|
|
| Milo Addica |
Last year (2001) proved to
be an unbelievable one for Milo Addica: six years after writing
the script for Monster’s Ball, the writer/actor witnessed the monster
success of a film that almost never was, and it catapulted him onto
the Hollywood A list. But the acclaim that came with that film-including
an Oscar nod for him and writing partner Will Rokos-has not spoiled
Addica. Even with several new projects on his plate, including one
for Steven Soderbergh’s Section Eight and another for Imagine Entertainment,
Addica is realistic about the film business. In an interview with
MM he opened up about the writing process, future projects and the
power of perseverance.
Jennifer M. Wood (MM): You co-wrote Monster’s Ball with Will Rokos. How did your
collaboration begin, and how did it work?
Milo Addica (MA): We were in a play together.
He is 11 years older than me, so he brought an older perspective
to it. (Will is 50 and I’m 39). We were in a play together in New
York, an Off Off Broadway show. We never set out to be friends or
buddies, it was strictly a working relationship. We were in similar
places at the time and we connected on that level. I came up with
an idea about an executioner and I approached Will and that started
the dialogue.
I threw a few books his way, one of which was Deathwork and the other Dead Man Walking, before that film ever came
out or was even written. And then Will did some research in Georgia
and found out that it was generational-that executioners were generational,
meaning like father like son. Then we pooled all of our resources,
so it was very much a joint thing. When it came to the writing itself
Will flew out to Santa Monica, where I was living, and we holed
up in my itty bitty 9 x 10 apartment (literally, I am not joking.
It was a little bachelor.) And we stayed there for eight months.
MM: The idea originated
as a vehicle for you and Will to act in. At what point did you decide
to shop the script?
MA: It got to an agent at Paradigm who liked
it as a writing sample but didn’t think the movie would ever get
picked up or made. It was just too dark and brutal. The history
of it is long-do you really want to know each person that handled
it, because that’s a half dozen. Let’s just say when it got to Fine
Line, they took it to Sean Penn and Sean immediately said he wanted
to direct it. He called me on the phone and I said ‘Why don’t you
play the role of Sonny?’ which is a role that I wanted, but I figured,
hey Sean would be great! He said that his friend Bob De Niro would
play the role of Hank, but he wanted a lot of money. At that point,
when they gave it their blessing and their interest, the project
just started fucking snowballing. It became very large and something
greater than myself. I couldn’t control it at that point. Then I
realized, well if I have a smaller role in this, good enough.
MM:I also
read that Oliver Stone was attached to direct at one point.
MA: Fine Line took it to Penn and De Niro,
who said they’d do it. Then Fine Line passed and said they weren’t
interested in doing it with those guys, and then basically let go
of the project. We maintained control, Will and myself, and we took
it to Lawrence Bender. That was an experience. While it was with
Lawrence it went to Oliver Stone and Oliver said he wanted to do
it, but he wanted to make a bigger movie first. He loved the script
but he wanted Tommy Lee Jones to do it and Tommy Lee was not available.
So Oliver fell out and this is all during the process of Lawrence
basically trying to move the project with very little success after
a year and four months. At that point, he wanted another year option
for free. We had already given him a year and four months option
for free, we had done seven free rewrites and three free polishes
and he didn’t pay for it.
We also were at odds with him because we didn’t want
the little boy to live. He wanted the little boy to live; we wanted
him to die. He wanted a different type of ending and he wanted it
to go to directors that I was not happy with. So after a year and
four months he said give me another year option free and we said
no. Give us like $3,000 if you want it. He said no, so we said okay.
He got all pissed off, saying that we were fucking him over and
all this shit-total Hollywood trip-but we left. And we took it to
a talent manager named Lee Daniels who was trying to be a producer
who had a client named Wes Bentley.
Wes said he couldn’t fully commit, but he was really
into this project and wanted to do it. So based on that, we took
a chance and we went in that direction. And Wes Bentley, to his
credit, really helped to spearhead the project at William Morris
and forced them to make a deal with Lions Gate. When Lions Gate
found out that Wes was interested, they wanted to make a deal with
us. Then for some reason the deal was taking too long, and they
just backed out. Wes then “forced” them to make that deal with William
Morris. The good people at William Morris, Cassian Elwes and Scott
Lambert, really worked hard to push the project forward with Wes,
and they made the deal with Lions Gate.
MM: You made a really smart move by keeping
yourselves attached as producers. Is this something you will continue
to do in the future?
MA: Yes, absolutely, 100 percent. I’m doing
it now: I’m producing a piece I’ve written called The King and
I’m doing that with Film Four. The reason why is that is allows
me to have control and they can’t fuck me then. They’ve got to send
me to the premieres, they’ve got to take care of me. These things
mean a lot. You spend two years on a movie, up and down, bleeding
for it.
MM: Would you ever consider just being a
writer for hire?
MA: I am doing two assignments: one for Steven
Soderbergh and Don Cheadle, which I’m very excited about. It’s a
revenge piece called Let’s Kill Henry and it’s for Don to
direct and that I’m basically just for hire. And I’m working on
a piece at Imagine, and that’s another piece for hire. But it’s
a different sort of thing. First of all, they’re treating me very,
very well, both of these companies. I don’t just mean financially,
but as a person and as a writer I really like developing with them.
