Scott Frank

“I have a thing about my personality that is both a good thing and a bad thing for me artistically. I have this desire to always be the good boy, so I’m a real people-pleaser. That’s great for my relationships with directors, producers and the studios, but not so great in terms of my own artistic satisfaction. There’s a shotgun marriage that happens frequently when you bring a director on. You’ve been working with the producers for a very long time, but when the director comes on you’re beginning again at this new relationship, which is frequently very difficult. Letting go of the material is less of a problem for me than starting up again. Screenwriters have to accept that they’ll never have their vision on film — that’s not our job. The collaborative nature of films means that nobody gets their vision on film, not even the director! Unless you have supreme power and are a certain kind of director who’s trying to control everything (of which there are maybe three), you really have no control. It’s about trying to compromise, and you’re always making compromises every day. Everyone is contributing, so it’s pretty much your vision, but it’s changing as it goes through other people’s interpretation of things. You hope that the story stays intact, that the narrative integrity remains the same — that’s what you really fight to protect more than anything. For me, in the 22 years that I’ve been doing this, the most satisfying part of it has never been the finished film, even though I admire the work of all the directors I’ve worked for. The actual writing of it — that’s where the juice is!”