Being Charlie Kaufman
Finally I could put a face to the name that has always piqued my curiosity. And what a first film he has made, i will always envy him that. This post is from whatever notes i could take in his masterclass , and his answers to the questions that were thrown at him.
As he came in, a simply dressed , shirt over a T-shirt guy. first question thrown at him-
Q.- Is it really you?
A.- No.
Q.- So you started with TV?
A.- It was useful for me to have a job. Before that I had a job answering phonecalls in minneapolis at 6 dollars per hour. At thirty I decided to take the plunge to do what i wanted to do. As a writer I was put into a writers room where my voice was probably was the weakest and hardly anyone could hear me. I was so shy and a nobody. I had a writing partner and we worked together and wrote few pilots and they got nowhere. They were odd and silly to everybody. It’s later that I made a career out of those silly ideas.
Q.- Do you wish your screenplays had structure?
A.- I think I have a craft and my scripts do have a structure, they just do not fit into the accepted norm and formulae written by those who have never written a script.
Q.- How do you know what to stick to?
A.- I don’t think their are any rules or method. It’s all experience and instinct.
Q.- How do you know what to stick to and what is dispensable and what is indispensable? Which aspect of the craft is to be preserved and what is dispensable?
A.- I don’t think there is any adhering to or throwing away. I think I have an inherent ability to describe and write scenes. It’s instinctive. I somehow figure out the best way to do it. Structure does not interest me. It seems like that somebody saying there is one way to paint a painting. Every body in the business seems to know how to write a script. Only they don’t. I disagree with Syd Field and his kind. people are always trying to figure out an angle I might have in what I do.
There was this journalist from the Time magazine that did my interview after Being John Malkovich released. I talked about my whole life and all, and when the interview came out it was under a heading called “Revenge of the nerd”. It came across like , ” look at me, you beat me in school but now I have gotten back at you.” She had already decided what my motive was for being who I am, beforehand. All of you journalists are the same, they already know the angle one has. They first befriend you, then they feel you like them and they pretend to like you and they go out and kill you. People accuse me of showing fake feelings, well, fake feelings are part of you, you fake them because you care, it is part of the truth, it’s the situation that becomes complex. I like complexity. That’s life.
On Being John Malkovich
I wrote the film for myself. I didn’t know who Spike Jonze was when i met him. I ws happy he wanted to do the film. My discovery of him started after he came on board. Why John Malkovich? Any other actor’s namewould not have meant the same. I n that scene where everyone looks like malkovich and says malkovich, malkovich, imagine if there was any other actor. cruise cruise would not have sounded the same. Malkovich was funnier and confusing, it raised the stakes. I did not know John before writing the film. And both me and Spike decided we will not rewrite it to suit the real John Malkovich. So John Malkovich the actor ended up playing the character John Malkovich. Why John Malkovich? Because it’s a funny idea that people would be like to be him. Their is a quality about John that’s unknowable and his eyes, always seem like someone is looking out of them.
I was lucky i met Spike. I am lucky I have met the right people.
After the film released all the studio executives and people i use to meet had only one thing to say “I want a portal into your brain” . It became such a cliche and a boring pickup line.
On Adaptation
I started with an idea we discussed and after a point i didn’t know where to go, so i brought myself in. I didn’t tell anyone what i was doing with it because obviously they would have rejected it. I am obsessed with artificial fantastic world. I like artifice. I like people questioning the audacity of what they are watching. I always liked the fake world and illusion, but i don’t like being lied to. I like to confuse people like life confuses you and leave them looking for answers. I do not like to explain. I always wanted to be someone other than I am. If somehow we could escape from ourselves and look at the universe we would see that it’s all nothing. Someone once told me that they were meditating in a park and there were two horses fucking and they could not meditate. For me the idea of meditating is to have confused feelings, to be in between horses fucking and live with it . Uniformity of emotions shown in most films is too unreal and we feel jealous because it looks perfect. My idea of what a film should be and how a script should be is what i put in there. Some of that still exists in me, some has moved on.
A screenwriter’s life is not as glamorous and dramatic as the director’s. A screenwriter has no social life, nothing dramatic so I thought I will give him someone to talk to, and I gave him a twin, a dope because a dope is fun to talk to, write about and write of. The film just fell in place.
