Interview (Part 1): Sam Boyer

My interview with 2023 Black List writer for his script Foragers.

In 2022, Sam Boyer received a Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting for his original screenplay “Ojek”. In 2023, his script “Foragers” made the annual Black List. Quite an accomplishment in back to back years. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Sam about his Nicholl experience, writing the script which eventually made the Black List, and writing in the action genre space.

Today in Part 1 of a 6-part series to run each day this week, Sam talks about how he used the support of his Nicholl fellowship to write “Foragers.”

Scott Myers: In 2022, you received the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, that award for the script “Ojek.” That logline, just as a reminder:

“In Jakarta, a local motorcycle taxi driver struggles to build a better life through a deadly new business that tests his transporting talents and inner humanity think drive in Indonesia.”

I look at that script, which is really great, and I see it as more of a drama with action elements, but with “Foragers,” this script that made the 2023 Black List, that’s a full‑on action movie.

I’m just curious, was this something you had been wanting to do, move more into straight‑ahead genre type thing, or was this like, “This is just a story idea I really like and I’m going to write it”?

Sam Boyer: Man, it’s a great question. I think as part of the Nicholl Fellowship we had the opportunity to speak with some members of the committee. A few of whom were writers that I looked up to and admired, and I was figuring out what to write next after “Ojek.”

I posited this question to some of those working writers and one of them was very upfront and said, “Look, you’d be a fool based on what you’ve written here if you didn’t go and at least try to write another action movie.

“You’ve demonstrated a facility for it, and in this industry, a lot of things can be back solved from action. Action is such a component of so many kinds of film because it’s a moving image that might be a really interesting place to start.”

I toyed around with ideas for a little while and I’d always wanted to write something set in Portland. That’s where my mom lives right now, that’s where my sister lives. I did my last couple years of high school there.

I worked as a photographer for the public school system for a little bit, so I knew the whole city like the back of my hand, so was always an area I’d been interested in exploring. I thought that the rainy woodlands of the Pacific Northwest had its own noirish quality.

I just settled on a story about motherhood. I think ultimately that is what the theme is for me. I’ve had two mother figures in my life. My mom and then my grandmother, and my grandmother passed last year, so I’ve been thinking about her a lot. We were really close.

She basically lived with us and they both had dueling styles because my grandmother’s an immigrant from Indonesia and came over here as an adult, and my mom came here as a young kid, so she’s much more American and modern in her style.

I wanted to do something about two mothers or dueling approaches to motherhood, but set in the context of a genre that I really love, which is the action thriller. I love John Wick. I love a lot of those action‑centric movies and ones with their own inner mythology. I think so many of them are like societies of assassins or killers.

I thought it might just be a would have wish fulfillment for myself of, what if we did a secret organization that does not exist, but it’s about helping people or people who slipped through the cracks?

It was something I think in society we feel at points that we are not being looked out for. It was kind of like an amalgamation of all those things put together, and just a lot of jumping into final draft and trying to see where the story takes me.

I didn’t do as much outlining for this as I usually do for other things, and it’s not best practices. I wouldn’t advise that. I totally had that sinking feeling twenty pages in where you have no idea where you’re going.

Then, the beauty of that Nicholl Fellowship, and I can’t thank them enough is they give you so much. They give you this benefit of time through financial support, and then also pairing you for a mentor.

It really put me in a position to just go full steam ahead into this. I don’t think without the Nicholl Fellowship I would have been able to write this script honestly. That’s the long version.

Scott: “Foragers,” because the Nicholl, they give you I think it’s like 30,000 or 35,000 dollars, then they want you to write another script. Is “Foragers” that?

Sam: Yeah, it was that. Truly, you can’t ask for stronger incentive. You’re paid in installments towards the next script rather than some lump sum for the script that you “won for,” which is a really good. Of course version of me a year and a half ago would have liked the money in a giant check upfront.

I think it’s a great incentive because it really motivates you. I think at one point you have to come up with the idea, then like the first half of it, then a first draft and then an entire revised draft.

You’re supposed to do it in some amount of time and there are deadlines, actually. It was a slightly stressful thing for different members of our group.

Scott: Particularly if you didn’t do as much outlining for this as you usually do.

Sam: Usually, I’m a more intensive outliner. For this one I really was working off of like a rougher outline just because I wasn’t sure what shape certain things would take. That’s not to say I’m like some dude who rolls in without any outline at all.

I always have a general idea of what I want that third act to look like. I don’t know how people do it without that, honestly.

Scott: You had “Ojek,” which did have a lot of action to it. “Foragers” is a full‑on action‑genre film. Have you found that people in meetings perceive you’re an action writer?

Sam: That’s a great question too. I’ve had the pleasure of going to a few different meetings. I genuinely don’t think I am an established enough name in this industry to have me too solely associated with any sort of genre, but if anyone was to pick one, it will most certainly be the action thriller space.

It’s not a comparison that I mind at all. It’s fun to meet about those ideas. I’m not writing something that I don’t already really enjoy. It’s a blast to explore that and I should be so lucky to be pigeonholed in any way.

Scott: That’s actually can be quite beneficial. I tell my students, I say, “Make sure the thing that you’re writing is something in a space you’re passionate about.” It’s the path of least resistance for agents and managers. They send you out, and they say, “Oh, you’re on the Action List.” It just makes it easier for them.

Sam: If we were studio executives, we’d do it the same way, most likely. They have limited time with you beyond these pages and an hour meeting. Of course, they want to make associations quickly. They’re meeting a bunch of people every week. That makes sense.

Tomorrow in Part 1, Sam reveals what it was like learning his script had made the 2023 Black List and his inspiration for writing “Foragers”.

To read my 2022 interview with Sam about his Nicholl-winning screenplay “Ojek,” go here.

Sam is repped by Rain Media Partners.

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