- 5 weeks ago
Chloe Domont ('Fair Play'), Andrew Haigh ('All of Us Strangers'), Cord Jefferson ('American Fiction'), Tony McNamara ('Poor Things'), Eric Roth ('Killers of the Flower Moon') and Celine Song ('Past Lives') join The Hollywood Reporter for our Writer Roundtable.
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00:00So there's a Dorothy Parker quote that I love that is familiar, I agree with you Selene, which is
00:07I hate writing but I love having written.
00:16Hi everyone and thank you for joining us for the Hollywood Reporter's Writer Roundtable.
00:20I'm Scott Feinberg and I am so happy to be joined by the writers of six of 2023's
00:25most outstanding screenplays. Let's meet them.
00:28We are joined by Tony McNamara, the writer of Poor Things, a screenplay adapted from
00:33Alistair Gray's 1992 novel of the same name about a young Victorian woman resurrected by
00:39a scientist following her suicide who goes out into the world an uninhibited innocent.
00:45Selene Song, the writer of Past Lives, an original screenplay about a young Korean immigrant living
00:49in New York who winds up at a bar with her childhood sweetheart from Korea and her husband from
00:54New York.
00:55Eric Roth, the writer of Killers of the Flower Moon, a screenplay adapted from David Graham's
00:592017 book of the same name about the Native Americans of Osage Nation who held oil rights
01:05worth vast fortunes and the white men who preyed upon them in 1920s Oklahoma.
01:11Chloe Dumont, the writer of Fair Play, an original screenplay about a newly engaged couple whose
01:16relationship dynamics are jolted when the hedge fund at which they both work promotes the woman
01:21but not the man.
01:25Cor Jefferson, the writer of American fiction, a screenplay adapted from Percival Everett's 2001 novel
01:27Erasure about a black college professor who writes books that nobody reads because he is told they are not
01:34black enough and then out of disgust writes one under a pen name employing all the stereotypes that he
01:39disdains, thank you, and Andrew Haig, the writer of All of Us Strangers, a screenplay adapted from Taichi Yamada's 1987 novel
01:48Strangers about a gay man living in present day London who visits his childhood home and finds living there the parents who he lost 30 years
01:56earlier when he was just 12. Thank you all for coming from near and far to do this. We're thrilled to have you and I think to begin with, I'd like to ask you each about the origin story of these projects and then we'll loosen it up after that.
02:13But Chloe, you've been climbing the ranks in the world of TV for a few years, writing on shows like Ballers and directing on shows like Billions.
02:22My understanding is that things were going on in your own life at the same time that may have motivated you to sit down and write Fair Play, your first produced feature length screenplay. Can you share a little bit about that?
02:36Yeah, I think the story had been compounding for years and but it I think it really kind of came together. It was this feeling I was having at the time when my career started to take off in television.
02:51And it was this feeling that my success didn't feel like a total win. It felt like a loss on some level. And it was because of the relationships I was in. And these were relationships with men who on the one hand adored me for my strengths, my ambition, what I was trying to do.
03:11But there was this unspoken feeling and tension that me being big on some level made them feel small. And it just made me realize how much hold these ingrained power dynamics still have over us today. So that's something that I wanted to sink my teeth into.
03:29Fantastic. Andrew, you have written and directed some truly beautiful films over the last decade plus. We're talking about Weekend, 45 years, Lean on Pete. But if I'm not mistaken, you have generally originated, you've brought the material to others and said, this is what I want to do. In this case, it started a little bit differently, right?
03:49Yeah, it came to me. Someone sent me the novel. And I think whether I'm adapting something or whether it's an original screenplay, I need to be able to connect on a very deep level, whatever that material is, personally connect with it in some way or other.
04:03And they sent me the novel. And it's a very traditional ghost story, I think, in a Japanese sense. But that central idea of meeting your parents again long after they've gone, and I would say my parents are actually still alive, there's something about that reunion, and that reunion with the past, and what that can do to you, and how it can make you remember, relive very sort of painful experiences, and how reliving that in a very visceral sense can help you move on, can help you find
04:33perhaps, perhaps some kind of liberation. And I remember when I read the novel, it felt so personal to the writer, I've never met the writer of the book, maybe it wasn't personal to him, but it felt personal.
04:44And I felt like I had to do the same thing, and throw myself into that novel as much as I could. And so that became my adaptation process was take this idea, put myself into that story, and see what comes out.
04:57Cord, you've been a journalist, you've written for TV, and it's kind of amazing how you move between comedies, Master of None, The Good Place, and dramas, Succession, and then Watchmen, which you won your Emmy for.
05:10What led you to Erasure, and were you actively looking for something to write a feature-length screenplay about?
05:17I had a horrible 2020. I don't think that's unique to any of us here. We all had a bad 2020, I think. If you didn't have a bad 2020, I would like to talk to you as to why. But besides the COVID thing, I had a really big professional failing that year, where I came very, very close to getting a TV show on the air, and then at the last minute, it was killed.
05:36And so I was kind of adrift toward the end of the year, trying to figure out what my next creative project would be. And I just, by chance, read this novel for, I'm sorry, read this review for this novel called Interior Chinatown.
05:49And the review said that there was a satire reminiscent of Percival Everett's Erasure. And so I went and read a synopsis of Erasure, and it sounded interesting, so I bought it. And I don't know if you guys have ever had a feeling, I had a feeling that the book was written specifically for me.
06:05Like, it was as if somebody sat down to write Cor Jefferson a book. It was like, it was like, I was 20 pages into it, and I was like, oh my god, this, I might want to adapt this. And 50 pages into it, I thought, maybe I want to direct this.
06:17And then I started reading the novel in Jeffrey Wright's voice. That's how early I started thinking of Jeffrey Ford.
06:21It just felt, you know, the themes of like the professional, sort of what it means to be a writer of color, and sort of like the restrictions people put on your life, and sort of like the stories that you can tell because of your identity.
06:33That was stuff that I'd thought about, you know, since I was a journalist. And then, the more I got into it, there was a bunch of family stuff that I really empathized with and understood.
06:43And so, I just felt like I understood it deep in my bones in a way that I hadn't before. It just resonated with me deeper than any piece of art had before or since.
06:51Tony, you previously wrote another film that Yorgos Lanthimos directed. That was 2018's The Favorite. Then you remained in the period royal world with The Great on TV, which I think had even been gestating before The Favorite.
07:03Yeah.
