Interview (Part 1): Elad Ziv

My interview with 2022 Black List writer for his script Court 17.

Elad Ziv wrote the screenplay Court 17 which landed on the 2022 Black List. I had the opportunity to chat with Elad about his creative background, writing a Black List script, and the craft of screenwriting.

Today in Part 1 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Elad talks about his background as a tennis player, then actor, then writer.

Scott Myers: Welcome, Elad. Congratulations on making the 2022 Black List. That must have been pretty exciting.

Elad Ziv: Oh, my God, it was very exciting to say the least.

Scott: We’re going to get into your script COURT 17 but first, let’s explore your creative background. You’re both an actor and a writer. Which came first?

Elad: I’ve been doing both for around 15 years. I think the acting came about three months before the writing. I was a bit of a late bloomer in everything, as I’m sure we’ll get to later with the conception of COURT 17 and everything, but tennis was a huge part of my life growing up.

I really thought I was going to be a professional tennis player. Up until the age of 18 or 19, that was my goal in life. That changed. Then I ran around, did some other jobs, trying to find myself. Then around the age of 24 is when I really decided that I wanted to do something within movies and TV.

At first, it started off with acting. I’ve been doing acting for a very long time as well. That has its ups and downs, like everything else. About three months into the acting, about almost 15 years ago now, I was getting really frustrated with the notion that I’m always waiting for someone else to allow me to be creative. That was a difficult thing for me.

At the time, this girl that I was dating, one of her good friends was a development exec at A Band Apart, which was Lawrence Bender’s production company at the time. She told me, she goes, “You should write something for yourself.” I thought, I was like, “Wow.” At that time, Good Will Hunting, Rocky, those were my favorite movies, “Why can’t I do that for myself?”

I set out, and I wrote a tennis script. That was the first movie I ever wrote, was a tennis script because it was something that I understood intrinsically. I knew that I would have to focus less on how to be a good writer and less on the actual subject matter, since I knew it inside and out.

That set off my journey to write scripts. Then COURT 17 now is, man, probably my 12th or 13th script that I’ve written in the past 15 years.

Scott: It reads like a professional script, so I assumed that you had written quite a few scripts beforehand.

Elad: Thank you. I did. Overnight success of 14 years.

[laughter]

Scott: Obviously, if you’re an actor, you’re reading scripts…

Elad: Absolutely. I was a very serious actor. I studied with William Esper in New York City, the Sanford Meisner program.

It was absolute militant studying of dialogue, character, and all that stuff, which really, really helped me as a writer later on, as I was breaking down dialogue, but then breaking down the subtext of the dialogue. Where the character’s coming from, what they’re trying to say in a scene, and what they’re actually saying in a scene.

All that stuff really, really helped me with writing, especially once I started to understand plot, general structure, and all that stuff. It was a very helpful tool on filling in the blanks, for lack of a better term.

Scott: Would you say that the way you went about learning the craft of screenwriting was more just by doing it?

Elad: I took some script anatomy classes a couple years ago, but that was much later on. As far as learning how to write, I taught myself how to write. I remember, after I spoke with the lady over at A Band Apart, I read how to write a movie in 25 days, or “How to Write a Movie…”

Scott: Viki King.

Elad: Yeah. I read that. I wrote an absolutely terrible movie, but I stuck with it. I stuck with her daily schedule because I hold myself accountable with that kind of stuff. Then I learned to write by rewriting that script and by reading a lot of books along the way, and falling.

I should say, before the acting, I came from the modeling world. When I was 18 or 19, I started modeling. I think the one great thing the modeling ‑‑ and acting to some effect ‑‑ helped me was the acceptance of rejection.

I got really, really good at hearing no, which is a difficult thing for a lot of people to conjure up, especially writers. With writers, you’re hearing no’s every six to eight months. You’re finishing a script, then you’re hearing the nos.

With acting and with modeling, you’re hearing no’s two, three times a day if you’re busy, if you have good agents and bookers that are sending you out. That helped me learn how to write because I would write terrible scripts, but I still kept pushing. To be honest with you, I kept pushing for 15 years.

I’ll read some scripts that I’ve wrote four or five years ago and I’d be amazed at how good I thought they were, and how I don’t think they’re good anymore. There was a certain relentlessness, I think, that my history built within me of not accepting no for an answer.

Listen, I have people who have told me that writing great dialogue is inherent in people. Some writers are talented, some writers are not talented.

Playing sports my whole life, I’ve become a huge…Honestly, studying with William Esper and hearing Sanford Meisner ‑‑ because William Esper worked with Sanford Meisner ‑‑ and hearing Sanford Meisner’s definition of art, craft, and all that stuff, I’m a huge believer that anyone can become what they want to do with craft if they work hard enough at it.

That the harder you work at something, the better you get at it. I believe everyone has a voice. I believe everyone has something to say. I knew that I did. I just wanted to keep working on it until I found out what it was.

Every script I wrote before this one was a script I wrote for myself, not for anyone else. That’s probably why I didn’t win any script competitions before Script Pipeline last year. It’s probably why every producer from here to Israel passed on all my projects because I was writing for myself. I didn’t care what anyone else wanted to do, but it helped me find my voice.

Then when I finally decided to go with something higher‑concept like COURT 17, I had the practice behind it to be able to execute that to a level where I’m not going to tell you I was confident. When I finished it, it’s all been such a shock to me in how well it’s been received, but in retrospect, I think that helped it a lot.

Scott: It sounds like you’ve got a really nice dual‑piston engine at work. You got that athletic background, practice, practice, practice, practice, and that competitive spirit, but then you’ve also got the acting thing going on, too. You can relate to characters. You know how to dig down deep into them and find emotional subtext. Does it feel like you’ve got both of those things at work in your creative process?

Elad: If I’m being completely honest with you, I feel like I have the one piston, which is the work ethic because I’m conscious of that, because it doesn’t come naturally to me. It’s something that I still struggle with every day, of forcing myself to sit down and write every single day.

The other piston that you’re talking about, which is that athletic…I’m sorry, the acting chops, getting into character, and all that, that’s more subconscious. That’s more ingrained in the DNA that I have from all the reps that I have, from all the classes I’ve taken, from all the auditions I’ve done, from the jobs that I’ve booked. It’s just in there.

It must lend itself creatively where I’m unaware of it. People have told me that with COURT 17, they see the vulnerability of the character, they love how I wrote her and all that. A lot of things that I wasn’t necessarily doing on purpose, but it’s stuff that I’ve read before.

I’ve read great roles, I’ve read terrible roles. I’ve auditioned for great things and bad things. I’ve racked up judgments in my head that helped me create these characters.

Scott: I tell my students all the time, particularly when they’re writing that first draft, “Don’t think. Feel.” You want to allow that room for the characters, and then the subconscious to speak because that’s the best stuff.

Elad: Absolutely.

Scott: You can always step outside the story universe later and manipulate things, but you want to get that receptive flow of content coming out there.

Elad: Yeah. It’s hard to get there because it’s vulnerable. When you’re pouring that into something and then someone tells you it’s not good, it’s like, “Listen, it’s just really vulnerable and it’s difficult.” A lot of people, whether they’re cognizant of it or not, are protecting themselves from that.

Maybe if they’re being a little bit more intellectual with something, it’s easier to be rejected on that than if they’re pouring their soul and feeling it, and putting something more personal into it.

Tomorrow in Part 2, Elad reveals the inspiration for his Black List script Court 17 and why he felt there was room for another time-loop movie.

Elad is repped by Bellevue Productions.

Twitter and Instagram: @eladziv

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