Today’s interview is with Scott Cooper, the screenwriter and director of the movie Crazy Heart (2009). Fox Searchlight is distributing the movie and here is their marketing department’s summary of the story:

Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician.

Jeff Bridges won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and many consider him the front-runner to win an Oscar for his performance as Bad Blake.

For Cooper, who has numerous acting credits, this is his first writing and directing effort. Adapted from Thomas Cobb’s 1989 novel, Cooper talks about how the story and its similarities to a country music song:

Even though this script is an adaptation, you had the rough story in mind before finding the book.

Yeah, that’s right. I had always wanted to tell Merle Haggard’s story and found that difficult. He has numerous ex-wives, and the rights were going to be an issue. So I turned to this novel and was able to tell Merle’s story, Waylon Jennings, Kristofferson and a little Towns Van Zandt and Billy Joe Shaver all at once, all of my radio heroes, so to speak.

—-

So once you went the book, what did you want to get at with this story?

Two things: one, this is a story about a personal journey that a man takes. In this journey he rediscovers his artistry…

That he’s lost somehow?

That’s right. The themes of this movie are loss, hope, redemption, regret – all themes that make for a great country song and themes that we all deal with on a daily basis. Through the novel I wanted this to reach deep into the country and western tradition of great singers who are also songwriters who write from their life experiences. That’s what Jeff Bridges’ character does – he writes this incredible song, after not having written a song for years, based on his life experiences.

Cooper also has this to say about the importance of “truthfulness” in storytelling:

You’ve said that you wrote this script without ever consulting a screenwriting book or class. Do you think that’s a good way to go?

Yeah. I think Merle Haggard and Duvall both told me separately, and in general, to just tell the truth. It sounds very trite, but it absolutely kept me focused on telling the truth through these characterizations and through their behavior and their experiences.

For the rest of the interview, you can go here to WGA.org. And here is the trailer for Crazy Heart: