Film Courage: What are the best ways for directors and actors to unpack a screenplay?
John Gray, Writer, Director, Producer: The first thing is that you want to meet and talk with the actor as a director before you cast them. I’m talking about in terms of stars who are going to be made an offer, you’re not going to get a chance to necessarily audition them or but if you’re dealing with a name sort of actor, you want to make sure you can sit and talk with them and know you’re going to make the same movie because it’s really a bummer when you get on the set and realize this actor sees a whole other movie. You may not win that battle because they are oftentimes more important to the studio than the directors are. It’s important to have the dialogue going and just be sure we see this movie the same way and we feel his character the same way, so that’s an important thing. Most good actors will do their own breakdowns. Years ago when I was getting started I used to write biographies for every character I’d written way into their childhoods where I formed them. I’ve always spent weeks and weeks and weeks doing this. I would give it to the actor and I would say Look, this is not a Bible. This is just something for you to reference and if there’s something you want to use, great. If not, throw it away and usually they were grateful. Sometimes they were like Yeah, okay. I’ve learned now that good actors will do that already and they want to bring their own thing to this character’s backstory. They don’t necessarily want my take (the writer’s take or the director’s take). They want to find their own way into this character the same way I have to find my own way into a story. Unless it’s something really critical about that backstory that informs an important behavioral point in the movie, I don’t do that anymore because I know they’re going to…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BIO:
Brooklyn born John Gray is an award winning writer-director-producer of films and television, and the creator of the long running TV series, Ghost Whisperer. He has written and directed many feature films and movies for television, including White Irish Drinkers, starring Stephen Lang and Karen Allen; Martin And Lewis, starring Sean Hayes and Jeremy Northam; the Emmy® nominated A Place For Annie, with Sissy Spacek; the Emmy® nominated mini-series Haven with Natasha Richardson and Anne Bancroft; Helter Skelter, and many others. Gray has directed numerous episodes of broadcast and cable series, including multiple episodes of the NBC series GRIMM and was also the producing director of the CBS series RECKLESS. Gray’s acclaimed short films have played and are currently playing in film festivals all over the world including FRENCH KISS, which has also notched 6.3 million views to date on YouTube. He is married to writer-filmmaker Melissa Jo Peltier, and they make their home in New York and Cape Cod, MA. John’s new novel The Desecrated follows Jennifer, a college dropout hoping to regroup, who joins the night shift at the NYC Morgue.
BUY THE BOOK – THE DESECRATED
CONNECT WITH JOHN GRAY
Advertisement – contains affiliate links
(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)
More affiliates:
More affiliates:
Camera we use for interviews – https://buff.ly/3rWqrra
Sound we use for interviews – https://amzn.to/2tbFlM9
Writers, try Final Draft free for 30-days – https://ow.ly/Gz4w30rDSKt
Other books on Amazon that Film Courage recommends – https://buff.ly/3o0oE5o
