Interview (Part 7): 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 7, Tess and I dig into her thoughts about the writing craft:

Scott: You mentioned maybe 7, 10 pages working out the story. How much time do you spend on prep writing and what do you focus on?

Tess: I don’t know. I envy a lot of my writer friends who have this very structured approach. It’s actually why I love Kelly Marcel so much because me and her are quite similar in terms of we don’t adhere to churning out a 20‑page treatment. I don’t think Kelly even outlines, although she might have changed now.

Scott: Oh, she tweeted something about a year ago. Because I interviewed her and she’s like, “I don’t like outlines.” At one point she tweeted some pictures of index cards, basically going to the dark side of The Force.

Tess: When I was there… I stayed with her for a bit a couple months ago… she brought these massive Post‑It Notes. We were basically practically having orgasms about them because they were amazing. They were like gigantic Post‑It Notes you could stick all over your walls. [laughs] Fantastic.

No, she probably outlines even less than I do. I like to be able to just write the story out, essentially. Then I like to sprinkle within that the funny stuff, the set pieces, the scenes that I know are going to be the big funny scenes and the emotional turning points.

What I fundamentally need is my graph, which is just a one‑page thing which is based on Billy Mernit’s graph that he does in the book. Which I’ve now tweaked, to my own detriment, probably, because his were so simple and I’ve probably over‑complicated mine.

It’s really just a graph with the seven big emotional turning points for the characters on it, that Billy worked out. Your chemical equation, your set up, your cute meet, your end of Act One, that’s going to turn the story another way and keep your characters together, then your midpoint, that’s going to turn it in another direction, then your end of Act Two… when someone’s going to make the wrong decision, followed by your descent into the dark crisis climax, and then your journey back up to the end of the film, the joyful resolution.

I always felt like Man Up had those seven. They never changed from the earliest draft to the film that you see now, those seven points never changed. If I get those right, early on, then the writing process is much quicker. I can outline based on those seven points.

In fact, usually, I’ll actually do the graph first, and then I’ll do an outline based on those points. I’ll do probably 7‑10 pages. You don’t want to write more than that anyway, especially if it’s going to be something that Rachael, or whoever I’m working with, is going to read.

People can’t concentrate for that long in the modern world, so 7‑10 pages is enough! It just should be telling the story, with your voice, your energy, and should grab whoever is reading it by the balls, and make them, at the very least, want to meet you. And then hopefully make your movie.

Scott: One of the really impressive things about Man Up, and this is just an area that I’m obsessive about, is characters. Again, that’s probably why I like the script more than the typical romantic comedy, because the characters are so well‑defined, even the secondary characters, who are not in the script that much.

How do you go about developing your characters? Are there any specific things, or do you just sort of feel your way through it.

Tess: I definitely just have to write them. I have to know their basic make up, but I’m not really fond of doing the character bio thing before I write. You know how people will write their likes and their dislikes, or they’ll write a big thing about who this character is? I probably prefer to find the characters as I write them… but they’re all usually based on people that I know or have met, which is always a good start.

Often, what I’ll do, especially with a Rom‑Com, because that’s mainly what I write, is just try to have them initially argue about a lot of things, because giving them different points of view, as characters, is always interesting.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that will stay in the script. The one I’m writing at the moment, the other day I suddenly thought, “Oh, I’m losing my thread about who they are as people.” So I just suddenly threw in a topic that they could disagree on, just to bring me back to who they are as people.

Really, I write quite walkie‑talkie movies, so you’ve got to make sure that your characters are interesting enough for people to want to watch walk and talk for an hour and a half. Not necessarily in that antagonistic constant banter kind of way, but just in that they’ve got different opinions, and might end up changing each other’s lives one day…

Also, I just really like people. I really do, genuinely… And even if I don’t like someone, I will want to talk or interact with them anyway, because I’ll be thinking, hmmmm, they might be useful as a future character. [laughs]

Lake Bell and Simon Pegg in Man Up, written by Tess Morris

Scott: You mention you write walkie‑talkie movies and the fact your dialogue is just…

Tess: I love dialogue.

Scott: How do you go about finding your characters voices, or is it just it’s the magic of intersecting with them?

