Interview (Part 5): Jonathan Stokes

My interview with the 5-time Black List screenwriter.

Jonathan Stokes has written five screenplays which have made the annual Black List. They are:

• Blood Mountain (2011)
• Murders & Acquisitions (2011)
• Border Country (2012)
• Tchaikovsky’s Requiem (2013)
• Murder in the White House (2020)

For that reason alone, I thought it would be a great idea to interview Jonathan, but there’s much more going on with this prolific writer. For example, here is Jonathan playing upright bass with the musical group Snodgrass performing a song called “Give Up.”

I reached out to Jonathan to see if he’d be up for a Go Into The Story interview and he kindly agreed. We had a terrific conversation which could have gone on for hours.

Today in Part 5 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Jonathan reflects on the impact the Black List has had on his career.

Scott: Now, let’s talk about The Black List because there are few people like Neustadter and Weber who have made like four times. Daniel Kunka has made it ‑‑ I think ‑‑ three or four times. Brian Duffield, maybe three times. There are people who’ve made it, but I’m not sure anybody has made The Black List five times. You might be in The Black List Hall of Fame, as far as I know.

[Editorial note: Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber have made the annual Black List five times: 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012]

You made an interesting comment in an email. You wrote: “It’s so random to me which of my scripts ended up on The Black List. I guess it’s just a function of what happened to go out to a wide audience. I think if I had to name my top five scripts, only one of them is on The Black List.”

Like you’ve had five scripts on The Black List, and everybody in Hollywood who’s a screenwriter would ‑‑ not die, but metaphorically, to have one script on The Black List, and here you’re like, “Well, you know, actually only one of those scripts is one is really one of my favorites.” Maybe you can unpack that a little bit.

Jonathan: Now, I’m worried that it sounds incredibly snotty when I say that. How do I unpack that?

The scripts that have any shot of getting on The Black List have to go wide to the whole town… This means The Black List tilts toward newer screenwriters, as it should. Once you’re established, there’s not a huge reason for everyone in town to read you because they’ve already read you. So, the longer you’ve been a screenwriter, the harder it is to get on The Black List again. I think this is only fair.

Now, I’d like to imagine that my writing skill is improving over time. Yet, as my screenplays grow stronger, my odds of being recognized on the Black List get lower. Thus, my absolute best screenplays are not among my five on the Black List.

I think I have done a lot of my best work on Open Writing Assignments. And those scripts, by definition, are not shown all over town. So some of the scripts I am the most proud of have only been read by two or three executives.

I love the fact that The Black List exists because it, I think, is a very pure way of recognizing the work of singular authors. There are scripts that can win Oscars that had 10 different writers on them, or maybe represented the vision of the director more than the writer… whereas The Black List is very pure in that you’re actually recognizing the work of one authorial voice.

Whether or not that script ever wins the lottery of getting produced, getting a little bit of recognition for the craft on the page is invigorating and rewarding for so many screenwriters.

Scott: That’s a really interesting take. I’ve never heard that, but it makes so much sense. You’re right. In some respects, The Black List does represent, probably, the best single way to honor that singular vision of the writer.

They say that making a movie involves…it’s a collaborative effort. No matter what the screenwriter brings to bear on it, it can get, hopefully for the better. That’s an interesting take on that. I like that. That’s very insightful.

What about these books you’ve written? “Addison Cooke and the Treasure of the Incas,” “Addison Cooke and the Tomb of the Khan,” “A Thrifty Guide to the Ancient Rome,” “A Thrifty Guide to the American Revolution.” When does all that pop into existence?

Jonathan: I always wanted to be an author, and I loved being a teacher for many years. I taught in public school, and I taught piano. The Thrifty Guide series is a way of marrying my love of teaching with my love of history, with my love of comedy, and my love of writing.

As for the Addison Cooke series, that is me accessing my love for Ferris Bueller and Indiana Jones and the 1980s movies that I grew up on. I get to scratch completely different itches writing novels from writing screenplays.

In a screenplay, all of the work you put into the prose will not necessarily end up on a screen, or even be read. It might be skimmed over.

In the novel that stuff counts for a lot! If you can come up with a vivid description or a funny wordplay, that actually scores points on the page of a novel. [laughs]

A novel is much closer to being a single authorial voice, whereas the screenplay is very much a team sport. You are still working with an editor, and I’ve learned that you don’t have complete creative freedom in publishing unless you’re, I don’t know, J.K. Rowling. But it’s still a pleasant development process.

In screenwriting, a screenwriter is eminently replaceable. Hence, you might be 1 of 17 screenwriters on that pipeline before the movie gets made. In the book world, you’re more akin to the director; you’re kind of unfireable. The way in which they approach note giving is very much…They’re not trying to get you to service their vision. They’re trying to service your vision. It’s a completely different experience.

I love the collaborative nature of screenwriting, but the introvert side of me also loves the singular voice that I get to express in my novels.

Tomorrow in Part 6, Jonathan gives advice to writers who are trying to break in as Hollywood screenwriters.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

Part 4, here.

Twitter: @jonathanwstokes

Website: https://www.jonathanwstokes.com/

Jonathan is repped by UTA and Management SGC.

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