Six Oscar nominations and two wins, apart from scores of other awards, a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and $47,695,120 at the box office. Not a bad haul for Kenneth Lonergan’s chance directorial venture. “Matt Damon and John Krasinski brought me the idea for Manchester by the Sea three years ago and asked me to write the screenplay. Matt was going to direct and star in it, but then his schedule changed. So they asked me to direct it. After I agreed, we offered the lead role to Casey Affleck,” begins Lonergan.
Word perfect
The 55-year-old is primarily a scriptwriter, with films such as Analyse This , The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle , and Gangs of New York to his credit. While he is no stranger to winning awards, he says he did not anticipate the kind of response MTBS received. With so much to worry about while actually making the film, he says, “I didn't want to think too much about how people will view it or how it will do at the box office.”
Although he has directed (and written) two other films, You Can Count on Me and Margaret , Lonergan says, “I much prefer writing to directing. I am more interested in creating the story.” The script for Margaret , he says fondly, “is what I consider my best work till date”.
Lonergan’s latest project was writing a four-episode mini series for BBC, for which he adapted Howards End by EM Forster. He says, “They made a very good movie out of it in the ’90s, condensing a book like that into two hours. Here, we had four hours. It was a challenge to dramatise a story that’s so detailed. It talks about the sociology of the time and also the inner life of the characters, which are very well drawn in the book.” The series stars Matthew Macfadyen, Haley Atwell and Julia Ormond, among others.
Page to stage
A New York native, Lonergan started writing when he was in high school. Over the years, he has written scripts for plays, TV shows and films. “It’s not very different to write for each. A mini-series is like a very long film. With plays, there’s a break after an hour, so you have to make sure the story stops at an appropriate point. There also isn’t much to work with — just actors talking on stage, with the lights and the set,” he says.
However, films are much more complicated. He explains, “Movies are more elaborate, and there is a lot to do. The scenes are shorter and there are more of them. There are structural and detailed differences, but writing for all three is similar in the sense that you have characters and concepts to be worked out and you try to keep them alive.”
Reality on screen
With MTBS , the approach was simple, he explains. “We made the film as close to real life as possible and a lot of people identified with it. It got people to relate to others in very different circumstances while transcending cultures. I think that’s one of the best things about this film,” he says, adding, “The talent was exceptional and the story was good, so it worked.”
As for Lonergan, he could relate to Affleck’s character, Lee, the most. “We aren’t very similar, but I could understand his character.” After a moment of thought, he adds, “I try to relate to all the characters I suppose, or I can’t write them very well.”
Points of view
The importance of a good script cannot be denied when it comes to making good cinema. However, Lonergan has no experience of working with someone else’s script. “I’ve never directed anything I haven’t written! I’m not interested in directing, I am always into the realisation of the script,” he says.
But if he’s not directing, he says, “I usually just step away, because you have to give control to whoever is in charge. In theatre, it’s different; if you’re the playwright, you are always there. In film, I think the screenwriter is a disposable commodity and so you get used to walking away once the script is finished.”
With awards season coming up, he isn’t too worried this year. “I don’t have a film, so I’m not going to be involved. I’ll be outside it all, so I’m not dreading it,” he laughs. “I don’t believe in competition between the arts, or that films should be in competition with each other. It’s all to create drama, and then people go see the movie, which is fine,” Lonergan says, adding after a small pause, “It is fun to win though!”
Manchester by the Sea will première on Sony Le PLEX HD on December 31 at 1 pm and 9 pm.
