The Movies > Steve Kloves Interview #1

The following February 2001 interview with screenwriter Steve Kloves was conducted by “Quint,” a correspondent for Ain't It Cool News, operated by Harry Knowles. Quint borrows his name from a seaman in the book and movie Jaws. NOTE: There is some profanity in this interview, which I removed, due to the family nature I am trying to maintain on this Web site. The photographs included with this interview were taken by Jeff Bridges on the set of The Fabulous Baker Boys in the late 1980s.

Hey, folks, Harry here with what I consider to be Quint's best interview yet. He sat down and did the interview bit with Steven Kloves and got him talking about his career as a screenwriter all the way through to the script he's working on right this very second... whiAhoy, folks. ‘Tis I, the ever crusty sea salt, Quint, here once more, this time with a one-on-one I did just before the Golden Globes with screenwriter and sometimes director Steven Kloves. He directed Michelle Pfeiffer, Jeff Bridges and Beau Bridges in The Fabulous Baker Boys. and he also directed Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, Gwenyth Paltrow and Jimmy “The Dream” Caan in Flesh and Bone.

But he’s most well known for his writing and has most recently written the critically acclaimed Wonder Boys and is currently developing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone with Chris Columbus. As you will see in this interview, we spend the great majority talking about Harry Potter… Now, on to Part 1 of my interview with Steven Kloves. Enjoy!

Q: I JUST WANT TO SAY UPFRONT THAT I’M GETTING OVER A COLD, SO EXCUSE ANY NOSE-BLOWINGS, COUGHINGS, WHAT HAVE YOU.

Steven Kloves: I heard you couldn’t talk a few days ago.

Q: YEAH, IT WASN’T PLEASANT, BUT I’M BETTER NOW. WE READY TO GET THIS SUCKER ON? I THINK WE SHOULD START AT THE BEGINNING. WHAT WAS THE FIRST THING YOU DID?

SK: The very first thing... I wrote a script called Swings years ago. I was about 19, I guess. It got me attention around town. It was the first thing I wrote, an agent sent it out, and someone over at Paramount wanted to meet me. I ended up getting a producer and from that meeting I really sorta lamely pitched this idea for a movie about two kids during World War II, and surprisingly enough they paid me to write it. That became this movie, Racing With the Moon, that came out years ago [1984] that Richard Benjamin directed.

Q: HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH WRITING THE SCRIPT FOR WONDER BOYS?

SK: I hadn’t really almost written a word in about four years, after Flesh and Bone. Scott Rudin sent me this book. You know, I had gotten use to saying, “No,” for four years, and I assumed I would say “no” again, but then I started reading it and I realized that I was loving this book. There was something about Michael Chabon's writing that I just feel sort of a kinship with. He’s really generous towards his characters, doesn’t take cheap shots at them, and the humor was more behavioral, and then, it sort of comes out in dialogue as well, but it’s all character based. That always speaks to me. Characters. And he had four remarkable characters in his book. So, I said, “Yes!” I was kinda amazed anybody would pay me to write it. I don’t think Paramount was thrilled to pay... I don’t think they were thrilled to buy the book and they certainly weren’t thrilled to pay me to write it. Such is the power of Scott Rudin that it happened.

Q: THAT’S COOL. I WAS TALKING TO CURTIS HANSON LAST WEEK, AND HE WAS TELLING ME THAT THE FIRST THING HE EVER HEARD OR READ OF WONDER BOYS WAS YOUR SCRIPT, AND THAT’S WHAT DECIDED HIM ON MAKING THE MOVIE.

SK: Yeah, I think Curtis responded probably to the same things I did because the script is in most ways entirely faithful to the book, I believe. It’s certainly faithful in terms of the essence of it and also in many specifics. I really only cut one huge sequence out of the book, and that took me a long time to do.

I tried to remain faithful to the book because I love the book. It was the first adaptation I did that sort of took me a while to even understand how to approach it. I thought it would be easy and it turned out not to be really easy. (laughs)

Steve Kloves (near center, headphones on neck) on the Fabulous Baker Boys set.

Q: WHAT WAS GIVING YOU THE DIFFICULTY THERE? WAS IT JUST WANTING TO PRODUCE SOMETHING AS GOOD AS THE ORIGINAL MATERIAL?

