Write On: 'Here' Screenwriter Eric Roth

Write On: A Screenwriting Podcast

Content provided by Yan Vinterfeld and Final Draft. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Yan Vinterfeld and Final Draft or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

7M ago 36:49

MP3•Episode home

“I think [Here] has some of the imagination of Forrest Gump, but it's not Forrest Gump. It's a different animal. I mean, it has the same kind of humanity to it, which is what I'm pretty good at,” says Eric Roth about his latest film Here, co-written and directed by Robert Zemeckis and reuniting actors Tom Hanks and Robin Wright.

On today’s podcast, we speak with Oscar winning screenwriter Eric Roth about the challenges of writing the screenplay for Here that mostly takes place in one room, with a fixed camera that never moves. The movie explores the ordinary lives of multiple generations of families in a way that many will find relatable, heartbreaking and, at times, claustrophobic.

“I'm not sure [the characters in Here] are extraordinary or not, but they show the length and breadth of what people can and can't do and when they're trapped. I think when it works that way dramatically, it's quite lovely and quite beautiful. I don't want to use the word profound, but I think the [movie] is profound to a certain extent because it is just about the regularity of life. And that, from dinosaurs to the future, it's going to keep going. Hopefully people will find great joy in how they're living and I'm sure great pain too, but I think that's just sort of the circle of life,” he says.

We also discuss some of his other films like Forrest Gump, for which he won an Oscar, and Killers of the Flower Moon.

He shared this advice about using subtext in screenplays. “I think that I'm always trying to find a way to enhance the scene with not only subtext, but with some kind of metaphor and make it possibly more interesting as to getting to the root of people's feelings without them having to vomit out what they're saying you know. It's not easy, but I think as I've gotten more successful and more accomplished at it,” he says.

To hear more of Eric Roth’s advice for screenwriters, listen to the podcast.

144 episodes

#Tech #Filmmaking #Television #Writing #Cinema #Yan Vinterfeld #Final Draft #Screenwriting #Storytelling #Books and Writing