Interview (Part 3): Michele Atkins (2016 Nicholl Winner)

A 6-part chat with the writer of the winning script “Talking About the Sky”.

Michele Atkins wrote the original screenplay “Talking About the Sky” which won a 2016 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently I had the opportunity to chat with Michele about her background, her award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl has meant to her.

Today in Part 3 of a 6 part series to run each day through Saturday, Michele and I delve into two other key characters in “Talking About the Sky” and their connection to the story’s theme of redemption:

Scott: That was the other theme that really struck me, this idea of redemption, of trying to do something to maybe heal some of the wounds from the past. In fact, you mentioned that earlier. I thought that was quite interesting, your comment, “He had stopped drinking,” which is one thing. But he’s basically still living a form of escape, or trying to escape from his past. His journey is in part to confront the impact points of his past.

Michele: Walter lived in a certain sort of purgatory while he was working at the slaughterhouse, and driving around in his little motor home, and not wanting to face the way things are.

He was a little bit of a grouch, a miserable man. Once he was given the death sentence, that is the time where he decided that, “Now is the only time. Am I going to turn this around?”

Although he was not drinking any longer, I don’t think that the healing had begun until…It’s interesting. The healing had not begun until he was dying.

Scott: It calls to mind that “Shawshank” line. “Get busy living. Get busy dying.” It’s interesting, because you’ve got Lynn, his former wife, and then the daughter, Delilah. They’re representing those mistakes that he’s had in the past.

Then along the way, he meets another mother and child, Lily, 48, you describe, when you introduce her, “A dark, long‑haired woman stands outside in a security uniform. She carries a quiet, fearful anger, something like a beaten dog whipped too many times.”

She’s like this security person at this store. He parks his camper in the parking lot. That’s how they intersect.

She’s got this 12‑year‑old son, Hank, who plays guitar. You’ve got those two that are representing, basically, opportunity in the present, perhaps. It’s like a chance for him to do something without the taint of the past. Does that feel like a fair sort of analysis of those characters?

Michele: Yeah, I think that’s a great analysis. I couldn’t put it any better.

Scott: You’ve got this interesting thing going on, where Walter’s going on this journey from the past. Again, he’s got Lynn and Delilah, other people, too.

Then you’ve got this thing in the present. In the end, he commits a redemptive act helping Lily and Hank by intervening in an altercation. It all comes together in that last, very dramatic scene.

Michele: Yes. Lily and Hank gave him an opportunity to be a stand‑up guy. His ex‑wife already had everything. His daughter, Delilah, was denying him the opportunity to heal, because she has her own demons.

She’s got her battle with the booze as well.

Lily and Hank became that opportunity where he could be there for someone. They wanted him in his life. It was a little bit easier for him to help them.

Scott: They weren’t tainted by his past…

Michele: No, they weren’t. Actually, he didn’t want to talk about his past, and where he came from, because he didn’t see himself as that famous country singer, anymore.

He doesn’t even really sing that much in the screenplay. He more just lives his life, and tries to heal. He tried to avoid that past with them, and just start new, start fresh, and try to be of service to them.

Scott: In fact, his stage name is Dobb McKay.

Michele: Yeah, that was his stage name.

Scott: It’s one of those situations where the actual sort of formatting thing, whenever he’s in a situation where someone knows him from his past as Dobb, your character name is Walter/Dobb. It almost reinforces that duality, disunity, that disconnect from the past.

Michele: Yeah.

Scott: I want to talk about the dog, Henrietta. I bet people read the script, say, “I love the dog.”

Michele: She is a main character, you know.

Scott: Sure, she is. She’s got her own subplot. What was the inspiration for Henrietta?

Michele: I’m a huge animal lover. I love watching their personalities as they walk around. Each animal does have a their own unique personality.

When I lived in front of that cow pasture in Tennessee, my brother and I, I kid you not, we were watching “The Waltons” one night. We heard a little scratch at our back door. We opened up the door, and this little puppy mutt came walking in.

When you live in front of a cow pasture, there are a lot of stray animals that come out of there, whether it be kittens or dogs. My mom picked up a lot of dogs, actually. She was always trying to help the strays in our neighborhood.

We got to keep this dog. We had her for about 16, 17 years. We grew up with her. We named her Snoopy. Real original name, huh?

Henrietta was that dog that came from the dog pasture, and was Walter’s first stab at healing.

And having someone or something else than him in his life, became his pal, a little bit begrudgingly on Walter’s part. He doesn’t let her sleep up on the bed with him. It’s not like he treats her like his best friend, at first. The relationship grows.

When she’s taken away, we see how much Walter misses her, and how much she means to him, and vice versa.

He wanted to give Henrietta that choice, to come back to him. After he’s at the hospital, and he comes back out and tries to find her, then we see how much Henrietta really means to him. Then he sees how much Henrietta means to him.

I wanted that opportunity, because at that certain point, before he goes in the hospital, we’re really unsure where Walter’s head’s at.

He’s a little bit of a grouch. He yells at people, is somewhat cordial to Henrietta, but not super nice to her.

After he comes out, and he has that experience, he just realizes now is the time to have, and mend, and nurture these relationships. Henrietta’s one of them.

Scott: The fact he does have a measure of concern for her demonstrates he has the capacity to care about someone else. That gives him a foundation for us to believe that he will go on this journey that he does. Of course, I was so caught up with the dog, I’m thinking, “If Walter’s going to die, I want to know what’s going to happen with Henrietta.”

[laughter]

Michele: You’re not the only one. A couple people came up to me during the Fellowship week, and said, “Boy, I was really concerned about Henrietta. What was going to happen to her?”

Scott: You resolved that quite nicely.

Michele: I think Henrietta ended up at the best place she could be.

Scott: There are two other things I want to talk to you about. One, you have an interesting little bit of business there, where Walter intersects with this old Native American guy. It’s almost like a little bit of magical realism. It’s real, but then you wonder whether it’s some sort of fantasy thing in his mind, acting a kind of mentor figure.

Talking about Geronimo, this character says, “He was warmed by the sun, rocked by the winds, and sheltered by the trees. He could go everywhere with a good feeling.”

It’s a line that Walter, later on, repeats. Could you talk a little bit about what you were going for there, with that little subplot?

Michele: I looked up some old Indian phrases. I was reading about Geronimo. At the same time, I was reading a book about a teacher that went up to Alaska, and was reading about the plight of the Native American Indian and the Alaskan Indians.

I was in a space where there were some really thoughtful pieces coming from that particular piece of literature I was reading, which did not have Geronimo in it, by the way.

It was just something that I looked up, some different phrases. I wanted something musical, whereas Walter walks up, and he becomes first in tune with the music that’s happening.

Then he realizes that this person at the bus stop knows where he’s coming from. He had the same experiences in this roundabout conversation that they have.

He’s a little bit of an inspiration to Walter when he needed someone to talk to. You know the randomness of feeling like you’re meeting someone, and you’re on the same page as them?

I wanted him, when he needed it most, when he’s wandering around the city in his slippers, in his hospital attire to find someone who could get him that piece of advice that could give him the strength to find his way.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, here.

For Michele’s commercial reel, go here.

For my interviews with 24 other Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winners, go here.