Written Interview: Ian Deitchman & Kristin Rusk Robinson (“Life As We Know It”)

From Script magazine, this interview with Life As We Know It screenwriters Ian Deitchman and Kristin Rusk Robinson. Some excerpts:

IAN DEITCHMAN: “So who do we leave the baby to when we both die in a plane crash?” It’s the question all new, neurotic, soon-to-be parents ask. And in the summer of 2001 it was one of many nervous questions I was asking my wife, who was pregnant with our first baby. Beth suggested, jokingly, that we leave the baby to our two single best friends, “Who knows us better?” I said, “Hey, that’s a great idea for a movie.” Beth looked at me, “I know! I pitched it to you a month ago.” “Oh yeah … ” The friends we were talking about were also mutual friends of Kristin’s. We discussed the concept and immediately realized it was the next thing we should write. It had what we’re always looking for in a project — a high concept that’s grounded in something emotional and real.

KRISTIN RUSK ROBINSON: It was always about tone. That was the most challenging part of writing Life As We Know It. At its heart, we knew it was a romantic comedy, specifically a romantic comedy in reverse. Our two main characters, Holly and Messer, get the baby, the house, the life — then they just need to fall in love. We were certain of the comedy we could mine by throwing these two strong personalities into new parenthood together. But we knew we needed to respect the emotional reality of what happens to them. Holly and Messer lose their best friends. That informs every choice they make.

There’s also this feature on Deitchman and Robinson:

“We try to write comedies that have some real heart to them. We want the humor to try and come out of real situations that the characters are going through,” Deitchman said. “I think it was always the tone of [the movie] that was the most challenging for us. We were excited about challenging ourselves to honor this dramatic situation that we’re in and play that as real and honestly as possible. That was probably also the most fun part in writing it,” he concluded.

“We hope [the audience] will laugh and cry. There’s definitely an emotional component to this that I think is attainable,” Robinson added.

After a nine-year hiatus, during which the duo wrote several more comedies, Robinson and Deitchman added some touch-ups to their original screenplays.
Both writers became parents as the movie was being made, giving them a new perspective on how to portray parenting in the film.

On top of this, director Greg Berlanti (“Brothers and Sisters”) also included his own touch to the script by developing a variety of new characters.

“Once Berlanti came on board, he kind of made [the script] his own and broadened the canvas of it,” Deitchman said. “It really put a whole new element to the script and played up the theme of family as well. He had a real vision for it and he delivered on that.”

Despite the long latency period between writing the script and the film’s release, Deitchman and Robinson’s patience has finally paid off.

“It’s been a long time coming for us,” Deitchman said. “We can also say we’re real thrilled with the results because even though it took nine years, in a lot of ways it was worth the wait. We got this fantastic team together that was able to turn it into something we’re all really proud of.”

Here’s the trailer for the movie which opens this weekend: