Interview [Written]: David Webb Peoples

Writer-director Lea Nakonechny interviews screenwriter David Webb Peoples (12 Monkeys, Unforgiven, Blade Runner):

Lea Nakanechny: Which do you begin with, character or story?

David Webb Peoples: Usually with a character scene. There’s an image of somebody doing something that defines them and makes you interested. Then you try to write a story around it and it doesn’t always work. I have many moments in my head I wish I could find the story for or build onto, and many instances of trying to build a story around a particular thing and not succeeding. These things linger over the years and sometimes, suddenly, you get it. But not always.

LN: Describe your writing process.

DWP: I have two separate careers. I stopped being David Peoples the screenwriter in the early 90’s and there was this other voice that came on which was David and Janet Peoples. Both work in a similar way which is, we have to have an outline. We sometimes cheat and get sloppy and our outline isn’t as good as it’s supposed to be and then we have big troubles with the ending. Janet is much better at abstractly making an outline whereas I tend to get lost in the scenes. But, you have to have both. You have to be able to see it like you’re an actor, involved in these very intense moments, but if you can’t step back and be a god or a writer and make the moments into a narrative, then you have a problem. If you’re too removed and you don’t do the actor part then what you get is a mechanical construction. You see films sometimes that reveal that, where people just seem to be doing what some writer decided for them to do and that’s not a good place to be.

For the rest of the Scriptmag.com interview, go here.

Unforgiven is one of the best scripts I’ve ever read and an outstanding example of Narrative Voice which I describe in this post. If you have the script, read it. If you don’t have it, get it, then read it.

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