<p><em>Meet the Parents</em> screenwriter John Hamburg knows something about finding the funny when it comes to men meeting their girlfriends’ families for the first time.</p>
<div id="attachment_17212" style="width: 160px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-17212" class="size-thumbnail wp-image-17212" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/John-Hamburg-HEADSHOT-150x150.png" alt="John Hamburg" width="150" height="150" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/John-Hamburg-HEADSHOT-150x150.png 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/John-Hamburg-HEADSHOT-250x250.png 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/John-Hamburg-HEADSHOT-768x768.png 768w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/John-Hamburg-HEADSHOT-50x50.png 50w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/John-Hamburg-HEADSHOT-500x500.png 500w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/John-Hamburg-HEADSHOT.png 812w" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /><p id="caption-attachment-17212" class="wp-caption-text">John Hamburg</p></div>
<p>In <em>Why Him?,</em> directed by Hamburg and co-written by his actor-pal Ian Helfer, straight-laced Midwesterner Ned Fleming (Bryan Cranston) struggles to find common ground with his daughter’s eccentric Silicon Valley billionaire boyfriend, Laird Mayhew (James Franco).</p>
<p>Laird genuinely loves Stephanie (Zoey Deutch), but his low emotional IQ is working against him. To Laird, telling Stephanie’s mom Barb (Megan Mullally) how fuckable she is, is a purely innocent complement. And he doesn’t see how asking Stephanie’s little brother about his favorite curse word (“double-dicking”, incidentally), is a conversation best held discretely. Then again, aside from ever-present life coach Gutsav (Keegan-Michael Key), Laird has never had anyone around to teach him any better.</p>
<p>But there are deeper forces at play. Most importantly, Laird’s high-tech world fundamentally counters Ned’s old-school analog sensibilities. And it doesn’t help that digital technology is nudging Ned’s limping brick-and-mortar printing factory towards extinction. Naturally, Ned is less than enamored with Laird&#8217;s smart house, replete with paperless toilets.</p>
<p>And then there’s the pornographic installation art adorning Laird’s complex. When Laird proudly shows off a giant stuffed moose standing in a tank of its own urine, you just know a yellow tsunami is all but inevitable.</p>
<p>Hamburg spoke with <em>Creative Screenwriting</em> about character motivations and infusing back story into the comedy, plus he reveals one hell of a serendipitous behind-the-scenes anecdote.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_17213" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-17213" class="size-full wp-image-17213" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/John-Hamburg-on-set-2.jpg" alt="John Hamburg on set of Why Him? Photo Credit: Scott Garfield." width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/John-Hamburg-on-set-2.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/John-Hamburg-on-set-2-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/John-Hamburg-on-set-2-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/John-Hamburg-on-set-2-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /><p id="caption-attachment-17213" class="wp-caption-text">John Hamburg on set of <em>Why Him?</em> Photo Credit: Scott Garfield.</p></div>
<h2></h2>
<h3>What motivates Laird’s character?</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>We spent a lot of time figuring that character out, which is tricky, because he’s walking a tightrope. He has to be inappropriate and say crazy stuff in order to conflict with Bryan Cranston’s character, but he also has to be a guy who Cranston ultimately wants his daughter to marry, so he can’t be too negatively one-sided.</p>
<p>He was inspired by tech moguls who are highly-developed in one area, while other aspects of being human fall by the wayside. Laird never really had any guidance. He didn’t have parents or an older sibling around to tell him, “It’s not cool to act that way,” and this felt like a natural contrast to this close Midwestern family who’s all about family values. And Laird is ultimately driven by his desire for a family and a father.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>To wit, Laird says the funny line: “I’m not that close to my mother. To be frank, she’s kind of a motherfucking bitch,” which implied some serious toxic baggage. Was this your intention?</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>That was intentional, and it does signal something deeper, without hitting you over the head. I like it when you can get a character’s emotions and back story out to an audience while they’re laughing. I mean, who talks about their parents that way? But he’s so genuine about it, that he gets away with it. He’s a wounded bird, in some ways.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_17216" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-17216" class="size-full wp-image-17216" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/James-Franco-as-Laird-Mayhew-meeting-his-girlfriends-kin..jpg" alt="James Franco as Lair, Zoey Deutch as Stephanie, Bryan Cranston as Ned, Megan Mullally as Barb and Griffin Gluck as Scotty in Why Him? Photo Credit: Scott Garfield - © TM &amp; © 2016 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved." width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/James-Franco-as-Laird-Mayhew-meeting-his-girlfriends-kin..jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/James-Franco-as-Laird-Mayhew-meeting-his-girlfriends-kin.-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/James-Franco-as-Laird-Mayhew-meeting-his-girlfriends-kin.-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/James-Franco-as-Laird-Mayhew-meeting-his-girlfriends-kin.-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /><p id="caption-attachment-17216" class="wp-caption-text">James Franco as Lair, Zoey Deutch as Stephanie, Bryan Cranston as Ned, Megan Mullally as Barb and Griffin Gluck as Scotty in <em>Why Him?</em> Photo Credit: Scott Garfield &#8211; © TM &amp; © 2016 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.</p></div>