But away from that, I’ve got to tell you when you do an assignment
often it becomes like ‘I want a paycheck.’ I don’t look at it like
I’ll do any kind of script. I’m specific about what I want to choose
now, and I gravitate only toward the companies that I know I can
work with because it’s an eight-month process.
MM: The King deals
with a son seeking acceptance from his father; the Let’s Kill Henry
is about a man seeking revenge after being released from prison-both
themes of which are similar to Monster’s Ball. Do you think that
the “darkness” of Monster’s Ball will pigeonhole you as a writer?
MA: You know what, it’s fine. It’s going to
pigeonhole me into this area but this is where I’m at right now.
Nobody’s going to hire me to do The Full Monty and I don’t
want to do The Full Monty.
MM: Do you think that drama is what you’re
best suited for?
MA: I love sci-fi, I love drama, I love tough
guy movies. But hell, I watch the women’s channel once in a while.
I don’t like sappy melodrama but I like movies that move you. I
like movies that get inside your skin and touch your heart. If people
call that drama, so be it, but I can only work from what I know.
And I work from my experiences in my family growing up. And I think
that’s what makes great cinema and that’s what makes stories that
last for a long time.
MM: How do you think
your work as an actor informs your writing? The dialogue in Monster’s
Ball is certainly very sparse; the film is made in the emotions
displayed by the actors. How do you write emotion?
MA: You don’t write emotion. What you do is,
just like in acting (I started acting when I was 17), what you write
is action. And I don’t mean the action of two guys beating each
other up, but the action like if someone is coming into a funeral,
they’re basically coming to say goodbye, that’s the action. That’s
what they’re doing and that’s what you write. And that’s what I
write for actors and that’s why they seem to connect to my material
because they can do something. And when you do something like that,
when you’re saying ‘I’m going to come and I’m either going to say
goodbye to this person or hello’ or ‘I’m going to pack up my bags,’
that action in itself with invoke something inside you. That is,
if you trust yourself and allow yourself to go with the physical
action that you’re doing.
MM: You have plans
to direct your first feature later in the year. Can you talk a bit
about that project?
MA: I’m really interested in a book but the
deal hasn’t been solidified so I kind of have to get back to you
on that. But I have a spec that I’ve wanted to do for a while that’s
set in New York and it’s about a little kid. You know I’m not going
to go into the story because I’ll blow the pitch, but I do want
to direct and I have my sights on a couple of projects and that
would likely happen after the snowfall or possibly in the beginning
of next year. But once I’m done with my assignments, yeah, I’m going
to definitely be directing.
MM: Are you looking to continue your acting?
MA: Oh yeah, absolutely. The great thing now
is that I don’t have to go through the fucking bullshit audition
process anymore. I would rather slide down a 20-foot razorblade
into lemon juice; it sucked. And I did that in NY and LA and a lot
of places. But the projects I’m working on now, The King,
I have a prominent role in that, the one I’m producing. And I’m
working in London with a really great director named Jonathan Glazer,
who made Sexy Beast. We’re polishing two of his projects
and I’m going to be working in two of his pieces.
MM: You’ve been
lucky to take on various roles in the film industry-actor, writer,
producer, director. If you had to continue just one role, what would
it be?
MA: That’s a tough one. I’d love to say acting
only because it’s a very creative, fun process, but film is not
as fun as doing a play. I think plays are the most fun I’ve ever
had because you get to do a two-hour pure creation thing, there’s
no stop and go. But I would have to say I’m very excited about the
directing thing because I’ll get to do everything. Producing
I’m doing now because it gives me a sense of power and control over
what I’m creating. But directing, that’s where you bring in your
own elements: who’s going to shoot my movie? Who’s going to cut
my movie? Who will write it, if it’s not me? And who’s going to
breathe life into the characters?
MM: You completed the script for Monster’s
Ball in 1995. Do you think that, had the script been completed
today, it would be easier to sell?
MA: No, I don’t think so. I think it’s just
as hard. It’s hard to get executives or the studio system to trust.
Even though Monster’s Ball is going to end up grossing $40
to $50 million at the end of the day, they still don’t believe that
it really ever did. Or they’ll say ‘Well it did because of Halle
Berry,’ or ‘It did because of this or that.’ They don’t want to
believe it was because of me sitting in my tiny apartment with my
computer and coming up with the idea-they don’t think that had anything
to do with it. So I think it’s still hard and it’s always hard to
get these kinds of stories told. Unfortunately that’s just the way
it is. It’s much easier to do a movie about a volcano in downtown
LA or something like that. It’s easier to grab.
MM: And easier to sell.
MA: It’s totally easier to sell. Even if they
get one bomb, it makes up for all the losses… I’m a firm believer
that a lot of big, big guys come to the notion somehow that they make the hits. That the public doesn’t make the hits but that somebody
is deciding what to do. Maybe I’m paranoid or something but it’s
tough for me to get a story told. Even when a movie I’ve made is
nominated and made a lot of money, I’m still up against the same
thing.
Share:
