Interview (Part 3): Alisha Brophy & Scott Miles (2014 Nicholl Winners)

Alisha Brophy and Scott Miles wrote the original screenplay “The United States of Fuckin’ Awesome” which won the duo a 2014 Nicholl Fellowship in screenwriting. Alisha, Scott and I had a great interview which I will be rolling out in 6 installments this week.

Today in Part 3, Alisha and Scott talk about three main characters in their Nicholl winning script: George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson:

Myers: Let’s talk about the three primary characters because I want to get your take on how you developed them: Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington.

How would you describe Benjamin Franklin’s persona in the script?

Alisha: Accurate.

Myers: [laughs] Party guy?

Scott: Yeah, and Franklin really was. I think he was the one that we had to add the least amount of our own work, just because Franklin is such an over‑the‑top character already that we could just have a lot of fun with him. He is the guy who’s in his own world. He doesn’t really have a character arc. He’s Franklin at the beginning and still crazy, party guy Franklin at the end.

Myers: Yeah, that’s exactly right. I noticed, of the three characters, he really doesn’t go through any change. In fact, he’s more of a change agent, like a trickster. He’s constantly getting into trouble because of his appetites, both for women and alcohol.

Scott: Definitely.

Myers: In comparison, let’s talk about George Washington. How would you describe his character?

Alisha: He has no self‑awareness, and he thinks of himself as a leader. His character arc is getting to the point where instead of demanding respect he’s earned it and can actually go forth as a leader, becoming the president that we all know him for later on.

Myers: How did you come up with his voice? He’s so funny.

Alisha: If you were to read an old draft of this script he’s not funny at all. We fell into what we called the “hall of presidents” version. Because he’s so iconic, we all share a memory of this man as stoic and honest and all these things that it couldn’t help but bleed into the dialogue and voice we gave him, and it was boring.

Once we realized the mistake we were making, we talked through what his character arc was, realized where we have to start him, and that put us on the path of the fun Washington we have now.

Myers: See if I get this right. You said, “OK, we know where he needs to go. He needs to become this leader so let’s start him, essentially, 180 degrees away from that, where he doesn’t have self‑awareness, he thinks he’s a leader but doesn’t really have that.” How did that take inform the development of his comedic voice?

Scott: It was definitely trial and error. We would take a couple of Washington‑heavy scenes and maybe try it a few different ways. Then we said, “This is a big, broad, ballsy comedy. Let’s just push it as far as we can go,” and we tried a few lines in the style we have now. We just laughed so hard at that and thought, “This is crazy, but let’s try it on another scene,” and it worked there too.

Myers: As I was reading, I could hear John McClane from Die Hard, that sort of bravado, blue collar guy. You’ve got Rooster Cogburn, overly profane. Even a splash of Jeff Lebowski because he throws in a “dude” every once in a while. He’s like this profane, blue collar, bravado dude.

Scott: I think that’s pretty accurate. That’s who we need as a president, I think.

Myers: Let’s get to Thomas Jefferson. Interestingly enough of the three lead characters, it seems like he went through the most significant transformation.

Alisha: It really is his story. People say, “This broad, raunchy comedy,” but for us, it’s a character study. The whole thing is wrapped around Jefferson’s character arc.

Myers: Could you describe his starting place and endpoint?

Scott: Once we hit upon the idea of retrieving the stolen Declaration, we learned about the relationship between Jefferson and John Adams, which was true. They really did have a contentious relationship.

Maybe it’s just as writers we gravitate toward the writer in the story, wanting to see him get confidence enough to see this through.

Alisha: Also, you have to remember with the three, Franklin did not have any character arc. We gave Jefferson and Washington, basically, the opposite ones. Washington is someone who demands respect and hasn’t earned it. Then we have Jefferson who —

Scott: — He’s earned it, but he doesn’t demand it yet.

Myers: Of course, he has a little bit of writer’s block there, too, writing the Declaration of Independence. I think part of his journey is to get in touch with his righteous anger and indignation. That whole sewer scene, essentially, where he’s really getting into the spirit of writing the Declaration of Independence.

You mentioned this idea of them losing the Declaration of Independence, which sets up, essentially, this investigation which becomes the backbone of this second act. How long into the process did that idea come to you, that sort of Hangover idea where they’ve got to recover something they lost?

Alisha: That really was at the very, very, very beginning because I remember early writer’s groups talking about other versions of this idea, and we just were not going to let that part of it go.

Myers: With that, I’m assuming that you also hit on this idea of a compressed time frame. Essentially, this story is going to take place very quickly, over the course of 24 hours?

Alisha: Yeah.

Myers: There’s a certain advantage to that because you can really sustain pace.

Alisha: I hope no one fact checks us. If they were to actually sit down with a map of New England and starts timing out how long it takes to get from place to place… We may have fudged that a bit.

Myers: Let’s talk about the first page of your script. I tell students one of the things they need to do in a script is convey the genre and the tone to the reader as quickly as possible just to help them get oriented. You do that wonderfully in your script, the contrast between the contemporary way you introduce it, the stuffy, grammatically sealed Declaration of Independence with this nerdy guy talking about it.

Then you cut to July 4th, 1776 where you have this description. “On the steps of the courthouse stand Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Ben Franklin bloody, bruised, wearing only underwear. Jefferson is half covered in tar and feathers.” Right there you’re saying to a reader this is not a biopic.

You put a cherry on top with this little cliffhanger when Jefferson says, “We’re all going to die,” setting up some pretty significant stakes.

I always try to end my first page of a script with a cliffhanger, some sort of something, big or small, to motivate the reader to go to the next page, start that forward momentum. And there at the very bottom of your Page 1, you’ve got title over black ‑‑The United States of Fuckin’ Awesome. That first page says so much and does so much. I’m curious how long you slaved over that first page or did it just magically come out?

Alisha: I do remember the moment when we started our first page, and Scott wrote the word “nerd‑boner.” That is from the very first line and it’s like the one line of the whole script that never changed. I thought it was so brilliant because it immediately says, “Hey, this is not some historical drama. We’re starting with the word nerd‑boner.” That’s always been there to set the tone.

But then we did slave over the first page forever because we were so determined to have all our main characters on the first page, to have a cliffhanger, to show how crazy the script will get if you stick with us for the first opening pages of set up and to be able to juxtapose the bland world of the Declaration of Independence now with what we want to explore. We had to get all that on one page. It took forever.

Tomorrow in Part 4, more discussion of the script “The United States of Fuckin’ Awesome”.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, here.

The duo is repped by Paradigm and Circle of Confusion.

Twitter: @alishabrophy, @scottmiles.

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