<h2></h2>
<h3>There’s a theory that all great cinematic love affairs begin with two characters clashing before they find each other, and I think this holds true for Laird and Ned. Thoughts?</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>I think you’re right. So many movies I’m involved with are ultimately about two disparate characters coming together, which really interests me, because so much of life is about miscommunication and awkwardness between people. And when you can finally find common ground with someone, it’s surprising and often delightful.</p>
<p>Ned and Laird are opposites, in a classic storytelling way, but Ian and I ultimately felt like they’re both decent, well-meaning men, who both have Stephanie’s best interest at heart. She’s the impetus for Ned and Laird to wake up and say, “Oh my god, what is wrong with us?”</p>
<p>It’s appealing when people who are dug in, finally realize they may not have been thinking in the most constructive way possible.</p>
<h2></h2>
<h3>Tell me about writing the scene where Bryan Cranston is desperately trying to navigate a paperless bathroom experience.</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>I had known about these self-cleaning Japanese toilets, and I can’t remember what exactly brought them to my attention, but toilets have fascinated me since the beginning of my filmmaking career. For better or for worse, <em>Along Came Polly</em> and a couple of the <em>Meet the Parents</em> movies have toilet stuff in them, because let’s face it: you’re vulnerable when you’re in a bathroom, so it’s fertile territory as a comedy writer.</p>
<p>Poor Ned, stuck on a smart toilet, is so out of place… At one point in the script, his wife Barb entered the bathroom to help him out, but at the table read it wasn’t as funny as it could have been. So the night before filming, we rewrote the scene to have Keegan-Michael Key’s Gustav character enter the bathroom instead, because having a stranger enter this very sacred ground felt really tense and funny. Once that piece of the puzzle fell into place, the whole scene took off.</p>
<p>On the day of filming, when Bryan was sitting on the toilet and Gustav enters the bathroom and is trying to fix the device, Bryan just couldn’t stop laughing. I kept telling Keegan to get closer and closer to Bryan, but what really killed them was when they had to make eye contact—just inches away from each other.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_17215" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-17215" class="size-full wp-image-17215" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/DF-12542.jpg" alt="Bryan Cranston as Ned and James Franco as Lair in Why Him? Photo Credit: Scott Garfield - © TM &amp; © 2016 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved." width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/DF-12542.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/DF-12542-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/DF-12542-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/DF-12542-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /><p id="caption-attachment-17215" class="wp-caption-text">Bryan Cranston as Ned and James Franco as Lair in <em>Why Him?</em> Photo Credit: Scott Garfield &#8211; © TM &amp; © 2016 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.</p></div>
<h2></h2>
<h3>When your art department is constructing a full-sized moose, submerged in a tank of urine, did you have any governance over the color of the water inside the glass?</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>A hundred percent! But I’ll tell you something I’ve never shared before. The liquid in the case was never meant to be urine. We had an early screening for a few of our friends, and Aline Brosh McKenna, who’s a big screenwriter, was like, “What if the tank was filled with urine?” (Laughs) So we added an ADR line with Franco saying, “It’s a moose in its own piss!”</p>
<p>It was just a happy accident that the water already looked like urine, because we spent a lot of time picking the right color. I wanted an almost sexy yellowish amber that would look cool in the room. It couldn’t be too gold or too yellow.</p>
<h2></h2>
<h3>Hold up. The water just happened to look like urine, fortuitously?</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Yeah, if you can believe it. So if you don’t like that it’s urine, blame Aline Brosh McKenna, the screenwriter of <em>The Devil Wears Prada</em>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Finally, James Franco was a student in a graduate filmmaking program you were teaching at NYU. Did you ever envision directing your former pupil?</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>James was in my class. And when I say “in”, as James will acknowledge, he was never there!</p>
<p>I know that in previous years, he really was attentive in film school, but during my class he was filming <em>127 Hours. </em>So we talked a bunch of times, and I watched his work.</p>
<p>I ultimately gave him what any working director would give James Franco&#8211;a wonderful talent who was never in class &#8212;  I gave him a “B”. I didn’t want to fail him, because he’s so talented, and I knew I might want to work with him some day! And I didn’t give him an “A” because I didn’t want him to think I was sucking up to him.</p>
<p>The only disappointing thing was that I was looking forward to him being in class, because he was really into being a student. But when Danny Boyle calls and asks you to play a one-armed man, how can you turn that down?</p>


Walking a Tightrope: John Hamburg on Why Him?

