Interview (Part 6): Gillian Weeks

My interview with 2022 Black List writer for her script OH THE HUMANITY.

Gillian Weeks wrote the screenplay OH THE HUMANITY which landed on the 2022 Black List. I had the opportunity to chat with Gillian about her creative background, writing a Black List script, and the craft of screenwriting.

Today in Part 6 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Gillian talks about the unique challenges of writing an historical adaptation.

Scott: This is your first Black List script, right? What was that like? Were you paying attention on the second Monday of December?

Gillian: I certainly knew it was happening, but it also coincides with school dropoff for my son.

[laughter]

Scott: Priorities.

Gillian: To tell you the truth, it’s been a lifelong goal of mine to end up on the Black List. I was dropping off my son at school. Then, I started getting texts from my colleagues and friends. I got in the car and put on some Beyoncé and had my own little private celebration at stoplights. In classic LA style.

Scott: Congratulations. I want to ask you one specific craft question because you have done so many of these historical, I guess you call them adaptations. What are some of the unique challenges of writing those type of stories? There’s the historical truth. Then there’s the emotional truth. How do you balance that out? What are some of the challenges that you face when you write those type of stories?

Gillian: Yes, I’m writing my fourth true story script right now, and then I’m writing a true story pilot after that.

There is something very magical about a film based on a true story. They help us process both famous events we watched or read about from afar, and also our our lives. Our brains are constantly trying to turns bewildering experiences into narratives. I just do it for a living.

The way I see it, how closely you hew to the historical truth depends on the story you’re telling. If you’re writing about the invention of the polio vaccine, which is a very famous story and an important part of American history, you have a much larger responsibility to get it right. In the case of this script of “Oh the Humanity,” I felt a lot more freedom to depart from the historical truth so long as I got the central conspiracy right. In the end, I was actually a lot more faithful than I could have gotten away with.

At the same time, no one’s going to watch your movie if it’s not breathtakingly fascinating from the very first moment. And the best way to do that is by knowing as much as you possibly can about your subject. You have to behave like a journalist or an academic. You have to get in there and find things that no one’s ever found before. It’s the smallest details that end up becoming important because they offer a way to enliven mundane daily life, or a way to reveal character, or they become a symbol of a core theme that holds the whole damn thing together. And when you come across roadblocks when you’re writing, you can go back to that initial trove of information, like a detective, and ask, is there a clue that I missed?

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

For Part 2, go here.

For Part 3, go here.

For Part 4, go here.

For Part 5, go here.

Gillian is repped by The Gersh Agency and Entertainment 360.

Twitter: @gillmw

Instagram: @thegillface

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