Interview (Part 8): 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. The movie opens November 13 in North America. I got to see a sneak of Man Up and it is terrific! The directing, acting, but particularly the script — fun characters, sparkling dialogue, memorable set pieces, numerous reversals, and a master class in setups and payoffs. Man Up is a really well-done and enjoyable movie. I strongly recommend it!
Last summer, I had a wonderful conversation with Tess in which we covered a lot of territory. I will be reprising that interview in several installments this week.
Today in Part 8, Tess shares her thoughts on how to approach trying to break into the film and TV business:
Scott: What’s your actual writing process?
Tess: Oh God. I wish I had a process. No, I do. That’s a lie. At the moment, I write from… I’ve got a little room at my mum and dad’s house. I haven’t actually had my own office for various reasons, living in different places for the past couple years etc… In fact, I haven’t had a proper office, a room with a view, as Lecter might put it, for about five, six years now, maybe a bit longer.
So my process is very much… okay, let me think about this properly. I write the best in the early morning. Probably through until about lunchtime. I hit lunch and that afternoon bit and then I’m a nightmare. Then I quite like an evening session. If I’m not on a deadline [sighs] then I can faff around for ages, but I tend to write in two‑hour little spurts and then I’ll stop.
But the Internet is obviously, as we all know, cliché cliché, just the death of all writing. I do need to find ways to stop looking at Twitter and stop looking at the news and stop looking at pictures of cats. If I do try and turn off for a good couple of hours, I’ll announce to myself “Oh my God, I’ve achieved so much” [laughs] . I’m so surprised by it.
But I don’t force myself if I’m not in the zone. But then I also know when to force myself. There are times to power through and times to sit back and go, you are writing yourself into a corner, STOP MORRIS, GO FOR A WALK, MORRIS.
When you don’t have regular money you have much more of the drive to do things as well. You’re like, “Oh my God, I’m striving, I’m striving, I’m striving,” and weirdly the last few years I’ve been like, “God, I’ve got work. This is so weird. And I’m getting paid. Shit. Where’s my motivation? What’s my mantra [laughs] ? I forgot it.”
So I’m in a weird phase at the moment of knowing the film’s coming out but also having lots of other work to do. I’m tending to write for four days straight, and then maybe two to three days of not writing very much. Basically, as you can probably tell, there is no process.
Simon Pegg and Tess Morris
Scott: Finally, what kind of advice can you offer to aspiring writers out there about learning the craft and breaking into the business?
Tess: You have to be persistent, I would say, tenacious, in terms of… you must not give up and you must find all sorts of ways not to give up. Because it’s a terrible job for your mental health. You spend a lot of time on your own. You face a lot of rejection.
And if you can’t cope with those things or you don’t have the support network to help you with those things, then you probably won’t stay in it for that long.
Very important to have the right temperament. Until you’re super‑successful and have your Malibu beach house and are earning so much money that you don’t care whether you get a job or you don’t get a job, it’s very important to know how to receive notes, and to act upon those notes and to deal with producers, and to deal with actors, and to deal with script editors.
So you have to be calm and wise and it takes a long time to feel like that. It’s a very exposing job. You’ve poured your heart and soul into what you’ve written and suddenly you’ve got someone going, “Oh, I don’t like that line. You don’t need that line’. You can’t take things personally. You’ve got to learn how to let it go.
But you’ve also got to know when to pick your battles as well. So it’s a fine line, really, that you have to walk in that respect.
Most writers I know all have similar personalities in many ways. We’re all kind of confident but also a wreck, and anxious but also happy [laughs] and positive but also negative. There’s quite a similar streak that runs through us all, you may have found that, from speaking to so many.
Also, I’d say you’ve got to hold your nerve massively. Which is actually my writer friend David Allison’s big mantra, and we often call each other up, and say it to each other. Because anything can happen from day to day in this industry, and it’s about, I suppose, knowing how to navigate it all, and not fall by the wayside, into the ditch.
Oh, and don’t spend too much time on your own. If I do any seminars or any talks and there are lots of people sitting there and they’re saying, “I went away for a month just on my own to try and write.” I say “Don’t do that.”
Because as soon as you leave behind the people that you talk to and you interact with, you leave behind your life. How can you write about life if you don’t experience it? When I did my worst writing it was when I was on my own most of the time, living outside of London, going crazy. It was not a healthy time. Don’t get me wrong, retreats can be great, if you just need some space… so long as you haven’t been giving yourself too much space beforehand, if that makes sense!
Scott: That’s an interesting thought, because it does seem like a theme that’s run through your conversation is how important people are, even strangers. It’s like they provide inspiration to you.
Tess: Yeah, they help with my voice… which, incidentally, is another bit of advice. Find it, find your voice! It can take years… I would say that I didn’t find my voice for 10 years or something. It only clicked in in my early 30s, when I realized what I had to say about life, what I wanted to say about life. And I like to think that you can do that in various ways. For example, having a conversation with a total stranger about your life can be very liberating, and unlock something creatively in you [laughs]
Not a random bus driver or the postman necessarily, but new people that you meet that you decide you’re going to talk to, open up to. I just think there’s definitely something to be said about letting your guard down a little bit, as a writer, and seeing where that takes you, conversationally speaking.
Scott: Just like for your two protagonists in your story. They needed to learn to take a chance.
Tess: Exactly. Take chances! Because everybody gets so beholden to rules and what’s expected of them, when actually sometimes the best thing you can do is go ‘fuck it, what if I didn’t do that’. That can be when the fun starts… well, in screenwriting terms, anyway (laughs).
For Part 1 of the interview, go here.
Part 2, here.
Part 3, here.
Part 4, here.
Part 5, here.
Part 6, here.
Part 7, here.
For GITS readers in the U.S. and Canada who want to see more original movies, especially those of you waiting for an increase in romantic comedies, Man Up is excellent — funny, touching, human, and surprising — great entertainment.
In other words, go support Man Up in theaters next weekend!
Tess is repped by WME and Julia Tyrrell Management.
Twitter: @TheTessMorris.
[Originally posted June 1, 2015]