<div id="attachment_11625" style="width: 141px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Matt-Charman-head-shot.jpeg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11625" class="size-thumbnail wp-image-11625" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Matt-Charman-head-shot-131x150.jpeg" alt="Matt Charman. Photograph: Rosie Hallam" width="131" height="150" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Matt-Charman-head-shot-131x150.jpeg 131w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Matt-Charman-head-shot-250x287.jpeg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Matt-Charman-head-shot-150x172.jpeg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Matt-Charman-head-shot-500x574.jpeg 500w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Matt-Charman-head-shot.jpeg 752w" sizes="(max-width: 131px) 100vw, 131px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-11625" class="wp-caption-text">Matt Charman. Photograph: Rosie Hallam</p></div>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #000000;">When Rudolf Abel was arrested for sending coded messages to back Mother Russia, the U.S. government asked Brooklyn insurance lawyer James Donovan to represent the alleged spy—a task Donovan begrudgingly accepted. After all, defending a Soviet agent during the Cold War 1950s is bad for business. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #000000;">In any case, Donovan (Tom Hanks) failed to win Abel an acquittal, but convinced the Judge to rule against the death penalty, reasoning that Abel (Mark Rylance) might one day make a valuable bargaining chip. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #000000;">Sure enough, when an American U-2 spy plane is shot down over Soviet airspace, and pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) lands in a Russian prison, Donovan is sent to Berlin to negotiate a spy swap. The </span>geopolitical stakes are further raised when Donovan learns how American grad student Frederic Pryor (Will Rogers) was detained in East Berlin, and Donovan consequently campaigns for the release of both Americans, in exchange for Abel. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">This real-life triple prisoner exchange caught the attention of British screenwriter Matt Charman, who wrote <i>Bridge of Spies</i> as a result. Not that he ever expected his idol Steven Spielberg to direct his screenplay, or the Coen brothers to polish it. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>Creative Screenwriting</i> spoke to Charman about his odds-defying experience.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_11630" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Mark-Rylance-as-Rudolf-Abel-and-Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11630" class="size-full wp-image-11630" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Mark-Rylance-as-Rudolf-Abel-and-Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies.jpg" alt="Mark Rylance as Rudolf Abel, and Tom Hanks as James Donovan, in Bridge of Spies" width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Mark-Rylance-as-Rudolf-Abel-and-Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Mark-Rylance-as-Rudolf-Abel-and-Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Mark-Rylance-as-Rudolf-Abel-and-Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Mark-Rylance-as-Rudolf-Abel-and-Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-11630" class="wp-caption-text">Mark Rylance as Rudolf Abel, and Tom Hanks as James Donovan, in <em>Bridge of Spies</em></p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">As a Brit, what was it about James Donovan’s American story that captured your interest? </span></h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">A great character is a great character, wherever they’re from, right? I always loved American history &#8211; especially the Kennedy White House and the Cold War period, and I read the Robert Dalleck book <i>An Unfinished Life, </i>which talked about this American lawyer sent to Cuba by JFK to negotiate with Fidel Castro for the release of the 1,500 servicemen captured after the Bay of Pigs. A footnote said “James Donovan came to prominence for the role he played in the spy swap between Rudolf Abel and Gary Powers”, and I thought, “Hang on. Stop. Who <i>is</i> this guy?” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">So I started digging and I pieced together this remarkable untold story about a genuine American hero who risked his life to pull the world back from the brink, during the most dangerous point in the Cold War. It became an odyssey for me to tell this story. I met with Donovan’s son in a coffee shop in New York, and it was a very emotional meeting because he knew how serious I was, and I knew how much his father meant to him.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Did Donovan’s son believe his father’s legacy was neglected?</span></h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">He felt that his dad was not a showy guy or an arrogant guy, and he wasn’t in it for anything but the right reasons. History tends to forget those people, so the idea of his dad’s story finding an audience in a new generation excited him. I came out to L.A. and did seven twenty-minute verbal pitches a day &#8211; the whole story, with all the characters and every twist and turn. We started to get some interest, there was a little bidding war and DreamWorks bought it. I was walking on air. I flew home and had an answering machine message that said “Steven Spielberg would like to hear this idea directly from you, please call us back.”