MY SO-CALLED LIFE
An origin story🧵
Kristy McNichol played "Buddy," an adolescent girl on ABC-TV's "Family." I’d write surly teenage dialogue and get network notes on my scripts with the initials N.O.B. meaning “Not Our Buddy.” I vowed someday I'd get to portray real adolescence. 2. MARSHALL
wrote a provocative pilot for Showtime called "Secret Seventeen" about unruly, unapologetic, wised-up, highly sexualized teenagers in mall culture. The network barely read it and summarily passed. He vowed someday he'd get to portray real adolescence.

1. "GLORY"🧵
opened on this weekend, 35 years ago. Box office was fair. Reviews were good or mixed. Nominated for five Oscars, won two. Of all my films, hits or flops, it has proven the most durable. When all is said and done, there is only one measure that counts: Time. 2. WHEN REHEARSALS BEGAN
I soon realized I was in the presence of something beyond my understanding. Something blessed. Denzel, Morgan, André and Jihmi were hearing music I couldn’t. It was thrilling and daunting. The only thing I could think to do was shut up and hold on tight.

BLOOD DIAMOND, IN RETROSPECT🧵
14 years ago, today, it opened. Two years in Africa had opened my eyes and shaken my categories. I’d never before heard of the 'resource curse' nor knew of the world's complicity. Some films change you when you see them, others when you make them. 2. TRUE LIFE VILLAINS
Hearing about the film, the De Beers Diamond Company panicked and inveigled a dying Nelson Mandela to sign a letter asking Warner Bros to tone down our portrayal of the diamond industry. To its credit, the studio chose not to respond.

1. DIRECTING: THE AGONY & THE ECSTASY
Tom was determined to fight four men without a double. A stuntman messed up the sequence and swung a metal sword at his neck. It would have been fatal had Tom not reacted instinctively. Saved his own life. And the movie. And my career. 🧵 2. COMPETITION
After a Tony for Barefoot in the Park and an Oscar for The Graduate, Mike Nichols was cutting “Catch 22” when he heard about M*A*S*H and discovered Altman had made the anti-war movie he wanted to make. He was so depressed he went home and stayed in bed for a week.

THE SCREENWRITER’S FIVE STAGES OF GRIEF:
(with apologies to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross)

STAGE 1: DENIAL
“The studio is going to love this draft!”

🧵thread STAGE 2: ANGER
“The studio’s notes are bullshit.”

FIRST JOB
The best of times, the worst of times 1.THE PEDIGREE
My first job was on an ABC-TV show called Family. Jay Presson Allen had written a lovely pilot, directed by Mark Rydell and produced by Mike Nichols. The series was produced by Nigel and Carol McKeand. I was the Story Editor.

A SCREENWRITER’S DARK MUSINGS
who we are; where we’re going 1.PATHOLOGY
We create characters then we torture them. The more we love them, the more we punish them. We endow them with our dreams and plague them with our secrets; the more flawed they are, the better the story. We are gods and monsters. We are writers.

SEX UNCOVERED
groaning on camera & off 1.GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS
Sex is impulsive and improvisational. Filmed sex is anything but. The admixture of lights, lenses, modesty, politics, body image and MPAA ratings – not to mention an audience of a small crew – resembles a clusterfuck more than it does lovemaking.

ONE LINE, ONE STAR
An origin story 1.BEGINNINGS
Something odd was happening in the ‘thirtysomething’ offices. The female assistants kept disappearing. One by one, they made up excuses to “visit” the stage. It seems word had spread that a ‘dreamy’ actor was working that day. His name was Brad.

AN ACTOR PREPARES
…and sometimes goes too far 1.THE BIG BREAK
An actor’s first big role is a thing apart. A lifetime of childhood dreams, years of study, constant rejection and the humiliation of demeaning early work can create an aura of heightened stakes that is petrifying and paralyzing.

NAKED EMOTION
Tears for fears 1. APOTHEOSIS
More often than not, films build to some kind of catharsis: a moment of personal revelation or deep emotion. For many actors, these depths are easily explored. For some, they are a dark, impenetrable forest that can only be entered at great cost.

DIRECTORS & ACTORS
A love story 1. SYDNEY & DUSTIN
While making “Tootsie,” Dustin Hoffman was driving Sydney Pollack crazy. No matter what direction he gave, Hoffman would object and it would devolve into an endless discussion as they fell farther and farther behind schedule. Pollack was beside himself.

ME AND DAMIAN CHAZELLE
A Hollywood parable 1.INCOMING
So… I’m sitting at home, conspicuously not writing, waiting for the latest submission not to be read by a movie star, and a call not to be returned by an executive, when I get a text from a young agent at CAA asking me to call back.

FRANCIS COPPOLA AND MY PAL, JOE
A true Hollywood ending 1.A MAN WITH A PLAN
One of my first friends in LA – I’ll call him Joe -- was a Vietnam vet and an aspiring actor. Joe loved Francis Ford Coppola’s movies and when Apocalypse Now was announced, however unrealistic his chances, Joe was determined to be cast in it.

MY ACTING CAREER
a director confesses 1.NEPOTISM
One day, while casting, it occurred to me to try acting. Sydney Pollack was a mentor. He did it, right? Since no one in their right mind would cast me, I cast myself. As a therapist. Just sit in a chair and listen. No blocking, no props, no problem. As if…

WRITING PARTNERS
the agony, the ecstasy, the lunch order 1. THE GOLDEN RULE
Always write with someone better than you.Over time you assimilate his strengths and he acquires yours. Eventually you come to resemble each other, finish each other’s sentences. Like all happy marriages you trade the adoration of many for the sarcasm of one.

ACTORS & DIRECTORS, A LOVE STORY
Anecdotes, antipathy & antidotes 1. DIFFICULT PEOPLE
Directors say actors are oppositional.Actors say directors are dictatorial. Directors claim actors have authority issues, yet they are often threatened when intelligent actors ask challenging questions that reveal their lack of preparation. Both are wrong

ACTORS & DIRECTORS, A LOVE STORY
Anecdotes, antipathy & antidotes 1. DIFFICULT PEOPLE
Directors say actors are oppositional.Actors say directors are dictatorial. Directors claim actors have authority issues, yet they are often threatened when intelligent actors ask challenging questions that reveal their lack of preparation. Both are wrong.

From, THE DIRECTOR'S NOTEBOOK
observations, reservations and incantations A PRO
When the lead actress was fired on the first day of shooting, her replacement was sent a script at 7pm. She read it by 9 that night. Arrived on set at 4:30am. Went on camera at 6, letter perfect and brilliant. The show won seven Emmys. No names. Okay… Kathryn Walker.

From, A DIRECTOR’S NOTEBOOK
observations, imprecations and confessions 1.EXALTED SELF-REGARD
‘We think the script needs work,’ or ‘We feel the cutting in the chase sequence is only 60% there.” How best to react to group notes? Consider Mark Twain’s response: “The only people entitled to use ‘we’ are editors, kings, and people with tapeworm.”

SCREENWRITING 1.COUNTING PAGES
You’re going backwards. Each step has obliged you to back-fill. Don’t despair, the best souffle is made beating egg whites by hand. Just when you’re ready to give up, they peak. Take it out of the oven too soon, it collapses. Food metaphors work every time.