Frodo and is pushing him forward on that quest.I actually kind of needed that where every few minutes you know he’s still going forward after surviving the previous monster attack. You kind of want that thing pushing it forward.

Scott: Yeah, to remind the reader and the audience.

Brian: It was miserable. I did not enjoy it. He’s a guy that doesn’t have any experience with girls so the letters he writes are really like sweet and innocent and cheesy. You really want to buy the idea that Joel is not after this girl to get laid but he really just wants to have a candlelight dinner and talk to a girl. It’s really hard too to have this guy writing realistic letters that aren’t coming across as really cheesy, in a bad way.

I had a really tough time, but I was really happy as how it turned out. I think I spent more time on that more than anything else I’ve ever written.

Scott: Well clearly it works.

Brian: I hope so. Thank you.

Tomorrow in Part 3, we learn about how Brian broke into the business and start to analyze his first Black List screenplay “Your Bridesmaid Is A Bitch.”

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Brian is repped by Gersh and Circle of Confusion.

Twitter: @BrianDuffield.

Instagram: http://instagram.com/briancduffield.

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