Milo Addica

Last year (2001) proved to be an unbelievable one for Milo Addica: six years after writing the script for Monster's Ball, the writer/actor witnessed the monster success of a film that almost never was, and it catapulted him onto the Hollywood A list. But the acclaim that came with that film-including an Oscar nod for him and writing partner Will Rokos-has not spoiled Addica. Even with several new projects on his plate, including one for Steven Soderbergh's Section Eight and another for Imagine Entertainment, Addica is realistic about the film business. In an interview with MM he opened up about the writing process, future projects and the power of perseverance.

Jennifer M. Wood (MM): You co-wrote Monster's Ball with Will Rokos. How did your collaboration begin, and how did it work?

Milo Addica (MA): We were in a play together. He is 11 years older than me, so he brought an older perspective to it. (Will is 50 and I'm 39). We were in a play together in New York, an Off Off Broadway show. We never set out to be friends or buddies, it was strictly a working relationship. We were in similar places at the time and we connected on that level. I came up with an idea about an executioner and I approached Will and that started the dialogue.

I threw a few books his way, one of which was Deathwork and the other Dead Man Walking, before that film ever came out or was even written. And then Will did some research in Georgia and found out that it was generational-that executioners were generational, meaning like father like son. Then we pooled all of our resources, so it was very much a joint thing. When it came to the writing itself Will flew out to Santa Monica, where I was living, and we holed up in my itty bitty 9 x 10 apartment (literally, I am not joking. It was a little bachelor.) And we stayed there for eight months.

MM: The idea originated as a vehicle for you and Will to act in. At what point did you decide to shop the script?

MA: It got to an agent at Paradigm who liked it as a writing sample but didn't think the movie would ever get picked up or made. It was just too dark and brutal. The history of it is long-do you really want to know each person that handled it, because that's a half dozen. Let's just say when it got to Fine Line, they took it to Sean Penn and Sean immediately said he wanted to direct it. He called me on the phone and I said 'Why don't you play the role of Sonny?' which is a role that I wanted, but I figured, hey Sean would be great! He said that his friend Bob De Niro would play the role of Hank, but he wanted a lot of money. At that point, when they gave it their blessing and their interest, the project just started fucking snowballing. It became very large and something greater than myself. I couldn't control it at that point. Then I realized, well if I have a smaller role in this, good enough.

MM:I also read that Oliver Stone was attached to direct at one point. 

MA: Fine Line took it to Penn and De Niro, who said they'd do it. Then Fine Line passed and said they weren't interested in doing it with those guys, and then basically let go of the project. We maintained control, Will and myself, and we took it to Lawrence Bender. That was an experience. While it was with Lawrence it went to Oliver Stone and Oliver said he wanted to do it, but he wanted to make a bigger movie first. He loved the script but he wanted Tommy Lee Jones to do it and Tommy Lee was not available. So Oliver fell out and this is all during the process of Lawrence basically trying to move the project with very little success after a year and four months. At that point, he wanted another year option for free. We had already given him a year and four months option for free, we had done seven free rewrites and three free polishes and he didn't pay for it.

We also were at odds with him because we didn't want the little boy to live. He wanted the little boy to live; we wanted him to die. He wanted a different type of ending and he wanted it to go to directors that I was not happy with. So after a year and four months he said give me another year option free and we said no. Give us like $3,000 if you want it. He said no, so we said okay. He got all pissed off, saying that we were fucking him over and all this shit-total Hollywood trip-but we left. And we took it to a talent manager named Lee Daniels who was trying to be a producer who had a client named Wes Bentley.

Wes said he couldn't fully commit, but he was really into this project and wanted to do it. So based on that, we took a chance and we went in that direction. And Wes Bentley, to his credit, really helped to spearhead the project at William Morris and forced them to make a deal with Lions Gate. When Lions Gate found out that Wes was interested, they wanted to make a deal with us. Then for some reason the deal was taking too long, and they just backed out. Wes then "forced" them to make that deal with William Morris. The good people at William Morris, Cassian Elwes and Scott Lambert, really worked hard to push the project forward with Wes, and they made the deal with Lions Gate.

MM: You made a really smart move by keeping yourselves attached as producers. Is this something you will continue to do in the future?

MA: Yes, absolutely, 100 percent. I'm doing it now: I'm producing a piece I've written called The King and I'm doing that with Film Four. The reason why is that is allows me to have control and they can't fuck me then. They've got to send me to the premieres, they've got to take care of me. These things mean a lot. You spend two years on a movie, up and down, bleeding for it.

MM: Would you ever consider just being a writer for hire?