Tess: I’m not sure really… Obviously Nancy is very much a personal version of me in many ways. A friend of mine saw the film recently and said, “Tess, you didn’t tell me it was a biopic.” [laughs]

But I also try and write people, rather than male or female or old or young, whatever. I’ve grown up in a family where we say exactly what we think and we don’t hold back and we swear and we do whatever. So that’s sort of how I approach my character’s dialogue. Let them say what they like! Then you can rewrite it.

Although sometimes, I need to also pull myself back and understand that you don’t need to say everything, Tess. You can show some things. The problem is that I like to say them as well.

So I’m constantly having this battle of, “OK, Tess. That’s a nice little quip and it’s funny but you really don’t need it.”

That was what was so brilliant about working with people like Simon when we got into rehearsals, because I realized how much we could lose. I was like, “You don’t need that line. You don’t need that line.” Because, that’s enough!

But I just like how people talk and I like how people interact. And I can find something in anyone to use in a script. [laughs] Hopefully they don’t recognize themselves.

Scott: I think your affection for dialogue actually appears in scene description. There are these wonderful little moments peppered through the script where you essentially are commenting on the action. For example, where Nancy first meets Jack. You write, “Nancy is visibly thrown by Jack’s Lecter impression. Who is this man who is tweaking all her verbal nipples?”

Tess: [laughs] Do you know what? Looking back at that, I think that was a combination of me and Rachael… I think we said that in a meeting and then I put it into the script.

Scott: What’s so interesting about it, because the so‑called screenwriting gurus say, “You can’t write stuff like that. That’s an unfilmable.” What’s your thinking on that front?

Tess: My entire thinking is that people get very caught up in how to write a screenplay, structurally, forgetting the creative side of it! Really, a screenplay should be a really good read as well as having the potential to make a really good film. It’s your blueprint for everything that’s going to happen next, if you’re lucky enough to get your film made. So why not make it an enjoyable process for people to read? And we all know that people aren’t going to go, “Wait, is he actually tweaking her verbal nipples’ in this scene… although you never know.

And more people should read scripts! Well, more writers, anyway. How many writers do you meet that don’t read scripts?! Or they say ‘I only read good ones.” To which I say “Read some bad ones!’. It’s really useful to read some bad ones as well.”

So yeah. I sometimes put some verbal nipple tweakage in, just because I think, “That’s a funny, evocative thing to read.” And you’ve also immediately told reader what is going on in that scene, in an entertaining way.

Scott: You’re talking my language. I don’t know if you follow my blog at all…

Tess: I do, I do.

Scott: I constantly am hammering people to read scripts. All these little do’s and don’ts and stuff that these supposed screenwriting gurus talk about, if you read scripts by contemporary screenwriters, you see that they do this stuff frequently. You need to be judicious about it. It’s not a novel, it’s a screenplay. But still, we shouldn’t be beholden to these supposed rules that don’t really even exist.

Tess: No, I know. And it’s very strange. Really, you should just pick and choose what you want to use, and where. Because we all know, there’s a science to this, but there’s also not a science to this, and that there’s rules to it all… but also, there are no rules!

And I think if you get too totally and utterly obsessed with the science or rules of it all, you forget about the simple joy of writing a film.

Scott: That’s a great way of putting it.

Tess: Don’t get me wrong. It’s a nightmare as well, but you should be enjoying writing your film. You should be saying, “Here’s a brilliant story that I’m trying to tell. What is the best way to do that?’.

Often what I try and do now is — and it’s actually slowing me down, but still — but having worked closely with the brilliant Ben Palmer, the director of Man Up, is I say to myself, “Here’s the scene. I know what I need to put in the scene. Now, how do I make it the most interesting version of that? How would Ben shoot it?’.

Because the lazy part of me can just write the banter‑y dialogue version of it. But how do I find a way to up my writing game and turn this into a different type of scene?

That in itself is fun. I hate writing but I love writing, and that’s always how it should be. If it was easy, then everyone would be churning scripts out, all movies would be great, and it would be a much nicer world.

Tomorrow in Part 8, Tess shares her thoughts on how to approach trying to break into the film and TV business.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

Part 4, here.

Part 5, here.

Part 6, 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.