Interview (Part 4): Leigh Cesiro and Erica Matlin
My interview with 2021 Black List writers for their script Cruel Summer.
My interview with 2021 Black List writers for their script Cruel Summer.
Leigh Cesiro and Erica Matlin wrote the original screenplay “Cruel Summer” which landed on the 2021 Black List. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Erica and Leigh about their creative background, their script, the craft of screenwriting, and what making the annual Black List has meant to them.
Today in Part 4 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Erica and Leigh discuss how their training in improv and sketch-writing influenced how they approached writing Cruel Summer.
Scott: I’m curious because you’ve got so much sketch writing in your background. I know that Leigh has done a bunch of pilot scripts and you’ve done writing too, Erica. Maybe it wasn’t that much of a challenge for this particular script, but that is a challenge, I’ve discovered, with students who have sketch writing.
How do you go from that type of mentality to writing a feature-length script, 100 pages or so? Was that a challenge for you and, if so, what were some of those challenges?
Leigh: It is hard because a sketch doesn’t have a beginning, middle, and an end like a story does really. It goes up. It heightens to the most extreme…It starts at one place and then it gets heightened. You don’t really care what happens plot-wise in a sketch. It actually ruins a sketch if you’re getting too caught up in the plotty details.
But with this we had to have a full story arc, and the pacing was something we had to figure out. The only way to figure it out was to do it and fail a bunch of times, course correct and go back.
Scott: It’s interesting you mentioned pace because almost every scene’s a page or less. The script really moves and then you’ve got your crosscutting back and forth between various subplots and whatnot. There’s always something funny going on, so you can see the sketch instinct at work in that. Were you conscious of that? Were you saying, “We want this thing to move at that pace,” or was this just a result of your comedic instincts and that’s how you write?
Erica: I think it’s a combination. As someone who does not have sketch-writing experience, that’s something innate to Leigh’s sensibility. We really wanted this to be tight and move and were mindful of the real estate our story was taking up.
Leigh: In a lot of comedies you can tell where the people making the movie are having a good time but sometimes it’s working against them because things are going on for too long. They’re saying lots of alt jokes in the same scene that feels like they were probably cracking up making this or writing this.
It feels very self-indulgent and more of a challenge to have a scene, get in and get out, and know what the funniest way in and out is, and move on.
Scott: It works for you in your script because it’s almost like you’re saying, “We have so much content, we’re just going to zoom through this thing.” It’s not like we found a bit and we’re going to milk it for five pages.
In fact, it speaks to the tone. When you’re writing comedies, it’s critical to figure the tone. You got to figure that out. In your script, there is this carefree, tongue-in-cheek tone. You even see it in scene description. I’ve jotted some things down. You have a lot of these contemporary references.
“Benji is mere moments from going full JK Simmons in Whiplash on her,” or, “Slowly, the ground underneath them starts to shake. It’s like that scene in Jurassic Park where the glass of water jiggles.”
“Together, they drop it in the lake like old Rose and the heart of the ocean.” Then, of course, the “hot-pumping porny music.” Even the minor character names, Warhead Kid, Brandon Bonesaw, Archery Crick, there’s this like, “We’re just going to have fun. We’re going to do whatever we want to tell this story in an entertaining way.”
Going back to that point that you were making earlier, how conscious were you of that? “We just want to make ourselves laugh. We want to have a good time doing this.” How did you approach that? Were you conscious of it or was this more of your instinct?
Leigh: For me, that is a habit that I’ve picked up from sketch stuff. Either people like it or hate it, trying to be funny in the scene descriptions. With sketch writing, the first stage is that all the writers are reading it and they’re not going to perform the role the way an actor would, so you want to make them laugh. They’re going to laugh at the little jokes that are just for them.
The way that I approached writing in the beginning was, at this stage I’m not making a movie, I’m making a script for someone to read and to give them an enjoyable experience reading. Then on top of that is for me and Erica making each other laugh in those places and the names and stuff.
Tomorrow in Part 5, Leigh and Erica discuss their writing process and what it was like to learn their script Cruel Summer had made the 2021 Black List.
For Part 1 of the interview, go here.
Part 2, here.
Part 3, here.
Twitter: @leighcesiro, @eribmatlin.
For my interviews with dozens of other Black List writers, go here.