Why great scripts come out of actors
How does any actor convince you that they are good? Sometimes they wait for the right script that would play to their strengths to come along, at times they put their money to get someone to write that script and produce the film too. But at times some of them simply sit down and write to get things right.
Screenplay
This week marks the anniversary of Good Will Hunting (1997), one of the best instances when two struggling actors, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, not only wrote a script that would make the world sit up and notice them but also transformed themselves into bona fide stars besides winning an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
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| Damon had written the outline for Good Will Hunting while he was still at Harvard. |
It was not the first time that actors wrote for themselves, Orson Welles, Woody Allen and Raj Kapoor had done that over and over again, and it was not also the biggest success that an actor-writer enjoyed. Sylvester Stallone’s breakthrough with Rocky (1976) had a bigger cultural impact, but the manner in which Damon and Affleck managed to make Good Will Hunting an all encompassing achievement is what made them stand out.
Usually, when someone in the trade gets a script from an actor they have very little expectations. It is presumed that actors will not come up with scripts where anything besides them gets attention. In Stallone’s case, the actor came up with the idea of an accidental boxer who is the embodiment of the underdog and his never-say-die attitude sees him becoming the contender for the world heavyweight title. Like Rocky Balboa, the character that he would go on to play, Stallone, too, had overcome many hardships including a speech impediment and was down to his last penny when he got the idea.
He wrote Rocky in a fervent rush and finished it in three straight days. Stallone had done bit parts in films, including one in Woody Allen’s Bananas (1971) but nothing had worked out for him. Everyone he pitched Rocky loved the idea but no one was interested in letting him play the lead.
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| Stallone came up with the idea of an accidental boxer who is the embodiment of the underdog, becoming the contender for the world heavyweight title. |
It was around this time that a broke Stallone sold his bullmastiff, Butkus, to keep afloat but the day he managed to land Rocky he went straight back to the man to get his dog back. The man had six children who loved Butkus but Stallone urged them to let him star in Rocky for the two together had suffered and now that he has made it he wanted Butkus to live it up as well.
The success of a great script is when a particular actor becomes inseparable from the character and this aspect is already achieved halfway when the actor contributes at the foundation stage. The fashion in which Feroz Khan’s Apradh (1972) stands out from his other releases around the same time is simply due to the fact that as he was producing the film he wanted the character to reflect his own persona.
Phenomenon
Khan was always westernised and enjoyed a drink, a cigarette, good clothes and the good life and these are facets that are more than visible in the films that he made himself. Khan’s characters in the films that he directed — Apradh, Dharmatma (1975), Qurbani (1986) and Jaanbaaz (1986) — are the ones that became forever associated with the star.
An actor trying to write is not all that uncommon a phenomenon or even a new one. In fact, when post-Maine Pyar Kiya (1989) Salman Khan averted the risk of being not only typecast or trapped in a certain kind of image, he did that with Baaghi (1990), a film that was based on a story written by him. The film might not have been as big a success as Maine Pyar Kiya or even the ones that followed such as Sanam Bewafa (1991) or Saajan (1991) but it subtly established that Salman was not limited to romantic roles.
Damon had written the outline for Good Will Hunting while he was still at Harvard and once he shifted to Los Angeles to try out for roles, he and Affleck decided to work on the script together. Damon and Affleck had to wait for four years before the film eventually got made. One of the biggest achievements of Good Will Hunting was also what it did for other involved.
Legacy
It fetched Robin Williams his sole Oscar in the Best Supporting Actor category and cemented his legacy as a serious actor even though he had masterpieces such as Dead Poets Society (1989), Awakenings (1990) and The Fisher King (1991) in the past. It also allowed director Gus Van Zant the freedom to pursue his art-house productions like Elephant (2003) even after commercial debacles such as the shot-to-shot remake of Psycho (1998).
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| Kangna Ranaut wrote many of her own lines in Queen. |
Actors writing scripts are still looked at as a vanity outing even though there is enough to suggest that when done right it works wonders. Owen Wilson is rarely mentioned for his writing credits that include some of the best work of Wes Anderson, including Bottle Rocket (1996) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). While one would argue that Moonrise Kingdom (2012) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) enjoyed great reviews the quality of Anderson’s writing is not the same as the time he collaborated with Wilson.
Another example can be the organic quality of Richard Linklater’s ‘Before’ trilogy — Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013). Much of it can be attributed to the contribution of the leads Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, who wrote the second and the final films. Even in the case of Kangana Ranaut, her character in Queen (2014), where she wrote many of her own lines, truly elevated the character and the entire film to another level.
(Courtesy: Mail Today)