Interview (Part 1): Kevin Sheridan

My interview with 2022 Black List writer for his script Colors of Authority.

Kevin Sheridan wrote the screenplay Colors of Authority which landed on the 2022 Black List. I had the opportunity to chat with Kevin 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, Kevin talks about how his background as a TV actor led him to an interest in screenwriting.

Scott Myers: Congratulations, Kevin, on getting that 2022 Black List. I’d like to ask a few questions of you to kind of get some background. I think you grew up in LA.

Kevin Sheridan: Yeah, I did. I was born and raised out here. I lived a little in New York for a brief minute when I was younger and still acting.

Scott: I noticed that in checking out your history … acting. Veronica Mars, Hart of Dixie. Can you talk about how you got into the whole acting thing?

Kevin: I was a young kid, growing up in LA. I always had an affinity for movies, especially movies that were probably not something that you would expect an eight‑year‑old to watch. I remember watching My Left Foot when I was really young and just being enthralled, thinking how incredible it was to see Daniel Day‑Lewis channeling this character. I was always really attracted to movies like that at a young age. And in regards to me acting when I was young… it was one of those weird things where I was in an arcade, and this woman came up and asked if I wanted to act. I already had a deep love for movies so I said yes.

I got into it and I got incredibly lucky. I was cast in a pilot from the producers of My So‑Called Life called All Together Now. And the whole experience was a dream from start to finish. The script was incredible. The other actors couldn’t have been nicer. But the pilot didn’t get picked up. The following year, I got an audition for another show when I was just a freshman in high school. And that was a sitcom I was on called Soul Man with Dan Aykroyd. And he was always gracious enough to answer any questions I had about the writing process — which I was already very curious about. I had a feeling deep down that at some point I was gonna write, it was just a matter of when I built up the courage to do so.

Scott: You did, actually, if I’m correct in this. There was a project called Leaving Barstow, which you wrote and acted in.

Kevin: Yeah. I went to USC, and when I was in college, I wrote Leaving Barstow as a short film. I had a great professor who encouraged me to make that into a feature. An old friend of mine read it, enjoyed it, and then gave it to an extremely talented, amazing human being named Peter Paige.

He created The Fosters. He’s also a wickedly talented director and actor… Peter loved it and we put our minds together and figured out a way to make it. It was another magical experience. I was still super young, making my first feature. We did it on a shoestring budget, and it premiered on Showtime. For a very low budget indie film, it had a wonderful run. Even to this day, I still get people reaching out to me about it.

Scott: There’s the acting thing. You’re talking to Dan Aykroyd about writing, and then you’re writing a script. There had to be some sort of process to get from the talking about it to doing it. How did you learn the screenwriting part of it?

Kevin: It’s funny, I went to USC. I was a theater major, but all my classes I focused on were either writing or directing. I tried to learn as much as I could in that realm.

As far as how I developed my craft, I don’t think I became confident as a writer until much later. I wouldn’t even consider myself a confident writer even now… But the light didn’t really go on until about five years ago. For me, it involved just reading lots and lots of scripts.

I think it’s something that you intrinsically pick up as you’re going along, whether it’s structure or whatnot. I read as many scripts, and Black List scripts as I could. And what I got from that was permission to use my voice more in my own writing.

Before, I remember it was like don’t direct the reader… don’t do this and that… The fucking truth is — — just make them turn the page. That’s it. Whether that’s writing a chunk of six lines of action, or just real brief, poetic sentences… It’s whatever conveys what the movie is in your head, in an emotionally engaging way.

I remember when I first signed with my manager, he sent me a script called “Infinite” by Ian Shorr. For any young, aspiring writer, there’s no one who makes you turn the page better than Ian. He takes these action sequences that could be written in a very mind‑numbing way… and somehow makes you go, “God, this is the most fun I’ve had reading something in a long time.” I’m not saying my writing is fun, but it’s scripts like “Infinite” that gave me permission to find my own voice. And that’s a big thing.

Scott: That’s trafficking in that online screenwriting world.

Kevin: I didn’t operate in that at all. I heard there was this screenwriting community on Twitter. I dipped my toes in and I was just sort of peeking around and started seeing what other people were talking about and what other people were doing. It’s been invaluable.

Scott: I love that quote from William Goldman who says, “You’re not writing a refrigerator manual.” It’s supposed to be entertaining, supposed to be a good read. Of course, Ian had a script on the 2022 Black List and I interviewed him. He’s also with Bellevue, is that right?

Kevin: He is. Yeah.

Scott: That script Crooked Forest, it’s great.

Kevin: It’s one of those things where it’s like, I hope people are reading it with a close eye because it’s not something that you can skim through, but if you’re giving yourself the time and the permission to see what he’s doing, it’s pretty remarkable what he pulled off there.

Tomorrow in Part 2, Kevin discusses how he became interested in the real life cop drama which inspired him to write Colors of Authority.

Kevin is repped by Bellevue Productions.

Twitter: @Sheridankevin

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