Interview (Part 2): Gillian Weeks

My interview with 2022 Black List writer for her script OH THE HUMANITY.

Gillian Weeks wrote the screenplay OH THE HUMANITY which landed on the 2022 Black List. I had the opportunity to chat with Gillian about her creative background, writing a Black List script, and the craft of screenwriting.

Today in Part 2 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Gillian talks about how her interest in historically based stories led to writing OH THE HUMANITY.

Scott: I noticed this theme. A script about the invention of in vitro fertilization, a script about Jonas Salk, your Black List script about the Hindenburg. Is that a natural extension of your interest in documentaries and historically based stories or did at some point they brand you as “historical adaptation writer?”

Gillian: It’s a bit of both. The first true-story script I wrote was about the invention of IVF. My husband had come across the obituary of Bob Edwards, who was the inventor of IVF. We knew there was more to the story but there wasn’t a book or a documentary that had put it all together.

I received a grant from the Sloan Foundation through the Tribeca Film Institute, and that allowed me to do the primary-source research, to find an expert advisor and to feed myself while writing the script. Sloan actually funded the project a second time through another fellowship with the Sundance Institute. Because I had that support and encouragement, I was able to write this script that I’m now very proud of.

That script, called Let There Be Life, led to the opportunity to write the story of the polio vaccine. It’s similar, in the sense that it’s a midcentury story about a very enigmatic scientist. Those are hard people to write about because they tend to be very internal and very circumspect with the way that they talk about their motivations. Then the task is figuring how to dramatize the act of science, which doesn’t necessarily lend itself to a film treatment.

The Hindenburg script also began with my husband — airships were another of his esoteric interests. And one day he just mentioned, “You know, if you read between the lines of these histories of airships, you realize that there is a lot more than meets the eye.” He suggested that the Hindenburg disaster was actually a story about politics, not pyrotechnics. That got my attention, and I started looking into it.

In the course of my research, I found a new book that hadn’t even been published yet called “The Hidden Hindenburg,” by Mike McCarthy.

Mike had serendipitously done an incredibly deep dive into the historical records, and was able to find out more than anyone ever had about the political backdrop and the bureaucratic conditions that led to that disaster. That was a story that hadn’t been told.

Scott: Here’s how your script “OH THE HUMANITY” is described on the Black List:

“A dark comedy about the Hindenburg disaster, the mostly true story about one of the biggest fuckups in history, the assholes who tried to cover it up, and the female gossip reporter who made some Nazis very angry.”

What made you think, “Hindenburg? Comedy? That’s a good concept for a script.”

Gillian: This will sounds strange, but I think one of my strengths as a writer is that, while my tastes and interests seem sophisticated, I actually have a short attention span. I’m honestly a bit of a philistine.

What I mean by that is I take on topics that have a potential to be very heavy or complex, but I always think about what is the most entertaining way to tell it. You can take even a dark chapter of history and ask “How can I inject the story with as much fun as possible?” That doesn’t always mean it’s comedic. It can be suspenseful or terrifying. It just means that I don’t forget my job is to entertain.

But in terms of Oh the Humanity, and why it’s a dark comedy — I suppose I was just so struck by the idea of Nazis in New Jersey. It seemed so funny to me, these assholes running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying desperately to cover up an absolutely epic fuckup, and then doing it all in a place as ordinary as New Jersey.

But I’m always punching up. The joke is on the people in power, both Germans and Americans. It’s about accountability and how, if we can shine a light on what’s happening in our country, even today, there may be a chance of averting disaster.

Scott: I would see this almost like a social satire. That choice right there, when I was reading it, Gillian, I said, “This is like antiTitanic.”

Gillian: [laughs]

Scott: You know what I mean? Titanic builds toward the big thing, it’s a drama with a romance and Jack and Rose. Your script literally starts off with the tragedy. You don’t even show the crash. You just see it like lights reflected off the event.

Let’s talk about that decision right there. You’re not building toward the Hindenburg exploding, like some sort of Erwin Allen ’70s movie. No, this is something entirely different. How did that spin out in your process?

Gillian: When you sit down to write something, you think about what’s the best way of doing it, but you also cross things off your list. Like, what’s the wrong way? I suppose it felt just deeply sad, to tell the story that ends in disaster.

To me the interesting story was not the crime but the coverup. They couldn’t allow the truth to come out because they were playing a game of perception, and the symbol of national German pride burst into flames in America. Everything was at stake.

Scott: I consider myself a fairly knowledgeable person about history. I’m also a Led Zeppelin fan, I saw them in concert twice, but they had the swastikas on the side of the Hindenburg? I didn’t realize that.

Gillian: Before I started educating myself more about the whole chapter of history, I imagined that Nazism was reviled from the very beginning and that they were always our enemy. It really couldn’t be farther from the truth. There was a very strong pro-fascist movement in the US. Flying an airship with swastikas around New York City was not a scandalous act, it wasn’t a provocative act. It was just PR.

But by 1937, Germany had become a very dangerous place to be for a lot of people. It certainly wasn’t a secret, particularly among Jews in America, that it was an anti-Semitic state. I’m sure that some people in New York looked up into the air and felt a sense of doom.

Tomorrow in Part 3, Gillian discusses some of the key characters in her script, many of them based on real life people.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Gillian is repped by The Gersh Agency and Entertainment 360.

Twitter: @gillmw

Instagram: @thegillface

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