Interview (Part 3): Kevin Sheridan

My interview with 2022 Black List writer for his script Colors of Authority.

Kevin Sheridan wrote the screenplay Colors of Authority which landed on the 2022 Black List. I had the opportunity to chat with Kevin about his creative background, writing a Black List script, and the craft of screenwriting.

Today in Part 3 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Kevin shares how he approached working with real life people and adapting them into a story that can work as a movie.

Scott: I want to get into the characters because they’re all very compelling. Just for the readers, we’re going to read this, Colors of Authority. That’s the title. It’s used in the script. Could you talk about what that means?

Kevin: It’s basically the concept that individuals in law enforcement can break or bend the law in order to protect. It’s like when you see a cop speeding on the freeway, in hot pursuit of someone. They’re going 90 miles per hour… Going 90 miles per hour on the freeway is illegal, but they’re doing it to catch the individual they are chasing who just committed a homicide. There’s a term used called “working in the gray,” which is also related.

Scott: In the gray, yeah. Baca has that moment later on in the script, where he’s with James. This is after James already sent some information out that he’s going to start this whole thing rolling, where he talks about the brotherhood. You already see that mentality at work. Then there’s a great monologue later on that Baca has that I want to get to in just a bit.

Let’s talk about these characters and give people a sense of who we’re dealing with here. The Protagonist is James Sexton. Here’s how you introduce him in the script:

“Behind the wheel sits Deputy James Sexton, late 20s. A razorback in sheep’s clothing. There’s not a crease on his youthful face, but don’t be fooled. On the inside he’s as hard as the iron mined from the Alabama town he was born in. Confident, edge, and cocky, but James has every right to be. In just a few years, James has accomplished what would take many deputies an entire career.”

This guy is like a fish out of water. He’s from Alabama in LA. Can you unpack why he made that choice and go to Los Angeles?

Kevin: James grew up in law enforcement. His dad was the sheriff of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. To a certain extent, James wanted to escape his father’s shadow. It’s also, I think, why James had the courage to do what he did in terms of standing up to the LA Sheriff’s Department because he had such a knowledgeable background.

James is a very, very intelligent person. Very intelligent. He picked up a lot growing up. Through osmosis. And I think, to a certain degree, he felt like he could navigate his way through all the chaos that happened. And to a large extent, he did. James wanted to come out Los Angeles and prove to himself that he could do it on his own. He wanted to be his own person, which a lot of young people want to do. There’s always shadows of parents looming, and I think James was no exception to that. James could have taken the easy route and followed in his dad’s footsteps and reaped the benefits of all his dad’s connections. Instead, he was the kid with the Southern accent coming out to a big city where he has no familiarity with the streets. That’s a huge risk in itself. He doesn’t have the advantages that I have growing up here. He doesn’t know the neighborhoods… He had to learn that on his own.

Scott: It’d be like, if someone had grown up here, maybe they wouldn’t have had the ability or courage or whatever it was to say, “No, I’m going to go this way. I’m going to go against the grain here.” One of the characters who does go along with him is Tony, his partner.

You describe him as living out of third‑rate motels. “Most of the childhood, Tony grew up in the sludge of Los Angeles. Losing his father to gang violence only hardened his determination to do something about it.” They have an interesting relationship. Could you talk about that relationship?

Kevin: They were brothers for sure. It was one of those things where they both did the right thing and it was a matter of them processing it differently. For Tony, it eats him up. The pressure. The harassment. Being ostracized…. What James and his partner did takes so much courage to call out dirty deputies because immediately you’re the rat. You’re the guy who’s turning on one of their own… The fallout of that, what moves should be made… How they should navigate the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department when you’ve just outed deputies you suspect are dirty… that’s a big chunk of this movie.

Scott: You mentioned at one point it’s like 1,000 square miles or something like that?

Kevin: Yeah. If you are the Sheriff of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, you are one of the most powerful law enforcement officers in the world because the LASD is just massive. And you control all of it. And James is the guy who brought down the king of the LASD. And it wasn’t what he initially set out to do….

Scott: One thing leads to another. We meet Baca. He’s given a speech and very fancy thing. There’s several different motifs running through and the bull… I want to talk to you about later. There is this contrast between the hardscrabble, acting, that kind of thing. You have that going on.

Then you got that contrast with these people having filet mignon and champagne and stuff. Was that a conscious thing or you’re just doing it atmospherically by intuition?

Kevin: Because I grew up in LA I really wanted to portray this city in a real interesting way. Show the truth of it. Show the dichotomy of the worlds that law enforcement travels in. And when you are the Sheriff of the LASD, you travel in very powerful circles.

Scott: It heightens the seductive nature of power to do things to stay in power. Baca is an interesting guy. He’s got his rationale. I need to jump to that monologue. He’s talking to James and he says:

“When people think of LA, it’s Disneyland, Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Oscars, Vacationland, USA, to me, it’s triple homicides in Duarte. Seven‑year‑old girls buried out in Commerce. There exists and evil in the city, of that I’m sure and I’m haunted by what I’ve seen, but we are the ones who must keep the devil at bay, James.”

It goes on. Get his worldview. What I like about it is that it humanizes him in a way. I can see.

That makes him a much more complex and interesting character than just a jerk. Echoed a bit like Jessup in A Few Good Men.

Kevin: It’s funny because this speech is something I worked really closely on with our director, Andrew Heckler. He had so many wonderful thoughts on how to make it better.

And we worked shoulder to shoulder on them. Again, to highlight my point that there’s a lot of names that should be going on in this script, not just mine. Andrew Heckler is one of them.

That speech by Baca shows that the world of law enforcement is incredibly complex. And human beings are incredibly complex.

Tomorrow in Part 4, Kevin discusses the challenges of writing an historical adaptation.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

For Part 2, here.

Kevin is repped by Bellevue Productions.

Twitter: @Sheridankevin

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