07:04And now, you're back with Yorgos for Poor Things. How did you and he begin working together? And how did this follow-up project come about?
07:13We began working together. He was, he, he had some, a script for The Favorite that he didn't, he liked the idea of, but he didn't like the script and he was reading a lot of writers and he just read something I'd written and I didn't know anything.
07:27He hadn't made any of his English films at that point. So I went and watched the, they said, do you want, do you want to work with this Greek director? There's no money.
07:34And I went and watched his film and I was like, dog tooth. And I was like, I'll do it for free. He's amazing. So, and then I started, we worked on The Favorite and we had a really good time.
07:45And so just before going into production, he came, but he had told me about Alistair's book. And when he first, he really loved it, but he couldn't get anyone to give him any money to get someone to write it.
07:56But then he'd made, you know, he'd made the lobster and they, he kind of went, people will give me money. Do you want to do it? And then I read it and it was such a wild story and such a crazy premise of his, you know, like a Frankenstein story, but she's pregnant.
08:11And they take, when I first read that, I was like, what? They take the baby's brain out and put it in her head and like, I'm like, it's a comedy, right?
08:18So then, but I read it. I just, it was such a great screenwriting challenge because it seemed fun. It seemed really hard to make a movie out of it. And, and also what was really interesting about it was this, the book told the whole story from the men's perspective.
08:36Her story is never told by her until the last two pages. And so we kind of immediately, you know, that was the character he wanted to kind of, Balor was the character, but it gave us this great freedom because we had everyone else's view of it.
08:50And also that was the key to the movie for me, because I was like, oh, this is a movie about control of someone's story, control of someone, you know, how you enter the world and everyone wants to control your ideas, your upbringing, how you see the world, your body, you know.
09:03So, and it became like a really key to how I could kind of see the movie and it became really, I knew it was an interesting movie on a philosophical level, as well as be this wild ride that was sort of slightly unhinged. So yeah, so I said, yes.
09:18Brings us to Eric Roth. You have been at this first, let's say, for, I think about 50 or more years, almost 60 years as a writer. So a wealth of knowledge here.
09:30Good luck to me.
09:31Yeah. Well, I'm going to just mention a few things here. Forrest Gump, The Insider, Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, A Star is Born, Mink, and Dune. And those are only the ones that got nominated for Oscars. So, and winning for Forrest Gump.
09:45How did you and Martin Scorsese, who I don't believe you'd worked with before, connect for Killers of Flower Moon?
09:51I gave them my take and they decided to say, okay, give it a whirl. And I spent like a year plus on it. And they gave me their notes. I tried to fix those as bad as they might have been.
10:02And then, I'm kidding. Some were good. Anyhow, they were good. Very nice. Dan Freakton and Bradley Thomas, very good producers.
10:14And then, I went to Marty. And Marty felt this was something special. And I felt the same way when I was doing it. There was a, it showed the lack of education I had. I never knew anything that existed.
10:28It reminded me of the Tulsa Massacre, which was part of the same thing, 1921, that I knew nothing about. And I said, what was going on?
10:37Yeah.
10:38You know? And plus, I knew about the erasure, as you said, yeah, the Native Americans. That I knew about. I had a script called Comanche earlier.
10:47Mm-hmm.
10:47But, um, I never seen something that was as heinous as this, in some ways.
10:53And, um, I became very passionate about it. And I'm very passionate about research, also.
10:58Yeah.
10:59And Marty and I set out, and I'll just be quick now, but we, we decided we were going to make a gigantic western, uh, John Ford.
11:06We were going to start it, actually, with the Oklahoma Land Rush, which would have taken about a month.
11:11Um, and, uh, it slowly became something else. Marty said, uh, quite right, uh, quite right up front, uh, I don't want to do a whodunit.
11:21I want to know, uh, because, uh, we all did, you know, that we were all comfortable.
11:27And, um, it was a, uh, it was a long assignment, like eight years, which isn't the longest I've been anymore.
11:35But, uh, you know, it was pandemic, he made another movie, but, uh, we worked, it was, uh, I think it defined collaboration of a certain kind.
11:44It was a wonderful relationship. He's a, uh, um, I'll be of sequence for a moment, but I was a wonderful man that I've worked with.
11:52If you say, I think I want to do the movie backwards, he'll try it.
11:54Celine, you had spent the, uh, decade or so before Past Lives as a very admired playwright, but my understanding is that you were very consciously trying to move into film.
12:07It wasn't, you know, sometimes it's an accident or whatever. In this case, you were looking to do that. What convinced you to make this story, which is personal in ways that I'll ask you to talk about, why was this the story that would be the one for your, for your transition into film?
12:23Well, I think that it all goes back to the, uh, this particular feeling that I had. And sometimes it's just, you just have to chase the feeling that you have in your own life.
12:32And it was a feeling that I got, uh, where I was sitting in this bar in East Village in New York City, sitting between my chalice sweetheart, who had come to visit me from Korea, who's now a friend and my husband that I love live with in New York City.
12:44And, um, because they do not speak each other's language, uh, and I do, uh, I, uh, was translating between these two people, uh, who cared for me and knew me very differently.
12:56And what was so clear is that, um, in that moment, I was sort of becoming a bit of a bridge or a portal between not just these two people and these two cultures and these two languages, but also, uh, parts of my own self and my own history.
13:10And I think, uh, at that moment, I just felt so, uh, full and, and, uh, and massive, you know, I felt very big.
13:18And I think that strange feeling that I had in that night, uh, I think it's really stayed with me for a long time until I, uh, decided that it was something that I wanted to, uh, write because, um, and I think it really did just come from the feeling that, yeah, but I want to, I want to, I want to talk about it.
13:37And I want to, I'm just wondering, uh, if other people are going to also know this feeling.
13:42And I think it really did come from the question of like, yeah, this is how it felt like for me sitting there.
13:49How does it feel for you?
13:50Like, did it, did this feel like, uh, that for you?
13:52And I think it became, uh, a script from there with anything.
13:56That's great.
13:57So Celine and Chloe, your lives, as we've established, helped inspire your screenplays.
14:03But for the other four of you who have adapted preexisting material, um, Andrew alluded to this a little bit when he was speaking earlier that he, um, has to have it feel a bit personal.
14:15He tailored it to be, um, you know, a character who wasn't gay in the book is gay in the screenplay.
14:22Um, so how important is it?
14:24And anyone, please jump in to feel that personal connection if it's not material that's originating from your own life.
14:32I don't, I don't think you can go past page, uh, word one without the passion for it.
