'Train Dreams' Writer on Adapting the 2011 Novella | THR Studio at Park City - video Dailymotion

The Hollywood Reporter

'Train Dreams' writer and director Clint Bentley drops by the THR studio at Park City with lead actor Joel Edgerton to discuss the creation of the movie adaptation of the 2011 novella.

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00:00I have done bricklaying for loving, I could build a wall, I think I could still build a wall.

00:06I look like I have a worker's hands on the outside but they're a little softer on the inside

00:11because of my day job.

00:16It was actually, I read it many many years ago when it first came out and it was the first

00:20Dennis Johnson piece of writing I'd ever read and it just happened to be like I was getting out of

00:24college I think at the time and it came out and I just I read it and I was blown away and then

00:29I devoured everything else he had written and I just became a huge Dennis Johnson fan and then

00:35fast forward to and Joel also has a history with the book that precedes us making the film together

00:41and then fast forward to I had made Jockey and it had premiered here and and a couple of producers

00:48had the rights to the book and were trying to find a filmmaker to make the book into a movie

00:52and they saw Jockey and felt like I might be a good fit and I don't know that I would have had

00:56the courage to do it otherwise had they not asked but it was just like as soon as it the idea came

01:03across it just felt like the most exciting thing. I don't really often get to read for pleasure

01:10you know I'm a slow reader I read a lot for work and so sometimes I equate reading now with

01:17like like part of part of a job and somebody had gifted me the novella at the end of a job and I

01:26read it you know for pleasure and was so taken with it and you know I'm also a filmmaker and I

01:32I was so taken with it that I made an inquiry about the rights to the book and of course they

01:40were taken and I was like look it was you know so be it and then years later when Clint contacted me

01:48it felt like somebody had really it felt like something special was in the air I was like how

01:54did somebody know that I was so taken with this story and so I felt very lucky and then

02:02I was very nervous about reading a screenplay because I remembered that you know any any book

02:07or novella is a challenge to translate into a film. The script was so well such an accomplished

02:16version of the book in the screenplay and then you know and I watched Clint's film Jockey and

02:22and it's it's very rare often that sometimes you get a nice script and then you're not so sure about

02:28the way the or the other elements to be kind you know or you you you want to work with a great

02:36filmmaker and then you're not connected with the script but this felt like everything really lined

02:41up and I felt very privileged that they were asking me to do it and I felt that by this stage

02:46of my life I do know myself well enough of what aspects of me felt appropriate for this and I felt

02:55like it was something that I could wear quite well so it was it was cool that it happened.

03:02After Joel came on then we were like it was like okay now let's find our Gladys and and that's such

03:09a a difficult character to to try and get right and Joel and Felicity had known each other and

03:16wanted to work together for a while and um and I've been a huge fan of hers forever and and so

03:22she just like it was just one of those where she just felt so perfect for it that you're like I

03:26hope she doesn't say no because I don't know who next. His sensitivity to the way he spoke about the

03:34material the way he approached things as a writer and as a filmmaker that I had complete trust in

03:41him and it was easy for me to share that information with her and actors often like feel

03:47safe with each other you know who am I going to be working with and is it going to be a good

03:52experience and you don't have a crystal ball but you can have an instinct for the someone so I

03:57definitely um you know I was blowing Clint's trumpet to her if that's the right way of putting it of

04:06saying how much faith I had in the process and and and as a collaborator because

04:12Clint and Greg as writers uh part of their power is is not to assume complete control over something

04:22is that filmmaking is such a collaborative situation anyway and if actors have thoughts

04:28about things it's important to um listen to them but not listen to all of them

04:36because we can have some pretty terrible ideas too what okay what is your affinity not affinity

04:43for talent for like anything with working with your hands manual labor any of that like would

04:49you have any skills to offer as a real life person you'll be in a real right there tomorrow

04:54you'd be great I have done bricklaying uh for loving I could build a wall I think I could still

05:00build a wall I look like I have a worker's hands on the outside but they're a little softer on the

05:05inside because of my day job um I like doing uh films I guess where I get to learn skills and

05:16do things that are that are physical because I think that um um as much as I obsess over the

05:22interior life of characters the the physical nature of work is so important some of my favorite

05:28actors are people who who bring the the character into their whole body rather than just their voice

05:34or their eyes um but I also have a whole history in my family of men that were workers you know

05:41before my father um his father was a was a uh train driver and and before that a whole lineage

05:50of farmers which my father was going to carry on except that he got sort of railroaded at um

05:56uh at university this sort of he was on his way to to go and enroll in uh what was called sheep

06:03husbandry and his friends were like Mick we're going off to become lawyers you know and there's

06:09lots of money in it he was like um okay and my life may now be not sitting here but being the

06:17son of a farmer you know inheriting a farm or something it's it's interesting how generations

06:23and that speaks to the film as well about how life lived could be one thing or another and

06:28and how one decision like that can like ripple across generations now

06:34and you know well I feel like I'm of a generation where I got to take charge

06:38of my own future you know I didn't have to inherit something or presume to inherit something

06:44um and and there's something really nice about this film that I responded to and that you know

06:49this idea of the significance and insignificance of all of our lives we will all be forgotten

06:55unless we're you know some criminal or a politician or a famous artist of some kind

07:00that's written into history but we all contribute to the world and and we're all insignificant

07:05and will be forgotten to a degree but we did contribute something or we brought new people

07:11into the world that you know continue the human race so I I feel there's a real potency and

07:18simplicity to the film does a movie of yours stick out as when you were talking about like

07:23learning skills and stuff for for jobs that was the hardest was one uh warrior for sure

07:29learning presuming at the you know I used to have a fighting background as a kid like just

07:33doing karate but warrior came around when I was in my mid-30s and I I had this sort of um

07:40cynical point of view that I was a bit too old to to learn all these new skills and I you know we

07:46we were proven forced to prove ourselves wrong and and I really admired having to go through a

07:52really intense work experience like that and prove you know for the future also is never to doubt

07:59what what you're capable of

'Train Dreams' Writer on Adapting the 2011 Novella | THR Studio at Park City

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