MA: I am doing two assignments: one for Steven Soderbergh and Don Cheadle, which I'm very excited about. It's a revenge piece called Let's Kill Henry and it's for Don to direct and that I'm basically just for hire. And I'm working on a piece at Imagine, and that's another piece for hire. But it's a different sort of thing. First of all, they're treating me very, very well, both of these companies. I don't just mean financially, but as a person and as a writer I really like developing with them. But away from that, I've got to tell you when you do an assignment often it becomes like 'I want a paycheck.' I don't look at it like I'll do any kind of script. I'm specific about what I want to choose now, and I gravitate only toward the companies that I know I can work with because it's an eight-month process.

MM: The King deals with a son seeking acceptance from his father; the Let's Kill Henry is about a man seeking revenge after being released from prison-both themes of which are similar to Monster's Ball. Do you think that the "darkness" of Monster's Ball will pigeonhole you as a writer?

MA: You know what, it's fine. It's going to pigeonhole me into this area but this is where I'm at right now. Nobody's going to hire me to do The Full Monty and I don't want to do The Full Monty.

MM: Do you think that drama is what you're best suited for?

MA: I love sci-fi, I love drama, I love tough guy movies. But hell, I watch the women's channel once in a while. I don't like sappy melodrama but I like movies that move you. I like movies that get inside your skin and touch your heart. If people call that drama, so be it, but I can only work from what I know. And I work from my experiences in my family growing up. And I think that's what makes great cinema and that's what makes stories that last for a long time.

MM: How do you think your work as an actor informs your writing? The dialogue in Monster's Ball is certainly very sparse; the film is made in the emotions displayed by the actors. How do you write emotion?

MA: You don't write emotion. What you do is, just like in acting (I started acting when I was 17), what you write is action. And I don't mean the action of two guys beating each other up, but the action like if someone is coming into a funeral, they're basically coming to say goodbye, that's the action. That's what they're doing and that's what you write. And that's what I write for actors and that's why they seem to connect to my material because they can do something. And when you do something like that, when you're saying 'I'm going to come and I'm either going to say goodbye to this person or hello' or 'I'm going to pack up my bags,' that action in itself with invoke something inside you. That is, if you trust yourself and allow yourself to go with the physical action that you're doing.

MM: You have plans to direct your first feature later in the year. Can you talk a bit about that project?

MA: I'm really interested in a book but the deal hasn't been solidified so I kind of have to get back to you on that. But I have a spec that I've wanted to do for a while that's set in New York and it's about a little kid. You know I'm not going to go into the story because I'll blow the pitch, but I do want to direct and I have my sights on a couple of projects and that would likely happen after the snowfall or possibly in the beginning of next year. But once I'm done with my assignments, yeah, I'm going to definitely be directing.

MM: Are you looking to continue your acting?

MA: Oh yeah, absolutely. The great thing now is that I don't have to go through the fucking bullshit audition process anymore. I would rather slide down a 20-foot razorblade into lemon juice; it sucked. And I did that in NY and LA and a lot of places. But the projects I'm working on now, The King, I have a prominent role in that, the one I'm producing. And I'm working in London with a really great director named Jonathan Glazer, who made Sexy Beast. We're polishing two of his projects and I'm going to be working in two of his pieces.

MM: You've been lucky to take on various roles in the film industry-actor, writer, producer, director. If you had to continue just one role, what would it be?

MA: That's a tough one. I'd love to say acting only because it's a very creative, fun process, but film is not as fun as doing a play. I think plays are the most fun I've ever had because you get to do a two-hour pure creation thing, there's no stop and go. But I would have to say I'm very excited about the directing thing because I'll get to do everything. Producing I'm doing now because it gives me a sense of power and control over what I'm creating. But directing, that's where you bring in your own elements: who's going to shoot my movie? Who's going to cut my movie? Who will write it, if it's not me? And who's going to breathe life into the characters?

MM: You completed the script for Monster's Ball in 1995. Do you think that, had the script been completed today, it would be easier to sell?

MA: No, I don't think so. I think it's just as hard. It's hard to get executives or the studio system to trust. Even though Monster's Ball is going to end up grossing $40 to $50 million at the end of the day, they still don't believe that it really ever did. Or they'll say 'Well it did because of Halle Berry,' or 'It did because of this  or that.' They don't want to believe it was because of me sitting in my tiny apartment with my computer and coming up with the idea-they don't think that had anything to do with it. So I think it's still hard and it's always hard to get these kinds of stories told. Unfortunately that's just the way it is. It's much easier to do a movie about a volcano in downtown LA or something like that. It's easier to grab.

MM: And easier to sell.

MA: It's totally easier to sell. Even if they get one bomb, it makes up for all the losses...  I'm a firm believer that a lot of big, big guys come to the notion somehow that they make the hits. That the public doesn't make the hits but that somebody is deciding what to do. Maybe I'm paranoid or something but it's tough for me to get a story told. Even when a movie I've made is nominated and made a lot of money, I'm still up against the same thing.