14:37So you have to find something that's, uh, important to you.
14:40And, uh, what does it say to you?
14:42You know, so that, that, that's how it felt with that.
14:45Um, I don't think I, I look for a literal, necessarily a literal that's me or something, but I do, I think I have to feel it.
14:53Like I have to read it and go, I feel like I know something in this story is about me without knowing what it consciously is.
15:01I've got to know that I feel what that being thrown into the world, like Balor, not really knowing what the fuck you're doing is a feeling.
15:09And I have to know what it's, you know, I kind of feel like without being too literal about it, I just read it.
15:15And I assume there's something cause I've connected with it.
15:17I assume it'll come when I write it rather than feel like I have to, you know, it's like even God, when the scientists, I, I know what it's like to be a father who loves their child too much.
15:27And doesn't want them to go anywhere too, cause you want to protect them in the same way.
15:31I know I want to get out in the world and see what the world will hammer me into.
15:35So you can know those things without, I guess, for me anyway, it's just kind of an instinct that I feel like there's something in there for me.
15:42I just think that there's, you know, I'm fortunate because of the book that I found was about a black writer.
15:47So I kind of, I lucked out in that and I'm like, Oh, I know this guy is about a black writer who lives in LA.
15:53Okay. Yeah, I get this. But I think that, you know, the sort of, for when you're not, I mean, just to be any good writer, I think that you have to, you know,
16:03so for instance, when I worked on succession, I don't know any white billionaires. Right.
16:07And I sort of like, if you, if you were to tell me that, that I had to write a show about this sort of like conservative billionaire family,
16:17I sort of go in there and I'm like, well, I'm not going to be interested in these people because I have nothing to relate to them about and they have nothing to relate to me about.
16:23But I think the reason that succession works is, and sort of the reason why people loved it so much was that, you know,
16:29people don't know anything about being white billionaires necessarily, but they know what it's like to sort of have this sibling rivalry
16:36and to want to impress your father who's never sort of like given you his entire sort of heart and soul. Right.
16:41And, and they, they know what it's like to have, you know, these sexual hangups and to have these drug addiction problems.
16:47Like all of the stuff that makes human beings, human beings is sort of what you understand and can empathize with.
16:52And so when you get to that, when you get to that kind of show, or when you sort of read a book or something,
16:57or you're reading a character who's a woman and you're a man or vice versa, it, I just think that sort of, you know,
17:03you just need to tap into the things that make people human beings and sort of like,
17:07what is, what is it about this human being that you can relate to that has nothing to do with necessarily their class
17:13or their race or their gender? It's just kind of like, what's the, what's the humanity that you can find?
17:18And I think that that to me is always a more, that's always the first important question when you sit down to write something
17:24is like, what, what is this human being have in them that I have?
17:27And how can I tap into the emotions that they're going to have?
17:30And it's why we read and watch films anyways, to connect. We all want to connect.
17:34We all want to understand ourselves, understand each other.
17:36So it makes sense that any material you get is that, oh no, I understand something that has been got out here.
17:43There is something that has been discussed and talked about that I'm interested in.
17:46So I think you have to, for me personally, I have to feel that.
17:48A bunch of you have come to writing films via writing TV, Chloe, Court, Tony, Andrew, you had done film,
17:58but then went and did looking and came simultaneously.
18:00What do you guys find to be the biggest differences between writing for one medium versus the other?
18:10Selene, of course, coming from theater, same, same kind of, you know, just as you've made those transitions,
18:15some of you quite recently now, what struck you the most about the, the different art form?
18:22My movie, Past Lives, had to be a film because it's about endings.
18:26It's about the finiteness of time.
18:29So actually it is suited for film.
18:31And I think different stories are suited for different mediums.
18:35And I think part of the reason why I wanted to make Past Lives as a movie is because I know what is required in theater
18:42because I was there for 10 years.
18:44So the thing about theater is that it is, its relationship to time and space is very different than the relationship that film has.
18:52And in theater, time and space is figurative.
18:56So time and space can be as small as a light change or just the way that an actor turns and looks at someone.
19:03So theater, you can, it's in a way, even though it's happening in usually a room, it is, it is going to move very differently than in film.
19:12And because Past Lives, the villains of the story is time and space is 24 years and, you know, and 24 years and Pacific Ocean.
19:23That's the villains of the story.
19:25So in that situation, those things needed to be depicted literally.
19:29So that's why I felt like it was, you needed to be a scene in a filmic way because you need to feel the tangibility of time and space in a way that in theater, you don't need to.
19:41And I guess the thing I love about film is the collaboration with the director and that I know, like when I write for Yorgos, I'm like, I wonder what he'll do.
19:51You know, I know, I sort of know, but I sort of also, he's going to bring something that's not me.
19:55And I think that's what's interesting.
19:57And as a writer working with a good director, they make you a better writer and they push you and they collaborate with you.
20:04And I think when I do a film, I know I'm ultimately serving them.
20:09But I also work with directors who let me bring what I bring and kind of, so I think that's what I like about that.
20:18And then TV is kind of different.
20:20I mean, it depends if you're show running, then you have a lot of control, almost too much because it's tiring.
20:24But I think that they're the differences, I guess.
20:28And then for me, the screenwriting, writing a screenplay for a film, it's such a pure, it has to be so, it's such an unforgiving thing as a piece of work.
20:39Whereas TV, you've got 10 hours and you can probably make a lot more mistakes and get away with it to some degree.
20:44But I think with a screenplay, they're really tight, machine-like things and you've got to find the heart of it and you've got to like find the simplicity of it that'll give you the complexity.
20:55And so that's such a beautiful challenge that, and when you're working with a director that you go, they're going to ask so much of you that you know you'll bring things you didn't know you had in you that in your own TV show, maybe you can't because no one's pushing you in that way.
21:09I mean, in my experience, I feel like, I mean, what they say I feel like is cliche, but I think it's kind of true and I think it's changing.
21:16But I do feel like TV is a writer's medium and film is a filmmaker's medium, you know, but it is changing.
21:24And you have filmmakers more and more in television that are having more control.
21:29But for me, I was, when I was working in television, I was serving other people's vision and I was the director, I was the day player.
21:37So for me, my movie was, was, was my baby.
21:41That was finally my story that I got to tell.
21:44I think I'm super grateful for all those experiences in television.
21:48I actually, I felt like television was kind of like boot camp for me, like gearing up towards making my first feature because it was just, the experiences were invaluable.
