Interview with Mort Nathan

Writer/director/producer Mort Nathan is known for his broad comedies, most notable Kingpin, which he co-wrote with Barry Fanaro. StoryLink asked him about his creative process and character development.

Q. Why is it that people continue to talk about Kingpin?
A. When you do a comedy project—or any project for that matter—you never know what’s going to have staying power. … You try to make it funny. You try to do something different. You try to not do something that has ever been done the same way before. Sometimes people respond more than other times. No one sets out to make something that becomes a bit of classic or a favorite. You do the best you can.

Q. What is your secret to writing believable, three-dimensional characters?
A. The secret to writing good characters is to write characters that are real, characters that resonate. Characters that are preposterous or characters that are in a bizarre situation, if they have some sort of credibility, relateability, reality to them, people can respond to those characters as real people, as opposed to caricatures. If you write real people, even if they’re overblown, or out-there, weird or crazy, they’re better characters and usually more relatable and more memorable to the audience.

Q. What is the best way to keep balance in your screenplay when writing comedy?
A. You don’t want to do something funny, just for the sake of the joke. That’s what a stand-up comedian does in the nightclub. … If you are going to write a script that has a character in a comic dilemma, the first thing you have to do is define the reality of that dilemma. What about that dilemma seems like it could happen? What seems like it could be within reason? And track the story. If the story is compelling, and if the story is working emotionally, the next layer that goes into that process is [the humor].

You want to make sure you have a premise that has comic possibilities to begin with. Certain situations are not that funny—horrible diseases, starvations, murders, generally speaking—are not particularly amusing. You want to make sure your setting, your dilemma, the obstacles you set out for the character, [the journey], are kind of funny. … And with that in mind, you try to look for the realistic aspects of that journey [while keeping it] funny. Or if it’s a situation that’s deadly serious, you have to make sure you have a way in your head how to make that situation funny.

Q. Do you like to write characters that are similar to or different from you?
A. I think most writers write characters that are different than them, because you get a wide variety of assignments and situations and things thrown at you. … You write things that you can empathize with, situations that you know, people that you think you can hear emotionally as a writer, but they aren’t necessarily like you. They are just voices you feel you can write about. … I don’t think I have ever written things that are really autobiographical. I’ve written moments in speeches that have related to incidents in my life and kind of expanded upon them for scenes and things. … It’s not that I’m adverse to it. It just hasn’t come up.

Q. How do you approach writing characters for a new project?
A. The first question I ask when I approach a new project is: Is it something that I feel that I can hear? Is it something that I can find a voice for? … You have to find a way to make the characters speak for you. Sometimes it’s research. Sometimes it’s talking to the people involved. Sometimes it’s looking at footage to see if that can give you some insight into how to approach the project. … You have to get into it. You have to think about it. You have to find a point of view. That’s the first issue that I tackle. How do I make this funny? How do I make this more creative? Once you figure that out, you figure out the right voice for the character, you figure out the dilemma that the character faces, the journey that the character faces. If you can get those questions loosely set up in your head, it’s amazing how quickly the writing can go.

The worst way to do things for me is to just start before I know exactly where I am going. Because any story is a journey and you’d better have a sense of direction before you head out on the journey. Otherwise you are going to write yourself into a circle.