Interview (Part 5): Kryzz Gautier

My interview with 2021 Black List writer for her script “Wheels Come Off.”

Kryzz Gautier wrote the screenplay “Wheels Come Off” which made the 2021 Black List. I had the opportunity to chat with Kryzz about her creative background, her script, the craft of screenwriting, and what making the annual Black List has meant to her.

Today in Part 5 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Kryzz talks about other key characters in the script including a two-foot tall robot sidekick, a Nemesis who isn’t an example of a Big Bad, and a character who becomes an Attractor for the Protagonist.

Scott: Let’s talk about that third character, Tony, a robot. “From the bag on her shoulder, we see Tony.” This is how Tony is introduced. “A two-foot robot with the same expressive abilities as Wall-E but ranking even higher on the lovable scale” That would be interesting to see because Wally is pretty lovable. “He peeks his head out, looking curiously at the world zipping by.” Where did Tony come from in your imagination? I assume you didn’t have one around your apartment. [laughs]

Kryzz: I did not. [laughs] He came to be because, as a writer, I don’t think everything can always be serious. I’m not the person who wants to write straight drama. I can, but it’s not what I prefer. Even when I’m writing dramatic genre scripts, I still strive to give the audience respite. You must have a storyline or character that brings the comedy in some way or gives the viewers a bit of an intermission from the heaviness. I always find ways to insert a character that can be a breath of fresh air. And, as I said, I’m a sci-fi person. There had to be some technology element in there somewhere. There had to be a fun little robot.

Scott: Practically speaking, as a screenwriter, you also need somebody she can talk to when she’s not around Carla, right?

Kryzz: Right. Exactly. She needed a sidekick. She needed the person, or in this case the thing, that helped not to have it all be internal. She had to have something she could bounce ideas from and externalize feelings and thoughts to.

Scott: If it were a novel, maybe, you could go outside of that, but not in a TV or movie. Let’s talk about the nemesis character. You did an interesting thing with this character. You said, “Erick Hanes (30s — white, skinny but menacing, tattooed, his ring and little fingers were sloppily cut off years ago, always whistling the tune of The Killer’s “Mr. Brightside”) stands in the back and taps between one of the thief’s hands.”

He’s disabled. Where did Erick come from by the end of this story process?

Kryzz: The origin of Erick, well, people close to my family will know where he came from, but I won’t put anyone on blast. [laughs] There’s a connection between Erick and my family. Everyone in the story has one. Manoella needed an antagonist and she needed someone that was going to challenge her. I didn’t want it to be someone who was ever-present because, if you can tell, Erick isn’t “The Big Bad”. He’s not there all the time.

To me, the big challenge and conflict of the film is the wheelchair breaking, but you still needed a “bad guy”. If it were up to me, I never would’ve written a person as a problem they need to confront, but I was hyper-aware that note would be coming from execs, producers, buyers, etc. I got ahead of it. Hollywood has conditioned audiences to believe every movie needs a threatening, tangible, human antagonist. I would’ve preferred to solely have the challenge of the wheelchair. If this were my tenth feature and I had free reign, that would’ve been the journey I would’ve stuck to.

That being said, I feel like The Wheelers are good foes to Manoella at the end of the day. I’m fine with her having someone to butt heads with. Erick challenges her in an exciting way. He forces her to show how witty, resourceful, and intelligent she is without it being heavy-handed.

Scott: Let’s talk about Ari. “18, talks fast, feels deep, fully open to the world.” The wheelchair breaks. Fixing things, that’s the goal, but along the way, they run into this found family. They bump into this group of people that, as you were saying, each of them has their own disability. Except for Ari. That’s a wonderful relationship that emerges in a nuanced way between her and Manoella. Where did Ari come from for you and how did that character develop?

Kryzz: Ari is derived from a dear, dear relationship I had in my mid-twenties. She’s based on someone that was and still is very special to me. It’s all about that innocent but earnest and complex connections you can form with someone in a very short period of time. Those can be very real, profoundly human, and intensely life-changing.