21:57And what I'm so grateful for in those experiences of television, it taught me to think so fast and just constantly, like really, it was like boot camp.
22:08You're just, you just have to pivot.
22:10You don't have, you don't have time.
22:11And not that you have much time in independent films either, but I would say, you know, television, it's like I shot a one hour action show that was, we shot 60 pages in seven days with actions and stunts.
22:26But yeah, it's crazy, like the pace that it moves, but I think just the having to pivot so quickly and, and, and all of that was just your issue.
22:35You're honing, you're honing your, um, your craft and your muscle and, and, and you get to try out things on someone else's dime, you know, and it's not necessarily something that's your baby.
22:44So you're not as precious about it, but, um, yeah, they're, I think they're, they're very, they're very, very different.
22:49I feel the same way that everybody else does when they're saying sort of about how, you know, I don't have necessarily the best perspective on it because I didn't just hand over the script to a director.
22:59I sort of did it myself.
23:00And so I'm not sure what the difference would have been.
23:03I think that, um, I do know that one of the reasons why I was interested in making the film is because I wanted to, I like really wanted to challenge myself.
23:13I worked on a lot of great TV shows and I'm like forever grateful for those experiences and I learned a lot and I really enjoyed my time there, but there was always kind of a voice in the back of my head that was like, do you think you can do this on your own?
23:25Like, do you, are, are you sort of like riding on the coattails of other people?
23:29Can you execute something on your own?
23:31Because you are always in service of somebody else's vision.
23:34And I had, I'd had a very difficult time getting TV shows on the air, as I just said, I was sort of, I came very close a few times and it never happened.
23:43And so there was always kind of this chip on my shoulder that was like, can you do this?
23:47Do you think you can actually do it?
23:48And so, uh, being able to execute that was, was great.
23:52I think that it is different in, in many ways, but I think that, you know, I think that I found a lot of similarities.
23:59I, I found, you know, one of the things that I was really happy about that I was able to bring from TV to film, hopefully, uh, one of the reasons why I like making TV and watching TV is that I re I think that TV because of the time allows you to be discursive and digressive and sort of like go to weird places and sort of like spend time with these characters in a, in a very real nuanced layered complex way.
24:20Um, and so I think that when I got to film, you know, there's some, there's some characters in my movie that aren't driving the plot forward.
24:29And I actually got some notes from people that were like, you know, do you actually need this person?
24:34Do you actually need this scene?
24:35Like this, what is this, what does this have to do?
24:37You know, you could get from A to B faster if you sort of eliminate this.
24:40And I thought that I was like, there's no way in hell I would ever do that because I think that, you know, I want to do more than just drive the plot forward.
24:47I want to sort of like service these characters and make them feel like real lived in human beings.
24:52And that is important.
24:53And that's sort of, that is important to the satisfaction of an audience watching this thing.
24:56Like that's why they care about these things in the first place.
24:59And so I'm actually really happy that I started out in TV because I think I learned a lot of lessons that were helpful when it comes to storytelling that I could apply to, to the film.
25:10The thing that I struggle with, with TV is what something Celine said about endings.
25:15Like for me, when I'm coming up with a story, the ending is so important to that story.
25:20And TV is so different.
25:22You never know if your TV show is going to be cancelled, which they often are.
25:26Mine was cancelled.
25:27And you expect it to happen, sort of.
25:29So you never really quite know where you're going to go.
25:31And I struggled with that because it's so important.
25:35I don't know how you can tell a story unless you know what the ending is.
25:38And I think there's so many more voices in TV, which can be great, but there's also different demands.
25:44Like, you know that the audience is sitting there and they're on their phone and maybe they're doing that when they watch films too, let's face it.
25:50But, you know, the washing machine's going off and stuff's happening and the doorbell's ringing.
25:55And so you have to constantly keep their attention.
25:57And I quite like not to keep people's attention sometimes.
26:01I want them to, like, drift off a little bit and sort of sink into the story.
26:06And TV, you can't do that.
26:07You'll get notes like, I'm bored.
26:09People are turning off.
26:11You've got to keep them in in that first five minutes or ten minutes.
26:13It is hard because you have to sort of write endings that aren't actual ending.
26:17Do you know what I mean?
26:18Especially towards the end of a season, you've sort of got some great ending that isn't really an ending because you want another season.
26:23So you're always not quite, you know, it's not quite serving the characters in the way.
26:28Or you're sort of like some weird shell game.
26:30You're like, yes, it's the ending, but not really because there's ten more.
26:34And then if you get cancelled, which lots of you do, then the thing doesn't exist as a whole.
26:38It's just ended.
26:39And so you've got this thing that essentially disappears from the world.
26:43Whereas a film, you can watch it from 20 years later.
26:45It's like, there it is.
26:46That's that thing.
26:47Well, I was going to say, I've done it the other way from movies to television.
26:50And I'm not sure this was the best thing, but we did House of Cards and we all know the result of it.
26:57But I found and I've done like six other TV shows and I never did any writing except for dealing with the showrunner and then giving my Yoda notes and telling me to blow it out.
27:09And but I found it a little too analytical, to be honest with you.
27:15I didn't I felt you could get in the moments and I think some of the television is getting better, like Succession.
27:21I think we're, you know, I'm very close with the unfortunate bad Alzheimer's, David Milch.
27:26And I got to write on Deadwood and stuff.
27:29But and that where he gave you permission to try to you could do a one off and just have characters, you know, really have some intimacy.
27:36But I find a lot of the television, I'm not saying some of it is just brilliant.
27:41Yeah.
27:41But I didn't know you wrote on Deadwood, man.
27:43You're even more of a legend.
27:45Jesus, that is unbelievable.
27:47You wrote on Deadwood, dude.
27:50My goodness.
27:50Yeah.
27:51I want to springboard off of something that Andrew said about I don't know how you can write without knowing the ending.
27:57I want to pose that to Chloe and Celine because I guess, yes, your films, your original scripts are personally rooted in personal things.
28:09But when you sit down to when you sat down to write them, did you have to know exactly where it was going to end up or do you find that along the way?
28:19I knew the ending before I knew the beginning.
28:21For me, I wanted to make a thriller about power dynamics in a relationship and really on the ugliest level.
28:30But, you know, for me to talk about the ending, you kind of have to talk about what happens in the bathroom.
28:35So, for me, the film always had to escalate to sexual assault because when you break it down, like, sexual assault isn't really about sex.
28:46It's about power.
