Charlie Kaufman
Charlie Kaufman
Charles Stuart "Charlie" Kaufmanis an American screenwriter, producer, director, and lyricist. He wrote the films Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He made his directorial debut with Synecdoche, New York, which was also well-received; film critic Roger Ebert named it "the best movie of the decade" in 2009. It was followed by Anomalisa...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth19 November 1958
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
We have the script, we have the actors, and we're trying to figure out what this is, and you don't know what it is. You have to be open to what it's going to become rather than have this thing that you're trying to get to, which is boring.
It's about this guy who finds out that his girlfriend of two years has had this surgical procedure which has erased him from her memory. So he's freaked out and trying to live with it and he can't, so he decides to have the same procedure. Most of the movie takes place in his brain as she's being erased, and you see their whole relationship, moment-by-moment, backwards from this sort of bad end to the better beginning. Halfway through, as the memories start getting better, he decides he doesn't want the procedure.
There is so much crap in the world, both in show and other businesses, that I try to be vulnerable myself, in the hopes that there is some truth I can get to, that makes people feel less alone in the world.
I try to present something that is true so I don't further destroy the world with my contribution to it.
I just try to be honest, because I think that's part of my job description as a writer.
I want to do my own thing, and I'm trying to get closer to realizing that as a filmmaker.
I don't write genre stuff in any form. I'm not interested in it. I always try to do the opposite of that.
I don't subscribe to anything. I sit there and I try to think about what seems honest to me.
So when I write characters and situations and relationships, I try to sort of utilize what I know about the world, limited as it is, and what I hear from my friends and see with my relatives.
I was trying to figure out what a memory feels like.
I try to make things interesting and thought-provoking.
I'm trying to tell a story and do it truthfully.
People ask me all the time, "What are your influences? Are you trying to do Beckett?" It's like, "No, I'm trying to do me." Whatever that is. I don't know what that is, but that's the basis. I'm trying to be true and I'm trying to be honest.
Of course, the Meryl Streep in the play is nothing like the real Meryl, and the proof of that is that she did it. Otherwise, she would never have allowed herself to be seen that way. And the more we rehearsed and worked the character, the meaner she got. She's very game.