'Train Dreams' Writer on Adapting the 2011 Novella | THR Studio at Park City - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

'Train Dreams' writer and director Clint Bentley drops by the THR studio at Park City with lead actor Joel Edgerton to discuss the creation of the movie adaptation of the 2011 novella.

Transcript

00:00I have done bricklaying for loving. I could build a wall. I think I could still build a wall.

00:06I look like I have a worker's hands on the outside, but they're a little softer on the inside

00:10because of my day job. It was actually, I read it many, many years ago when it first came out,

00:19and it was the first Dennis Johnson piece of writing I'd ever read. And it just happened to

00:23be like, I was getting out of college, I think at the time, and it came out and I just, I read it

00:27and I was blown away. And then I devoured everything else he had written. And I just became a huge

00:32Dennis Johnson fan. And then fast forward to, and Joel also has a history with the book that

00:39precedes us making the film together. And then fast forward to, I had made Jockey and it had

00:45premiered here and, and a couple of producers had the rights to the book and were trying to find a

00:50filmmaker to make the book into a movie. And they saw Jockey and felt like I might be a good fit.

00:54And I don't know that I would have had the courage to do it otherwise had they not asked,

00:59but it was just like, as soon as it, the idea came across, it just felt like the most exciting

01:05thing. I don't really often get to read for pleasure. You know, I'm a slow reader. I read a lot

01:13for work. And so sometimes I equate reading now with like, like part of, part of a job.

01:19Um, and somebody had gifted me the novella at the end of a job and I read it, you know, for pleasure

01:28and was so taken with it. And you know, I'm, I'm also a filmmaker and I, I was so taken with it that,

01:34that I made an inquiry about the rights to the book. And of course they were taken and I was like,

01:41work. It was, you know, so be it. And then, uh, years later when Clint contacted me, it felt like

01:48somebody had really, it felt like something special was in the air. I was like, how did somebody know

01:55that I was so taken with this story? Um, and so I felt very lucky. And then, um, I was very nervous

02:03about reading a screenplay because I remember that, you know, any, any book or novella is a challenge

02:08to translate into a film. The script was so well, um, it was such an accomplished version of the book

02:17in the screenplay. And then, you know, and I watched Clint's, uh, film Jockey and, and it's,

02:22it's very rare often that sometimes you get a nice script and then you're not so sure about the way

02:29the, or the other elements to be kind, you know, or you, you, you, you want to work with a great

02:36filmmaker and then you're not connected with the script. But this felt like everything really

02:40lined up and I felt very privileged that they were asking me to do it. And I felt that by this

02:46stage in my life, I do know myself well enough, um, what aspects of me felt appropriate for this.

02:54And I felt like it was something that I could wear quite well. So it was, it was cool. Then it happened.

03:01After Joel came on, then we were like, it was like, okay, now let's find our Gladys. And, um,

03:08and that's such a, a difficult character to, to try and get right. Um, and Joel and Felicity had

03:15known each other and wanted to work together for a while. And, um, and I've been a huge fan of hers

03:20forever. And, and so she just like, it was just one of those where she just felt so perfect for it

03:25that you're like, I hope she doesn't say no. Cause I don't know who. His sensitivity to the way he

03:33spoke about the material, the way he approached things as a writer and as, as a filmmaker that I

03:41had complete trust in him. And it was easy for me to share that information with her and actors

03:46often like feel safe with each other. You know, who, who am I going to be working with? And is it going

03:51to be a good experience and you don't have a crystal ball, but you can have an instinct for

03:56the someone. So I definitely, um, you know, I was blowing Clint's trumpet to her, if that's the

04:04right way of putting it, of saying how much faith I had in the process and, and, and as a collaborator

04:10you know, because, um, Clint and Greg, as writers, uh, part of their power is, is not to assume

04:20complete control over something is that filmmaking is such a collaborative situation anyway. And if

04:27actors have thoughts about things, it's important to, um, listen to them, but not listen to all of

04:35them because we can have some pretty terrible ideas too. What, okay. What is your affinity, not affinity

04:43for talent, for like anything with working with your hands, manual labor, any of that? Like, would

04:49you have any skills to offer as a real life, uh, person? Yeah, you'd be great. I have done brick

04:56laying, uh, for loving. I could build a wall. I think I could still build a wall. I look like I have

05:02workers' hands on the outside, but they're a little softer on the inside because of my day job. Um,

05:08I like doing, uh, films, I guess, where I get to learn skills and do things that are, that are

05:17physical. Cause I think that, um, um, as much as I obsess over the interior life of characters,

05:24the, the physical nature of work is so important. Some of my favorite actors are people who, who,

05:30who bring the character into their whole body rather than just their voice or their eyes. Um,

05:35but I also have a whole history in my family of men that were workers, you know, my, before my father,

05:43um, his father was a, was a, uh, train driver. And, and before that, a whole lineage of farmers,

05:50which my father was going to carry on, except that he got sort of railroaded at, um, uh, at university

05:58in this sort of, he was on his way to go and enroll in, uh, what was called sheep husbandry.

06:05And his friends were like, Mick, we're going off to become lawyers, you know, and there's lots of

06:09money in it. He was like, um, okay. And my life may now be not sitting here, but being the son of a

06:18farmer, you know, inheriting the farm or something. It's, it's interesting how generations, and that

06:23speaks to the film as well about how life lived could be one thing or another. And, and how one

06:29decision like that can like ripple across generations now. And, you know, well, I, I feel

06:35like I'm of a generation where I got to take charge of my own future, you know, and have to inherit

06:41something or presume to inherit something. Um, and, and there's something really nice about this film

06:46that I responded to and that, you know, this idea of the significance and insignificance of all of

06:53our lives, we will all be forgotten unless we're, you know, some criminal or a politician or a famous

06:59artist of some kind that's written into history, but we all contribute to the world and we're all

07:04insignificant and will be forgotten to a degree, but we did contribute something or we brought new

07:10people into the world that, you know, continue the human race. So I, I, I feel there's a real potency

07:17and simplicity to the film. Does a movie of yours stick out as when you were talking about like

07:23learning skills and stuff for, for jobs, that was the hardest was one. Uh, warrior for sure.

07:30Presuming at the, you know, I used to have a fighting background as a kid, like just doing karate,

07:35but warrior came around when I was in my mid thirties and I, I, I had this sort of, um, cynical,

07:41point of view that I was a bit too old to, to learn all these new skills and I, you know,

07:45we, we were proven, forced to prove ourselves wrong. And, and I really admired having to go

07:51through a really intense work experience like that and prove, you know, for the future also

07:57is never to doubt what, what you're capable of.

'Train Dreams' Writer on Adapting the 2011 Novella | THR Studio at Park City

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