Town Online
April 9 2002
Charlie Kaufman, the screenwriter of the new, decidedly odd comedy "Human Nature," has lightened up — or perhaps opened up is more like it. Last time around, when he was doing interviews after writing "Being John Malkovich," the introverted Kaufman couldn’t — or maybe wouldn’t — look anyone in the eye, and his brief answers were mumbled. This time, on the phone, he’s altogether chatty.
The film, starring Tim Robbins, Patricia Arquette, Rhys Ifans and Miranda Otto, is a strange tale of ethical dilemmas concerning humans growing up as wild animals, excessive body hair, proper etiquette and sex. The script mixes some serious philosophical and moral issues with a great sense of humor and some real sadness. And it’s gone through some changes since Kaufman wrote it in 1995.
"The shooting script is pretty close to the first draft," he says. "But the first draft is something that I’ve already reworked. Once I put it out there and give it to an agent, it’s already been reworked a hundred times. It’s hard to say how much it changed from when I first started, because I wrote it so long ago and it becomes what it’s become. I don’t have any record of what it was originally."
Kaufman’s name might not be on the tip of most filmgoers’ tongues, but he’s certainly no overnight success. He also wrote "Malkovich" around the same time, after toiling away as a writer on the Chris Elliott TV show "Get a Life." Between that and the eventual filming of "Malkovich" he also wrote for "The Dana Carvey Show." Then there was all that time his scripts kept bouncing around from one studio to another. "Malkovich" was finally made in 1999.
"I got a lot of attention for that script and for ‘Human Nature,’" he says. "I had a lot of meetings and I got work from them. But the response was always, ‘These movies will never be made; they never can be made.’ But ‘Malkovich’ was picked up by Michael Stipe’s production company and then Spike Jones wanted to direct it. Probably Spike and his reputation had a lot to do with getting the money for it. And when we finally got John Malkovich to commit to it, we got the go ahead. I think the success of that film had a lot to do with ‘Human Nature’ happening. I think I had more credibility then."
And when "Malkovich" became a hit, studio decision-makers stopped referring to Kaufman as "an unproduceable original talent."
"They’re not calling me that now," he says, then laughs. "But maybe in a couple of years I’ll be that again."
But that’s unlikely. Kaufman is the scriptwriter of the hour. "Adaptation," his reworking of the Susan Orlean book "The Orchid Thief," directed by Jones, and starring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep, is ready for release; "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," his script based on the autobiography of game show host and self-professed CIA hitman Chuck Barris, directed by and starring George Clooney, is in production; and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," about a couple who break up, suffer total memory loss, then get back together without knowing each other, goes in front of cameras, possibly with Jim Carrey, in November.
As far as the rumor that Clooney took it upon himself to rewrite the entire third act of Kaufman’s Barris script, he replies, "I don’t know what Clooney did. I do know he did some rewriting of the script But I’m not really involved in that production so I haven’t read the draft they’re shooting."
Asked if the idea of Clooney doing such a thing bothers him, his answer is a clipped, "Sure."
But Kaufman’s too busy at his craft to let that get to him. It’s a very involved process that has him thinking about new ideas, jotting them in the small notebook he always carries, then sitting down to write and rewrite and rewrite again. If things go the way he likes them to, his characters become living, breathing people in his own head. He can hear them talking.
"I hope to hear them," he says. "That’s why I want to keep everything open when I’m writing — to allow them to kind of come to life and start to exist. If I’m too regimented about who they are when I start out, then it doesn’t give them a chance to do that."
Since his earliest days of writing, the one constant is that he’s always had to have a positive connection with the characters he’s creating.
"I’m not interested in making people appealing," he explains. "But I am interested in making people understandable, so that you can know what’s happening. I think that serves to make them appealing because it makes them human. But I do like all of my characters. And that’s essential for me to do my best work."
(Source)