28:47And that's what I was exploring.
28:48And so what happens in the bathroom, that is the only way for Luke to reclaim the power over Emily in that moment through physical dominance.
28:57And so because that happens and because I knew it had to go there, then it was like the ending is about Emily reclaiming the power that Luke takes away from her.
29:06And I also for me, I decided to tell the story through the lens of a thriller and my intention was to manipulate the genre, you know, and twist it to serve as something that that I felt like had to be told now.
29:22But I do feel like no matter how much you twist a genre, you still have to pay it off.
29:27So for me, the ending was about where genre and the story kind of comes together in one in one punch.
29:33And since I was working with them, the thriller genre, that is a genre that uses violence as a means, you know, to solve conflict.
29:42So for me, it always had to get violent, you know, but it's the ending was never really about like female revenge.
29:50Like while there are elements of female fury and female rage, the whole movie really builds up to the moment that she gets Luke to mutter the words, I'm nothing and finally submit to his own inferiority.
30:05Because really, like that's, I've kind of said more than being a film about female empowerment, this is really a film about male fragility.
30:14So the film resolves when, you know, he submits to that.
30:20And that's where I needed to end.
30:21For me, the ending was, I think, I think the similar to what Chloe's talking about, I needed to know the ending for me to actually do the whole thing.
30:30But the way, you know, if you talk about like how the process is, because I work pretty structurally, I'm a pretty structural person when it comes to that.
30:39So I had to figure out the structure of the opening and the ending being connected for me to actually write the whole thing.
30:45So like it was, you know, it was like four months of procrastination and just writing just random dialogue from the final scene that I imagine will happen.
30:54So it's like, I just have like a random thing open just where I'm just like writing like, well, this piece of dialogue, whatever.
31:01And then I think at the end of that, those four months, there was a moment where I figured out the, in the beginning has to be the ending and the, in the ending, it has to be the beginning.
31:10So it wasn't like from day one, there's a framing, we're going to do a framing device.
31:14That was not at all.
31:16I knew what the story was, but I didn't know that that frame was going to exist.
31:20And then, of course, once I knew the framing and then, of course, then the, all the dialogue that I've been playing with for four months, I know where they're going to go.
31:28And then from there, I could write the whole thing in one breath.
31:31And then, and then it goes really fast, but until you've, I cracked the structure, usually it takes me months of hanging out.
31:41Now, even for the folks at the table who adapted, it doesn't mean you're doing it beat by beat the way the novel or the book was.
31:50Eric, I could see that you kind of lit up when we were talking about this.
31:55Yeah, yeah.
31:55First of all, bad books make great movies, bad plays make better movies, you know, and you, because you have the freedom to be original with it.
32:06I mean, I always know the beginning and the end.
32:09I mean, I, I spend way too much time on the beginning and they say mathematically what I spend on the end is like ridiculous.
32:16You don't give enough time to it.
32:18But, but I must say, I'm, I guess I'm, I don't know if this is a brag or not, but every movie I've ever made has had the same beginning and ending, except for Munich.
32:28How do you, what do you mean by that?
32:29I mean, it's very seen that I imagined as a beginning and wrote and the end.
32:34And some might have been from the book.
32:36I have to really think back.
32:37Yeah, yeah.
32:38The end was different in Munich only because he, uh, reconstructed the, um, World Trade Center.
32:44It was the same thing in conversation.
32:45Cord, I mean, both the beginning and the ending of your, uh, film are, are so memorable.
32:52And I think that the ending was not at all what, uh, necessarily, or not exclusively what happens at the end of Erasure.
33:00So how, just talk us through, um, how you got there.
33:03When I was adapting Erasure, I knew that I was going to have to make some pretty big changes, um, in order to make it a movie and make it cinematic.
33:11It's, uh, I think the movie that I made is a little less cynical than the book.
33:14You know, the, the, the, the sort of changes that I had to make, I knew were going to be big in some areas, but I always wanted to maintain the essence and the spirit of what Percival had tried to execute.
33:25And so, um, you know, the book's pretty meta-textual at points, and so you get some surreality there.
33:31And so I wanted to find ways to insert that in the film, um, while still keeping it grounded in many ways.
33:38And so, you know, the, the, I frequently write with no idea what the ending is going to be.
33:43Like, I, I appreciate everybody's style, but like, I, sometimes I come in and I'm like, yeah, I know what the ending is going to be, but sometimes I'm just like, let's just go for it and see what happens.
33:52And so this was one of those instances where I just wrote, and I wrote an ending that I was not happy with, um, that I knew was going to have to, have to change at some point.
34:00And so we got about a month out from pre-production and I was on a long drive to, uh, Joshua Tree for this wedding.
34:06And I had to talk about the ending with one of the producers and he said, uh, he called me and said, just, you know, he said, the movie's a big swing.
34:15The movie's audacious. Try to write an ending that feels like a big swing that feels as audacious as the rest of the film.
34:20And so I thought about that. I slept on it that night and then I woke up the next morning and I, you know, I wrote the ending pretty quickly.
34:27I'm a very, very, very slow writer. I'm a very slow writer and a very slow reader.
34:31And, but, but I wrote the ending in about 15 minutes. It just sort of like came to me and I was just like, oh, okay, this is, this is what it should be.
34:37And so I sent it in and there was, there was some, you know, reluctance from people who, uh, were a little nervous that it was going to be too much of a big swing.
34:46But, but, you know, a lot of other people were just kind of like, yeah, this is it.
34:49And that's why I think I wrote it so fast is because I thought of it and I was like, oh yeah, this is, sometimes you just have the thing where it's like, oh yeah, this is what it needs to be.
34:56Like I, I, I figured it out. And so it came to me really quickly, but it is a, you know, it's a big departure from the, from the ending of the book.
35:02But to me, I've tried to think of, of endings that would be as satisfying to me.
35:08And I haven't been able to, I haven't been able to think of one, but that is, you know, we came right up to the right before pre-production.
35:15So I was like, you know, sometimes you just got to like build it as you got to jump off the cliff and build the plane on the way down.
35:21And that's sort of like, that's sometimes my method.
35:25I think it's about, for me, it's about like a question and then an answer.
35:28So you're answering something that you've set up like, and I have to sort of know what that answer is.
35:33I don't need to know what it is on a plot level.
35:35And with this, I sort of had no idea on a plot level how I was necessarily going to end the film,
35:40but I knew what I wanted it to feel and feel for that main character.
35:45Like all of my films are actually so single protagonist.
