Charlie Kaufman Interview

Charlie Kaufman who wrote the screenplays for such great films as ADAPTATION, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, and ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND recently came to town to promote his new film and first directorial effort, SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK. I was fortunate enough to get to talk to this icon of the maladjusted about SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK, and his experience as a first time director.

Edited by Nathan Davis

• Category

  Film & Animation

[Tomek Borczyk]

the interviewer looks like philip seymour hofman and di caprio in one piece.

[yacanleaveyourHATEon]

charlie´s cute. and shy, and there´s something agressive in his eyes.

[notthere83]

Huh... so writing lets you be a sulky, moody person? Guess I should start doing it then and see whether I get lucky too (that's what he said about himself in another interview).

Just kidding.. sort of. First of all, I think you often still have to be a very social person, to get your writing into the right hands. Secondly, if you don't succeed with more "artsy" things you may have to write commercial bullshit. And then there's also people maybe butchering your ideas once you "release" the script

[Debestcioiseva]

this guy is behind some of the most inspiring movies in the last 20 years :)

[KubebuK]

hi dicaprio

[brigroe]

You can tell how much Synecdoche, New York is really about him, and his process.

[lladanscott]

@mrpiki totally looks like decaprio lol

[Jesse Vogelaar]

in a film like this, I think it fits. I mean, alot of what was going on was a projection of the main character. The way she was so evil reflected Caden's lack of understanding of what was going on and lack of understanding of her in a way. Kaufman sort of pushed it to the point of absurd, which I think was a strong creative choice to enhance this. Just a thought.

[conceitarturo]

Something I never got about this movie is why Maria is so fucking EVIL.....it kinda feels cheap to me

[bloodylip1219]

it is like a deep breath.