Interview (Part 1): Jake Disch

My interview with 2023 Black List writer for his script The Adults in the Room.

Jake Disch has made the annual Black List two times: In 2018 for his script Gunfight, then in 2023 with The Adults in the Room. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Jake about his creative background, the craft of screenwriting, and the challenges associated with writing a story based on actual historical events.

Today in Part 1 of a 6-part series to run each day this week, Jake talks about how he discovered an interest in writing while growing up in Wisconsin and how he entered an MFA program as a playwright, then emerged as a screenwriter.

Scott Myers: Jake, congratulations on making the 2023 Black List. That must have been exciting.

Jake Disch: Yeah, it’s exciting, and it’s a huge honor. Just knowing people are reading my stuff, much less enjoying it enough to remember it months later.

Scott: This was the second time for you.

Jake: Yeah, I was on it in 2018 as well.

Scott: Was it any different this time around as compared to the first time?

Jake: The first time, there was a bigger party. [laughs] They’ve scaled the party back after COVID.

The first time, I was more naive about what exactly it means to be on the Black List, what it can do for you, and what it can’t do for you. I was like, “Aha, I’ve arrived.” Nobody pays you to be on the Black List.

This time around, the main difference for me was I was ready to maximize the opportunities it gives me instead of just being happy to be there.

Scott: Let’s jump back in time before all this Hollywood stuff. You’re from the Midwest. Milwaukee, I think.

Jake: I’m from central Wisconsin, a little town called Beaver Dam, about an hour and a half from Milwaukee.

Scott: Wait, I remember now. You went to the same high school as…what’s his name, Ric…?

Jake: Ric Flair. The most notable alumnus from my high school is Nature Boy.

Scott: That’s pretty wild. Growing up in Wisconsin, how did you become interested in screenwriting?

Jake: My dad was always a huge reader. He read three or four books a week. He always had a stack from the library. I grew up reading a lot, and my town had a really cool, or still does have a really cool community theater program. People come from all over the county and even a little bit farther than that to participate.

When I was a kid, I was in these children’s productions. I was acting from a young age. Between reading and acting, I got really interested in writing for actors.

By the time I got to middle school and high school, I was writing plays. I had always been a huge fan of film. It never really crossed my mind that that could be something to pursue until I was probably in college.

I majored in theater as an actor and realized I am middling at best in that, but that people seem to really respond to things I wrote. So I pursued that. I wound up going to Northwestern to get an MFA. I went in as a playwright and I came out as a feature writer.

Scott: I got a couple of points of connection there. My nephew went to Macalester. I think that’s where you went to college, right?

Jake: Yeah, it was. Awesome. It’s a great school, I loved it.

Scott: Of course, Northwestern, I’m here in Chicago. I’m quite familiar with Northwestern’s program. You went in as a playwright and came out a screenwriter?

Jake: Yeah. I know I didn’t submit any material for the screen for my application. It was all plays, and I fell in love with screenwriting while I was there. Again, I’d always loved movies and I was always interested in screenwriting, but I never knew how to start until I had a few classes and figured out how it worked.

Scott: The first script you wrote that made the Black List, “Gunfight,” here’s how it’s summarized: “This is a satirical take on the unbelievable but true story of how the NRA changed overnight from an apolitical gun safety and marksmanship club into the most powerful and unhinged lobbying group in Washington, DC.”

Could you talk a little bit about the genesis of that project?

Jake: That was the first script I wrote that was based on a true story. I had heard the story of the Cincinnati revolt, which is when a few hardliners inside from the NRA went to the annual meeting of the NRA members in Cincinnati in 1977.

They basically used parliamentary procedure at the meeting to stretch the whole thing to nine hours long and vote themselves into power and kick out the old guard who wanted to keep the NRA as it was, an outdoor sports, marksmanship, and gun safety club. There was even talk of changing it to the National Outdoor Association and keeping rifle out of the name.

These guys took it over and went on to endorse Ronald Reagan as the first presidential candidate the NRA ever endorsed, and the rest is obviously history there.

I knew about the story. To me, the thing that was so interesting about it is, you could trace so much of our national gun debate back to that moment. It’s a real linchpin for how we talk about the Second Amendment.

I thought it just seemed like such an important story, and I couldn’t believe that nobody had made a movie out of it before, not to say that I’m the first to try. In fact, I know there was at least one other script the same year “Gunfight” went out that was about the same thing.

But when I first heard the story, I thought, “Oh, I don’t write true stories. I’ve never done that before, I’m not that guy.” I was sitting on it for about eight months, and then the Parkland shooting happened. That kind of thing, my reaction to it every time is just this anger and frustration because it’s like the solution seems pretty clear and nobody does anything.

I thought about the story again and how nobody’s telling it, and I thought, “I guess I’ll just have to do it myself.” A lot of research and a lot of rage typing.

I saw it very much as these guys who basically pulled a heist and what they stole was the entire interpretation of the Second Amendment for the next 50-plus years.

Tomorrow in Part 2, Jake talks about the inspiration for his 2023 Black List script The Adults in the Room and the research he did on the subject.

Jake is repped by Bellevue Productions.

@jake_disch
@jakedisch.bsky.social

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