Interview (Part 2): Miguel Flatow

My interview with 2022 Black List writer for his script Viva, Mexico!

Miguel Flatow wrote the original screenplay Viva Mexico! which landed on the 2022 Black List. I had the opportunity to chat with Miguel 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, Miguel discusses the complex nature of Mexican politics and culture, and reflects on the Protagonist in Viva Mexico!

Scott: I thought of it as an anti-superhero movie, which I appreciate because I think I’m probably a minority of one. I’ve really gotten tired of superhero films.

Miguel: Yeah. Me too.

Scott: An ally! Frankly, I have a theory about this that one of the reasons why Donald Trump was elected president is because of superhero movies. They basically advocate, “We want someone to save us,” as opposed to individuals or the collective community saving themselves.

Miguel: This is a good theory. Yeah, you’re probably right.

Scott: They perceived his superpower as him being rich.

Miguel: Did you see that he released these NFT Trump cards? I was like, “This is so ridiculous. This can’t be real life.” [laughs]

Scott: Oh, I know, there are all sorts of images of him in superhero outfits and stuff. The whole thing is just crazy. But your story, the superhero aspect is like a Trojan horse and it’s almost McGuffin in a way, that you’re using it as a device to create a scenario where you are telling a rather populist story.

Did you have that intention at the beginning or did that evolve into a sort of skewed or different approach in terms of working with a superhero as an element?

Miguel: It definitely evolved. Even the first title in the very first draft was Captain Bald Eagle, and then once I started revising, getting more into the script, I realized, “Oh, this is really not about him. This is about Mexico, and the situation we’re in.”

Once I found exactly what the movie was about, for me at least, the whole script just got a lot more poignant and clear and that’s when I changed the title. I was like, “Oh, this is an exploration of the socioeconomic and sociopolitical complexities that Mexico’s dealing with and the superhero’s just an excuse to explore these in an entertaining and commercially viable way.”

It has a populous appeal, but the script gets pretty violent at times, you know?

Scott: Yeah.

Miguel: It’s one of those things where you’re laughing but you’re not exactly comfortable that you’re laughing about it.

Scott: Yeah, it’s that wonderful sort of post-modern mix of humor, violence, and drama. There is some kind of fantastical elements to it as well.

Let’s meet some of the key characters. The protagonist is John Bloom. He’s called that for about 10 pages and once he adopts this alter ego, this persona, Captain Bald Eagle, that’s what he is known as for the rest of the script. Here’s how he’s described when he’s introduced in the script: He’s buying a six-pack of beer and two cigarettes.

“Mid-40s, disheveled yet handsome, ennui and lethargy engulf his overall demeanor.”

He’s also got Prozac and Zoloft going on.

How would you describe his life’s state at the beginning of the story?

Miguel: Well, he’s semi-depressed and scrolling through Instagram or something, imagining a better life. It’s probably symptomatic of what a lot of men are going through, or the American population, or the world. Depression is at an all-time high.

My idea is that it’s not only him that comes to Mexico to help save it, but it’s Mexico that saves him as well because we have so many different things to offer instead of just scrolling through Instagram or fighting about pronouns, as big or as little as you want that problem to be, but when you live in Mexico and experience the day to day problems here, they seem more trivial.

Those sound like first-world problems. Here we’re just trying to put food on the table. The minimum wage in Mexico is eight dollars, something like that, so you can understand why there’s such immigration flooding to the United States. That’s eight dollars a day, by the way.

I wanted to show the contrast of how you could be depressed but still have all the privileges that others can only dream of and believe your problems to be universal. That’s why one of the lines toward the end of the script that Captain Bald Eagle says to Juan Rojo, the other main character, is: “You’ve reminded me of my purpose.” I mean, you’re the superhero. You’re supposed to be saving the world. But sometimes we make the world very small in our heads.

There is some serious shit going on that should be addressed and talked about more, but you fixate on the smaller stuff and then get depressed about it. But then you go to a third-world country and you realize in the US you guys actually have it pretty good. Or used to, at least. [laughs]

Everything is contextual. You become your environment, and so I wanted to show how sometimes all the conflict, the internal conflict the US experiences, the self-implosion that from afar it sees to be undergoing, is actually quite self-created. All conflict is self-conflict.

Scott: That’s that idea Joseph Campbell talks about, that the external journey is incidental to the internal journey.

I was reminded of that quote that, supposedly, Joe Cohen or one of the Cohen brothers said, “All movies are an attempt to remake The Wizard of Oz. Captain Bald Eagle goes to Oz, which is Mexico, and has this experience and does find a home. He finds that sense of purpose in the end.

Miguel: You’re so much more eloquent when talking about my script than I am. I’m going to steal that.

[laughter]

Scott: I thought it was interesting, too, you have a wry sense of humor. I love the whole Peloton thing. “Are you the guy from the Peloton commercial?” while in the middle of a huge civil war. [laughs] He’s not really a full-fledged superhero because he only had a partial dose of super soldier serum.

Miguel: Yeah, because he was a junkie. It was a mixup.

Scott: The humor of it, did you always have that in mind, the tone?

Miguel: That was there from the beginning, just because I feel like the scenario is funny. Honestly, I think Mexico is just so surreal.

Even that quote I have about Dali that says, “Mexico is the only place that’s more surreal than my paintings.” That’s a hundred percent true. Sometimes I don’t even know how this country still operates. It blows my mind. But it’s also quite funny. I think Mexicans have an incredibly warm, but also conniving, sense of humor. We’re good at laughing at ourselves. And the premise is inherently funny. Mexico was always just going to impart its surrealness and its silliness on the characters and the plot.

Scott: You establish that tone pretty soon as he puts on his outfit, and he’s like, in a taxicab.

Miguel: The taxi.

Scott: Goes to the airport. He’s at the ticket counter. In his outfit. İt’s absurd, right there. Then from a plot standpoint, he shows up, he meets the governor. Within like, I don’t know, six hours, he’s kidnapped twice.

Miguel: I really liked that line where he says like, “I’ve been in Mexico for 24 hours and I’ve already been kidnapped twice.” I laugh every time I read it. [laughs]

Tomorrow in Part 3, Miguel shares his thoughts on several of the other key characters in Viva Mexico!

For Part 1, go here.

Miguel is repped by CAA and Rain Management.

Instagram and Twitter: @miguelflatow

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