I included a character like Ari because I wanted to see Manoella in a quasi-relationship. Of course, we never see it “be a relationship” outright because they’re together for a limited amount of time, but we get to see what could be. There’s an undeniable connection there and clear undertones of profound feelings between them. You can fall in love with someone without ever having to directly address it, because they do fall in love and don’t even realize it. They don’t have to verbalize it, but it’s there. Their bond is honest and they’re present for each other. They risk things for each other, have candid conversations, and push each other when needed. Manoella feels it’s safe to go to Ari when she needs to. It’s rightly painful when they have to separate. Ultimately, I wanted to have a queer relationship in the story that wasn’t about coming out. There’s never a big “Oh my God, I’m gay!” moment in this movie, but it’s still a queer coming-of-age story.

Even the actress playing Manoella, because we already have someone attached to play her, has commented on how not having a big gay realization moment is one of the things she loves the most. At this point, I believe we’re over coming out stories. Manoella is queer, but the movie is not about her being queer. She’s openly gay, but we never dwell on that fact. It’s not “a thing”.

Carla and Manoella do have a conversation addressing Manoella’s queerness, so it’s not like it’s unspoken either. It’s when they both acknowledge they’re on the queer spectrum and then move right along. Carla says something along the lines of “I also dated a girl back in high school.” It’s a beautiful, nuanced moment between them.

Scott: That’s one of those, I guess unconventional things is that it is so subtle. A lot of it, the bonding that you see, the tightening of the relationship is described through action. That there’s this seamless way to how they work together. They’re in sync with each other.

Manoella’s got this relationship with her mom. That obviously is critically important, but in a way, that’s not going to allow her to have her path. Ari represents that. Is that fair? The future, her own journey?

Kryzz: Absolutely. Manoella doesn’t have to lose Carla to find herself. That’s not the characterization I’m trying to make or the story I’m trying to tell. I don’t believe that’s true for a second. But Manoella’s future and her “coming of age” is with Ari and that gang. That’s where her journey starts.

Scott: It’s almost like the end is the beginning. Right?

Kryzz: Right. A writer friend who read it said I could write a show that picks up where the movie ends. [laughs]

Scott: One of the fantasies that Manoella has is her father’s like the moon. They have an exchange. I want to ask you if I was on target with this. The moon says to her at one point, “The more you let it drag you, the further you will go from where you want to be.” Then “The comet drags Manoella further, but Erick is only a few feet away from her now.” There’s a whole thing going on. The moon says, “Let go.” I was wondering whether that’s almost a message to Manoella that she does need to free herself in some respects in order to allow herself the freedom to go forward. Is there anything there, or am I misreading that?

Kryzz: You’re on the money. There’s a lot that she’s holding onto in terms of her father and that relationship. There’s a lot of baggage with her dad in general. When she gets to his house, we see this hero worship that she’s starting to unshackle herself from. She comes to terms with the fact that the man she saw him as is not the man he actually is. She had a twisted perception of him and how things went down. At one point, Carla checks her and tells her something along the lines of “You’re misremembering how all of this went down. That wasn’t as pretty as you recall.” Manoella has to have a come to Jesus moment. She has to confront the idea that maybe he wasn’t as perfect as she thought. The version of him she clung to was a fantasy, much like all the other vivid ones she has. From that moment on, she comes to terms with needing to let all these things with her dad go.

Scott: That probably served her in surviving when she was younger psychologically, but now time to move on.

Kryzz: Very much so. Then, she closes that door when she walks away from his house. That entire past. She leaves everything behind there.

Scott: It’s a terrific script. I’m so happy that it’s set up. I hope that it gets made. You said you wrote this in December 2020. A year later, you were following the Black List rollout on Monday, December 13th.

Kryzz: Thank you! I was. It was a shocking surprise. I wasn’t necessarily expecting it. I was sitting there, secretly hoping but with zero expectations. I was like, “Oh God.” Then I saw the ticker go by the screen, and I said, “Holy shit! I’m on The Black List!” out loud. [laughs]

Scott: [laughs] I hope that you felt a sense of pride or vindication or whatever, some sense of satisfaction out of that.

Kryzz: To get it on this script?

Scott: Yeah, this script.

Kryzz: Yeah. On this one, it feels very, very, very special.

Tomorrow in Part 6, Kryzz talks about the craft of screenwriting and provides some advice for aspiring screenwriters.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

Part 4, here.

Kryzz is repped by CAA and Rain Management.

Twitter and Instagram: @KryzzGautier.

Website: www.KryzzG.com.

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