Interview (Part 1): Filipe Coutinho and Ben Mehlman
My interview with 2021 Black List writers for their script Whittier.
My interview with 2021 Black List writers for their script Whittier.
Filipe Coutinho and Ben Mehlman wrote the original screenplay “Whittier” which landed on the 2021 Black List. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Filipe and Ben about their creative background, their script, the craft of screenwriting, and what making the annual Black List has meant to them.
Today in Part 1 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Ben and Filipe talk about how they wound their way into screenwriting.
Scott Myers: Congratulations for making the 2021 Black List with your script “Whittier.” I’d like to just jump in here and get started with your background how you got involved in the business? Ben, let’s start with you. How did you find your interest in writing?
Ben Mehlman: It’s been a long way into writing. I was someone that grew up always loving movies and then when I got to college, I realized that it was something you could actually do.
So I first started writing as a way to have something to be able to direct. Slowly but surely though, I realized how much I enjoyed the freedom of writing and also there’s the very practical fact that you don’t have to pay anything to write. You don’t have to ask for any permission for that type of self-expression. Which was a very freeing realization.
Scott: It is the least expensive part of the process, because it’s literally pen and paper, or computer and fingers and keyboard. That’s it. Did you take screenwriting classes in college?
Ben: Yeah. I was a film production and studies major. Funny enough, while the writing classes were helpful, it was actually the theory classes that were the most helpful. That was what really opened my mind, my 101 studies class was foundational. Watching “Run Lola Run” and understanding how the intentionality of editing plays into visual storytelling changed everything.
That then led to a class on the Coen Brothers where the teacher dug into themes throughout works and deconstructed why a movie might emotionally connect with a viewer. I then took what I learned in my studies classes into my screenwriting classes, my production classes and the film club I was a part of. I was also a part of an SNL knockoff called TNL where we would have to be making a new sketch show every week.
Scott: I’m a fan of learning theory. People tend to want it simple — “This needs to happen on 25” — as opposed to really looking at the thematic and narrative underpinnings of stories.
Ben: I think the thing Filipe and I might talk about most are movies we have watched or are planning to watch.
Scott: That’s a nice segue to Filipe. How did you find your way into screenwriting?
Filipe Coutinho: My story with filmmaking– and screenwriting in particular– began in Portugal because that’s where I grew up. But the person responsible for my writing career is actually Cate Blanchett. She doesn’t know this, but, well, I hope she’s reading…
It happened when I was feeling a little lost in college, unsure of what I wanted to do with my life. I knew I loved movies, but that was it. I didn’t think I could even do anything with that love. That all changed when I went to the local theater to watch “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” with my mom and grandma. I didn’t even want to see it, but I figured it’d beat trying to crack microeconomics. Little did I know that my life was going to change forever. It sounds like a bad cliché, but it’s the absolute truth. I was so taken with Blanchett’s performance, so full of feelings and emotions, that I had to do something with them. So I went home and did what a lot of people did at the time– I created a blog and wrote about it. That was my first official ‘review’, if we can call it that.
Then I started writing about all the movies I watched, and shortly after I started getting published. As nice as that was, it didn’t feel like that was going to be my path. I didn’t want to write about movies, I wanted to actually write them.
With the help of my very supportive and understanding parents, I moved to L.A. and enrolled at the New York Film Academy, which was the perfect school for someone like me, who knew nothing about filmmaking. NYFA, as we call it, has this thing where every week you’re writing, shooting, directing, editing, and producing scenes and little movies. It was the crash course I needed, which helped me figure out what I was good at. I gravitated towards directing and writing and, well… here we are.
Ben: It’s very funny that Filipe and I ended up getting connected because for him, it was “Elizabeth,” where for me, it was “Grindhouse,” which was such an important movie because I was such a horror kid. For him, it was high art and for me it was intentional exploitation “low art.”
Scott: Now my goal in life is going to be directed toward getting Cate Blanchett in one of your movies. In fact, I can see her as your script’s Protagonist (Jackie).
Ben: She’s our prototypical Jackie.
Filipe: She was the actor who was in both our minds. Ben’s also a big fan.
Ben: She’s incredible in “Nightmare Alley.”
Filipe: Which we saw twice, because there was a second version in black and white. We just had to see what Cate Blanchet looked like in a black and white noir. Spoiler alert, she’s everything you want her to be.
Ben: Bradley Cooper and Rooney Mara also were quite good in black and white.
Scott: Blanchett is great in “Nightmare Alley,” well, she’s basically great in everything, so agreed. Moving on, how did you all meet?
Filipe: I’ll do the quick version. The composer of my thesis film was an incredibly talented guy named Ian Rees. I loved working with him. Coincidentally, a couple of years later, when Ben went out on his own, he also hired Ian for a short film and they became good friends.
After that, Ben told Ian he wanted to meet other writers and filmmakers, and Ian set us up on what I can best describe as a “creatives date”. We hit it off right away, bonding over Mad Men, futurism, and a lot of other nerdy stuff.
Ben: As a sidebar, I want to make sure this is included in the interview, Ian Rees is an unbelievably talented composer. He just composed the music for the HBOMax doc “Gaming Wall Street” but he’s still super underutilized. Anyone who’s reading this, Ian Rees is an incredible composer and you should hire him immediately. I adore Ian, I was on the phone with him yesterday.
I directed a short that got some good response. Some people were like, “Have you ever thought about doing a feature version of it?” The irony being I went into that project wanting to through and through make a short and people were then asking about a feature version.
After Filipe and I became pretty good friends for like six or seconds months, I asked him about potentially writing this feature with me. That was five or six years ago. The funny thing is that’s probably the worst script we’ve ever written.
I can say that it was all about the multiverse, so we were a few years ahead of Marvel. We’ve made no money off of it but between that and “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” we were clearly onto something.
Filipe: That script was absolutely essential for us to learn each other’s rhythms and ways of working. Even though the script doesn’t totally work, it’s probably the most important story we’ve written together because it allowed us to write “Whittier”.
Tomorrow in Part 2, Filipe and Ben share the inspiration for their 2021 Black List script “Whittier.”
Ben and Filipe are repped by Matt Rosen at Rain Management.
Twitter: @filipefcoutinho, @Ben_Mehlman
For my interviews with dozens of other Black List writers, go here.