Screenwriting 101: Theodore Melfi

“If you give an actor an honest role, they’ll want to play it, and they’ll know how to play it. When I showed St. Vincent to Jack Nicholson, he said, ‘This is an actable piece.’ I spent a lot of time thinking, ‘What does that mean?’ What an ‘actable piece’, to me, ended up meaning is that it’s honest and pathos and everything you want. If you look at the movies that are out this year, you’’ll find honest work. You’ll find honest work in Moonlight, honest work in Manchester by the Sea. I think that’s the key.

As a writer and as a director, your sole purpose in life is to make your work for the audience, period. This business, this work that we do, is not for ourselves, and it’s not for the critics, and it’s not for the Hollywood community. It’s for the world.

I was at a screening [of Hidden Figures] in Los Angeles, at the back of the theater. The movie ended, and a black woman — probably in her mid-50s — was walking down the aisle, crying and crying and crying. I just stopped her and I said, ‘Are you okay?’ She said yes, and she found out that I’m the director. I just hugged her. I didn’t know what else to do. And she goes, ‘This film has given me the strength to carry on.’

Ultimately, that is all that matters in this life. At the end of the day, when we’re all on our deathbeds, we’re not going to look back and say, ‘I made that really cool, hip thing that didn’t do anything for anyone.’ We’re going to say, ‘I had some impact on people.’”

— Theodore Melfi, co-writer / director, Hidden Figures

From WGAW Written By, February | March 2017, P. 45