Get the latest gossip
Screenwriters of ‘American Fiction,’ ‘Past Lives’ and More Reveal Toughest Scenes, From the Invention of a Lie to A Sadistic Husband’s Arrival
Screenwriters for 'American Fiction,' 'Past Lives' and more Oscar-nominated films reveal the most difficult scenes they wrote.
Whether it was identifying the kernel of an idea from which the rest of their narrative popped or translating the inspiration of source material (or real life) to something dramatically credible on the page, they explain in their own words how they conquered those challenges en route to Oscar glory. Though first-time screenwriter Burch skillfully navigated the legal, moral and emotional complexities of the couple’s unconventional romance, she wrestled the most with a scene where Elizabeth receives a letter from early in their courtship that unlocks some powerful, desperately needed truths about Gracie. Telling the story of two boarding school employees assigned to babysit a student over the winter holiday break, Hemingson reverse engineered from his relationship with his own parents a pivotal scene in which Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), a mother grieving the loss of her Vietnam veteran son, prepares to watch her sister give birth for the first time.
Or read this on Variety