SK: Yeah, I think that’s probably the key thing. I remember I was a couple of months into it and I said, “You know, if I ever do another adaptation,” because everything I had done prior to that was original, “but if I ever do another adaptation, I’m gonna take a really ------ book and be the hero!” With this you could only fail. The book is extraordinary. It’s an extraordinary piece of writing, and he is a writer of such profound talent that you... it’s not that you’re intimidated exactly, it’s just that Michael Chabon raises the bar for you every day so high. When you’re writing originals, it’s like, “OK, I’m the only guy raising the bar. If I’m having a bad day, I’ll set the bar pretty damn low, or I’ll just go to Tower Records and peruse the Jazz section.”

Anytime you write, even if you’re writing stuff you do, ultimately I can’t write an 800-page script and you (Quint) can’t write something that’ll take up the entire website. You get use to, on some levels, killing your own little darlings and stuff you love that you wrote that you think is really cool and shows what a great writer you are, but on the other hand doesn’t really service the piece. But in this case, I was killing all of Michael’s little darlings, cutting all the stuff that made him look like a really good writer that, by the way, worked in the novel that there wasn’t room for in the script.

Part of it is learning how to take something, learning how to be evocative with economy, you know, to try to invoke all those great things Michael invoked, but do it in a little bit of a shorter stroke. I tend to write long scenes, so I had to really sorta battle myself at times. I’ve always done that. It’s always driven people nuts 'cause I’ll write a seven- or eight-page scene. From the beginning I’ve done that. We’re in an era where you can rarely see a scene now that goes past a minute and half.

Q: HOW INVOLVED WERE YOU DURING THE SHOOTING OF THE PICTURE?

SK: I was never there, but Curtis and I probably talked to each other, I guess on average, two or three times a week. There were certain little, tiny isolated sections of the script that we were kinda going back and forth on. You know, I’d write stuff, e-mail it to him, he would look it over and send me his notes, then I’d sort of refine, change or come up with something entirely new and send it to him and get his reaction. So, I was very much in contact with Curtis, have been almost from the day he came on. It was very sort of intense collaboration from the beginning.

Q: YOU’RE UP FOR A GOLDEN GLOBE... SK: It comes as a shock that I’m up for one. I didn’t think I had a chance in hell of being nominated.

Q: YOU DIDN’T EXPECT THE NOMINATION AT ALL?

SK: I can honestly say it’s nothing I ever think about. It’s not something that happened... Well, it happened to me once, I got nominated for a Writer’s Guild Award on (The Fabulous) Baker Boys years ago. I always thought I was one of those guys that sort of stuff never happened to, and I just never thought about it. Every single movie I’ve been involved with, basically, no one’s gone to. (laughs) So, Wonder Boys kept that streak alive. I feel bad for the people involved, but....

People have caught up with the movies I’ve done on video sometimes; it happened with Baker Boys, but for the most part it hasn’t happened, so I’m always shocked when there’s any kind of recognition.

Q: I DON’T THINK YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT KEEPING UP THAT STREAK NOW THAT YOU’RE DOING THE HARRY POTTER FILM. YOU HAVE TO ADMIT, THAT MOVIE’S GOING TO MAKE A ----LOAD OF MONEY.

SK: Well, you know... We'll see. One of the good things about working on it is that no one assumes that and that’s the thing I worried about when everybody was getting together on it, that people would just assume that it was a lock. That’s just a dangerous way to work. Nobody’s assuming that, and everyone’s just trying to make the best movie they can. I always thought that Warner Bros thought they had a lock, so just to even the playing field they brought a guy on whose never had anything to do with a hit movie, me, just to be fair, because they could have brought on one of those guys who writes nothing but hits.

Also, when I got involved with that it was a book that I had not heard of. It was told to me, I believe, that it was somewhat of a sensation for a children’s book in the UK. So, I read it, and I said, “God, this is great!” I have two kids, so I thought this was the first movie I would do that my kids could see. Then, literally, three or four months after I said I’d do it, it was on the cover of Time ------- Magazine here.

