Interview (Written): Liz Hannah and Josh Singer

The co-screenwriters of the movie ‘The Post’.

An Awards Daily interview with Liz Hannah and Josh Singer who co-wrote the screenplay for The Post.

Liz: I wrote the first draft in June 2016. Amy bought it on Friday before Halloween. The script wasn’t necessarily for sale. I was hoping to get an agent and it was at various studios and suddenly people were interested in it. I got this call from Amy Pascal at midnight telling me not just that she bought it, but why it’s important to her that this is a story that was told and how she relates to it. We keep talking about it but it’s so true, this movie got made by the exact right people. Amy led that charge. That happened, the election happened, the inauguration happened and Steven, Tom, and Meryl all read the script at the same time over President’s Day weekend. Somehow Kay Graham was looking down on us because everyone’s schedule was free. Everyone felt this was a movie we need to make now and have come out this year. Steven signed on and suddenly we went into production.

Josh: What I love about this story is it’s a story about incredible women coming together to make a movie about an incredible woman. First, you have the best spec script I’ve ever read written by the internationally talented Liz Hannah who frames this incredibly personal narrative which makes it immediately accessible and dramatic. Then you have these two female producers, Amy Pascal and Kristie Macosko Krieger who as a team are the best producers I’ve ever worked with who come together to make this happen at a speed where I don’t know any other producers who can do that. It’s Amy with the persistence to make this happen. Kristie is the best producer no one has ever heard of in the business because she is working behind Steven, but she makes the train run. Then they bring in Ellen Lewis and she should get an Academy Award for casting. It’s not just Tom and Meryl, it’s Bob Odenkirk, Bradley Whitford, and Michael Cyril Creighton holding the box, and Carrie Coon. All the way down the line.

Liz: Sarah Paulson.

Josh: Add in Ann Roth doing the costumes and the women in this cast from Meryl on down to Sarah Paulson to Jessie Mueller doing a wonderful job.

Liz: She’s in one scene and she is talking to the boys and Steven was just telling her to improv, she lit up the room. I could have watched her all day. She was amazing.

Josh: This incredible group of women came together to tell this story and that’s how it gets done this fast. To me, that is hopefully as inspirational as the story of Kay herself. The way Liz managed to capture this story of this woman finding her voice. It’s a very personal story.

Liz: It’s about a woman overseeing the whole thing. The film was dedicated to Nora Ephron and we all revved up to make sure we lived up to her standard, and that was so important to us.

Did you think when you started writing the book that we would be where we are today?

Liz: I started writing it before the election and thought there would be parallels, but I thought it would be in a different reality. It was really strange while we were shooting the film to be making a movie about the importance of the press and the importance of the First Amendment and then having the President of the United States talking about Fake news and to feel that there is a real antagonistic feeling towards the press. So, it was very strange to be making a period piece. We didn’t change anything to comment on anything that was happening. We didn’t do anything to make any connections. It was purely, here’s what happened. History is cyclical and it’s important to learn from these mistakes.

Josh: We’re living in a challenging time for this country. You can’t not be cognizant of what’s going on. The history itself spoke volumes. Steven pulled this clip, it’s the last one we hear of Nixon talking about the Post. We liked it so much, we went back and listened to everything of him learning about the Pentagon papers and making that decision to go after the Times and you listen to those tapes and it’s eerie. It sounds like a brighter version of the guy in office. That same vindictive and paranoid nature. we made a choice early on that these should be in the movie, and let’s have Nixon play himself. The history here is so powerful and such a powerful comment on today. history is cyclical and if we can recognize where we are then maybe it can help us get out of this moment.

Liz: Unscathed.

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