Go Into The Story Interview: Sean Malcolm

My interview with the 2019 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner.

Sean Malcolm wrote the original screenplay “Mother” which won a 2019 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Sean his background as a screenwriter, his award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl has meant to him.

Part 1: “I really enjoy the architecture of story, plot, setups, payoffs and that type of stuff. Maybe this goes back to my love of architecture in general.”

Part 2: “When I wrote Mother…because the idea came from a photograph of a boy who was about the same age as my son, it was all about the character first.”

Part 3: “I didn’t see a way to just do 90 pages of purely her story. I wanted there to be some cross‑cutting, so that it would give some contrast, some periodic relief.”

Part 4: “So much of the thought was about the stages that led to this, the desperation that she’s feeling with her husband disappearing, the violence that’s around them. Then her son has been nearly killed.”

Part 5: “That draft was done in three‑and‑a‑half weeks and it made the Top 50. I had been participating in the Nicholl for 17, 18 years prior to that with nine other scripts, and I had never made the Top 50.”

Part 6: “I don’t think you should write to the market. I don’t think you should write because you want to be rich or because you want to be famous. Trust me, I tried that in the 90’s — it didn’t work!”

For my interviews with every Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner since 2012, go here.

For my interviews with 53 Black List writers, go here.