INTERVIEW: Geoffrey Fletcher, Writer/Director

Geoffrey Fletcher

Carrollton doesn’t get many visits from Oscar winners, so local movie fans should take advantage of an exciting opportunity later this week. Geoffrey Fletcher, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Precious, will hold an advanced screening of his new film, Violet & Daisy, followed by a question and answer session, on Friday, May 24 at the Carrollton Cultural Arts Center. A reception at Underground Books will take place immediately afterward.

Admission is free and the event is open to the public. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the screening will begin at 7:30 p.m. The film – which Fletcher wrote and directed – is about a pair of teenage assassins and stars Alexis Bledel, Saoirse Ronan, James Gandolfini and Danny Trejo.

Fletcher is a graduate of Harvard University and New York University, and has taught at both Columbia and NYU. He also remains the first and only African-American to receive an Academy Award for writing.

I recently had a chance to speak with the filmmaker about his experience adapting other writers’ work for the big screen, as well as getting the chance to direct from his own script.

What made you gravitate toward filmmaking?

From the moment I got my first video camera as a 14-year-old, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I used that camera endlessly and made what seems like countless short films featuring kids from my neighborhood or action figures that I would animate.

Were there any movies you watched growing up that made you say, “I want to do THAT for a living”?

I grew up in an era of so many great films that the most influential ones are probably too numerous to list here.

Now that you’ve gotten experience in both worlds, do you prefer screenwriting or directing? Or do they go hand-in-hand?

Overall, I consider writing and directing to have a number of similarities and some of the boundaries between those roles are blurred to me. I would always write, direct, shoot and edit the short films I mentioned, so – for me – writing feels like a form of directing and vice versa, particularly because directing involves editing.

I imagine writing the screenplay for Sapphire’s novel Push (which became the film Precious) was a daunting task. Can you talk a bit about adapting the text into a more traditional narrative?

I was warned that the book was grim, dense and difficult but I saw every page brimming with light and possibilities. I also fell in love with Precious from page one. I always thought that however people might pity her, they should admire her at least that much. She has more obstacles and less support than most of us, but that doesn’t stop her.

Was it a collaborative process between you, Lee Daniels (the director), and the author?

While turning Push into Precious, I was given an unusual amount of independence. After every set of pages I submitted, I was usually just told to keep going. I think they saw how passionate I was about the material and its possibilities. I met the author on the subway coincidentally as I was finishing the script. She’s a wonderful woman.

With Violet & Daisy, you’re telling your own story rather than working from previously-existing material. What are some of the pros and cons involved with writing an adapted screenplay vs. an original screenplay?

One challenge of adapting material can be honoring its spirit while making it personal and cinematic. It also involves knowing what doesn’t belong and developing new aspects of that world to tell the story on screen. It can be every bit as hard as writing an original screenplay but the process may be shorter because a foundation is already in place.

Was the journey from idea to finished product a smooth one?

This work is always challenging, even when everything goes smoothly. I spoke with a writer/director who has made wonderful movies for decades and he said that it never gets easier. He’s right as far as I can tell. But however hard the work is, the process of creating something can be equally rewarding, if not more so.

Did you know you’d be directing from the beginning?

I knew that I would be directing this one from the beginning. It affects the writing process in that you probably have a better idea of the resources you’ll have at your disposal. The style of the writing might change a little because many things are in your mind, but you still have to communicate enough on the page so that your collaborators can understand the world you’re trying to create.

There are quite a few “assassin takes one last job” movies out there, but I’m guessing that making the characters teenage girls allowed you to approach the genre in a unique way. Did you do this to wink at genre conventions, or do you view the film as “characters first, occupation second”?

I think that the crime genre is one of the greatest in cinema and, as a whole, this movie may be a different take on it. Overall, the film is indeed “characters first, occupation second” but it doesn’t necessarily start out that way. That dynamic changes as the film progresses and the characters evolve.

Were there any films/TV shows you watched for inspiration while writing/shooting?

I’m constantly exploring great films from various eras. I didn’t revisit any in particular before shooting, but Violet & Daisy is a combination of a few genres and styles. It has influences from a number of different films, American and otherwise – even graphic novels. Its soul is entirely its own, however.

The film has some terrific actors. Any fun stories about landing a performer you were hoping for?

Early on in the process of casting, I remember flipping through one of the trades and I saw a picture of Saoirse Ronan. I remember saying to myself, “We’ll never get her.”

I know you’re also a film professor at Columbia, so you must get bombarded with requests for advice from students. What is your go-to answer for budding filmmakers?

Keep working on your craft and explore every opportunity because you never know where that chance will come from and you’ll need to be ready when it arrives.