Beau Willimon on the Ides of March

 

1. What was your path from college to where you are now?

 

I had a friend, Jay Carson, who had a meteoric rise in the world of politics, and I worked with him in the past on campaigns for Schumer, Bradley, Hillary Clinton, so I followed him onto the Dean campaign in ’04. Based on that experience I wrote the play Farragut North.

 

At first, I sent it out and no one wanted to do it. But later I got an agent who sent it out again, and we got a good response from commercial theater producers, so my agent sent it to LA as a writing sample to try to get me some meetings. We got a call from Warner Brothers, saying that George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio wanted to option it.

 

So, we made of Ides of March and it did well. It’s still surreal to me that I went to the Academy Awards.

 

While we were doing that, David Fincher had read Farragut North and he called me and asked if I wanted to adapt this UK miniseries House of Cards. I watched that and I was drawn to the great delicious story-telling in this cult classic. I spoke to David on the phone and we had a lot of the same instincts in general and about this particular project and I got a taste of his vast mind. I did not want to pass up an opportunity to work with him.

 

1. It’s interesting that you pursued writing rather than directing, given your background in visual arts. Can you talk about that decision?

 

Well, I write very visually. I see the world visually. And to me, a movie or a play should work on mute. You should be able to turn off the sound and still know the basic story and what the characters are responding to. I see a script as a blueprint for behavior. That’s what people are interested in watching.

 

In writing, you can tell stories in real time, in real space, in 3D. Painting can’t do that. Writing liberated something for me and it changed my work as a visual artist. I don’t feel the need to cram all this story into a rectangle.

 

1. What was the process of working on a Netflix original? How do you think it differs from working on a traditional television project?

 

We were working on the script for a year before we had a home. We went out to a variety of places, but Netflix made us an offer we couldn’t refuse: two seasons guaranteed and complete creative freedom. They don’t give notes. I mean, we communicate constantly, but we don’t get anything that could be labeled as “Network Notes.”

 

Also, knowing we had two seasons meant we didn’t have to play the ratings game, which changed the writing process. We could concentrate on it as long-form story-telling and not rely on manufactured cliff-hangers to keep audiences coming back.

 

1. Any advice for aspiring writers?

 

Don’t do it. It’s setting yourself up for a life filled with rejection and despair. If you ignore that advice, then you are meant to be a writer. In that case, there’s only piece of advice I can give that’s worth anything: put in the hours. Writing is not rocket science. It’s story and you learn that through hard work and trial and error. You have to fail in order to break through, and the only way you can do that is by putting in the time.