We felt that for Adaptation to really work it needed to fail on box office and it did. I was nominated but the film failed to prove how it really is and how people don’t like ambivalence and the pressure is on the writer and the filmmaker is for everyone to like the film and understand it.
Q.-Adaptation was a lot like Fellini’s 8 1/2 but much more deeper and modern.
A.-I have not seen 8 1/2. A lot of people told me that, so I decided I will not and never see that film and I haven’t. So I don’t know what you are talking about.
Q.-I mean it raises questions of truth like authenticity and originality, philosophically expected questions but socially not accepted.
A.-May be.
On Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless mind
People think it’s my best film because they understand it. They could say they understood a complicated film and feel intelligent talking about it. Rest of my films didn’t make them feel that way.
Why Jim Carrey? Because one he wanted to do it. Second when he walked in the first time he was wearing a similar cap that the character wore in the film. He looked like a real person and not the plastic face we were used to seeing on screen. The cap came from him. He tried to do the part rather than being Jim Carrey.
On Confessions Of a Dangerous Mind
I was seperate from the movie. I didn’t thing George Clooney was interested in what I had to say, and things like tha affect me. I don’t have anything to say about it.
On Synecdoche, New York
It’s more idiosyncratic than my other works because here I was in control. I didn’ want my hand held. I did not call anybody.
Q.- Synecdoche looks like a final summation of what you have been trying to do and say with all your movies.
A.- I hope not.
I don’t think I ‘ve arrived with this film, you keep learning more and that’s what Synecdoche is about. Phillip Seymour hoffman’s character is trying to put the real world that he inhabits on stage in a play which is not possible. He ends up creating a replica of New York in the warehouse and the actors are living in it now. At one point , one of the actor says ,”don’t you think we should bring the ausience in, it’s been seventeen years.” His wife’s paintings keep getting smaller and smaller till you need special glasses to see them. The idea being “how do you express?”. All is endless. If I could create the entire New York in the warehouse, if I had the budget and the capability , I would have done that.
Q.- What does that burning house means in the film?
A.- Every Q& A someone asks me what does that burning house means but some people get that, based on their own experience. I am using my own dream imagery. I know what it means to me but I do not want to share it. People try to figure it out and have different meaning to it and I like that. I don’t put things in my film to deliberately confuse them, I like to confuse them but I like it even more when they don’t get confused and they figure it out for themselves, they make an effort to understand it which for me means that they are trying to understand me, neither do i like to do that nor do i like to pander or cater to them. I put them in because they mean something to me.I am not trying to screw with you.
On Scriptwriting Books
It depends on what you want to do. If you want to be part of the studio system then follow the books because people who hire you read the same books and tey like it when you sound like them. I am not into them and I don’t care about Robert Mckee or anyone. I don’t know what form is. I like to start with zero and I like having information about my subject. For adaptation I read the Mckee book and went to his seminar and wanted to put his character in the book. I saw KungFu Panda and from the first frame I can tell you what the film is going to be like and how will it unfold and end, and not just me but everyone can tell that and it is comforting to people and they like it because it confirms to their notions about what the movie should be like and what they expect of you and everyone is happy and so it works. I am not like that. I like to interact and challenge them and i like the audience who stands up to it, and I don’t care about them who expects me to cater to them or explain it to them . I am not there servant.
I can’t write in Genre form. I write what i like to write. Once somebody said,” He is always writing the same thing. If he’s really good he will write a western. fuck him.” I like the Matrix like view of life. It’s me writing, me creating so Fuck you.
On Hollywood’s acceptance of him
Q.- Now hollywood is too keen to do your work. So much receptivity?
A.- being John Malkovich did well, it became a prestige thing.The actors were interested in my work.It’s the getting attracted to the script like this for no fee, is why the movies got made and so the studios are interested. Do you really think they get and care about what I write?”
I am attached to my truth. This is how I see things, there is no other vantage point for me. I just got successful doing it.
On Himself
I get mad about people selling bullshit, lying in politics, at expense of others to make money. Shortcomings are good, they are Humane and acknowledging that is beautiful.
Knowing that you don’t know is the most essential step to knowing.
A director’s job is manegerial and fun as opposed to the writers which is isolated and lonely.