Everyone was asking me about it. I was just going, Look... this is the first time in my career that that studio has really wanted me to hand in the script. Every other project I’ve done is like someone wakes up after a year and goes, “Wait a minute! We have a deal with this guy. Where is that thing?” With this it was like from day one, “How’s it goin’? How’s it goin’? Anything we can do to help? How’s it goin’?

Kloves with actress Michelle Pfeiffer on the Baker Boys set.

Q: WHEN THE PEOPLE AT BUMBLE WARD, THE PUBLICITY OFFICE, CALLED ME ABOUT DOING THESE INTERVIEWS, THEY SAID, “WELL, WE WANT YOU TO TALK TO CURTIS AND STEVE KLOVES, THE SCREENWRITER.” I WAS LIKE, “SURE, SURE. I’LL TALK TO WHOEVER. SCREENWRITER? I’VE TALKED TO LOTS OF SCREENWRITERS. COOL.” I THEN DID WHAT LITTLE RESEARCH I COULD BEFORE MY COMPUTER REFUSED TO WORK ANYMORE AND FOUND OUT ABOUT YOUR INVOLVEMENT ON THE HARRY POTTER FILM. I SAID, “OH, ----... I BETTER READ ONE OF THESE BOOKS BEFORE I DO THE INTERVIEW,” RIGHT?

SK: Right...

Q: I HAVE TO SAY, I FIRST HEARD ABOUT THIS INTERVIEW ABOUT A WEEK AND A HALF AGO...

SK: Right...

Q: AND I’M HALFWAY THROUGH THE THIRD BOOK RIGHT NOW.

SK: So, you got hooked.

Q: BIG TIME. MY LITTLE BROTHER HAD THE FIRST TWO, AND I WENT OUT YESTERDAY AND BOUGHT THE THIRD AND FOURTH BOOKS, SO...

SK: Wait until you read four. To me, four is the best book because it’s big, and Jo Rowling really had elbow room to work and showed what she can do. It’s really dark, and it’s very cool. The series will be very cool, because she’s already told me that... You know, she’s fearless, and she doesn’t care...

Q: KEEPING IT DARK... THAT’S SO COOL.

SK: Well, she’s fearless in the sense that there’s some woman in South Carolina that keeps making noise about, “This is bad for kids, it’s about witchcraft,” and all this stuff. She just said to me, “Man, they haven’t seen anything yet. Wait until they get to last book.” The series is going dark.

The way you responded, the way I responded, and it was purely that sense, it was not a big book, it was not a big thing. I loved the world she made and the detail in the world, but also the fact that I just loved the three kids. I was like, “God, these are great characters.” I said to one of (the execs) in the first meeting, I said, “Look. I don’t want to be involved with this unless you share my feelings. The effects have to be great, all that stuff, but this movie will live and die on these kids. If we follow these kids, then the movie’s going to work, but it would have to be about the character of these kids, Harry in particular, and it can’t just be a roller coaster ride because it’ll disappoint everybody that knows the book.”

Actually, I didn’t even say that, I don’t think, at the time because I didn’t think anybody really knew about the books, but I said, “That’s not what it’s about, it’s about these three kids and it’s entering into this world. We’re all outsiders.” That’s what I think people, that’s what I responded to. The three kids are really outsiders.

Q: WHEN I WAS GOING THROUGH THE BOOKS, JUST LIKE YOU SAID, I WAS SURPRISED AT HOW RICH AND FUN THE CHARACTERS AND THE SITUATIONS WERE. WAS IT DIFFICULT TO TRY TO GET THAT ALL INTO THE SCRIPT?

SK: Yeah. The first book’s a -----. I’m doing the second one, too. The second one is just a great story.

Q: I LOVE IT! THAT’S ONE OF THE BIG THINGS THAT SURPRISED ME ABOUT THE SERIES... I WAS FINISHING THE SECOND BOOK AND WAS LIKE, “DAMN, THIS IS DARK.” I DIDN’T EXPECT THAT... BUT, AS AN ASIDE, THE MOMENT DURING THE SECOND BOOK THAT REALLY GOT ME WAS THE DIARY...

SK: Ugh! Wasn’t that unbelievable!

Q: TO WRITE IN IT AND HAVE IT WRITE BACK TO YOU? HOW COOL IS THAT?

