Go Into The Story Interview: Kelly Marcel | by Scott Myers | Go Into The Story

Go Into The Story Interview: Kelly Marcel

Scott Myers
Go Into The Story
Published in
2 min readDec 8, 2013

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My in-depth interview with 2011 Black List screenwriter whose movie credits include Saving Mr. Banks and Fifty Shades of Grey.

I was so impressed after reading the 2011 Black List script Saving Mr. Banks, I reached out to its writer Kelly Marcel for an interview. Kelly took time out of her busy schedule to do an email Q&A with me. It’s both informative and terrifically funny as she has a lively sense of humor.

Image result for kelly marcel
Kelly Marcel

The London-based writer wrote the screen adaptation of the novel Fifty Shades of Grey and co-wrote the upcoming movie Venom starring her longtime friend Tom Hardy.

Here are links to the six installments of the entire interview:

Part 1: “Working in that video store was my education. Nothing is going to teach you structure like watching endless movies and TV shows. Seeing what’s good and why it’s good. Seeing what doesn’t work and figuring out why it doesn’t.”

Part 2: “I loved the idea that this sweet film, this huge part of all of our childhoods, was born out of terrible tragedy. I was taken with the idea of redemption and the effect that our parents can have on us all the way into adulthood.”

Part 3: “I loved it, I wanted to write it, and that was that. It was only afterwards that I thought: ‘Oh fuckitty shitballs! This ain’t EVER getting made.’”

Part 4: “It cannot be said enough that no matter how good anyone thinks a script is, if you don’t have the right director -­- a person who will love it and own it as much as you have up to this point -­- then you are completely screwed.”

Part 5: “I wrote everything I wanted to say, it ran to 17 pages or more and then I cut it down and then I threw it all away and then I started again.”

Part 6: “I’m personally a big fan of knowing what your theme is before starting. I think they can arise as you tell the story, but writing within and for a theme seems to me to help the process along.”

Entire Interview

Kelly is repped by WME.

Twitter: @MissMarcel.

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