Interview (Part 4): 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 4, Alisha and Scott continue their discussion about “The United States of Fuckin’ Awesome” and what it as like to win the Nicholl Fellowship:

Myers: Let’s talk about tone, because there’s broad and then there’s broad. Were there things you included originally in the script that you felt, “It doesn’t work.” How did you determine the tone? How did you determine what was going to stay in and what had to get cut?

Alisha: It’s funny because at the Nicholl’s ceremony, the scene that they had the actors read aloud was the brothel scene which was fun. It was a perfect choice. But, a lot of the rest of the script is more action, adventure, and less raunchiness. In fact, most of the raunchier lines are in Act One, establishing this world, and then we go on the fun journey through it.

We don’t try and ever push the raunchiness to just be edgy. Our goal is purely to be funny.

In fact, we cut things that we felt fell a little outside of our comfort zone, including some old‑timey sexual devices that may have be lying around in that brothel scene in earlier drafts. It didn’t add to the humor for us. We also never do…I can’t say it —

Scott: — Scatological.

Alisha: We never try and see if we can outgross anyone. Any of the raunchiness is purely for the comedy.

Myers: The humor, yeah. Part of that, too, is not only the tone, but also you created this screenplay universe, you have certain rules or physics of the universe. There were couple of times, for example, there’s a scene where you’ve got topless working girls. Each set of boobs boasts a colony sash, Miss Delaware, Miss Vermont, all 13 of them. Which is funny. But it stands out because that’s like a 20th century beauty contest thing.

Scott: We only allowed ourselves a few of those such moments. We obviously are staying away from most of the anachronisms, but stuff like that, we thought, “Well, it’s a really funny joke to us and as long as we give ourselves only a handful of those and they are more subtle and you can argue it either way then let it stay.”

Myers: We all know about how each scene is supposed to move the plot forward, but you have some moments that just seem to exist simply because they’re entertaining. Like where Ben Franklin’s been counterfeiting money…

Alisha: Oh, yeah.

Myers: These three Founding Fathers compare counterfeit bills…”You put yourself on the 100‑dollar bill?” Jefferson’s on the two and Washington’s on the one. I thought that was so clever.

Alisha: Right.

Myers: And it doesn’t really add anything to the plot per se. It’s just a moment between these characters strictly to entertain.

Alisha: That’s the thing. Once the characters were solidified, this is what they would argue about. How can you take these three guys and have a scene where you put them in a strip club, basically, where there’s going to be money thrown around. How do you not go for that kind of joke and that kind of conflict?

Myers: Let’s talk about this the old adage, “Give them a big ending.” Your script certainly has that. It sounds like that the roots of it go back to the Manic Pixie Dream girl thing.

Scott: Kind of. Yeah.

Myers: In some ways the ending might have been there even before you had committed to writing the script.

Scott: I think we knew we wanted it to be this big thing with fireworks and we’ll bring back all the characters that we’ve seen throughout the movie, have them part of that big finale.

Myers: How many drafts of the script do you think you wrote before you submitted it to the Nicholl?

Alisha: Each time we write together, we get more and more outline‑heavy. There were many drafts of the outline before we ever hit pages. It’s a little hard to answer just because our outlines get really, really detailed. They’re almost like a script without dialogue.

Myers: Double space them, and put the dialogue in, and you got a script.

Alisha: Yeah.

Myers: You submit this to the Nicholl. Describe that process and how that all unfolded.

Alisha: Scott and I had already landed on the Hit List with the script. And we had been a semifinalist with it the year before. The Nicholl is so prestigious and having a friend have won it you see, first hand, how life changing it is.

So, it wasn’t even something we talked about. It was just, “Oh, look. Nicholl deadline is coming up. Let’s throw USofFA back in the mix and see what happens.” You don’t have to win the Nicholl to have it affect your career.

In fact, Manic Pixie Dream Girl placed pretty high in the Nicholl. Just the script placing high and the log line getting passed around town got us our manager, Ashley Berns at Circle of Confusion. So, the Nicholl was already affecting our career long before this win.

Myers: You’re finalists at this point, right?

Alisha: Mm‑hmm.

Myers: That was big news.

Scott: Right.

Myers: Then you got the call. What were the circumstances there?

Scott: I was sitting in traffic when I got the call, which was perfect. Stuck in my car with nowhere to go, having just come off of a really long day at work. Definitely a great place to have such a life‑changing call. I was like, “Maybe, I won’t have to be sticking in this traffic much longer.”

Myers: How about you, Alisha?

Alisha: For me, I was at work boxing up a room of books. Los Angeles was in the middle of a heat wave. I was moving heavy boxes of books down a staircase to my car when I got the call.

I was standing outside a coffee shop. I did this crazy, little dance, and made some weird noises… the patrons definitely took note. It was the best feeling. I called my mom, and then called Scott, and then realized that I still have to unload that entire car full of books.

Myers: Irony!

Alisha: [laughs]

Myers: And your experience at the recent Nicholl Award ceremony in Los Angeles?

Scott: Amazing.

Alisha: It was the best night of my life.

Myers: What’s the status of the script at this point?

Alisha: It’s still available. The way we see this is we don’t see it as a period comedy in earnest.

We see it more as Drunk History or Monty Python, where part of the humor comes from doing it on the cheap, and letting that be part of the joke.

Myers: Like Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

Scott: Exactly!

Tomorrow in Part 5, Alisha and Scott answer questions about the craft of screenwriting.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

The duo is repped by Paradigm and Circle of Confusion.

Twitter: @alishabrophy, @scottmiles.