Interview (Part 1): Brian Arnold

My interview with 2021 Black List writer for his script In the End.

Brian Arnold wrote the original screenplay “In the End” which landed on the 2021 Black List. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Brian about his creative background, his script, the craft of screenwriting, and what making the annual Black List has meant to him.

Today in Part 1 of a 6 part series to run each day through Saturday, Brian talks about how he began his writing career in journalism, then moved to L.A. and supported himself working a variety of jobs including popsicle-maker.

Scott Myers: First of all, congratulations on making the 2021 Black List.

Brian Arnold: Thank you.

Scott: Let’s start with your background. I believe you’re from West Virginia.

Brian: I am from West Virginia, that’s right.

Scott: How did you develop an interest in writing?

Brian: I always loved movies and wanted to be involved in movies in some way, but living in a small town in West Virginia, you don’t really see a path to it. That doesn’t feel really feel like an option. But, the desire was always there.

Even as a kid, I remember in middle school entering a short story competition. The story I entered was a sequel to the “Naked Gun” movies. The first screenplay I ever tried to write, I was 14 or 15, I wrote a draft of “X-Men 2” and sent it into Fox. I printed it off, mailed it to the studio. Never heard back. Very rude.

[laughter]

Brian: It was a dream and a passion for a long time and then years and years of chasing. I did the practical thing and got a degree in broadcast journalism. At the time, I was like, “I don’t know how I’m going to ever do film. Film seems impossible. Maybe I can do this and it’ll be close enough and I’ll be happy enough.” I was not.

I’m glad I got the degree and met great people, but it just wasn’t the field for me. Eventually, finally, it was like, “I have to move to LA. I’m going to give this a real shot,” and I did, about ten years ago now.

Scott: I want to jump in on this 14- or 15-year-old version of Brian, who’s writing a screenplay and sending it off to 20th Century Fox. The first thing that comes to mind is how did you even know to write a screenplay?

Brian: If I found it, I’m 99 percent sure it wouldn’t be in the right format. If I remember right, it looked more like a stage play, with, I’m sure, long blocks of action, and then it’d have dialogue off to the left side.

But, when I was like 15 or 16, not long after that, I talked my parents into buying me my first screenwriting program. At that time, I think it was Movie Magic Screenwriter. That was my first, “Oh, this is what a script looks like.” I started reading scripts that you could find online, and just getting into it, and self-teaching.

Scott: I guess that explains it. The reason why Disney swallowed 20th Century Fox is due to the bad karma they generated by not getting back to you when you submitted your screenplay to them.

Brian: [laughs] Fox doesn’t exist anymore and I still do. I outlasted them. That’s my claim to fame. But if Marvel does want to call me about X-Men, I’m here. I’m ready to listen.

Scott: You worked in journalism for a while?

Brian: I was a morning producer for a local NBC affiliate back in West Virginia. That was for not that long. Probably, a year or maybe even a little less.

It was a very small station. I was morning producer, so I was working like 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM shifts. It was such a small, underfunded location that during the commercial breaks I’d have to run into the newsroom and change the camera angles and shots and stuff, and then run back and then keep producing. It was an experience.

Scott: Maybe that set you up for going off and doing the Robert Rodriguez, Steven Soderbergh directing, editing, writing, producing thing.

Brian: Maybe. [laughs]

Scott: You move to LA. Your bio says you were a tour guide, popsicle maker, movie-theater usher, background actor.

Brian: I’ve done a lot of jobs.

Scott: Popsicle maker?

Brian: [laughs] Yeah. I didn’t last too long at that. It was a fancy juice company, and they made their own popsicles in-house. I would be pouring the molds and freezing them and all that. It’s a more fun title than it was a job.

Scott: I guess popsicle maker segues nicely into your comedy background. You’ve been doing I.O., Upright Citizens Brigade, Second City. How did you get into the whole comedy thing?

Brian: My dad’s a big comedy guy. It was almost like a rite of passage thing of like, “OK, you’re old enough now. We can watch ‘Naked Gun.” “Now, you can watch ‘Airplane.’” “Now, you can watch ‘Animal House,’” etc. It was a weird milestone thing for me growing up.

And, my family would watch “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” together every week. That was my introduction to improv. Before I moved to LA, I lived in South Carolina for just a little bit. There was a new improv theater there, called Carolina improv Company. Their headlining show was “Whose Beach is it Anyway.” I actually took my first improv classes there.

It helped me realize that I was decent at this stuff, writing and performing. It gave me more courage to finally move to Los Angeles and give this career a shot. Within a month, I was like, “I don’t know anybody here. I don’t know what I’m doing here. I’ll just take an improv 101 class, have some fun, and maybe meet some other writers and actors and people like that.”

I ended up falling more and more in love with improv as an art form. Improv and sketch comedy were a huge part of my life for five or six years, at least. But, features are my first love, so I started doing sketch and improv a little less to really focus on writing for film and tv again.

Scott: After you become rich and famous, please feel free to relocate to Chicago, the home of improv comedy.

Brian: Absolutely.

Scott: Create a sketch TV show based out of Chicago, and we’ll be very happy about that.

Brian: I’ve never been to Chicago, so I would love that.

Tomorrow in Part 2, Brian talks about the inspiration for his 2021 Black List script “In the End.”

Brian is repped by:

John Zaozirny & Kate Sharp (Bellevue)
Sheryl Petersen, Adam Perry, & Halle Mariner (APA)

Twitter and Instagram: @briantarnold.

For my interviews with dozens of other Black List writers, go here.