Interview (Written): Salvador Paskowitz (“The Age of Adaline”)

A Creative Screenwriting interview with Salvador Paskowitz, co-writer of the movie The Age of Adaline starring Blake Lively and Harrison Ford.

Where did the idea for The Age of Adaline come from?

It was just a notion that we had. I just thought a woman that could live forever. Wouldn’t that be interesting? Because, unlike the Highlander, I think it’s especially urgent with a woman. Maybe urgent isn’t the right word. There’s just a lot of weight when it comes to that subject when it relates to a woman.

And how at first, it would seem like such tremendous gift. Wow! I can be 29 forever. This is awesome. And then, that’s what builds to this irony that no, it’s not a gift. It’s a terrible curse. Because, basically that’s the rub. You can’t ever know love. What defines love is kind of this ticking clock. If there’s no ticking clock, there’s no love.

I want to talk about women. I feel like writers really have to have a call to arms to fight against the kind of radicalism that’s happening in our world. Women are really minimalized and talked down to and infantilized. Men want one thing out of their movies. But I think women want different things.

You can ask, “What do they want?” Women don’t want to be talked down to in their films. They want strong characters that can think for themselves. I think in this day and age it’s dangerous to just paint women as pedestrians or passengers in film. And I think it’s changing. And Adaline is one of those films.

I’m going to keep making films like that. The first film that I wrote was about a hedge fund manager. She was a very strong person.

It’s our obligation as, as writers. I mean, it’s our obligation to use art. You have to warn that global warming is actually a real thing and that women’s rights are a real thing. Those messages are important.

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What did you learn from writing The Age of Adaline on how to approach your next screenplay? How would you approach it differently?

I think you bring your own flavor to a movie, regardless of the subject. You bring your own history to a film. And I feel like Adaline has a lot of the same interests that I had before. Astronomy, the Dynamic Universe theory. I love Star Wars. I love science. I love science fiction. I love physics, astrophysics.

Ron Shelton once wrote, “You have to write what you know.” And he said, for instance, I could never write a science fiction movie. That’s what he said. This guy wrote Bull Durham, a lot of those sports kind of movies. But I totally disagree. I think his science fiction movie would be bitchin’.

I know it would be. He pulls all of that kind of sports and western and archetypes. I know that would be really cool to see in science fiction.

I feel strongly you don’t have to write what you know. So long as the music is coming out of your horn, in your way.

For the rest of the interview, go here.