</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_11631" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-Amy-Ryan-as-Mary-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11631" class="size-full wp-image-11631" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-Amy-Ryan-as-Mary-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies.jpg" alt="Tom Hanks as James Donovan, Amy Ryan as Mary Donovan, in Bridge of Spies" width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-Amy-Ryan-as-Mary-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-Amy-Ryan-as-Mary-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-Amy-Ryan-as-Mary-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-Amy-Ryan-as-Mary-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-11631" class="wp-caption-text">Tom Hanks as James Donovan, Amy Ryan as Mary Donovan, in <em>Bridge of Spies</em></p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">What was your initial reaction to this message?</span></h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">My initial reaction was to get very hot and sweaty. During the call, I stripped down to my boxer shorts and T-shirt. I had an E.T. poster on my wall, and every new movie he put out, a new poster went up. So to suddenly be pitching a story I cared passionately about, to a man who actually lived through this story, was an amazing thing. And at the end of the pitch, he was like “I love this. How fast can you write it?” It was just like, wow.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">You’re credited as the main writer, but Joel and Ethan Coen did their own polish. Was there any addition or subtraction that really perturbed you?</span></h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">There really wasn’t. It would be a juicier story it there was, but the truth is, I got lucky so many times on this movie. I wrote a draft, I got notes from Steven Spielberg, then after my second draft, Tom Hanks came aboard, and then I get a call from Steven saying, “The Coen brothers love this story and want to polish it.” As a young screenwriter, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and the Coen brothers working together—that’s the most incredible film school you could ever have.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_11633" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11633" class="size-full wp-image-11633" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies.jpg" alt="Tom Hanks as James Donovan, in Bridge of Spies" width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-11633" class="wp-caption-text">Tom Hanks as James Donovan, in <em>Bridge of Spies</em></p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Tell me about the Coens&#8217; contribution.</span></h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">They were able to really punch up the negotiations on the back end of the movie, then they handed the baton back to me to do a pass after they did their pass, to make the movie just sit in a place we all wanted it to. The flavor they brought is so fun and enjoyable. It needed to be entertaining but truthful. </span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">So the Coen brothers were delicate about polishing your work?</span></h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I didn’t say that. The Coen brothers are two of the best living screenwriters, and the reason I love their movies so much is that they come at scenes from such an interesting angle. It makes you raise your game as a collaborator.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">When writing 1957-era dialogue, are there any resources for checking what words and phrases would have been spoken at that time? Obviously James Donovan isn’t going to talk about taking a selfie.</span></h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I’ve written period for British television, set in the 1930s, and with period writing, you just need to tune into it. I read literature from those times and I watched movies set in those times, so it felt natural to talk in those people’s voices.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_11632" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies-3.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11632" class="size-full wp-image-11632" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies-3.jpg" alt="Tom Hanks as James Donovan, in Bridge of Spies" width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies-3.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies-3-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies-3-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Tom-Hanks-as-James-Donovan-in-Bridge-of-Spies-3-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-11632" class="wp-caption-text">Tom Hanks as James Donovan, in <em>Bridge of Spies</em></p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">What about the vocabulary differences between America and England? A Brit would say “I need a toilet,” where an American says “I need a restroom”.</span></h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I don’t even think about it. It’s a “restroom”. If you love American cinema like I do, you’re just immersed, so it’s almost like switching from a Southern accent to a Boston accent. It’s just a few clicks in your mind and a few little calibrations.