Interview (Part 2): Greg Roque

My interview with 2022 Black List writer for his script Jerry!

Greg Roque wrote the original screenplay Jerry! which landed on the 2022 Black List. I had the opportunity to chat with Greg about his 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, Greg gets into how the life and antics of TV talk show host Jerry Springer became the inspiration for the screenplay Jerry!

Scott: Whatever you’ve done learning the craft led to a terrific script: “Jerry!” which made the 2022 Black List. Here’s the plot of the script as it’s described via the Black List.

“One man ran what was declared to be the worst TV show of all time, responsible for the degradation of American society. All while topping Oprah in the ratings. This is the over‑the‑top, insane true story of how Jerry Springer went from ambitious young attorney to the mayor of Cincinnati to the undisputed King of Trash TV. Along the way, accidentally helping to create the world we live in today.”

When did you first become aware of Jerry Springer?

Greg: As a kid. Any people in my age group, the ’80s to ’90s kids, the old joke is that whenever you stayed home from school, you’d have chicken noodle soup, Sprite and Jerry Springer, and Maury. Those were your chaperones and your medicine when you were sick. Again, I have early memories of my older sisters watching Jerry Springer, and that was the “bad show,” the inappropriate show.

The first memory I have of Jerry Springer is the mystique and, I don’t want to say lasciviousness, but the sense that something was askew. Like, “Oh, this show is taboo. I shouldn’t be watching it.”

Scott: He’s in your memories there from your experiences as a child. At some point you’re saying to yourself, “This will make an interesting character or subject matter for being a protagonist in movie.” Do you remember when that happened and what were your initial thoughts about that?

Greg: Yes. For me, a lot of this came right around 2021. What happened was, I was doing stand‑up comedy, and being a stand‑up comedian now, I hate that I’m thrust into this culture war of, “Are you a free‑speech warrior?” or “Are you a woke cuck who doesn’t want to hurt people’s feelings?” Where for me it’s like, “I want to be funny.”

The thing that’s always fascinated me are iconoclasts. You’ve got Lenny Bruce, Howard Stern, Larry Flynt, George Carlin, John Waters, you name it. So many of these conversations we’re having about what’s appropriate are reductive and redundant. These are conversations we’ve been having since America was founded.

Critics were saying the same thing about Jerry Springer 20 years ago, 20-something years ago. I don’t think society’s getting softer. There’s something that happens where people want to start a culture war so they need to find something or someone to blame.

That catalyzed the question, “Why not go to the man, who at least from my point of view, embodied these aforementioned debates about good taste and free speech? Why not write his story?” For better or for worse, Jerry is the American dream to me. He epitomizes everything about social mobility in “the land of the free”. I wanted this script to be my love letter to his life and career.

Scott: Were you at all aware that the annual Black List the last five years or so, biopics of notable people has been a “thing.” For example, “Blonde Ambition,” a script about Madonna. Or “Bubbles,” a script about Michael Jackson.

Were you at all aware of that trend and putting your producer’s hat on, “Hey, this would probably have some play in Hollywood because it’s about someone that fits into that area?” Or were you like, “Jerry Springer is really interesting and I want to write his story?”

Greg: I would say it was more that Jerry Springer was interesting and I wanted to write the story. Admittedly, I wasn’t someone who was like, “Will it play in Peoria? Will it sell?” I like Jerry Springer. I like this idea of subverting the American Dream. I thought, “Fuck it, let’s write his story.”

Scott: You knew Jerry Springer from those days when you were home as a kid watching it with your older sister, thinking, “Oh, it’s kinky that I’m doing this.” You knew that much about Jerry Springer, but I’m assuming you had to do some research to find out about his whole history of city council, mayor, and all that. What kind of research did you do and what resources were you using?

Greg: I read his autobiography and some third‑party books because Jerry’s autobiography has a lot of jokes, which was good at capturing his voice. Jerry Springer very much did a lot of the heavy lifting. I could plainly see his POV and what he’s all about.”

I had to cross‑reference things with articles, especially articles condemning his show at the time and seeing what Rush Limbaughesque critics were saying about this “degradation of media and American values” and what was being said about freedom of speech.

Also with research, this is another bout of serendipity where I knew not all, but all the major stuff in Jerry Springer’s life because he was a guest on one of the “Comedy Central Roasts.” I forget which one.

They made fun of him for paying a hooker with a check and being mayor of Cincinnati and all that. I knew all that stuff, but I didn’t know he was a child of Holocaust survivors. I didn’t know that he was a very prominent student activist. His life story is fruitful material. I want to explore this.

Luckily, the man has had a grand life. That makes for good material.

Scott: One of the most challenging aspects of doing a biopic is determining what to omit and what to include in the script. Was that much of a concern in writing “Jerry”?

Greg: Yes and no. For me, one of the things that made this easy is, going in I knew this was going to be a satire. With that, I was like, “What am I trying to say?” For me, I’m a person who sees the forest before the trees. I was very much like, “OK, this is going to be a subversion of the American dream.

To prepare, I watched some of the Kazan films like “America America” and “Face in the Crowd.” I included “Private Parts” and “The People vs. Larry Flynt” in that same rotation.

Scorsese and “Citizen Kane” were in the back of my mind. Now the question is, “What do I want to say about Jerry and America?” He likes the American Dream. He said several times in his book that he wanted to be president. How can I have his life and values reflect the culture of his specific period in time and all the machinations going on?

Conceptualizing was not the hard part. Trying to make sure everything fit together in terms of a more coalesced, cohesive message, I that was the hard part. I think part of my problem was early on, my script read more like vignettes than like life. How do I turn these moments into a larger picture, and ultimately, someone’s narrative?

Tomorrow in Part 3, Greg discusses how he came up with Show Host Jerry, a kind of alter-ego characters who appears from time to time to the real Jerry Springer.

For Part 1, go here.

Greg is repped by Bellevue Productions.

Twitter and Instagram: @gregroqueislame.

Website: gregroqu.com.

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