A Solitary Job

A week or so before the Oscars, the nominees for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar - all of them first-time nominees, interestingly enough - gathered to talk with the LA Times about their solitary-yet-fundamentally-collaborative line of work.

As you might imagine, there was a certain feeling in the room that the screenwriter’s contribution can all too easily be overshadowed by that of the director; it’s one of those arguments that’ll never be settled to everyone’s satisfaction, but it’s still fun to rehearse the arguments. Beyond that particular issue, there were some fascinating insights into the process of bringing a screenplay to life:

Did any of you either lose things from your screenplay that you really wished had stayed in the final film or keep things that you really fought for?

MORGAN: We had a moment afterward, in the cutting room, where people concerned with the marketing of the film saw the film and said, “Well, it’s a hell of a movie. And right now, hers [Helen Mirren’s] is a good performance, but it’s not an Oscar performance. So, Pete, would you write an argument, or a scene where she’s angry, in the first act?” I said to Stephen [Frears], “I don’t think that’s the problem. I think the problem is, there isn’t enough Tony Blair.” Which made them slowly begin to weep, because Tony Blair — no international audience. “More Helen, more Helen, more Helen…” I explained to Stephen why, and Stephen put his foot down, and we shot four extra days of Tony Blair. The net effect was that by putting in counterpoints, his part feels no bigger, but her part feels enormous, without shooting a single extra frame of Helen Mirren.

[Via feeling listless]