Q&A: James Morosini

Co-writer, co-producer, actor, and director of the indie film Threesomething.

Back in November 2015, I received an email from James Morosini:

I’m an actor but am beginning to be a screenwriter as well. What would you recommend I do to begin?

Along with some general advice, I responded with some GITS links including this one:

Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages.

Here we are a few years later and James has his first feature length movie Threesomething premiering today! Here is a Q&A I conducted with James.

You studied theater and film at the University of Southern California. In addition to acting, did you study screenwriting there and if not, how have you gone about learning that craft?

While I was at USC, most of my focus was on acting in plays and making short films with my friends. I took a couple screenwriting classes and was constantly reading scripts but I didn’t realize how important structure was or how much of a craft screenwriting was in itself until I began writing my own movies.

I try to watch a movie a day as I feel like my understanding for how screenwriting works is constantly evolving… I started by going down the AFI Top 100 and then also reading the scripts of those films. Seeing how things that were emotionally impactful were developed through the story in a way that didn’t feel like they were manufactured.

I read a book a while back called “How to Write a Screenplay in 21 Days” and wrote a few bad movies this way. Writing bad movies helped me better understand how to write because I was able to see what footwork I was skipping when I was just diving into the actual writing. Skipping the parts of actually sitting with the question of what excited me about a story to begin with. I feel like I approach writing from a similar place as my acting now. I aim for total immersion and when it comes down to putting words on paper or getting in front of a camera, I try to tap into whatever is actually happening, and let that be my guide. If I’m feeling manic I try to incorporate that, if I’m feeling depressed, I try to use that… I think people can sense what someone is trying to do or where they’re actually at, we can sense their authenticity, even if its just words on a page or a performance on a screen or stage. We know when they are telling the truth and when they’re not.

The movie Threesomething is the first feature length film you’ve directed and it has an intriguing central concept: “Best friends try to have a threesome and their world turns upside down.” What’s the genesis of the story?

The genesis of this story is my noticing that when dudes are alone and they don’t think girls are around, they tend to talk more about sex. I’m not totally sure why but the different ways we behave depending on who we’re with interests me. I think people do this to get closer to one another? Or to reinforce a sense of shared identity, of both wanting a similar thing? I liked the idea of two guys being like “Yeah, let’s have a threesome,” and posturing as being more comfortable with their sexuality than they actually are, and then realizing there’s another full person in this equation, having their sexually fantasies challenged by another’s humanity. We live so much of our lives in thinking about what kind of person we are (based on our past) or who we hope to become, and so much of our lives is played out in fantasy in our heads. So much of the sexiness of sex also happens in our heads, I think in reality, we’re all a lot more sensitive and insecure than we’d like to believe. There’s something cathartic about admitting the shortcomings of our fantasies, and having to experience reality together.

I also feel like I was never that good at having other guy friends growing up. I always felt like someone (me or them) was trying to be alpha, and trying to relate to each other as equals was difficult. I still often feel this way, that there’s so much unspoken communication exchanged when people talk to one another, that no one ever talks about, that we don’t really have a vocabulary for. I like making movies and acting because it feels like a way to check in with others and go, “Hey, I’m not crazy, right? Other people feel this way too?” A threesome really just felt like a way in… a way to explore meaningful ideas unpretentiously. I think the movie is really about the push and pull that occurs when we try to connect with others.

The movie is equal parts funny, dramatic, awkward, and ultimately, human. In fact, you say about the film, “It’s both a bromance and a romance. A (b)romance.” Was that balance in terms of tone something you were consciously aiming for or did that emerge in the course of making the movie?

