One of the most acclaimed American playwrights of the modern era, Kenneth Lonergan penned the screenplays for Analyse This and Gangs Of New York before making the leap to writer-director with a trio of seminal American movies of the 21s century: intimate sibling drama You Can Count On Me, operatic coming-of-age tale Margaret and the Oscar-winning tale of tragedy and redemption that is Manchester By The Sea.
We grabbed five minutes with the wry, softly-spoken Lonergan - a total gentleman, it should be noted - directly following an illuminating in-conversation event with director Lenny Abrahamson at this year's Story House event in Dublin.
You said at the end of your conversation that you're not sure if these events have any value...
Did I say that? Oh, I definitely think they have value. I just meant people are always telling everyone how to do everything. So, David Mamet insists on everyone doing something his way and Ernest Hemingway says, "You have to do it this way." And so-and-so says, "You have to do it this way." And I find that to be belligerent and obnoxious, so I like to check myself after giving half an hour of advice to make sure that it's appropriate for people who find it appropriate. It might not be for everyone. That's all. And I think the forum itself is immensely valuable.
And how is it then to come to Dublin and be amongst writers and be in a space where the art of screenwriting is being celebrated?
I love it. It's great. I mean, I think screenwriters are a perpetually endangered species, not because they get killed but because they're always being hunted, and I think it's very good for them to get together and I think it's a wonderful idea to have a screenwriting conference that's geared towards the writers, especially since they're particularly vulnerable to both the creative and professional challenges and the mingling of those two things.
How important is that, to not only celebrate the form but to put the screenwriter front and center?
It's very important, but screenwriters have never been front and center and probably never will be. I mean, it's bad now but it's always been bad. And again, depending on the situation, screenwriters have been left relatively alone but they're never have the last word unless they're also the director, and I don't think they ever will because the movies are so heavily weighted towards the making of the movies and not so much towards the writing of them, but many people respect the screenplays a great deal and recognize the good ones when they see them.
That is the minority view but it's never been a creatively satisfying job unto its own, except under special circumstances, and I don't think that's changed at all.
To have a screenplay and to shop it around to get it made is like being a goat on a lead in a game park so people can watch the tiger come out from the woods and rip it to pieces.
You mentioned that you have a couple of new scripts in the pipeline. Do you feel that there's still a space in terms of what you do, in the current landscape, to do interesting work in film?
Well, if you're a writer-director, it's totally different. I mean, you still have to argue and you still have to defend your work but the screenplay is under much better protection than if you're just a screenwriter.
To have a screenplay and to shop it around to get it made is like being a goat on a lead in a game park so people can watch the tiger come out from the woods and rip it to pieces. I mean, that's not even that much of a caricature.
I have so many friends who are screenwriters and playwrights and who don't want to be directors, and they write these scripts that mean a lot to them. They have to find a director; even if it's their best friend, that person is going to be under tremendous pressure from the financiers or the producers, usually the financiers, to do all sorts of things to it that the director doesn't even want to do but at some point the director is going to say, "Listen, best friend who wrote the screenplay, we're not going to get it made if I don't let them hire this other writer, if I don't cast this actor you don't like, if I don't do X, Y, and Z." And the writer's got nothing to say about it. So, it's a very vulnerable position to be in, and if you're a writer-director, then they have to deal with you on that level. And it's all anthropological and it's got nothing to do with what's best for anybody. It's just the way things work. So for some reason, writer-directors are given more respect. They'll still come at you, but not with the same feeling of absolute impunity.
You've had three experiences as writer-director, and you've experienced the lows of frustration as well as the highs of acknowledgement. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself starting out?
What I would tell little Kenny (smiles)? I'd tell little Kenny what I told the people today, which is never argue with anybody. Keep your disagreements to yourself. Half of the conflicts will disappear instantly because they won't remember the conversation, and you have to handle people with more power than you have. You can't fight them head-to-head, and you shouldn't expect yourself to. I don't like arguing and I don't like giving in, but telling people that you want to be left alone is not the way to get your way.
Find out more about the Storyhouse festival here