35:48Like I don't, I think there's probably five shots in all of my films that don't include that single protagonist.
35:54They're in all over it and every single shot of almost the whole film.
35:58And so it's about what is that journey that he's going on or she's going on?
36:01And what I need to feel at the end has happened to that character.
36:04So I sort of know that from the beginning and thematically, I know how I'm trying to get there.
36:09I don't always know how the plot is going to help reveal the themes that I'm trying to talk about.
36:16But I know where I want to end and start.
36:19I want to start with Andrew, but ask all of you if there was a scene that maybe the one that you've received the most feedback about
36:29from people who you've talked to at Q&As or whatever.
36:32And if you can just take us into a little bit of how you cracked that scene.
36:37If it was, sometimes it can be a 15 minute process to do something that blows people away.
36:44But just to dissect a little case studies from each of your films.
36:49Let's start with you, Andrew, if we can.
36:51Yeah, I think my film works for different people in different ways, I think.
36:54But for me, there's a scene where he talks to his dad about how he felt growing up in the 80s, growing up gay in the 80s.
37:04And to me, that was such an essential scene.
37:06It's a film about the pain that we keep inside that stays in us, even though life changes and we move on and we get older.
37:13And I'm 50 now and I can be dragged back to how I felt when I was 13, 14, 9, in an instant sometimes.
37:21You just need the smallest of trigger and you're like, oh my God, I'm a child again and I feel terrified.
37:26Or everyone's going to hate me or I'm going to be kicked out on the street, all those kind of things.
37:30So that scene with the son and the father, where he gets to talk to the father and sort of ask, why weren't you there for me?
37:38Why didn't you understand? Why didn't you come into my room when I was crying?
37:41And for the dad to answer that in an honest way was really fascinating for me to sort of, I wanted to be compassionate to parents and children in the situation,
37:52especially in relationship to queerness and how that relates to family.
37:55And so that was quite a powerful scene to do.
37:58And it was certainly emotional for me to make.
38:01And it was like, as I say, my dad is still alive, but he's got dementia now.
38:05So I never get to have those conversations.
38:08So it was a very strange experience doing it because I felt like I was having a conversation with my own father that I won't ever have with my father.
38:15But somehow it just being in the world made me understand myself and understand him, I suppose, in a lot better time.
38:24Wow.
38:26I think there's a scene.
38:28Well, I guess there's one scene that people have, when Bella first takes a job at the brothel, because of her nature, her immediate response is to change the way the whole brothel works.
38:42And this idea that she comes down and goes, why don't we pick the men?
38:46Because then otherwise, and she explains to the guy, otherwise you won't feel the horror we feel when you come to us.
38:52And I think it was a pivotal scene for us because it was how do we tell this story about this person who has, I think for me, it was like her optimism of adventure and her ability to not know anything about the rules of society.
39:05So to be able to kind of consistently come up with her own and consistently kind of skirt around our social mores and how we would approach anything was kind of like something I loved about the character because she sort of had this optimism about the adventure of her life.
39:20And that the questions you ask, the questions we ask society are what changes society, and her ability to continually keep coming back and asking those was something I loved about the character and I loved about the way Emma loved that about the character and played that.
39:36I think that the scene that everybody who's seen the movie usually talks about is the very final scene where my main character, Nora, walks with her childhood sweetheart to a spot to, you know, get him picked up for an Uber.
39:57And then, of course, the Uber comes and then her friend gets in the car and leaves.
40:02And then she turns around and she walks home crying.
40:05And I think that to me, it really did begin with this thought of, first of all, trying to find that street more than anything.
40:14And I think amazingly, this thing that in the script was very much about and then she walks home crying was really the, she walks home crying.
40:21And of course, there was a description about what kind of a cry it is and things like that.
40:26But none of that was unlocked until we found the street that this walk was going to happen.
40:31And then my DP asked me, and it was a practical question when we actually found the street, which my DP found.
40:39He asked me, which direction should Nora and Haesung walk to the Uber?
40:45And my answer was so, it was so clear because of the way we wanted to shoot it, that that street looked like a timeline.
40:52And of course, Nora and Haesung should walk into the past.
40:57So it would have to happen from right to left.
41:01Walk into the past and then wait there for an Uber for two minutes.
41:05And then when the Uber comes, Uber is going to also drive him into the past.
41:09And then, of course, Nora would have to turn around and start walking towards her present and the future.
41:16And I think that, yeah, if you're like cracking that, it being that street being a timeline, then of course inform the rest of the film.
41:27As in, then, of course, the language of the film was then built out of the decision that about, you know, treating these walks like it's about time itself.
41:40And I think that that really was all of it.
41:43Well, I'd say two things.
41:45One was I never knew if it was going to work once Leonardo decided to switch characters as to if we're able to show, which I believe to be true,
41:54that this man loved this woman and was trying to kill her.
41:57And it was complicated until he did it.
42:01And I thought he did it with great tenderness on one hand and the other being complicit in this.
42:09I'm not sure people talk about it one way or the other.
42:12I think they wonder what was his feelings about it.
42:15I think I mentioned some of the guys here about we can only think of three examples of Desdemona,
42:21a talented Mr. Ripley, and maybe he's placed in the sun that ever had that.
42:25I think if you watch the movie, you'll see where Leonardo is amazing at being able to pull that off, his confusion and then his tenderness with her.
42:34And I think he did love her.
42:35And in doing the research, the real man wanted his ashes when he had cancer, when he was dying, spread over the Osage Hill.
42:45So he had some great feeling about this place, you know, and on the other hand, wanted to murder him.
42:50The other thing, which is more about the theme of the movie, which is equally important, is the complicity of people.
42:57And I think it's, I'm not sure people have talked about it or not, but I think the fire in the movie is really important.
43:03And Marty kept telling me, anytime we have anybody look out the window, I want him to see people who would walk over dead people and wouldn't care about it.
43:13And so that we always had that feeling was a, whether a banker or a farmer, and then, and then that fire scene, which was kind of a metaphor.
43:21I think the most talked about actually seen is the, the opening sex scene, which was written about as the most shocking sex scene, which, you know, is I think hilarious, but it was also the trickiest scene.
43:39And, and, and I rewrote, uh, I think I rewrote that scene, um, more than any other scene, um, because I mean, first of all, uh, you, I was looking for a shocking way to get to both hook the audience, you know, and grab them, um, but also get you to fall in love with these characters and you have to fall in love with them.
