Written Interview: Dalton Trumbo

One of the all-time great screenwriters Dalton Trumbo (Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Roman Holiday, Spartacus) interviewed by one of the all-time great film critics Roger Ebert. From September 5, 1971:

“They wanted to know if I’d do a screenplay for Bunuel. Hell, I said I’d do a screenplay, and be his secretary, and carry his briefcase and do his laundry. I went down to Mexico and spent some time with Bunuel, of which I best remember the four-hour lunches which averaged out to about a bottle of wine an hour. And then I came back to California and went to work, and by the time I had the screenplay completed, the producer was out of money and Bunuel was back in Spain, broke.”

—

“There was ‘Exodus,’ for example,” he said. “It was no great masterpiece, but it was at least half of a damn good movie. Preminger had the locations, the starting date, the contracts, everything but a script. He called me on the sixteenth of December. I read the book in two days. It weighed 14 pounds and had 390 characters. I told Otto he had better know what he wanted. He did. I followed him like a dog through the construction. If a scene wasn’t working, I’d jump ahead to something I knew I could write.

“I remember Christmas Eve. Preminger impatiently watching my family unwrapping gifts. I told him I hadn’t bought a damn thing for my wife. ‘Ve vill buy her somethink,’ he says. We went to Pasadena and bought her a bathrobe, A stunning and original gift. But we were finished with the screenplay in six weeks, by God.”

For the rest of the interview, go here.

Comment Archive