Interview (Part 4): Tess Morris (“Man Up”)

Tess Morris wrote the screenplay for the movie Man Up, a romantic comedy starring Lake Bell and Simon Pegg, directed by Ben Palmer. Generating strong reviews, the movie opens this weekend in the United Kingdom, and has been picked up for distribution in North America by Saban Films.

I recently had a wonderful conversation with Tess in which we covered a lot of territory. I will be rolling out that interview in several installments this week.

Today in Part 4, Tess and I analyze a critical choice she made in terms of the plot that would seem to go against conventional rom-com wisdom, but really elevates the story:

Scott: So when Nancy says that fateful line, “I am waiting for you,” and off they go, she and Jack, he is assuming that she’s Jessica. She doesn’t even know what her supposed name is. She finds that out later. You’ve got this deceit playing out on multiple levels. First there’s this practical thing where she’s got to pretend to be someone she isn’t.

That includes basically trying to ferret information from Jack about this Jessica woman so that she can deftly fill in details of her life that match up with what he knows about her. How much fun was that to explore Nancy under pressure for that first part of act two?

Tess: It was really good fun, because obviously the act break is quite early at the end of act one. I’m a bit of a geek about page count and where the act breaks are and all of that. Technically, actually, the end of act one is probably when they’re in the bar and then he says “Let’s go bowling,” because she’s just about to tell him the truth, because she suddenly feels a bit bad.

But it was just really good fun to write a scene where someone is trying to be flirty and interesting, but has no idea what she needs to be in order to do that, if that makes sense. Because usually if you’re on a setup and you’ve been told things people like, you can totally adhere to them and drop in things and whatever.

Whereas Nancy has no idea who she’s meant to be [laughs] That was a lot of fun when he says to her, “What have you got to worry about kids? You’re 24.”

And Lake and Simon had a lot of fun with that whole date sequence because it’s quite a kooky screwball thing. They’re chatting. He’s not being himself either, remember, which is also important to that theme. Because Jack is trying to play this laid back dude and trying to be a bit cool and talk about his dating life, women that he’s met, on the street [laughs] and all of those things that he says.

They’re both pretending to be people that they’re not, and that’s how I approached it when I was writing it. I just thought, “Don’t forget that Jack is also not very confident and has no idea really how he wants to be in this scene, either.” That dynamic was very helpful when I was writing that scene.

Scott: The subtext underneath all that is that at some point, she’s going to have to come clean. So there’s that tension you can mine as well, right?

Tess: Yeah, and I think for the audience… that’s why, like I was saying earlier, it was very important that she reveal it at the right time, so that she has enough time to be someone else and have some fun with it, but then she also realizes that it’s time now to come clean.

Also she doesn’t expect him to have such an adverse reaction [laughs] to her…by that point they’ve had a good time, so the thinks, “Oh, I’ll tell him and it’ll be fine and the date will continue.” But no, that’s not quite how Jack feels about it.

Scott: Yeah, let’s talk about that, because that’s a really interesting choice. It sounds like you grew up on ’80s movies.

Tess: Yes.

Scott: I came into the business in the ’80s. Reading the script when she makes that reveal, who she is, I was thinking, “Well, if this is an ’80s comedy, they would have sustained that all the way to the end of Act Two.” And that would have been the big revelation and the All Is Lost moment.

But this comes out much earlier in your script. You’ve talked about that. I was just curious, what was your thought process in making that choice so that she makes that revelation around 40 or 45.

Tess: Yeah. I suppose you’re building up towards your midpoint, and ours is obviously when they bump into his ex. But when I wrote the first draft, I wrote it in a much more conventional way. I was holding onto her reveal of not being his date, holding onto it for as long as possible…

It was only around about the second or third personal draft that I did that I was like, “What am I doing? She’s got to tell him much earlier,” because that’s when the fun really begins. [laughs]

That’s when you can really go for it. Also, when you’re writing… I remember getting to the scene, and thinking… but what if he’s furious at her?” That’s really fun. You know? Like you were talking about, in the ’80s movie structure, it would be your end of Act Two, and he’d be devastated and he’d storm off and he’d make the wrong decisions.

Meanwhile, bringing that forward meant that you had a much meatier Act Two, which is obviously always nice! I don’t know. Just, again, another sort of unlocking moment for me where I realized I could suddenly do a lot more with the film and that they were actually then finally being themselves. Then, when they start to like each other, they’re liking each other as themselves, which is a obviously a much stronger emotion to witness, and gives us a much better end of Act Two turning point.

Scott: That’s a really good point. That may zero in on why I had some antipathy toward romantic comedies. If they, taking the ’80s approach, had lived this illusion for the middle of the story, and then the revelation happened at the end of Act Two, would I buy that they would have enough time in that final act to get their thing together?

They haven’t really been dealing with each other in a genuine way; whereas, in your story, that choice you made, a credible choice, it seems to me, is they do get a chance to see each other. There’s a whole sequence where he’s just basically furious at her, and then she gets angry at him. So they get to see themselves at their worst, in a way.

Tess: Exactly.

Scott: Then you have a big twist where now his ex‑wife is there with the new guy, so there’s a whole thing where she’s got to live the deceit now again, but in a different sort of motivation, doing it on his behalf, right?

Tess: Yeah. It’s a key point, obviously, a key emotional turning point. They’re furious at each other, and then we also have Nancy’s little moment, a little lull in the movie, where she goes off into the bathroom to have a bit of a quiet moment, which you really need by then, because it’s been quite frenetic so far. And she has a little mini cry in the bathroom and thinks to herself “Why did I do this?”

When she goes back out, Jack sees her for the first time. When you see the film, you’ll see, it’s very nicely done, because she comes out and there’s just this little moment in Simon’s eyes where he suddenly goes, “Oh, right. I’m seeing you as you now.” But the big turning point moment is when he puts his arm around her and says, “This is my girlfriend, Nancy.” [laughs]

It’s so important that you believe why people are doing things in films, obviously, but I worked really hard on that… There’s two sides to Jack when he asks Nancy to do this favor for him. Yes, he’s saying do me a favor because you owe me, but also, he sort of fancies her at this point. So there’s a dual thing going on. He’s pretending that it’s “Oh, I want to do this to get closure,” but he’s also starting to go, “Hmm, do I like this girl?’.

And then, what follows… you know, in “When Harry Met Sally,” the midpoint is her fake orgasm, and I wanted to pay homage to that, in Nancy’s porn star speech. This is very much an ode to that, because it’s very much a metaphorical midpoint rather than an actual action thing, when Nancy does her big speech, and Jack starts to see her as a sexual person, so to speak, rather than just this crazy girl who has stolen his blind date.

It’s actually a really important sequence of events, from the moment they enter that bar until they take to the dance floor and have a dance fight.

Tomorrow in Part 5, Tess talks about the “dance fight” as well as how important setups and payoffs are in comedy.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

For GITS readers in the U.K. who want to see more original movies, especially those of you waiting for an increase in romantic comedies, although I have yet to see it, I can tell you from reading the script, Man Up is an excellent story — funny, touching, human, and surprising — and by all accounts really great entertainment.

In other words, go support Man Up in theaters this weekend!

Tess is repped by WME and Julia Tyrrell Management.

Twitter: @TheTessMorris.