44:01Um, and also because in structurally, it's like things have to get going, story has to get moving.
44:07Um, uh, you really have to fall in love with them in this, in this scene because it gets, it kind of turns pretty quickly.
44:14Um, so it was, and I knew that they had to get engaged.
44:18And, and so it was like, how can I show a fun engagement proposal that's absurd and messy?
44:25And, um, and for me, that was if he had blood on his face, I was like, he has to propose to her with blood on his face.
44:32Um, and, uh, I think that it was something that, uh,
44:37some audiences and some more conservative audiences are like, are, are too shocked by, you know, but, um, but for, for most people, it just, it makes you fall in love with him, which I think is you have to, you know, uh, for where the story goes.
44:49And, um, and also what I wanted to set up too is that I wanted to set up to the audience, like, you know, this is a man that's on some level not threatened by women because he has her blood on his face.
45:00You know, how could he be threatened by a woman if he has her blood on his face, but that's what I was really trying to sink my teeth into with this character is that he's not one or the other, you know, this is a man, uh, who, who represents many generation of men caught in the middle between wanting to adhere to a modern feminist society, but still having been raised on traditional ideas of masculinity.
45:22Um, and, and, uh, yeah, he's someone who adores Emily, uh, because she's a killer, um, because she's intelligent, because she, you know, uh, she's incredible at her job, but just because of the way he was raised, you know, what was instilled in him, um, there's just this feeling that he needed to get there first.
45:39And I don't think those feelings make him a bad guy, you know, I really don't. Like, I think this is a societal systemic problem. Um, but, you know, obviously what he does with those feelings and how he weaponizes his pain and insecurity against her, um, in increasingly kind of violent ways is, is, is not acceptable.
45:58But that, that, I think that scene was really about establishing the, the modern man to me, um, as someone who is both not threatened, but also threatened, you know, based on how they are.
46:09In keeping with the essence of the book, as I was talking about before the, the, you know, the, the last page of erasure sort of after the plot is done has this, uh, Latin phrase that I wasn't familiar with.
46:21And it's apparently used in relation to complex mathematical equations and the, and the rough translation is I offer no hypothesis.
46:28And so to me, you know, if I wanted to keep up with the spirit of that, then, then I couldn't make a movie that was didactic, that felt like it was like spoon feeding people morality and lessons.
46:38And so, um, there's this scene toward the end of the film in which Monk, uh, played by Jeffrey Wright encounters Issa Rae's character, Centara.
46:46And they kind of have a, they have a conversation about, um, black art and their ideology when it comes to making art.
46:55And, and when I was reading the novel, I was very excited for that confrontation that never came.
46:59And so when I sat down to adapt it, I knew that that was a scene that I wanted to include.
47:03And the reason I really like it is because, you know, and people have responded to it in sort of screens is, is because it, you know, it depends on the day that I watch it, uh, whose side I fall on.
47:16You know, I think that I wrote the damn thing and I don't know who I agree with more.
47:19And to me, that is like, I, I am, uh, I think that, you know, the, the art that I really like tends to sort of like allow you to go away and sort of like answer the questions for yourself.
47:31And it doesn't sort of like, it's not, it's not really binary and says, these people are the good guys and these people are the bad guys.
47:36And so I liked that scene because it, it felt like, you know, Jeffrey's character, Monk is really pugnacious the entire time.
47:43He's arguing with every single person and generally winning those arguments.
47:47And you're following this character played by Issa, Centara, who, who sort of, you know, it's easy to kind of like fall into this trap and thinking that she's like the villain, that she's like a bad, she's sort of like this bad artist.
48:00And Jeffrey Wright's character is this crusading, righteous hero.
48:03And then all of a sudden he's confronted with this formidable woman that he's sort of like been underestimating the entire film.
48:11And, uh, she's got a lot of interesting points as to why she makes the art that she makes and why she does what she does.
48:16And sort of, to me, that, that kind of, that kind of grappling that, that we see that we weren't expecting that sort of like you were expecting Monk to just come in and sort of like bowl this person over because, you know, he's been so arrogant and sort of, um,
48:30bullying the entire film, uh, you sort of see like, oh, this, this is, he's like, all of a sudden the tables have turned.
48:36And I think that as the tables are turning on Monk, the tables are turning on the audience as well, who sort of may have been along for the ride and thinking that this person was going to be the villain.
48:46And I think that, you know, I just love that scene because it, as I said, like, it just feels, I feel confused as to who I agree with more every time that I watch it.
48:55I think that that is, um, you know, I think that more art that like leaves you confused and questioning sort of your life as, as opposed to just telling you who the heroes are and who the norms are, you know, that's always the goal.
49:09So with our, uh, homestretch here, I am going to throw out some things that for the most part require only a word or a sentence and please do not be shy.
49:21Everybody get ready. Where do you write most frequently?
49:27Cafes.
49:28Office.
49:29Office.
49:30Home office.
49:31Home office.
49:32Um, where I can.
49:34Wherever.
49:34Wherever.
49:35Living room and sometimes on the floor actually to, to ground myself and get my, you know, my head out of my ass sometimes.
49:41So just writing on the floor, it just helps center me.
49:44Front room in the morning, cafe in the afternoon.
49:46On what do you write? And I'm going to insist that we start with Eric Roth here because I've heard a little rumor.
49:54Yeah. I have a DOS program.
49:56This is from like.
49:58Yeah.
50:00I only have, you have like 38 pages of memory and that's it. So it makes you finish the app.
50:09But it's also can't, it's only, it's right there. I can print it out and that's it. It can't go on the internet. Um, and, uh, I, I, and I also have it.
50:20I, I, I did something wrong so that I, I wanted to have it look like typewriting black on white, but it's some reason it's white on black.
50:28I didn't have to think about it anymore.
50:31So do you have to like courier service your pages to people when they want to read it?
50:35Well, what happens eventually is I have either my, if I have an assistant, they'll, or the, or the production company will have to retype it into the file.
50:42So, yeah. And then I, so I don't really have a lot of my movies on there. I have whatever I had done right to a point, you know?
50:50Yeah. So that's what I, amazing.
50:53Uh, okay. The rest of you guys.
50:55Lots of paper to start with.
50:56Handwritten.
50:57Handwritten.
50:57Okay.
50:58Bits of scenes, just ideas, that kind of thing. Then computer.
51:02So stained, uh, coffee stained, uh, yellow legal pad to start with. And then, uh, and then laptop.
51:10Okay.
