Film Courage: Are most great stories outsider stories?
Tony DuShane, Writer/Podcaster/Teacher: I don’t know. I feel like I’m an outsider and feel like almost everyone I know feels like an outsider at some point in their life if not often probably more than 50 percent of the time. Maybe that’s why we can kind of gravitate toward outsider stories. We look at a film like Mean Girls or something and it’s about people just trying to be together and fit in. We have this urge to be together and part of the tribe and so the outsider story is fun to play with but don’t think any of us want to be an outsider but it’s fun to watch the outsider because we feel like we’re outsiders. Does that make sense?
Film Courage: It does. I’m trying to think of the movie I just rewatched, Pump Up The Volume with Christian Slater. Here he’s this radio guy and everybody kind of worships him because he just says whatever he wants and they can’t believe what they’re hearing and then the faculty [at his school] is just incensed by it. Then in real life he’s this awkward guy that wants to be part of the group but then he’s kind of turned off by that whole suburbia high school hierarchy thing…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk by Tony DuShane – Check out the book on Amazon:
BIO:
Tony DuShane is the author and award-winning screenwriter of Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk. The book was published by Soft Skull Press and the feature film, directed by Eric Stoltz, was released in 2018 and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. His journalism and essays has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, Penthouse, The Rumpus, The Believer, and other media outlets. He teaches writing at UCLA Extension and his journalism has appeared in Mother Jones, The Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle. He hosts the literary podcast Drinks with Tony every Wednesday.
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