Tony award-winning writer Stephen Karam first breathed life into the Blake family in his play titled The Humans. This was in 2007. Almost two decades later, he wrote and directed a riveting screenplay of the same name. Karam spoke to Creative Screenwriting Magazine about his creative endeavor.
The Humans is a meticulous character study of the love that binds families and how it overcomes economic fears and anxieties. These themes are as relevant today as when the play first ran.
Moreover, it’s about the disintegration of the America Dream. Three generations of the Blake family, originally from Pennsylvania converged on the dank Chinatown (Lower Manhattan) apartment during Thanksgiving where the youngest Blake daughter Brigid (Beanie Feldstein) lives with her boyfriend Richard (Steven Yuen). Parents Erik (Richard Jenkins) and Deirdre (Jayne Houdyshell), grandmother Momo (June Squibb), and older daughter Aimee (Amy Schumer) laugh, cry, complain, and reveal secrets during the potent clash of family and holidays… before things go bump!
Stephen Karam (Photo by Jessica Antola)
We asked Karam about the curious title of his work – The Humans. “There’s a certain degree of flexibility and mystery to the titles of everything I write,” he explained. He further expanded on this explanation by referencing a scene in the film where by Richard discusses a comic book he was obsessed with as a kid about inter-planetary monsters who turn out to be humans. Karam confessed that the title has a range of meanings that means different things to different people, but “ultimately I love what The Humans conjures up emotionally in the audience.”
Adapting The Play
Unlike many adaptations, in which converting a stage play into a screenplay is more of an afterthought, the film version of The Humans was ruminating in Stephan Karam’s mind while he was writing his original play.
The writer didn’t simply want to write the screenplay in order to add, subtract, or expand elements that couldn’t be presented on the stage or to get more mileage from the story. “I started thinking about the cinematic experience. I wanted use filmic techniques to get into he heart and soul of the story as a new emotional creation of its own rather than an adaptation of the play.” He compiled a look-book of around two hundred images including floor plans to define the look of the film – almost frame by frame. Brigid and Richard’s apartment is somewhat of a maze which captures the essence of the film.
Stephen turned to Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski (Three Colors Trilogy), Wes Craven’s early work, Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Ali: Fear Eats The Soul) and Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang (Yi Yi) who looks at his family during a three hour film for cinematic inspiration. “I wanted to combine Yang’s blend of distant with intimate.” The major difference in making a film is that he could control the audience’s viewpoint more effectively than in a play. “I have a lot of responsibility with that power.”
The Humans is a peculiar genre hybrid of film – family drama and psychological horror. “I love having a jump scare in the middle of a family movie, but not tipping it too much in either direction,” he continued.
Karam’s stage play was born from the economic anxiety preceding the Great Financial Crisis on 2008 that left an indelible mark on him and his family. People were living paycheck to paycheck with little sense of security.
The film of 2021 tapped into similar fears and anxieties from a different kind of crisis. “I found a ridiculously humorous epigraph to a self-help book called ‘Think and Grow Rich’ to address the things keeping me up at night.” He quoted the six fears everyone suffers from:
- Death/ Ill-health
- Criticism/ Rejection
- Loss Of Love
- Poverty/ Material loss
- Falling
- Unknown/ Success/ Failure
These basic fears hadn’t changed, but film presented a new avenue to express them. “I didn’t want to protect the Broadway experience of the play. I relished the chance to do something different with the story.”
Stephen Karam embraced the cinematic experience by replacing dialogue with visual images. “A third of the dialogue fell away.” The Humans is essentially a contained thriller mainly set in the Blake house in Manhattan. Despite it being a contained thriller, the writer felt the need to “open up” the story. He watched other contained thrillers to ignite his inspiration including Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf (directed by Mike Nichols).
There’s a misconception that opening up only refers to moving the characters to new locations. However, Karam adds that a story can open up with multiple locations within the Blake house. “So long as the camera as where the story was.”
Genre Labels
The drama/ thriller also contains darkly comedic moments and other genre nods. “What’s more important is that I know what it is. I jokingly refer to it as a family thriller.” Stephen Karam didn’t labor the point of genre labels. “The films that I love are like people – complicated, hard to describe and interesting on many levels.” Rather than defying a genre, he prefers films that “bend” their genre.
The Humans contains six main characters each vying for ample screen time. Rather than carving up the 98-minute film equally between them, the writer gave each character the time they required to show their arcs and nuances. An issue with ensemble casts is that “one character unintentionally edits the story,” by commanding inordinate amounts of screen time and explaining the backstory. Stephen Karam planned each character’s story as he wrote.
During the editing and rewriting process, the writer was initially anxious about the effect of losing so much dialogue from the play. He found that his ruthless editing approach actually sharpened the story. “It took me a while to realize how much could be said through the story pictures. You pick up so much through the characters’ behavior.”
Brigid (Beanie Feldstein) and Richard (Steven Yuen)
Location plays a key role in The Humans. The Blakes hail from Scranton, Pennsylvania (Karam’s hometown) and gather at Brigid and Richard’s Lower East Manhattan apartment for Thanksgiving. “So much of this location is abstract emotional autobiography. I lived in a basement apartment in Lower East Manhattan. I know what it’s like to have family who are not fans of the city come to visit.”
I loved the geographic specificity of The Humans
“I knew how many layers of paint needed to be on the molding in the apartment.” These details were essential in creating the backstory.
Stephan Karam wants audiences to reflect on their own familial relationships after watching the Blake family. “Maybe they want to call their mom after watching this?” He enjoys stories of struggling families as told through the eyes of various characters – both looking in and out as was the case with Richard. It’s a way to process the imperfect love in their lives.
I write to feel less alone and more connected.
Karam writes from a place of authenticity and vulnerability. He writes so he feels more connected and less alone. “I want the audience to feel that everything I write is a story that had to be told.“
