THR: Screenwriters Roundtable 2011
From THR:
Together, the six A-list screenwriters invited to participate in The Hollywood Reporter’s annual awards-season roundtable have received a whopping 12 Academy Award nominations (plus five wins). But not once during the lively hourlong discussion at Hemingway’s Lounge in Hollywood did the subject of awards or accolades come up. Instead, the panel — Pedro Almodovar, 62 (The Skin I Live In), Dustin Lance Black, 37 (J. Edgar), Oren Moverman, 45 (Rampart), Eric Roth, 66 (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close), Aaron Sorkin, 50 (Moneyball) and Steven Zaillian, 58 (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Moneyball) — discussed their insecurities, how Oscar winners can collaborate and what they would do if they couldn’t write.
Here are some excerpts about their writing process:
THR: What is your writing process like? Do you have regular hours?
Sorkin: I envy writers that I hear about who go to their office at 9 and write until 5. And by write I mean they’re actually typing. I go to an office every day and I throw a ball against the wall and I check ESPN and I talk to my friends and I order a pizza and I take a nap. For me, I’m an on/off switch. If I’m writing well, which means writing at all, really, then I’m happy. I can handle any problem. If I’m not writing, I’m miserable.
Moverman: My process is very different. I made Rampart in a way where a lot of it is improvised, where I encourage the actors to throw out the script. I like it when it’s alive like that. Maybe it’s because I had the privilege of directing the last two films that I wrote that I feel there’s a certain danger in going in without the plan beyond the script. I like the chaos of it.
Dustin Lance Black: Clint Eastwood said, “I want to make it just like this,” which you would think would be music to a writer’s ears. [But] I like things that continue to change. That probably comes from having done TV, where things are always changing. So then it became this weird wrestling match where I was having to go to Clint Eastwood, who I was always afraid would shoot me in the face with a .44 Magnum, and say, “I want changes. I think this can be better and this can be leaner.” But he wants to stick with the script. In his gut, that’s what he liked.
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Zaillian: I write longhand. I’ll put it into the computer once it’s done. But the first draft will be longhand.
Roth: I have a really old MOBI program [from the company] that went out of business. But I’m afraid to switch. I’m superstitious.
Sorkin: There are certain clothes I want to write in. I wouldn’t write in what I’m wearing right now. I have to get into looser clothes. I take a lot of showers during the day. It has nothing to do with germaphobia or anything like that. If I’m not writing well, I just want a new start. I take a shower, I change my clothes, I feel refreshed, I go at it again.
Roth: I change the weather [in the script].
Sorkin: Speaking of the weather, the four or five days a year that it rains in Los Angeles, those are the best writing days. I declare it a holiday. “I’m writing today.” There’s just something very romantic and dramatic about the sight and the sound and everything having to do with rain.
Some video clips of the conversation:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
For more of the THR article, go here.
HT to @webacion for the link.
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