Written Interview: Karen Croner and Jean Hanff Korelitz (“Admission”)

Here’s an unusual interview: A screenwriter who adapted a novel talking with the novelist. In this case, the former is Karen Croner and latter is Jean Hanff Korelitz, and the movie in question is Admission. An excerpt:

Jean Hanff Korelitz: Serious writers pretend they don’t care about film adaptations of their work, but it’s a colossal lie: We all care. My first three novels were all the subjects of intensely exciting flurries of calls from producers and even stars’ production companies, and once someone actually hired a screenwriter to adapt one of my books — but it all came to nothing, so I tried not to get too excited when a Hollywood suitor came calling for Admission, my fourth novel.

Besides, Admission was a very internal book: It’s about a highly cerebral woman’s crisis as she confronts a long-kept secret. Her job as a Princeton admissions officer, moreover, mainly consists of sitting in a room reading folders. Not very cinematic! Still, the Hollywood people seemed really nice, really smart, and really interested. Development had progressed to include producers, a director (Paul Weitz), and a star (Tina Fey) when I sat down for lunch with the screenwriter, Karen Croner, on New Year’s Day 2010. It was like a first date with someone I was already betrothed to.

Karen Croner: When I found Admission, I had just gone through the horrific process of getting my son into a private middle school — which in L.A. is a kind of blood sport. I thought, An admissions officer suffering? That wasn’t sad to me; that had major comic potential. I wanted to write that story! And I relished the opportunity to take a good hard look at what the stress of the college admissions process does to kids and parents. I read Jean’s beautiful book and fell in love with the characters, the premise. At lunch that day I told Jean the truth — my script would explore the darkness of her novel, but I also wanted to mine the humor. I would absolutely be true to the premise and themes, the soul of her book, but the story, tone, and some characters would change significantly. She looked very worried, and I wondered: Would we end up as enemies? Would this lovely woman hate me when she saw the major changes I would need to make to her story in order to make it visual, comedic, dramatic, and condensed enough to be told in a feature film?

JHK: I felt like I was handing over my baby to an unknown fate, which in this case is a particularly apt metaphor. Admission hinges on a private admission about a child born in secret and given up for adoption, only to return and upset the protagonist’s carefully ordered life. One child, two mothers. I was the birth mother here, but Karen was the adoptive mom, and I would be unable to interfere in a single one of the decisions she was about to make.

For more of the interview, go here.