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">And when you’re writing for military personnel describing specs of a U-2 spy plane, with technical terms like “10,000 pounds of thrust”, do you consult a weapons guy to nail the accuracy of the jargon?</span></h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Yes, a huge amount of research goes into that, because you not only want it to be right, but you want it to <i>sound</i> right. And in truth, there are things that that we might consider to be military speak that would never be expressed that way. So you first have to find the actual details of what you want to express, and then ask people, “How would you actually express the power of an engine? Do you speak in abbreviations?” Because I think people can smell a rat. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">It’s like medical shows, where you know when something has been carelessly written or when something has been learned from a doctor. It either smells a bit fishy or it smells 100% right.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_11629" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Mark-Rylance-as-Rudolf-Abel-in-Bridge-of-Spies.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11629" class="size-full wp-image-11629" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Mark-Rylance-as-Rudolf-Abel-in-Bridge-of-Spies.jpg" alt="Mark Rylance as Rudolf Abel in Bridge of Spies" width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Mark-Rylance-as-Rudolf-Abel-in-Bridge-of-Spies.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Mark-Rylance-as-Rudolf-Abel-in-Bridge-of-Spies-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Mark-Rylance-as-Rudolf-Abel-in-Bridge-of-Spies-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Mark-Rylance-as-Rudolf-Abel-in-Bridge-of-Spies-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-11629" class="wp-caption-text">Mark Rylance as Rudolf Abel in <em>Bridge of Spies</em></p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">During the spy swap, when Abel is about to be handed back to the Russians, he says they’ll either embrace him or show him the back seat of the car &#8211; the latter meaning he’ll be killed by his own people. But Abel is in fact shown the back seat and isn’t killed. Was his rhetoric just a red herring to raise the dramatic stakes? </span></h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">The truth of it was, Abel didn’t really know whether he was going to last the night. They knew there were snipers all around, and there was a feeling that maybe Abel would be shot, and that Gary Powers would be grabbed back. So to </span><span style="color: #333333;"><i>not</i></span><span style="color: #333333;"> serve that tension and the bravery of a man walking into a potential assassination by the people he used to work for, and to not have an audience confront that sense of fear would have been a mistake. </span></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">Finally, you sidestepped a huge cliché, when James Donovan develops a brutal cold, but survives it. Normally, a character’s cold is a preamble to their death, like Kate Winslet in </span><span style="color: #333333;"><i>Finding Neverland</i></span><span style="color: #333333;">, or in Victorian novels, where someone coughs, then dies of consumption soon after. Was Donovan’s cold added to fake viewers out?</span></span></h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">It’s from reality. It was so cold in East Berlin during the negotiations, that Donovan caught pleurisy. And he was negotiating through the most hellish bad health. I felt strongly that that needed to be in there. And I also loved that this is just a guy who wants to get this done and get home to a warm bed. There’s something that felt so universal about that. But I know what you mean. We’ve all watched those movies where we say, “Uh-oh, that’s not just a headache!”</span></span></p>


Bridge of Spies: Spielberg, the Coens and Tom Hanks

<div id="attachment_11591" style="width: 134px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ED2013colourside.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11591" class="wp-image-11591 size-thumbnail" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ED2013colourside-124x150.jpg" alt="Emma Donoghue © Punch Photographic, 2013." width="124" height="150" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ED2013colourside-124x150.jpg 124w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ED2013colourside-250x300.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ED2013colourside-145x175.jpg 145w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ED2013colourside.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 124px) 100vw, 124px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-11591" class="wp-caption-text">Emma Donoghue © Punch Photographic, 2013.</p></div>
<p>Confined to a windowless, 10-by-10-foot shed, a young woman lovingly raises the child she conceived with her rapist captor, in <i>Room</i>, a psychological thriller written by Irish novelist Emma Donoghue, who adapted the script from her same-named best-selling book. This simply-described premise turns out to be a boundless mystical journey, as Ma (Brie Larson) does everything in her power to normalize and beautify this tiny world for five-year-old Jack, played with astonishing authenticity by Jacob Tremblay (<i>The Smurfs 2</i>). When their captor Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) brings just enough food to keep his prisoners alive, Jack only sees a bounty, where nothing goes to waste—not even the broken egg shells he and Ma thread into a fantastic serpent creature for Jack to play with. Like a blind man who develops a heightened sense of smell, Jack and Ma’s static space only serves to strengthen their collective imagination. It has to.</p>