I think I am entertaining myself. I do what I do because I need to to feel that emotionally on something that’s sometimes poignant and meaningful and sometimes funny. I think I am entertaining myself , I need to feel I have emotionally touched myself on something that’s funny to me or touches me. I have a rage against how it all works and how people in power decide it is suppose to work.
I feel an incredible sense of community with books not films.
David Lynch is a filmmaker I look forward to.
Monsters Inc is my favourite animation movie. I did not like Wall.E.
I don’t think about actors when I am writing. When I wrote Synecdoche, I wasn’t going to direct it. Spike was. It did not turn out that way. Then i think of who all exists and approached them and that is how the casting came about.
I have just discovered the process of creating and I would like to direct more.
On Self Indulgence
Q.- You are often accused of being self indulgent?
A.- I don’t know why people have a problem with that. I don’t know what self indulgent means. I think what anybody has to offer is yourself and that is a generous thing. Offering your life experience is what anybody has to offer and somebody who does that should be appreciated because he is generously sharing his weaknesses and flaws with the world.
Q.- Do you think that your films have got the social context right about what you are trying to say but what commonly emerges from your theme is how technology is controlling about how we feel and react and do, and how it is affecting us. Do you agree?
A.- Can you repeat the question please.
Q.- Do you-(repeated)
A.- I don’t know, I never thought like that. May be.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
wow…thanks for sharing this.
What a guy! Heard him on NPR… the hostess had no clue what to say when he answers like the way you described above.
People understood Eternal Sunshine – Haha…
Congrats bhai… take a master class in LA now.
I had a writing partner and we worked together and wrote few pilots and they got nowhere. They were odd and silly to everybody. It’s later that I made a career out of those silly ideas.
One word. Wow. You never know what is great!
hoooohoooo…shukriya bahut shukriya…he is god…THE KHUDA! continously fucking up the brain n giving a royal fuck everytime, hav loved every bit of him so far! i m old, i m fat, i m bald, my toenails hav turned strange, i am repulsive…how repulsive…m old, m fat, m bald…..cant get over it! thats a “personal” one i feel and a “personal” favourite! cn watch any film for philip seymor hofman, dying to watch kaufman n hofman combo!
phoenix he stand for everything you stand against. I can not understand your love for him
im surprised Pnu…
about ur adoration 4 him
its much more than love guru d..its kauf-mania! because he “ENGAGES”….because he will “NEVER BORE”(atlest not so far)….because with him its “THRILLING JOYRIDE”….its “ORGASMIC”…..no pretentious shit….with or without any explainations… what more to ask…not sure if there is any better creative voice than his currently…
dpac…why ? whats so hury to judge people’s taste n that too with a myopic tool….its so strange! u need a better portal to look thru my head! fatass vasan n me hav endlesly discused him n adaptation!
why? cuz of some diagoals of urs from earlier.
nope i aint judgin u or ur taste, just surpised to hear contradictions :-) utna hi re..
‘engage’ is d word 4 me. N Its fun! I gt bored of u teling me i knew u wud lik it.
ehehe fair enough
but u gotta admit i was right about u liking it more often than not :-)
I just finished the book THE SUNDANCE KIDS – How the MAvericks Took Over Hollywood last week.
Reading this post was like a revision of the chapter on Kaufman.
Thanks for sharing.
aah, pnu agreeing! jai ho jai ho… great days for PFC ahead.
Here’s a Charlie Kaufman interview I saw on the tele this past week:
http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/videos.html?id=906970410
Thought it might interest some people.
Thanks for sharing this with us. This is inspirational stuff.
An article to treasure.
The one thing that goes against him is his use of “VOICE OVERS”. Complex Scripts but clear and smart peek into the character’s head which dilutes the complexity and makes his film actually quite clear and easy to decipher.
It great entertainment. It fun and it’s edgy. A great illusion of complexity created in great lucid-smooth story telling contrary to the popular belief that his films are complex…which is genius…the myth…the illusion…the journey….thats so damn exciting that you forget the structure and the extraordinary premise he sets his films in…..that’s half the battle won.
Probably that’s his genius and not creating complex films but a lingering feeling of having been thru one. Yet getting it all.
Only a CHARLIE KAUFFMAN-Michel Gondry film can have it’s opening credits start rolling in the 18th minute. Till then you have no clue…but U already have me hooked with a Jim Carey who is not rubber faced, he is not out smarting or out talking other characters…he is quite..he is shy…he has a stubble….but yet FUNNY!!!!!
