Interview (Part 3): Aaron Guzikowski (“Prisoners”)
One of the best movies of 2013 was Prisoners, written by Aaron Guzikowski, directed by Denis Villeneuve, and starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal. So I was thrilled to have the opportunity to have an hour-long conversation with Aaron about his background as a writer, his work on Prisoners, his involvement in the new Sundance Channel TV series “The Red Road” and his thoughts on the craft of screenwriting.
Today in Part 3, Aaron reveals the rationale behind several key narrative choices he made in writing the script Prisoners:
Scott: I’d like to work through the story, and get your thoughts on some of the narrative choices you make. The opening scene, the father Keller is out with his son, and they’re hunting a deer. How did that come to you, and why that scene for an opening?
Aaron: The scene has a lot to do with the fact that Keller’s trying to teach his son to survive. He’s trying to teach him to be ready for anything. The hunting the deer is a very visceral way to start telling a story. Of course, he tries to instill these values in his son, and be prepared to anything. He has a basement stocked with all this survival gear, but at the end of the day, he’s in no way prepared for the fate that life does have in store for him. It comes out of that.
Scott: Keller’s a religious man, a god‑fearing man. What was the inspiration for you with that?
Aaron: I was brought up Catholic, so I definitely have it knocking around in my brain anyway. I’m not a practicing Catholic, but I often make connections to Catholic iconography or Bible stories, and things like that. It’s an attractive thing to layer into certain types of stories for whatever reason. There’s mystery to it, and all the connotations that come along with it that are always interesting, but also it’s just part of the world.
He’s just a religious guy, and the idea that when the chips are down, you look to God, the whole idea of what that means, and the question of whether or not God is listening to you, and how that plays into the larger story.
Scott: I thought that was an interesting choice for several reasons. One, I figured this story has got a philosophical set of questions at the heart of it, in some ways, with regard to how far a person will go in order to do something, specifically related to torture. By having him a god‑fearing man, a religious man, who would presumably have a very strong moral code, like right and wrong, that really set up that tension even more strongly.
Aaron: That’s absolutely true. It added an extra layer to the whole thing, in terms of his internal dilemma.
Scott: In the script Grace, in referring to the daughter’s fixation on this lost red whistle ‑‑ that’s a great little subplot that whistle, by the way ‑‑ she says, “She’s just like her father. She can’t let anything go.” I thought is that a tip‑off to Keller’s obsession that we see play out with Alex Jones, later on?
Aaron: Yeah, absolutely, it definitely is. He is that kind of guy. It’s his greatest strength, and it ends up being this thing that almost destroys him, even though it’s all in the pursuit of trying to find his daughter. The idea that you have someone who will never give up, never say die, and you put them in a situation with such a narrow path to the lights.
It makes it extraordinarily painful, just because he’ll never give up regardless of what the consequences might be. He gets that singular purpose and that drive inside of them. The same drive that pushed him to put all these supplies down in his basement and teach himself how to survive and do all these other things.
Scott: The two girls, Anna and Joy, go missing on the script at page 10. I’m assuming that the movie is probably around minute 10. I’m sure you’re aware of that whole conventional wisdom among script readers, right? Hook them by page 10.
Aaron: Right.
Scott: Was that a conscious choice on your part to get to the kidnapping by page 10? Or was that just a natural evolution of the story development process?
Aaron: I think it was just organic. I’m not super aware, other than basic acts one, two, and three, in terms of what should happen on what page and all that stuff. I wanted it to happen early on in the story. It was definitely more about what happens after these girls go missing is the story. You want to get to that as soon as possible.
Scott: Let’s switch to Loki, the Jake Gyllenhaal character, the cop. You give an interesting little bit of business in terms of his background, where he’s known for having solved every case he’s ever been assigned. I’m assuming you did that to add pressure to his character? He’s got a streak, so in addition to everything else, he’s got this thing to live up to?
Aaron: Yeah, exactly. I just love the idea that he thinks this is just going to be one more case that he’s going to solve, when this is the case that is going to break him, essentially. Then that kind of pressure he has on himself. He’s a climber and he’s trying to get ahead. In some way, Keller, in a sense, has this insane sense of drive.
In a case like this, it becomes completely illusive in terms of actually solving everything and slowly drives him nuts because he is that kind of person.
Scott: There’s a big fork in the road from a narrative standpoint midway through act one. Should we know Alex is guilty or should it be up in the air? In effect, you chose the latter. Why did you make that choice, that we don’t know if Alex is guilty?
Aaron: I just think it’s important and a large part of the story is a “Who done it?” You have to in keeping certain things hidden from the viewer. It’s just essential, in a sense, in a move like this. It’s part of the game and part of the fun. The fun of watching it is you don’t know and trying to figure it out. Trying to put forth enough information where it’s not a cheat, but also concealing things in order to just maximize those reveals when they do happen.
Scott: There’s a beat in the script where Alex and Keller meet in the parking lot, and Alex whispers something to Keller. In the script it’s spelled out, it’s what Keller tells people that he whispered. In the movie, it’s not entirely clear what he said. Why that decision?
Aaron: I think when you see it on the page. In the movie he hears something. Then afterwards he tells the captain, “Look, I heard him say in the parking lot he didn’t cry until I left him.” You can only barely hear it when it’s actually when we see it happen on film. In a way, I think it’s good. You always want to believe, “Did he really hear that? Did you really hear that? Or did he just want to hear it?” That’s always a good thing to keep up in the air.
Scott: I thought that was a great choice. He could have actually said it. Or it could be an example of Keller’s obsession that he interprets it that way or wants him to have said it.
Aaron: Exactly, yeah. I think that’s to keep that questioning thing alive.
Tomorrow in Part 4, Aaron digs into the mindsets of the two lead characters, Keller and Loki
For Part 1, go here.
Part 2, go here.
Aaron is repped by Verve and Madhouse Entertainment.
[Originally posted February 19, 2014]