Interview: Chris Roessner (2012 Black List) — Part 6

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 having served as a machine gunner during the 2003‑2004 invasion and occupation.

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 6, Chris covers more parts of the screenwriting craft:

Scott: What’s your actual writing process like?

Chris: I like to start early in the morning with reading. I’ll read for about an hour or two then disappear to a coffee shop and write for a few hours. I’ll come home and probably not start writing again until that evening. If I’m toying with things, or writing a treatment, or trying to convince someone to hire me to write, that’s how I work.

With “Sand Castle,” it was not difficult for me to write sometimes eight to 12 hours straight, which I know is absurd. But when I have the project that I’m writing and I know that’s my job, that’s my soul’s reason for being, I can go for eight to 12 hours and not really bat an eyelash.

But, again, that’s not the case all of the time, only when my attention has been focused on a single goal.

Scott: I can’t pass up this opportunity, Chris. I have a good friend who’s a poet, and for years, he badgered me to read poetry. I started doing it, a poem a day, about seven, eight years ago. Over time I was struck by how screenplay scene description is much more like poetry than prose. Minimum words for maximum impact, brevity, using strong descriptors, active verbs. Having studied poetry, would you agree?

Chris: Without a doubt. I think poetry, much to our collective detriment, gets much less credit than it deserves. It’s been so important to me, because it taught me economy of language, and it made me think long and hard about particular word choice.

I remember reading an interview with a Supreme Court Justice years ago, back when I was studying poetry. He was asked, “If you could tell undergraduates to study anything before law school, what would you tell them to study?”

He said, “Poetry, without a doubt. Because you learn the power of a single word, and you learn to choose your words very, very carefully, because as a lawyer, the words you choose will have pretty grand implication.”

Now, obviously, in screenwriting, my words don’t have the kind of implications that it would have if I were a lawyer, but nonetheless, it forces me to be comfortable spending a considerable amount of time thinking about word choice and honoring the importance of a particular word. And not just breezing by it.

So I think poetry has been incredibly valuable. And I think will continue to be. Although, if I’m being honest, it probably slows me down a little bit.

Scott: Where do you see yourself in 5‑10 years?

Chris: I love writing. Very much. But I’m not the type of person who can easily sit in a basement his entire life pumping out 3 or 4 scripts a year. I wish I were. But knowing myself and knowing what brought me out to Hollywood in the first place, people like Simon Kinberg or Akiva Goldsman or JJ Abrams, I’d like to find myself in 5–10 years with a small company, a producing partner, and the freedom to write only the films I feel passionate about without regard for sustaining finances. I love writers and sometimes working with other writers is more fulfilling than doing a screenplay of one’s own.

If, in 5–10 years, I were in a position where I was encouraged to write projects I loved but could also help people develop their careers and realize their visions, nothing would make me happier.

Scott: That’s a perfect segue for the final question I have for you. Talking about young writers, or aspiring writers. What advice would you offer to someone out there, maybe someone who’s in Temple, Texas, like where you grew up, who wants to break in, wants to become a screenwriter? What are the important practices or messages that you would give to them, in terms of how they would advance their understanding of the craft and succeed at it?

Chris: I really want to get this right, because when I was coming up I would read these types of interviews all of the time. So I want to say something that at least nudges up against honesty and has some merit.

I would say that, when getting started in Hollywood, you should spend as much time thinking about the quality of your life, in the immediate, as you do about your career. Meaning, I’ve seen a lot of people show up in town, it seems, trying to win an Oscar by next year. I think if you show up and look at your career as a 30‑year endeavor you’ll work hard but also calm down in those first few years. Make friends who will serve as a great support group. Set up your life. Find out what neighborhood you want to live in.

That stuff is as important as anything else. Because anybody will tell you that being successful in Hollywood is, without a doubt, a war of attrition. If you don’t lay solid groundwork from the beginning, you really don’t have a shot, unless you get lucky from the get‑go. Don’t underestimate the importance of setting up your life, because it will give you the best chance. We are all creatures of our environment, chose yours wisely.

For Part 1, go here.

For Part 2, go here.

For Part 3, go here.

For Part 4, go here.

For Part 5, go here.

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

Chris is repped by CAA and Management 360.

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