Love him…..love his anger…love his passion…love his films….
Love you for sharing this with us. PRICELESS!!!
Still deciphering the big K……Kaufman.
“And if all out there are envious and want to be in AKs shoes….be ready to loosen that purse…..it’s not always about the free invite and the sponsored ticket…”
Hope he doesn’t stop writing for other directors….doubt if he will, he mentioned spinke jonze was supposed to direct synechdoche..kauffman’s a writer first and foremost……..i wish anurag would do the same, maybe no smoking would have been better if handled b someone else….i guess when a writer turns film-maker his is the only interpretation that makes the final cut,i’m sure it helps to have various points of interpretation…..scorsese always had that with schrader and mardik martin etc…..tarantino got boring after a while because it was just him that was coming across….in the godfather part 2 dvd,behind the scenes, mario puzo says
‘Suprisingly, during the writing of the film, Francis(Coppolla) was the literary guy and i was the practical guy’
So maybe it helps having such varied viewpoints on a script…
i hope you go back to pure writing too , anurag in addition to directing
Bloody Hell….I am jealous…extremely…This is a lovely peice on the great man. I love the blunt way he has spoken and awesome post. I love Being JM & Adaptation and this post hit the spot.
Anurag, thanks a ton for sharing this info…Still jealous but feeling grateful also :-)
Am surprised. The fact that he conducted the workshop / talk. Contradicts the fact who he is and his approach.
thanks for the post.
thanks for this
KK- thanks for that
Abhay point taken. I have stopped writing.
Thanks for this..very interesting..lucky
Anurag, I’m curious. Does Charlie Kaufman know about your work?
Ha ha wouldn’t it be wonderful even if he just sees it.
He doesn’t watch much films unlike me who watches everything. Hopefully one day will make a film that will catch his eye..
I’m more interested in knowing whether Mr. Lynch watches his films or not? Anurag, as in No Smoking have you paid homages to cinematic legends in Dev D as well?! I would be surprised if you haven’t.
Hi Anurag,
Not sure this is the right forum for this….but i am desperately scouting for your email. Its regarding a media event in Bangalore, and we here would really like you to be a part of it and want to mail you the details…
(paro.om@gmail.com)
Thanks for that interview link, Daljeet.
It’s the first time that I put a face to that Kaufman guy who I see through all the protagonists of these films – confessions(my favorite, a little less than the book though), adaptation(what a turn by Chris Cooper, ate everyone else alive. Cage reminded me of Roy from Matchstick Man), John Malkovich and eternal sunshine(I feel be kind rewind is a better Gondry film).
I was reminded of the workshop/seminar scene in Adaptation while reading this post, and the whole expression is so uniform, that’s how writing should direct a film.
Wow..what a fantastic post…donno why i didnt read it earlier..superb..thanks Anurag..
I see a lot of Kaufman in you AK…not just your movies..but your outlook and tonality…
Anurag, you made me feel like i am sitting in the masterclass & listening to these words of wisdom. appreciate you effort to take down notes & share it with us. thank you so much.
thnx ones again anurag .keep doing it.and very soon i will send my film to u .
Sounds a lot like You and Your work.
read anurag kashyap’s interview in First Step series by ajay brahmatmaj
http://chavannichap.blogspot.com/2008/11/0-1993-0-0-0-1993-0-1995-0-0-0-0-0-0.html
@ Chavanni: Man, why did u post this link? I read the whole thing and came to a point where Anurag reveals the enfing of Paanch. Fuck. If that is the ending, the movie would be spolied for me..1!
thanx for sharing
A really nice read, the interview/interaction… Have really liked his movies (those that I have seen, atleast – Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine). In fact, I consider Eternal Sunshine amongst the best romantic movies I have seen…
Hi Anurag,
Thanks for the post. I am very curious to know more about his play ‘Hope Leaves the Theater’. Couldn’t find out much on wikipedia.
Anurag,
?
This is bound to make you happy,joyous,excited and obviously greatly satisfied.
===
Talking about which film had a chance to win an Oscar,who said it…rather blogged the content below
===
…..So which film had a chance ?
