Interview: Reid Carolin (“Magic Mike”) — Part 6

One of the surprise hit movies of 2012 was Magic Mike starring Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, and Olivia Munn, and directed by Steven Soderbergh. With a modest production budget of $7M, the film grossed $167M worldwide. The screenwriter responsible for the script is Reid Carolin.

Recently Reid and I had an extensive conversation in which we covered a whole range of subjects including his diverse creative background, the production company he and Channing Tatum have, the stunning success of Magic Mike, the craft of screenwriting, and much more.

In Part 6, Reid talks more about the craft and offers advice about how to break into the business:

Scott: What about your actual writing process?

Reid: I’ve done it all. Right now I work at home in this office and I would write every day, eight hours a day, if I could, but I’m on the road a lot. After this I’m heading over to a marketing meeting at Sony to talk about how we’re marketing our movie, “White House Down” this summer. I’m heavily involved in that. As a producer, there are a lot of responsibilities for me that take me away from writing so I have to find the time to do it. It’s always a challenge for me to be more and more committed to it because if we don’t commit it’s really easy to slip. When you’re writing, it’s really easy to just be here and not on the page.

When I’m really focused, like when I was writing “Magic Mike” and I’m not doing anything else, which is, I think, what writers should do if they can. You can write something really quick because you’re home doing it, you know what it is and every day you wake up and you just go. You take a break, you walk around, go for a run, work‑out or whatever, and then you go back to it. It’s relentless and you just don’t stop, in my opinion. Don’t let things get away from you. Don’t let other things into your mind.

Great actors are like that when they act. They are committed to that character when they’re onset. They don’t take phone calls. They don’t sit around and shoot the shit with everybody all the time. They’re committed to that part. I think it’s no different for a writer. I have a tough time doing it just because of the nature of my day.

I like to block out as much time as I possibly can, shut off the phone and just get into a rhythm. I’m always looking ‑‑ I read the stuff that you guys post ‑‑ for just the ways other people get themselves focused. Because that, I think, is the real key in anything.

Just focus. You can’t sit down and go, “OK.” As long as I sit as this computer I’m going to do good work because that’s just not true. You’ve got to find a way to focus your mind on those characters and that story. Usually, for me, I’ll sit down, decide that I’m going to start writing for however much time I have. Whether it be three hours, five hours, a whole day, whatever.

I’ll read pretty much everything that I’ve done in the script, up until that point, or the outline or whatever. Try to find myself talking and acting like those characters, understanding who they are, what they want. Then just start the next scene. Go, “What do they want here? What are they doing?” Then just try something on for size. Try it out.

Then usually, by the end of the day, I’m going back and editing out some stuff that I’ve done, cutting things, looking at certain scenes and going, “OK. This isn’t going to work. I’ll take this out.” Or whatever. During the day I’m just blah, putting stuff onto the page. At the last part of the day I’m going back and trying to figure out, what did I do?

What’s working and not working? And set myself up for the next time I sit down and get back into it. It’s a pretty unruly process, doesn’t really have much order to it. But I’m going to try to regiment it more, as I go, so I cannot become completely lost, which… I don’t know how much it happens to other writers. But for me, if I’m really in something I could be gone for three, four weeks of just gone to the world.

I’ve heard Billy Ray and some other folks talk about how they regiment their writing process and I always admire that. I want to figure out ways to do that for myself. So I’m not completely out to lunch, disappeared from the world, and I can still feel like I’m living my life and writing.

Scott: Here’s a fun question. What’s your single best excuse not to write?

Reid: Oh, God. I have so many. That’s the thing. My single best excuse not to write… ESPN.com. [laughs] That’s always a really good excuse…just checking out…the Internet is the worst thing that ever happened to writers. Because now we’re writing on computers, and they’re connected to the Internet. If you know it’s there, you just can’t turn it off, and there’s just so much to read, and so much to learn. It’s like this constant source of distraction. So yeah, particularly ESPN.com, for me, is a terrible distraction.

But I don’t know, there’s always distraction…I play guitar, and I’m always…I’ve got it sitting right here, and I’ll take two hours every day, and just be like, screw it, I’m just going to play for a little while. That’s a good one, always.

Then, also, talking on the phone because I’m always getting a call from somebody about some project that I’m working on. That really is like the biggest single distraction for me, because I’m juggling being a producer, and being a writer and running a company for an actor. It’s like there’s always somebody to talk to about something we’ve got going on, and that takes up days of time.

Scott: What do you love most about writing?

Reid: Honestly, I just love the process of creating anything. Writing is great because if you love stories, and you know how much stories have affected people, and you are somebody that…like for me stories are everything. I love telling them, I love hearing them from other people. I love the way that a well told story can move you, and change the way that you think about life. I think…and then change the way that you make decisions in your life. I think there’s a great responsibility, for storytellers to do good work. That’s at least how I feel. I feel like great stories are necessary things for our culture, that can move culture, almost more than politics can.

