Interview (Part 6): James Acker

My interview with the 2020 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner.

James Acker wrote the original screenplay “SADBOI” which won a 2020 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with James about his creative background, his award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl Award has meant to him.

Today in Part 6 of a 6 part series, James offers some advice for aspiring screenwriters.

Scott: Well, you nailed it. It’s a terrific script. I can see why the Nicholl judges all responded the way they did to it. Congratulations again on winning. I’d like to ask a few craft questions in the remaining time here.

You mentioned that when you’re writing oftentimes, when you’re getting to know the characters of the story, you’ll do diary, the entries and stuff. What other type of character development and story‑crafting things do you do in the prep classes breaking story?

James: I have a pool of characters that I keep adding to, and it’s not project‑specific. When I’m breaking into a new script, I like to revisit the pool and see if there are any interesting characters or dynamics I have banked that could bring something interesting to the story.

Like for “Sadboi”, Morgan came directly from that pool. Edgar’s former stepmother. Because I knew I wanted this story to be a parade of characters, a tour through a teenage boy’s life, the idea of having an ex‑stepmom was always very interesting to me.

I knew a couple kids like that, growing up. Their parents were divorced. One parent got remarried. They had their new family and it was all very nice. Then those parents got divorced. And these kids had to go to school with their ex‑stepsiblings and still saw their ex‑stepparents all the time. These people that were objectively their family, not that long ago. People they got very close with and now, what? Who are they to you now?

Exploring that dynamic of how you’re supposed to relate to that kind of person in this new environment, that was already something I had in my back pocket from this pool. So, I threw it into “SadBoi.”

Overall, I do a lot of scribble drafts. A lot of focusing on, “OK, so what am I trying to say with each scene?” Picking one‑word themes to summarize and center each scene. Frustration. Misunderstanding. Privilege. Guilt.

Scott: Do you work your way to a scene‑to‑scene outline and prep, or no?

James: I usually just do the scribble draft and take it scene by scene. Here’s a description what happens in this scene. Here’s one line of dialogue that I think will be emblematic in this scene, because I do a lot of dialogue scenes.

Basically, what is the core line? Even if it isn’t going to be literally in the script, what is the one‑line piece of dialogue that sums up what I want to arrive at in this scene?

Doing that scene by scene almost always takes me to the end. But for “SadBoi”, once I got about halfway into the scribble, I just felt a need to jump into writing the draft. I don’t usually like to jump into things blindly but this one felt a little different. Edgar is running nonstop through this story so I thought it might help to just run along with him. I knew I had my characters and the overall structure down, so I let myself just go with it. I didn’t always know what the next scene would be until I got there.

Scott: Do you also think in terms of a central theme? With “SadBoi,” did you have that upfront? Did it occur to you during the course of the writing? The idea of an overarching theme?

James: I would say that “SadBoi” was always more of a feeling I wanted to hit. But the feeling bleeds into every character. This helped me pick from that pool of characters I wanted to use because everybody, for the most part, shares a unifying theme. All the characters he runs into through the story are people tired of getting read wrong. People who are frustrated with their first impressions.

When we meet his old childhood friend Dennis, he seems very affable, kind of goofy, the kind of kid who probably gets casually called “dumb” a lot. He’s one of those friends you probably grew up with, and then you just grew apart from.

Edgar talks down to him a lot even though he’s desperate to crash on his couch. He thinks less of Dennis for being a nice guy. For some reason, that makes him dumb to Edgar. Why would you be nice? What a waste of time. That gut instinct is something Edgar needs to work through.

Marlena, from the jump, is uncaring and unapologetically mean to everyone. But it’s alright because she’s funny. I wanted to introduce someone who shared Edgar’s gut instinct to be an asshole for no good reason. A point they connect on later when Edgar helps Marlena realize how they come off to people.

Then Sammy, as an antagonist, works almost against the theme in that he’s intentionally being read wrong. He’s putting up a very clear image for people to read incorrectly so he doesn’t have to be himself.

And Peter’s parents. The Dangs are perfectly nice, loving people that Edgar spends the script running from. He’s actively avoiding the biggest helping hand in his life because he’s read them incorrectly. In all his grief and trauma, Edgar assumes that the Dangs are looking to scold or punish him for whatever involvement he did or didn’t have in Peter’s passing. I’d say that’s the unifying theme across all these people. Just being misunderstood.

Scott: The impact, it’s almost like predestination. It’s like if people perceive you this way, then how do you gain freedom from that? It’s predestined to be that, right?

James: Yeah. If enough people call you sad, it’s not going to make it happy. If enough people think you’re miserable, it’s going to make you pretty miserable.

Scott: Let me ask you one final question. What advice can you offer to aspiring screenwriters about learning the craft and trying to break into this crazy business?

James: A lot of the old standbys are very true for a reason. My first reaction is to read as much as you can. [laughs] Nothing’s a better motivator than what I feel when I read something I like. Look for the things you like, I’d say is the big thing. Be able to discern what you love. It teaches you so much to listen to what you respond to.

Another thing, some advice that might be a little more specific, is to listen to what you almost love. Almost being the key word. This has helped me a lot. This is something that helps fuel a lot of my ideas.

If you read something or you watch something and you’re like, “This is almost so great.” Listen to that. Pay attention to things that you’re slightly let down by. Look for the B‑pluses and think, “OK, I responded to this so strongly. This was so great for so many reasons. What kept it from being an A for me?” Then unpack that. Listen to the good and the bad.

Like for “SadBoi” in particular, I read so many stories where there were great, cute little summer romances that stand on their own in a lot of ways, but I kept running into that same problem that the characters were not doing the legwork on their own.

They’re being introduced to a person who is solving their problems. Even if that person isn’t magically fixing them, meeting this person is changing everything for them. That’s just not how life works. What if…Then I eventually got to “SadBoi.” What if that person was taken away? What if that process was interrupted? That was the fix in my head, and that’s what got me to this.

Overall, finding what you like and finding ways to make it better is only going to help you be more passionate in what you do because no one knows what you like more than you do. Once you can discern your taste and follow that thread, you’re going to start finding more projects you like writing.

You’re excited. It’s like you’re writing to prove a point. I don’t know. It always keeps me motivated because I’m like, “I loved that. Here’s how I would love it more.” It helps me get to the end of that script.

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.

James is repped by The Gotham Group and Fuse Literary.

Twitter: @JamesUmAcker

For my interviews with every Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner since 2012, go here.

For my interviews with Black List writers, go here.