I have not seen ‘Paheli’, so thankfully cannot be dragged into the controversy on whether it deserved the nomination or not. But I can understand that it represents much more the essential folk form of Hindi Cinema, which is Nautanki. I have seen ‘Black’, which was great, but too much a hybrid, traversing the world of nautanki and realism in one film. Which is fascinating for me and all those that understand and love the basic ethos of Indian Cinema. But in my opinion would have left the Oscar Voters a bit confused. Lagaan was loved by the foreign critics because it was an unabashed celebration of the nautanki form, a fairy tale not alluding to any realism at all.
But I can tell you which film I think had a real chance -
A film called ‘Black Friday’ which is a brilliant film by Anurag Kashyap. It is, naturally, banned in India. For it is the story of the people responsible for the Bombay Bomb Blasts. It follows them through the planning, execution and till they either gave themselves up or were arrested. It exposes the events in each ones lives, for you to judge the morality of it all. Totally gripping.
===
Dated Oct 10 2005–the above is a blog entry by Shekar Kapur.
http://www.shekharkapur.com/blog/archives/2005/10/oscar_hoo_haaa.htm
Your efforts and noble thoughts behind BF are vindicated.
Hope this makes your day.
Neil
hello ..
http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/fall2008/synecdoche.php
another interesting interview…
Does it seem as if he’s lying in the above interview about not having many influences?
Yes (and some influences are pretty obvious ones)
Has he broken ground in screenwriting?
Yes and no (relative)
Does he have the best dialog?
No
Does he have the best concepts?
By today’s standards- Certainly. By all time standards- while not THE best, he’ll still walk into ANY top 15 though
Was he the best writer on TV?
Not by a long stretch
Did he deserve his Oscar?
Absolutely
Are all his scripts masterpieces?
No. About half of them approach brilliant status though
PS: Am a fan of CK
waiting fr gomorra.
thanks for sharing this !
this is great. I love kauffman’s work!
btw i saw the Dev D promo. fucking brilliant.
just loooking forward to it.
btw anurag i wanted to speak to u while u were at the ETC office at andheri the other day.
just didnt get a chance.
keep up the great work!
god bless
when is the music of dev d releasing?????? i m watching the trailer again n again to listen of course it is great but can’t wait to hear complete soundtrack
why this ….emotional atyachar
this is for AK,
dude, saw Dev.D trailer on World Movies. rocked. maybe india will have its own requiem now. why isn’t it on other channels yet.
also, would like to hear something about ‘Doga’.
Thoughts on Synecdoche NY first put up elsewhere:
“A Sense of Synecdoche NY
Early on in the film a page is opened and the overture to Proust’s In Search of Lost Time is seen. Kaufmann’s own work is a messy, knotty, bracing reworking of Proustian space. There are no magical madeleines here with coherently conjured up visions. There is only memory that is at once schizoid and anarchic. And it is ultimately a film about ‘impossibility’. The impossibility of love, of art, of aging, even of death. Then there is the saddest truth of this film — the impossibility of loneliness.
In Proust the self is constructed every single day to re-configure the always lost paradise. There are circles here, returns and beginnings anew. The self is the daily compromise memory allows. But the search is rather charming, always a little romantic, even perhaps a little fabular. The ‘play’ of/in the world never quite defeats the quester even if there is finally a quasi-spiritual sense of repose. Proust is a bit like Cervantes but Don Quixote ends somewhere; In Search of Lost Time always loops in on its finales.
In Kaufmann’s work however the time of life is only purgatorial, suspended between prologue and epilogue, always too late for the first and always too early for the second. It is perhaps simply a film about ghosts and their impossible presence. The only life here is one where shards of memory stand in for the ever elusive ‘whole’ of life. A work of art in effect always constructed in the mind like a stage set with movable props and changeable characters. Life will have been a hallucination…
It is not a young person’s film. It’s lessons are too costly. But then youth, just like age, is not granted to everyone.”
Your notes from Charlie Kaufman is very insightful. I keep on coming back to this page — maybe it’s the same kind of feeling that forces Charlie Kaufman to McKee’s class in Adaptation. Writing isn’t that difficult. When I read the screenplay of Adaptation yesterday morning, I absolutely loved it… It made me so confident. You told someone, ‘Fill 140 pages of a script that you want to make into a film — that is the only way one can learn to write.’ But I just can’t ‘fill’ a page. That’s why I come back to this page. And go away.