Interview (Written): Theodore Melfi

A WGA.org interview with Theodore Melfi, screenwriter-director of the movie St. Vincent.

This film has personal origins for you, yes?

In a nutshell, when my brother passed away, which was just completely out of the blue as you can imagine at 38, he left behind Taylor at 11. Her mom was in jail for selling crystal meth, so there was no mom. Coming from a mob family, I ended up being kind of the only sane one in my family, and that was from 10 years of studying psychology. So my brother died — he was a gun nut and into drugs and everything — and my other brother was in jail at the time. So my wife and I adopted [Taylor]. We ripped her out of Tennessee and brought her to California. We put her in Notre Dame High School. She’s not Catholic, but we just put her there ’cause we thought, Gosh, she’s gotta have some sense that the world is worth something, bigger than her, and good or kind.

So four years ago we put her in Notre Dame, and she goes to a world religion class, and gets a homework assignment — find a Catholic saint that inspires you, and find someone in your real life…

Just like in the film.

Yes, exactly. The film is partially based on a true story. She picked Saint William of Rochester — the patron saint of adopted children — and in real life, she picked me. So it was very touching, and, you know, Hallmark-y.

Vincent seems like he’s a projection of you, your father, and your brother?

He’s a projection of partly me, partly my father, but mostly my wife’s father, who was a Vietnam vet and a complete asshole. Abandoned all of his children. Abandoned my wife at nine. Never talked to her again. Drank, cursed, just did everything you could possibly imagine that was wrong. Then 10 years before he passed away, my wife went to one of these [self-help] seminars…and one of the assignments is to write a letter and get complete with everyone whoever did you wrong, or you did wrong to in your life, clear it up. She writes a dear dad letter, and mails it to this address she finds in the white pages back in East Hampton, Long Meadow, Massachusetts. Two weeks later the phone rings, “Kim, it’s your dad.” And she starts crying. And then she spent the next 10 years of her life with her father, having a love affair with this guy, as a father-daughter, they just became father-daughter, instantly. It changed both of their lives forever, for the best.

Here is a trailer for St. Vincent:

For the rest of the interview, go here.