Interview (Part 3): Murder Ink

My interview with Brandon Broussard, Hudson Obayuwana, and Jana Savage, the writing team behind the 2021 Black List script “Homecoming.”

Murder Ink consists of three writers (Brandon Broussard, Hudson Obayuwana, and Jana Savage) who wrote the comedy feature script “Homecoming” which not only landed on the 2021 Black List, but also sold as a spec script to Lionsgate in January of this year. Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with the trio about their backgrounds, the inspiration and writing of “Homecoming,” and where their careers have gone after making the annual Black List.

Today in Part 3 of of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Jana, Hudson, and Brandon talk about how the themes of nostalgia and regret are central to the story in “Homecoming.”

Scott: We talked about that nostalgia thing, but there’s another thing going on here, which I think is universal. That’s regret. Everybody lives with regret. They wish they had done something or they wish they hadn’t done something.

You’ve got two‑lead characters, both of whom have some regrets about what in their case didn’t happen with regard to their respective romances. Was that something that you were consciously thinking of? Or is that something that naturally flowed and working with the characters and writing the story?

Brandon: Both. I know for me, I definitely have regrets from college. I have the ones that got away that don’t even know they got away. All those things that you wish you did. We did know going in, that is a very universal concept. The idea that you wish you could go back to your high school reunion or your college reunion to show somebody who you are now. You wish you were that person back then. It resonated from me. It was a reality for me.

Jana: It’s funny you bring it up because that’s something that we’ve even leaned into further in this current draft. This idea of feeling they missed out and how hard they’re trying to now create their second shot.

It’s also fun to have the Sweet Milk character who lives with zero regrets even when he should. In some ways, he’s so sage. The sage who’s like, just live in the present. I obviously did not go to Howard, but I look back on my college experience and I have so many regrets because I was so shy. I made three friends and I was like, “I have three friends. I’m OK.” I didn’t immerse myself in a college experience. So, I had regrets of not living my life to the fullest at that time of my life.

Scott: Did that resonate with you, Hudson, the regret thing as a theme?

Hudson: Yeah, absolutely. With everything that they both said. There’s that, if I knew then what I know now. There’s this wish fulfillment of going back and like Brandon said, there was the girl you had the crush on or the guy who was a jerk to you. Now it’s like, “Oh, I never had that opportunity to say this,” and wanting to recreate those moments or hope you get that opportunity. [laughs] If that opportunity did come up again, it rarely goes the way you wished. You can’t even have a do over.

It’s a very universal thing. That wish fulfillment of wanting to go back and see people you interacted with, who knew you in another time at another place, and have a do over of story.

Scott: One of your characters, Thad, we’ll talk about in just a bit. He even says, “As I was saying, you can’t put a price on memories, but you can create new ones. Here’s to new beginnings.” I hope that line stays in the future drafts. Let’s talk about some of these key characters in “Homecoming.”

The protagonist is JB, last name Bland, which says a lot about this guy. He’s the recently divorced New York City bachelor. Here’s how you introduce him in the script:: “JB, 32, African American, the guy that puts a napkin in his collar before eating fast food.”

It’s interesting to hear that the story may have generated from this guy. When did JB come along? Was he pretty early on in the process, or how did his character emerge into being?

Brandon: I feel like he was the first person we were talking about. We knew that we wanted a guy like that. JB was the one that we had to put more work in, because we always felt like he was going to be the engine to the story. We were trying to figure out, what is his reason for not wanting to go back? What’s his reason for his friends wanting to pull him back? We played with a couple different ideas. Really to pull the curtain back at one point, we were like, “Did his wife die?” We’re like, “No, that’s too sad, nobody wants to watch that sad‑ass movie.” It’s like, what’s that balance of something fun that doesn’t feel too heavy, but at the same time we do feel sorry for him and we do understand why he’s in a rut. Then we root for him when he goes back.

Hudson: There’s this idea of one for us, one for them. We have OWAs that come up and our own projects that we’ll work on. When open writing assignments get presented to us, if we find something about it that resonates with us, then we go for it. Then, as we build it out, we’ll fall in love with it.

The projects that we’ve done that were our own babies and our original ideas, we tend to insert ourselves and our friends into a lot of them. All of these characters are some amalgamation of us and our real‑life friends. We might have taken this person’s name, a piece of this profession, a piece of this personality, made some tweaks that made more sense for a movie or story.

Scott: Another character is Professor Winters. Where did that character come from?

Hudson: The is based on a teacher of mine who I had a crush on. That teacher who was hot and you pined after but that also had influence on your life.

Brandon: I know for me, there was a Dr. Griffin, not that I pined after her, but who definitely, we had a fantastic relationship as student/teacher. I went and read poetry at a poetry reading she did and she pulled me aside afterwards and was like, “You can write.” I ended up meeting her in her office and she helped me publish. Even to this day, we still reach out to each other. I sent her pictures when I had my son and stuff.

Hudson: What kind of pictures?

Brandon: A picture of my baby. What type of mind have you got, sir?

[laughter]

Scott: Let’s talk about Thad who’s JB’s best friend. Wingman I think you described him. His last name, is it Savage? Bland and Savage. “Thad, 32, the Fresh Prince of Wall Street whip smart swaggy, AF and his tailored suit.” Where did Thad come along in the story-crafting process?

Brandon: First, let’s give credit to Jana’s mom whose last name is Savage. Jana is Jana Savage. That’s where we got the…

Jana: Actually not Savage anymore, but my dad’s last name.

Brandon: It didn’t hurt for dad to be Savage, whereas JB is Bland.

Hudson: I mean, I’ll take credit for, but I never thought about the dichotomy of Savage and Bland. Two names because they’re both real names of ourselves and friends. Obviously we speak to that about JB and him having a bland personality and joke about that, but we pay that off with the Savage.

Brandon: In my mind, I am Thad. In reality. I’m a nerd and I’m probably way more JB.

Hudson: We knew Sweet Milk is like our Zach Galifianakis. Then you have JB who’s our Ed Helms. We needed our straight man who was our voice of reason but could go left if he needed to. Somebody who’s fun, but stands out from the other two characters. So, we took inspiration from friends. We have friends who’ve done very well, are doctors and lawyers, and now we have a friend who works on Wall Street. And he has all these incredible stories about blowing money in the club and he just lives this really fast, fun life. So we tried to balance those elements while making sure that he’s really likable.

Jana: I think too of his journey of ‑‑ as much as he does want to help his friend out of his rut, his journey is one of him being a bit selfish. He’s really going to fulfill some things for himself. He wants to show people that he is now all the things he wasn’t back then. It’s another thing we’ve leaned into even further in his character ‑‑ him realizing that he’s trying to get JB to have confidence, but there’s a lot of confidence that he actually lacks.

Scott: Yeah, in some ways, you subvert the expectations. You’re expecting that the focus is going to be on, at least in the draft I’m reading, on JB and his arc with regard to the professor. It really happens mostly with Thad in relation to this woman, Dana. It’s almost like he’s projecting onto JB something that he himself wants to do. Does that feel like a fair assessment?

Jana: Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Tomorrow in Part 4, the writers of Murder Ink talk about what it felt like to learn their script “Homecoming” had made the annual Black List.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, go here.

Murder Ink is repped by APA.

Twitter: @BrandonQreative, @HuddyRozay, @TheSavageJana.

Instagram: @murderink_llc.

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