I think yeah, it was definitely a balancing act. When a story is ever too much of one thing I tend to feel like I’m being manipulated as a viewer, and my instinct is to rebelliously resist feeling whatever way I’m being pigeonholed into feeling. I feel this way in life too, if someone is like, “cheer up,” I tend to react by feeling worse, and visa versa. Maybe as a way to experience a sense of control or something? Not sure — but, when I’m making stuff, I like to include opposites. In my experience, even at the most intense moments in our lives, something funny or weird can happen. We’re saying I love you but we forget the other person’s name for a second. We want to have a spiritual experience but we’re checking our Instagram every 15 minutes. We’re at a funeral and someone definitely farted. We’re just animals pretending we’re not, and just because we’re telling a story that doesn’t make us solely one thing; happy, sad, awkward, whatever…

My focus was really on just keeping the acting as grounded as possible so that moments could be sad and funny and awkward at the same time. And then juxtaposing scenes that seem to tonally subvert each other so that the film is never taking itself too seriously, but also not losing its footing in joke-land.

Threesomething feels very much in the vein of a Joe Swanberg or Duplass brothers film, which I mean as a compliment because I admire their work. Were they influences on you? Were there other movies which may have inspired you?

Yeah, these guys were/are hugely influential to me. As well as people like Sean Baker, the Safdie brothers, Lynn Shelton, the Zellner brothers… So many more. These people all make movies that focus on authenticity in story and acting — something that doesn’t cost millions of dollars to execute at the highest level. I’ve been inspired by each of them in different ways and have seen pretty much every movie these filmmakers have made. Goliath, Humpday, Puffy Chair, Prince of Broadway, Silver Bullets, Easy… Each has been a significant technical and emotional lesson for me.

I ran into Joe Swanberg at my local coffee shop in LA. He gave me some words of wisdom that I really felt gave me the courage I needed to get this movie made. I was afraid because I hadn’t made a feature before, and I didn’t understand or know about all of the different aspects of the process. He told me to just focus on what was right in front of me, what was directly within my control, and just take baby-steps. Just go out and do what I didn’t think I could do, imperfectly.

You not only directed, edited, and co-wrote the movie, both you and Sam also produced and co-star in it. What was that like wearing all of those hats?

Pretty stressful and intense… It felt like no matter what we did we were messing up. If I was overly focused on the producing, I was hurting the acting. If I was thinking only about the acting, I would forget that we only had a location for a certain amount of time. The list goes on. I anticipated it would be difficult, but there were definitely days where I didn’t think doing the movie this way was ultimately a good idea. Having friends and collaborators that would be there no matter what, no matter how much uncertainty presented itself, was crucial. Sam was down from day one, and even when I was panicking, was there to remind me that we were just making a movie, and that it would be okay. Our lead actress Isabelle, jumped in with so much commitment that it often felt like the process was being guided by this intense honesty… Each person we worked with on this gave this film so much. In the future, I’d like to wear fewer hats so I can collaborate with people that can do certain jobs better than me, instead of trying to do so much of it myself.

You shot the film over 10 days during Christmas break 2016. How did production go? Any surprises along the way?

This was the first feature I shot so I don’t have a ton to compare it to. We re-wrote a bunch of the movie after the first four days of production. We realized that the movie we were making was too complicated, and that it needed to be restructured and simplified. We would shoot all day, and then meet-up, and write/ re-write ahead of ourselves, based upon what felt like it was working, and what felt like we were over-compensating or over-complicating.

Any surprises… Hm. Seeing what you’ve imagined on film is so different from seeing it on the page. We gave ourselves seven days of additional production, that we used after having a rough cut of the movie, because we knew there would be elements we couldn’t foresee, and that we’d want to be able to add or re-work things after seeing what we actually captured. . This was possible because our whole crew was committed and everyone knew that we would be approaching the project slightly untraditionally.

The movie debuts this month at Cinequest. Looking back at the entire process of making the movie, what are you feeling now that Threesomething is set to make its premiere?