<p>Directed by Irish film and television helmer Lenny Abrahamson, <i>Room</i> also features one of the most nail-biting escape sequences ever committed to film. To say more is to divulge major spoilers, but any way you look at it, <i>Room</i> observes the intricacies of the mother/child connection, like no other film has.</p>
<p>Donoghue sat down with <em>Creative Screenwriting</em>, to tell us more.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_11589" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Joan-Allen-Nancy-William-H.-Macy-Robert-and-Brie-Larson-Ma-in-Room.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11589" class="size-full wp-image-11589" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Joan-Allen-Nancy-William-H.-Macy-Robert-and-Brie-Larson-Ma-in-Room.jpg" alt="Joan Allen as Nancy, William H. Macy as Robert, and Brie Larson as Ma in Room." width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Joan-Allen-Nancy-William-H.-Macy-Robert-and-Brie-Larson-Ma-in-Room.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Joan-Allen-Nancy-William-H.-Macy-Robert-and-Brie-Larson-Ma-in-Room-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Joan-Allen-Nancy-William-H.-Macy-Robert-and-Brie-Larson-Ma-in-Room-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Joan-Allen-Nancy-William-H.-Macy-Robert-and-Brie-Larson-Ma-in-Room-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-11589" class="wp-caption-text">Joan Allen as Nancy, William H. Macy as Robert, and Brie Larson as Ma in <em>Room</em></p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>What was it like seeing your novel Room blow up into a global phenomenon?</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>It was really sweet. It was my seventh novel and I’ve been a full-time writer since I’ve been 23, so I’ve been enjoying my career perfectly well, but to get the sweet smell of success in your forties? Bliss!</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Was adapting the book into a screenplay a daunting task or an exciting exercise?</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Well I wrote the script on spec, because although the book had already been written and sold, it hadn’t been published yet, so I thought “I’m going to write the screenplay <i>now</i>, when there’s nobody watching over my shoulder, telling me what to do or trying to convince me to let a more experienced screenwriter do it.” So I was in a private space, with no pressure, and it was full of pleasure.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Kudos for having the confidence to take such initiative.</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>About twenty years ago, I was hired by an Irish movie company to make a movie of my first book, and I now realize I should have told them it just didn’t have a strong enough story to bear a film, whereas with <i>Room</i>, for the first time ever in my career, I thought the story was strong enough to work on screen. It may be peculiar and it may have certain technical challenges, like the whole first half taking place in a room, but the plot had momentum and I could imagine a cinema audience watching this child and caring what happens to him.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>What was your point of entry into the adaptation?</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The very first thing I did was look for what had to go or be changed, and funnily enough, we ended up putting a few of these things back in afterwards. For instance, in the book, the boy has long hair, and you don’t really notice it, but on screen, I thought this little boy’s huge head of long hair would be distractingly androgynous, so I better give him short hair. But then the director Lenny Abramson was like, “Let’s go back to the long hair,” and since Lenny was such a veteran of film, he was confident about the film’s ability to include unusual elements, without alienating its audience.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_11590" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Brie-Larson-as-Ma-and-Jacob-Tremblay-as-Jack-in-Room-2.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11590" class="size-full wp-image-11590" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Brie-Larson-as-Ma-and-Jacob-Tremblay-as-Jack-in-Room-2.jpg" alt="Brie Larson as Ma and Jacob Tremblay as Jack in Room." width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Brie-Larson-as-Ma-and-Jacob-Tremblay-as-Jack-in-Room-2.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Brie-Larson-as-Ma-and-Jacob-Tremblay-as-Jack-in-Room-2-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Brie-Larson-as-Ma-and-Jacob-Tremblay-as-Jack-in-Room-2-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Brie-Larson-as-Ma-and-Jacob-Tremblay-as-Jack-in-Room-2-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-11590" class="wp-caption-text">Brie Larson as Ma and Jacob Tremblay as Jack in <em>Room</em></p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>How methodically did you consult your book as the blueprint for the screenplay?