SK: It's such a cool idea, and when he puts his eye up to that kinda like window and falls into the past so he’s there when Tom Riddell’s there. It’s just... I know what you mean. The diary is what got me, too. There were little things that got me, like when they find the cat, and then they see this little trail of spiders going out the window. Then they find Justin Finch ... when he finds the Hufflepuff kid, and then he sees that little trail of spiders. It’s just great, unnerving imagery, and it should work great in the movie. You know, then there’s just fun stuff, like the flying car and all that stuff. For the kids, it should be a blast. I really love that book.

The first one’s a -----, though. It was a -----. You read the books, so you know. If you really break it down, the American version, I think, is about 309 pages or 311 pages and the actual plot kicks in around page 225, so as a screenwriter. ... You know, the first script I wrote was somewhat lopsided and long, but the other thing is we’ve sort of embraced it. It’s incredibly faithful. Hopefully people will love the world and stuff because we didn’t monkey with it. We didn’t say, “OK, now we gotta add something here in the beginning.” We’re just going to trust that the audience will hang with it. It’s really faithful.

Q: SO YOU DIDN’T THROW ANY CURVE BALLS FOR THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW THE BOOK INSIDE AND OUT? MAYBE A SCENE OR TWO OF YOUR OWN INVENTION?

SK: No... well, yeah. There’s stuff of my own, there’s dialogue of my own, obviously, but all of it comes in a sense, it’s sort of extrapolating from what Jo writes. In fact, I anticipated a few things, and that was a lot of fun because I anticipated something, I wrote it into the script, and she really reacted strongly. She was like, “Ah! You sense something that’s going on.” I also missed something. I put something in, I made reference to someone, and she said, “That’s great, but you can’t do that because something’s going to happen in Book 5 that makes that impossible to happen.” Little things like that.

She’s great. She’s told me a little bit of stuff that’s going to happen, but she won’t tell me what’s going to happen in Book 7 or any of that stuff, so I have to kind of trust her to say, “Hey, am I on the right path here?” She’s extremely helpful that way. She’s been really great.

Q: I’VE HEARD SHE’S A REALLY BIG FAN OF YOUR ADAPTATION. IT MUST BE GREAT TO GET SUCH POSITIVE FEEDBACK FROM THE ORIGINATOR OF THE MATERIAL.

SK: Yeah, it’s really true because I realized at a certain point... Two things happened. I’m really nervous for meetings in Hollywood. I usual hate them, so I don’t have them very often, and when I was writing originals, I didn’t have any meetings at all. On this, the first time Jo came to town about two years ago, I was really nervous meeting her because I realized I didn’t want her to think I was some Hollywood -------, even though we’ve already talked about this, but there was nothing on my resume that would suggest I was selling out to Hollywood. Very few tickets had been sold to anything I’d done.

We just sort of hit it off from the beginning. I realized that in the writing, probably who I wanted to please the most, and it continues to this day, is her. So far it’s been real nice. She seems happy, and that’s been great, because she’s really one of the coolest people on the planet. I mean, she’s just... it’s not what you expect.

I don’t know. When you read these books, you think, I don’t know, Angela Lansbury, and then you meet this really cool chick who’s like 35 years old and she knows all your musical references and stuff. You’re just like, “Wow! This is just bizarre!” She’s so regular. From the day I met her to today, she hasn’t changed one bit. Even after selling 50 million books, which is really cool.

Q: WITH A MOVIE LIKE HARRY POTTER... IF I HAD WRITTEN IT, I KNOW THAT THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A SET THAT THEY COULDN’T KEEP ME AWAY FROM. HAVE YOU SPENT ANY TIME AT ALL ON SET?

SK: Yeah, I spent an enormous time in London. I was there for five weeks over the summer the first time, then I was there another three weeks. That was all pre-production. So, I saw a lot of stuff. I haven’t been to the set since they’ve been shooting. I’ve been welcome to come anytime I wanted and I could have stayed there and written, too. But I got a family, I got kids.

A part of me, I guess because of Wonder Boys... You know, I never went to a set. It was interesting ’cause I told you I was writing a little bit during it. It was interesting to write and continue writing the characters without really knowing the actors or anything, so I just kept writing James Leer and Grady and Crabtree and Sarah. I wasn’t writing for Michael Douglas or Frances McDormand. I never do anyway when I write, I never think of an actor.