I feel really excited! Our premiere is Saturday and its looking like its going to sell out. Sam and I have been working away on this movie for the past year and a half, and because we’re also producers on the thing, it’s felt kind of like an egg-run, where we’re just super anxious all the time that something terrible is going to happen, and that you’re going to somehow mess everything up. Knowing that Cinequest has a DCP of the film and that even if we both died it would still screen.. it gives me a sense of relief. I’m grateful to them for having us and I’m so grateful to all my friends and family for coming out to see it.

Our teaser randomly went viral with over 6 million views (I think because people on the internet like looking up threesomes?) and we have a few different bids for distribution… We’re figuring out which is the best bet for this movie as well as seeing if Cinequest leads to other opportunities as well. Checkout our teaser and more info here — www.threesomethingfilm.com.

You’ve had a lot of success as an actor on such TV series as “American Horror Story” or “Feud”, yet you are also writer/director of other projects such as the sc-fi dramedy 635PM PST. Do you see yourself moving more into the hyphenate role of writer-actor-producer-director, focusing on acting, or continuing to explore both?

Its an ebb and flow. I did a play a couple years ago for a nine month run called Awake and Sing… During this time I only focused on the play. When there’s a project that I’m acting in, I try and give my full attention to it because people are going to be relying on my experience as their way of telling or being entertained by a story. If I’m not in it fully, I think people sense that, I sure do, and it gives me a shitty feeling. When I’m acting in something the story needs to be my whole life so that there’s a palpable experience of actual caring, that we’re watching someone with investment, that will do anything to get what they need. So I’m often kind of picky when it comes to acting roles, because I know I’m going to have to commit 100% of myself to them in order to feel satisfied with the work.

When I meet a writer or director that wants me to be an actor in their project, the idea of this excites me and makes me want to surrender all of myself to their story. When I meet a producer or actor that wants to collaborate with me as a writer/ director, I’ll take a break from auditioning or acting, to focus solely on a story that I want to make with them.

In terms of the series I’m pitching around town right now (635PM PST), I wrote/ directed/ acted in a theatre version of it six months ago and then developed it into a tv show. I’m obsessed with the idea of our not being alone in the universe. How our personal and cultural stories would change if we knew there was other sentient life. The conceit of the show is following characters we rarely see on screen at the moment of an alien invasion. Instead of Tom Cruise in War of The Worlds, its the people that are often left out of blockbusters, like characters from Sean Baker’s Tangerine, at the moment of extraterrestrial contact. Here’s a proof of concept we shot…

Finally, for budding screenwriters who read this interview, what lessons have you learned about crafting a story from your experience making the movie Threesomething?

I’m going to make a little list, in no particular order, of things that I wish I could go back and tell myself 5–10 years ago.

1. Try to be as honest as you can with what you’re feeling at every step of the way, have someone on your team that you feel safe expressing all of your feelings to, however irrational or immature they may seem. Having Sam on board made me feel like I could say anything or do anything and that I would be okay. He’s the best producer I could have asked for.
2. Do as much of the work as you can prior, try to see the whole film before you start, unless this is making the idea of starting seem abominable, in which case, just start, and you might make mistakes, and if the budget is low, you can pretty easily go back and fix what’s really not working.
3. Sit outside without your phone and just think about what excites you about the story and write down little moments.
4. Be willing to combine seemingly random ideas into the same idea.
5. Write shitty stuff instead of not writing at all. Then lean heavily on revising.
6. Wake up and write first thing in the morning so its not hanging over your head.
7. If there’s something you’ve been thinking about for over a year, write it out as a scene and try to build a narrative around it.
8. Listen to the little voice in your head that says “wouldn’t it be funny, interesting, or sad if…”

Threesomething is a delight and hopefully will land a good distribution deal. But beyond that, I go back to that original email from James, how he and his cronies dared to dream big, and went for it to make this movie. It reminds me of that quote from Josh Whedon:

“Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, sauté it, whatever. MAKE.”

With digital technologies nowadays, there is no excuse not to pursue the stories you discover emerging from your creative wellsprings.

Just like James Morosini.

Twitter: @JamesMorosini

www.JamesMorosini.com