The Mirror: What was it like writing with Paul Haggis? Do you each write certain stories?
Bobby Moresco: It depends on what we’re writing. If we are writing a television show we sit in a room, we break down the story. First of all we break down what the characters’ goals are, what they have to go through, what they have to get passed and how they achieve it. And then once we understand the prologue and acts one through five, we know what the act outs are. You know what an act out is? An act is the last scene before the commercial; we need a big act out so that when it’s time for the commercial you guys don’t go some place else during the commercial break. So once you understand what your act outs are, your general arcs are for both the character and the story. Then we actually start writing. And then what we’ll do is I’ll take an act, he’ll take an act, we’ll write it out in separate rooms.
For movies it’s usually very different. We do the same process but we sit together in the room for every scene. I mean we write together he types so I walk back and forth. I usually yell stuff out and he says that really sucks or he hollers back, no that’s terrible and every once and a while he says, that doesn’t suck. But you know you bang it out like that if it’s a feature because you usually feel your way through a feature less so with a television show. Before you start writing a television show you structure it out in great detail. You write that whole outline scene by scene; you got the cards up, so you got the outline, here the cards, here you could write it, no I’m joking [laughs] you could write it if you got it out. In movies it’s much different. You deal with a different set of muscles, you are feeling your way through characters. Here’s the difference in television: you’ve got to grab them right up front and the audience has to stay with you. In a movie you have a little more time you can feel your way through it. But Paul and I have done it, there are 10 different ways we can do it but one thing never changes when we’re together: he always types it and I am always hollering.
TM: I remember last year there was a point where no one knew who was going to win the Academy Awards. However, it seemed like Crash was going to win best picture. Did you ever think it wasn’t going to win?
BM: We were the big time underdog. “Brokeback Mountain” won every single major event. We had, Paul and I, as writers, won everything. And they as Best Picture won everything so we just assumed it would go that way. Paul and I won Critic’s award, the Independent Spirit Award, the Writer’s Guild Award, the United Humanitias award, we won everything and they won best picture on everything so we had no reason to believe this would be any different. We won the BAFTA award, they won the BAFTA award for Best Picture, we won for writing. So it was nothing less than a major shock when they said Crash. I figured that Jack Nicholson was drunk and read the wrong name [laughs]. That’s crazy. So, everyone was shocked.
TM: How did you get involved with “Million Dollar Baby”?
BM: That’s a great question. Paul heard about the book on NPR; I was off doing something else. He optioned the book and wrote a first draft on his own and he took three of the stories and made what was the first draft of “Million Dollar Baby”. It didn’t work at all; it sucked by his words not mine. So he called me up he and said, ‘Listen I don’t know what to do with this movie, you know it’s not working. My producer doesn’t want to get it. Why don’t you take a look at it, come on as co-producer with me and get it to the next draft?’ So I looked at it and said, you know with a fresh eye it often helps to see what’s wrong with a script when you come in when it’s all done. It’s a lot easier than when you’re in the midst of it I promise you. My big contribution was twofold: number one, they told too many stories. Instead of using three I suggested we use two of the short stories in the book. And the other thing was Clint didn’t meet Hilary’s character until around page 28 in the first draft. I suggested that, well one of the things William Goldman, my hero, says all the time: if you don’t say right up front what the movie is about, then you usually don’t know. And Paul didn’t know what the movie he was writing about at the point and time was either. He didn’t have Hilary’s character meet Clint’s character until page 28, I suggested that they meet in the first scene like they do now. Paul thought they were good ideas, we threw away the other story and me and him got together with me shouting in the background; we finished the draft in two weeks and that became the movie that we shot.
TM: Was the voice over with Morgan Freeman because it was constant throughout the movie, was it always there?
BM: Yes, he was also a character in one of the short stories. Actually he may have been one of the characters we created, I can’t remember but he was always there.
TM: Were any of the stories in “Crash” particularly close to your heart or close to home?
BM: Yeah the hijacking scene happened to Paul and the Matt Dillon character and his father that reminded me a lot of my dad and I.
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