Interview (Part 3): Colton Childs

My interview with the 2024 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner.

Colton Childs wrote the original screenplay “Fake-A-Wish” which won a 2024 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Colton about his creative background, his award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl has meant to him.

Today in Part 3 of a 6-part series to run each day through Saturday, Colton and I explore what he did to create a sense of narrative drive in this road picture.

Scott: Later in Act One, Noah and Cliff meet up again, then they go out for margarita night. They’re talking about Make-A-Wish. What would be your wish? Cliff says, “My wish would be to see the Gay Men’s Chorus perform in San Francisco.”

He says, “You might not expect it, but I’m a bit of a singer myself.” That’s planting of seed because that’s a whole dynamic that goes on with Cliff.

Then Cliff says, “What’s your wish?” Noah says, “This is cheesy, but there’s this beach with a perfect view of the Golden Gate Bridge.” He talks about his dog Lulu who Noah lost when a romantic relationship he had fell apart and the ex-boyfriend took the dog. So Noah says about his wish, he wants to get his dog back.

“Lulu loves water. I always said I’d take her there, but I never did. That’d be my wish. A day at the beach with Lulu.” Both of them have their respective wishes which are located in California’s Bay Area. Convenient for you as a writer.

Colton: Yes, very.

Scott: You gave them a goal, and you know where we’re going. How early on in your story-crafting process did those wishes emerge? Did one come well before the other?

Colton: I think they came around the same time. Even before I knew it was tied to a wish, I wanted Cliff to have some connection to the Gay Men’s Chorus, from a place of longing. He’s the life of the party, but I was drawn to the idea that, despite his gregarious nature, his biggest fear is being truly seen.

As for Noah’s wish, I’m such an animal person. And I’ve always found the messiness of breakups involving pets intriguing. It’s complicated if you have kids, but it’s weirdly messier with pets, because there are no clear rules. At least with kids there are systems in place. I liked the idea that Noah still has something in San Francisco that he felt was truly his, and that it’s also a conduit to his old life.

Scott: By the end of Act One … by the way, just speaking with my screenwriter hat on, very efficiently, the story moves along.

Colton: Without wasting time.

Scott: Because you can’t. It’s limited real estate. I always appreciate that there’s a certain amount of creativity involved in that. By the end of Act One, Cliff, of course, who is the go-getter, “Let’s go. We’re going to San Francisco,” and off they head onto the road west.

There’s a Gay Men’s Chorus performance coming up, so they’ve got that to get to, a ticking clock. Also, the ex-boyfriend’s got a birthday party. They’re planning on crashing that and basically kidnapping Lulu. Again, you’ve got these goals. That gives you that endpoint with some twists.

One thing we talked about, remember, when we were in Ojai together was that the thing about a road picture is you can have that movement forward geographically, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into narrative drive where the story itself is going. Remember having that conversation?

Colton: I do.

Scott: This time around, I was reading your script with that particular point in mind. I was like, “OK. Each of these events that happen,” and there’s several of them along the way, obviously, as they’re heading toward San Francisco, “there’s got to be something that moves the story forward.” You accomplish that in each one of them.

Here’s a good example. They’re out on the road. They stop into a bar called the Wiggle Room Bar, described as, “‘90s dance music pulses as a blue light washes over the half-empty gay establishment.”

What happens here is they have their first rather frank talk about sex. That feels like you’re peeling away a certain amount of emotional distance between the two, particularly for Noah, getting into this conversation.

Maybe talk a bit about that because sex is another of the story’s dynamics.

Colton: One thing I love about gay men is that they don’t shy away from frank conversations about sexuality. [laughs] You can’t write a gay road trip movie without diving into that.

But I aimed to subvert that in a way. Noah is in his thirties, and you’d assume he’d be more forward sexually. But it’s actually Cliff who is more frank and unrestrained. Noah is still figuring out his…Not his sexuality, but his place when it comes to sex in the gay community.

Scott: Cliff offers some advice. He says to Noah, “By acquainting yourself to your own body and what it wants, you learn how to let go. Plus, you’ll never see these men again.” He’s talking about having sex with strangers. He says, “What is there to lose? You, sir, need to fuck some strangers.” It’s a bit of a mentor moment there.

Colton: It’s also convenient because, as we established a bit earlier, Cliff is holding on to a good bit of shame and uncertainty about his place in the gay community, as well. By establishing him as this sage, wise elder, we’re able to undercut that a bit later.

Scott: Yes. There’s a very nice twist, or not twist, a subversion of … You feel like he’s going to be the Gandalf mature figure throughout.

Colton: Exactly. A gay Gandalf.

Scott: A gay Gandalf. [laughs] But he’s got his own journey he needs to go on. Cliff does say something intriguing, though, also in that scene. He says, “I’m going to let you in on a little secret. You can be whoever you want to be.”

Noah actually tries that and is not successful. He says, “I can’t be other people.” This is in the motel room after he tries it at a bar. Cliff says, “Then maybe you should be less afraid of being yourself.” That really is a major point of Noah’s journey, self-identity and finding himself.

Colton: Absolutely. I relate to that in my own way.

Tomorrow in Part 4, Colton talks about how he incorporated some pivotal setups and payoffs into the script.

For Part 1, go here.

Part 2, here.

Colton is repped by 42 Management & Production.

For my interviews with every Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner since 2012, go here.