</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>I wasn’t totally attached to any one scene. It was all about figuring out how to tell the story in a way that suits cinema. For instance, in the first thirty pages of the book, the reader is involved in a kind of guessing game of figuring out exactly what’s going on, based on Jack’s childish prattle. He’ll make some little reference to Ma taking her pill, and the reader is thinking that Ma’s on “The Pill”, and wondering who she’s having sex with, so the reader is filling in all of those little gaps. But in a film, obviously the camera shows you that world, so I knew the story would have to move much faster. But the major components are roughly the same shape and proportion as they were in the book, so as adaptations go, this was a pretty faithful one.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>One character you certainly couldn’t have excised was Old Nick. Why did you avoid describing his motivations and back story?</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>In the film and in the book, we tried to do exactly what Ma does, which is keep Old Nick at arm’s length, because we didn’t want to position him as some kind of fascinating psychopath rapist, with flashbacks to his traumatic childhood. We couldn’t care less about his childhood. The story puts Ma and Jack in the center, with Old Nick kept off to one side. But Sean Bridgers gives a very powerful performance with the short scenes he’s got.<b> </b></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>There were small observations that really lent to the film’s charm, like when it gets cold and Jack sees his breath and says, “Look, Ma, I’m a dragon!” Did these nuances come straight from your id?</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>They came straight from my son, who was four-and-a-half when I got the idea for the book, and I stole the words out of his mouth. I used to watch him play, and take notes on what he was saying and how he would talk to his truck. I’m embarrassed how much I owe to him.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_11587" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Brie-Larson-as-Ma-and-Jacob-Tremblay-as-Jack-in-Room-3.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11587" class="size-full wp-image-11587" src="http://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Brie-Larson-as-Ma-and-Jacob-Tremblay-as-Jack-in-Room-3.jpg" alt="Brie Larson as Ma and Jacob Tremblay as Jack in Room." width="600" height="338" srcset="https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Brie-Larson-as-Ma-and-Jacob-Tremblay-as-Jack-in-Room-3.jpg 600w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Brie-Larson-as-Ma-and-Jacob-Tremblay-as-Jack-in-Room-3-150x85.jpg 150w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Brie-Larson-as-Ma-and-Jacob-Tremblay-as-Jack-in-Room-3-250x141.jpg 250w, https://www.creativescreenwriting.com/cswcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Brie-Larson-as-Ma-and-Jacob-Tremblay-as-Jack-in-Room-3-500x282.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a><p id="caption-attachment-11587" class="wp-caption-text">Brie Larson as Ma and Jacob Tremblay as Jack in <em>Room</em></p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Is there a universality to the parent-child experience portrayed in the book &#8211; despite the extreme circumstances Jack and Ma face?</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Absolutely. I think this is a parenting story &#8211; not a crime story. The crime premise is merely a way of shining this extreme spotlight on the experience of raising a small child, which is otherwise hard to capture in all its dramatic glory, because we’re all so used to seeing kids around, and a lot of us have kids in our own lives, so it’s all very ordinary. But the premise of a women giving birth in a locked room, allows us to see how life-altering and what a huge responsibility it is when you’re raising a child, allowing us to ask, “What is this astonishing little magic circle of the parent-child bond, which one minute is full of fun and private alchemy and the next minute is ‘get me out of here, I’m trapped?’” So the locked room for me is a useful metaphor, but one thing I like about the way Lenny’s done it is that it also really works as a very naturalistic film about a kidnap victim as well. It just doesn’t wear its allegorical side very heavily.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>There comes a time when Ma has to talk to Jack more truthfully and objectively, in order to describe the escape plan. Tell me about Ma’s shift away from fantasy and pretense, in her conversations with Jack.</h3>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>She’s doing what she calls “unlying”. As parents, you always have to lie to your kids to deal with their limited understanding. When they’re two years old, and you’re dropping them off with their grandmother for three days, you simplify things and say, “I’ll see you later!” You don’t say it’s going to be three long days. Whether it’s Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy, we tell them these simplified versions of things in a loving spirit, then you find yourself going, “Okay, the Tooth Fairy didn’t come because there is no Tooth Fairy.” So Ma was just doing a more extreme version of what all parents do.</p>


Walking a Tightrope: John Hamburg on Why Him?

Bridge of Spies: Spielberg, the Coens and Tom Hanks

Making “Room”

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