I do believe that a great story has so much power, that it’s almost impossible to measure. I do feel like being a writer is a great opportunity to tell those types of stories, to get better at your craft, to work with certain people, who make you better at your craft, and to try to create things that move culture forward, and that awe people, and move people, and make them laugh, and cry, and all that sort…

That, I think, is such a great opportunity. So to be a writer ‑‑ a screenwriter in particular ‑‑ that has the opportunity to work on those sorts of things, I just love the fact that we have that ability. Because, really, there isn’t another place in the world, besides Hollywood, that has the platform yet, where you can make a story that travels the world like a movie does, and that reaches as many people as a movie does.

I do think it’s just a really wonderful opportunity that I’ve been afforded. As far as the process itself, I like it because I like creating anything. Whether I was working on car engines, or whether I was playing music, or building houses, or whatever…If you’re at the core of the creation process, I think that’s when it’s really fun.

If you’re carrying out somebody’s creation…For me, I’m not so good at that. I’m not good at like, getting instructions, even if it’s an IKEA chair, or something. Going like…how do I assemble this chair? I get bored…I don’t like it. I’m not actually good at it.

Other people assemble IKEA chairs better than I do, for some odd reason…I have no idea why. But I think if you’re at the beginning of a creative process, then you really have the ability to put your sense of design, and your values, and express yourself, as a human being, through the entirety of the process of your labor.

No matter if somebody else takes it, and changes it, there’s still something about what you originally intended in there. I like being at the beginning of any creative process, and writers seem to have a lot left over in the end. I don’t know if maybe being an architect, or something like that, there might be more left of that original design in the house.

But a writer…There’s a lot of you left in that finished product, so I love that chance to do that. Maybe someday I’ll write a book, but I don’t know if I’m there yet. I don’t know if I’m good enough to do that [laughs] yet.

Scott: One last question: What advice can you offer to aspiring screenwriters about the learning the craft and breaking into Hollywood?

Reid: I’m always a big fan of don’t take no for an answer, believe in yourself, and do work for work’s sake. Those are very general things, but I believe in this idea that if you want to see something done, you have to will it to be done, and you have to have this machine inside yourself to go…OK, nobody else believes that this type of thing can be made.

But I’m going to do that somehow, someway. Whether it’s with 50 grand, or whether I’m going to go and bang on doors to try to get 10 million, or whatever it is. I think that’s the first, most important thing, is just to believe in yourself enough to not listen to no’s, and to reasons why you shouldn’t do something.

Because there’s always, in Hollywood, a reason why you shouldn’t move forward, and a reason why it’s not good enough, and a reason why somebody won’t take a meeting. If you don’t have that, I don’t know how you’d get anywhere without just luck.

The next thing, is that I think you need to be open. You need to be open to a good idea, when you hear one. You need to be open to somebody coming in, and maybe changing the way you thought you were going to make your thing…whatever this is that you were trying to create. But understanding that this may be a good opportunity to get it done in some way, and so adapting it to be made.

A lot of people I know are so stubborn about how they want to make something, that it almost becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, that nobody wants to collaborate with you, and nobody wants to help you, because you don’t want to listen…you don’t want to let more people in. I think being open is really important.

I really think, in an age where craft has become superficially, somehow, less important than special effects or some commercial high concept idea, or whatever, I think it’s really important to focus on your craft and being good at it and knowing it better than those around you. Because if you do that, people will recognize it over time and good work will always stand out.

Even if it’s not rewarded with high dollar signs or big spec sales or something like that right away, you will, over the course of time of doing good work, be able to make a career out of it and people in Hollywood will value it. Because they know when somebody who’s good and knows their shit comes around.

They know that they’re going to be seeing that person as somebody who is riding on a great idea but doesn’t know anything about how to structure a screen play or how to build a character. I think it’s important to be craftspeople and think of your job as if you were a mechanic or someone like that.

If you don’t know how to fix an engine, you would never get a job in a garage. It is the exact same in Hollywood. It should be, I would just say, treated as a blue‑collar business. It’s a marathon and try to make good work and people will recognize it.

If there’s anything else, politics is important. That doesn’t mean to be sleazy and shamelessly network and stuff like that all the time. It does mean get to know people. No job is beneath you. If you need to read scripts for free for somebody for a while, in order to develop a relationship with somebody that you respect and will learn from them, do it.

Don’t feel because you have a couple degrees that you’re overqualified for being a gofer or whatever. It can be a path to what you want, as long as you see it that way and you know where you’re going. You can meet people, as I did along the way who become your greatest advocates and friends and supporters. That would be my advice.

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.

Please stop by comments to thank Reid and ask any questions you may have.

Reid is repped by UTA.

Twitter: @reidcarolin.