The Toughest Scene I Wrote: Gillian Robespierre and Elisabeth Holm (“Obvious Child”)

Once again, Vulture does screenwriters a solid:

Over the next few weeks, Vulture will speak to the screenwriters behind 2014’s most acclaimed movies about the scenes they found most difficult to crack. Which pivotal sequences underwent the biggest transformations on their way from script to screen?

In this article, director Gillian Robespierre and her co-writer Elisabeth Holm discuss the moment where Donna (Jenny Slate) finally confides a major secret to her mother:

Gillian: The scene we chose to talk about is the one between Donna (Jenny Slate) and her mom (Polly Draper). In the 2009 short version of Obvious Child, the conversation between Donna and her mom took place over the phone, and my real mother played the voice of the mom. As much as I love working with my mom, having more time and a little more money gave us the opportunity to expand the mom character, hire the lovely Polly Draper, and explore the ever-complicated mother/daughter relationship. It was important that this conversation happen face to face and under one duvet. But it was a tricky scene to nail because we had to make sure all the scenes before were properly constructed. There had to be enough tension in their relationship and growth in Jenny’s character to finally be able to share her story with her mother. Oh, and it had to be funny, too!

Elisabeth: We wanted to show multiple characters having gone through this experience in different contexts and coming out okay. Having an abortion without shame or regret, but not without emotional complexity. We had to somehow tell that story without it being a PSA, but also without it being an 83-minute fart-fest. (Though there’s definitely a lost director’s cut that is not not that.) Writing the whole movie was a balancing act. We love cheese when cheese is good, but we wanted to be sincere without being saccharine, to have depth without getting Too Deep, to be provocative but only by being honest, to be funny but not at the expense of a real human story. This scene cut to core of figuring all that out. We wanted it to feel just like the kinds of conversations we have with our own moms. And both of them definitely think moving to L.A. is worse news than a lot of other shit we could say.

For the rest of the article, go here. Kudos to Vulture for this annual series which puts the spotlight on screenwriters.