Courtney Miller, Filmmaker/Producer/Author/Editor: And I was like oh my gosh. I literally paused the
movie, got up and walked out because I was just bawling.
Film Courage: Would you say good writing demands emotional honesty?
Courtney: Oh gosh yeah. Definitely good writing definitely demands emotional
honesty I think that's the only way to buy for the audience to buy in is when we feel the emotion
it's all about that like literally that's what it's all about and I would say the same thing
with good directing as well when it see a scene works when we feel that emotion and
when we feel like it's authentic we can tell when things are just being done or
said or being preached to and it's not does it feel authentic like like like we can learn
we can learn lessons and and and be told things in a non-preachy kind of way
that feels real that feels authentic a really good example I think of that is it which actually was
interesting because it just got voted the number one screenplay of the what was it of the decade
or the 21st century get out when you when you look at get out and I've and I've read the script
a couple of times and I've watched the movie a couple times I even watch the the other ending how
how the original ending of how he how he wanted it to end which was on a downer actually those that
have seen it before they know how it ends and and the way it ends now but that actually is a movie
that is telling the story about racism it's telling a story about historical injustice
and a lot of other things that are being said there but you don't feel like you're
being preached to I think that's why it worked and that's why people of various melanin shades
went to go see it because it didn't feel that way even though we got it it didn't feel that
way and I think that's the big difference in how stories are being told it was an emotional story
but you didn't feel like you were being preached to so it always comes down to
emotional integrity for any any script any scene and and if you're able to hit that this is us
people cry on that on that show all the time because we feel what those with those characters
are feeling and it feels organic it doesn't feel like it's forced and I think that's why it works
how hard is it to write an emotional scene oh wow I think it depends on how invested you are in that
in that scene like I've written scenes that I when I wrote it I cried so if you're all in
i think you can do it and do it well
and the words and the feeling just flow it's interesting it's like
whatever whenever I'm writing a scene I think about how do I want people to feel so
if I know how I want them to feel it helps to dictate what I'm going to say or what the
characters are going to say to to get people to feel that way so it's almost like I i start from
the emotion first and then use that as as leverage to to write what the characters are going to say
whenever I've done it the other way around usually the scene doesn't read on the page the way I
attended to to read if I start with just the words and like okay a cheat would be something like
sarah says something and then i'll put in she cries like that's a cheat
why does she cry if you go backwards and kind of re-engineer it what caused her to cry what
is it and that's when you're like okay yeah what exactly is making her cry okay what's the feeling
that she's feeling right now she's down because she's thinking about her father okay well what's
making her thinking about her father oh why don't I put a picture in here or do something that helps
the actor or the actress get to that point it's like the saying is you is it earned is it earned
and there's a lot of actors and actresses who you put down she cries on the page and they can
cry like that but is it earned like how do you feel as the audience like do you feel like crying
or is it just that they're really good at their job so they cry and I think that's a difference so
yeah whenever I start from a place of emotion then I find the right words and
or actions because sometimes the the right words it's just about what are they doing
that makes them cry and is it earned and that's a question that kind of goes back to
the Michael Jackson situation is this the best that I that that it can be to me is it earned
is the same thing do we get them to that point where they really do need to cry and is
it earned can you give us an example of a film where that really works like just a scene that
when you watched it yeah you knew you wanted to write scenes that I know some one person I know
said ordinary people that was just a movie for them that just just really hit home for me so
I am actually I'm a big crybaby now but I was when I was younger and there was
there was a scene in life is beautiful which to me is my favorite film and at the time I was a young
father I was married and my son was probably three years old around there and so there was a scene
where the they're in France the Germans are around and he is
he does this salute to his son his son copies it and then he's explaining to his son like this is
all the game can you go hide and I'm gonna pretend and make sure that that that nobody can find you
something like that and I'm crying my eyes out because I know that that is exactly something I
would do with my son if we were occupied by some hostile country I would make it into a game to try
to hide it the the nuances of this is that he was hiding what the truth was by making it to a game
and that's exactly what I would do and I was like oh my god this is brilliant and I was just crying
and that let me go back I was caught up in the emotion I wasn't thinking about brilliance because
at the time I wasn't breaking down movies because this is way before I was still a dancer at the
time I wasn't but I knew how I felt about that moment because that's what I would do as a father
and so that emotion that that behavior is is and he wasn't crying it wasn't it wasn't an
emotional scene in the sense of like there were tears it was an emotional scene because of his
behavior his actions and what he was trying to do to spare his son the possibility of being
called by the nazis and killed because they were both Jewish and I was like oh my gosh
so I was I literally paused the movie got up and walked out because I was just bawling.