51:10Everybody's so romantic with the paper and glass and, um, it's usually starts in a, my notes app on my phone.
51:18And then, uh, I feel like I would usually write on a final draft, but this, uh, this particular script, because it had to be written bilingually because it's, this whole script is bilingual.
51:29And I wanted it to be written in English with, with just the Korean parts, uh, written in Korean as well.
51:35And, uh, final draft doesn't support, uh, Korean language.
51:39So it's absurd.
51:40Uh, and this is why maybe I'll switch to DOS.
51:43And then, uh, and then, and then, but so what happened was I ended up using, uh, writer duet for past lives because they do support it.
51:52Um, you know, I eventually guess writer duet is going to call me and ask me to do an ad.
51:57But I think to me, the biggest thing about final draft, uh, not, uh, supporting Korean language to me was when I was first writing it.
52:05Because the spec script, you know, there is a kind of a implicit, systematic, a feeling that, um, the whole industry does is not because there's a final draft is an industry leading, you know, platform.
52:18There is a feeling that they really don't want something that's bilingual.
52:22There is a kind of a, there's a messaging that I felt where they were like, Slee, we don't want your script, you know, I hope so.
52:34You know, uh, I do a lot of notes on this.
52:37Well, my assistant laughs at me.
52:38It's like a book this big and it's just blank pages.
52:41It's like a mini white book that I carry around with me.
52:44And then eventually I just do yellow Lego pad and then I type and I do a whole draft on that and then I type it up.
52:52On a yellow legal pad?
52:53Yeah.
52:54Whoa.
52:54Handwritten?
52:55Yeah.
52:55My God.
52:56Corp?
52:57Uh, I do, I do final draft.
52:59I just do it in final draft.
53:00I'm like very, I'm, I literally sit in bed and type in final draft.
53:05Favorite part of the writing process?
53:07Everything.
53:08Everything.
53:08I love it from day one.
53:11And I always, I've said this many times, if I start to get a writer's block, I change the weather.
53:18I would say that spark of an idea at the beginning, which is like, oh, this could be really good.
53:22And then you start writing, you're like, oh, I'm a terrible writer.
53:25That's when it gets hard.
53:26But that initial idea is like, oh my God, this is, this could be something.
53:31I would say the, the, the first draft, just writing, just flowing.
53:35Like I, the worst, well, no, you, you, I start with an outline.
53:38So I, um, I, I spent a lot of time on the outline before I get to the first draft.
53:43But, but so like the first draft, it's like, I just get to fly because I feel like I've done all the work.
53:47So the first draft is nothing but joy.
53:51And the second draft is nothing but pain.
53:56You're going, no, you're going, no, you're going, no, you're going.
53:58You go ahead.
54:00After what final draft did you?
54:03Yes, you know why I should go.
54:04What I was just going to say that you seem to have such a lovely and healthy relationship to writing.
54:13Because I was going to say none of it.
54:15None of it.
54:16I enjoy none of it.
54:17But that's not fully true.
54:18I feel like I love it when I usually call it like it gets me dancing or something where like I crack something.
54:25Where it's like, it's been the thing that's been annoying me and frustrating me this whole time.
54:29And then there will just be moments of breakthrough where you're like, oh, it's like, it should be said in a different place.
54:36Like sometimes it's like not even a huge thing.
54:38And then I usually call, and then I usually do a little dance because I'm excited that I figured it out.
54:44Can we see that though?
54:46You saw the beginning of it.
54:48I'm like, so there's a, there's a Dorothy Parker quote that I love that is familiar.
54:54I agree with you, Celine, which is, uh, uh, I hate writing, but I love having written.
55:00That's the sort of like key.
55:01It's like, actually every time that I sit down to write, I'm like, this is a miserable experience.
55:05What a life I've made for myself.
55:06Why am I doing this?
55:08What do I, what do I think I'm trying to accomplish here?
55:11And then as soon as I'm done, I'm like, oh, that was the best thing ever.
55:14But literally it's like, as soon as I'm done, I, it's like, I heard once that women have a hormone, uh, when they're giving birth that sort of like allows them to forget the pain that they're experiencing.
55:24And so that, so that they're willing to go through it again.
55:26And so, uh, and I feel like that's probably the same hormone that's being released when I'm writing something is like, so that I'm like, we'll go back and do it again because I hate it so much.
55:35I think, I think that's certainly, that's, that feels very real.
55:38The other thing is also though, I feel like what you were saying that you liked the first draft and you don't like the second draft is harder.
55:44To me, it's the other way because I, the first draft is the, is the pain of the birth where you're kind of like not even sure what you're, uh, writing into.
55:54And then the editing, I actually really, I think that part is enjoyable because then you can be, then I, I'm allowed to be my judgy, critical, mean self.
56:04But I'm like, why did you do it like that? Huh? To my old first draft, Celine, to give you like, come on, man.
56:10And I think I kind of, I do enjoy editing quite a bit. Um, yeah.
56:14I think for, oh, sorry. Well, the only thing I was going to say about that is just like, I feel like for me, the first draft is just like, you get, just get to write without realizing what all the problems are.
56:22Yeah. You know, and then the second draft is you have a microscope. You're like, oh shit, shit, shit. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
56:29I'm everything as well. I just like it and I like doing it. It's my favorite part.
56:34See, these two are proper writers.
56:36Well, I don't know what's going to happen to it. I'm like, I'm, I'm, I'm always philosophic.
56:45It's not like it's not tormenting at times, but I love it. And I don't know what's going to happen to it.
56:51And I don't know what's going to happen to it later, what it's going to turn into, but I know I can enjoy one thing about it. That's doing it.
56:56If you could have written one other script that became a film anytime in history, which would you most like to have written?
57:062001 Space Odyssey from Eric.
57:09Network.
57:11I was going to say that, man. Sorry, sorry. Now you can't copy me. I beat you.
57:17I'm going to say, yeah, it's hard. I'm going to say don't look now because I love that film, but I can't even remember what the script was like.
57:23But I know I love the film. So it's tricky.
57:26That's funny. I'm going to say Harold and Mord because I love that.
57:29Harold and Mord.
57:31Harold and Mord.
57:33That's a great one too.
57:34Can I change mine, please?
57:35Yes.
57:36Some like it hot.
57:37It has to be.
57:38I'll say Eyes Wide Shut because it has the best last line of a movie ever.
57:43We've got two Kubricks right next to each other.
57:45Terrific screenplays.
57:46Thank you guys.
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