Interview: Seth Lochhead (2006 Black List)

One of the best ways to learn the craft is read what professional screenwriters have to say about it. To that end for the next few weeks, I will be featuring interviews I have conducted with Black List screenwriters.

Today: Seth Lochhead’s original screenplay Hanna made the Black List in 2006 and was produced, then released in 2011, the movie starring Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, and Eric Bana. Seth’s background is an interesting one, so I was pleased when he agreed to do a Q&A with me. I was even more pleased by Seth’s responses which I am sure you will find both entertaining and informative.

Here are links to the five installments of my October 2013 interview with Seth:

Part 1: “As I’ve gained experience, I really try not to be too conscious of my influences because I don’t want them to stifle whatever thread I’m trying to explore.”

Part 2: “One breakthrough was a memory of a psych class I took and something B.F. Skinner said, “‘Give me a newborn and I’ll shape it into anything.’”

Part 3: “I’ve always thought of HANNA as a fairy tale, something you could literally rip from the pages of the Brothers Grimm.”

Part 4: “I think it’s a dangerous thing to answer questions in your written work, but I think it is imperative to always ask the questions. That’s our job, to spark curiosity and emotion from an audience, to allow them to discover what’s going on inside their own heads.”

Part 5: “If it’s commissioned work and people read it within a week of me finishing it and they have “thoughts”, I’m fucking useless. I need time away. Months in some instances.”

Will is repped by WME.

Twitter: @SMLochhead.