I probably will go to set in the next month here. I’ll probably fly back to London and go a little bit. I have to say, I did see some really cool stuff before I left. I can tell you two things. The flying broomstick stuff should be amazing, at least the pre-visualization stuff I saw, and what’s insanely great, it seemed to me, was the stuff they were doing with Hagrid, you know, the giant. It looked unreal how cool he looked.

So, yeah. There’s a temptation, but I think having directed I never... I don’t know... I’m not comfortable being on a set that I’m not directing. I’m just not because I always feel like, “What the ---- am I doing here?”

Q: YEAH, I’VE TALKED TO A FEW WRITERS RECENTLY WHO BASICALLY SAID THAT SAME THING. WHEN YOU’RE A WRITER ON SET YOU DON’T DO ANYTHING UNTIL THERE’S A PROBLEM, THEN YOU’RE NOT ONSET ANYWAY, YOU’RE OFF IN YOUR HOTEL ROOM WRITING.

SK: That’s exactly right because if you’re there, it’s really easy for them not to figure it out or make the scene that’s written work. I know as a director... You know, sometimes everyone resists a scene that’s right because it’s hard. I remember years ago on Racing With the Moon, Sean Penn and I had a really close relationship. I was on that set the whole time it was shooting. He used to come up to me, once in a blue moon, he’d come up and go, “You mind if I change this line slightly?” I’d always say yes because it made him more comfortable and it felt right, and he was very smart, Sean. He was good at changing a line so it sounded good.

Then he came up to me near the end of the shoot with a certain line, he says, “You know, I don’t feel comfortable saying this line.” I thought about it and I said, “You know, I think Hopper’s gotta say that line.” He went off for about 10 minutes and he came back and said, “You know, you’re right. The reason I’m uncomfortable is because Hopper’s uncomfortable saying it.” Then he went out and just nailed it. So, I think sometimes if the writer’s there there’s a tendency to say, “Hey, why don’t you go back to the hotel room and do it in a different way,” and that’s not necessarily always good.

Q: YOU SAID EARLIER YOU WERE DEEP INTO THE SECOND HARRY FILM, CHAMBER OF SECRETS.

SK: Yeah.

Q: WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?

SK: Pretty close. Sometime here in the next month or so I’ll probably have something. Depends on how I feel when I get off the end of it. Whether I’m a little long, which I always am, and how I feel about it. Just if I feel it’s balanced and it’s working right. But I really like it and I love that book, I like writing it. I mean, I never... writing’s a -----, so I like having written it!

Q: YOU TOUCHED ON THIS A LITTLE BIT EARLIER, BUT YOU’VE GONE BEYOND THE KEYBOARD/PEN BEFORE AND CLIMBED INTO THE DIRECTOR’S CHAIR WITH FABULOUS BAKER BOYS AND FLESH & BONE. YOU HAVE ANY PLANS TO DIRECT AGAIN?

SK: Yeah, you know, I think it’s probably no coincidence that my daughter is 8, and I haven’t directed, basically, in 8 years. I said once, and it just sorta came outta me, but I realized it was true, “I’d rather watch my 5-year-old son grow up than wait for a 50-year-old movie executive to grow up.” There were moments where I thought that. I was like, “---- this! I’m not gonna go through this!”

I think part of it was I didn’t work for three or four years after Flesh and Bone, and I think I just need to get a break. About the time of Flesh and Bone. Hollywood just felt really poisonous to me, and I gotta be honest, it still does. I think things are bad now. They’re as bad as I’ve ever seen it, but I gotta work. I gotta make a living. I love movies, I just don’t love the movie business. I’ve found a way to adjust to that, I think. I’ve only done what I’ve wanted to do. I’ve been real lucky. I’ve never done anything I didn’t want to do.

Q: WELL, WITH YOUR RECENT PROJECTS YOU SHOULD PROBABLY GET A TAD BIT MORE CLOUT. EVEN THOUGH IT DIDN’T MAKE ANY MONEY, WONDER BOYS IS NOW WELL KNOWN DUE TO ITS CRITICAL ACCLAIM AND THE NOMINATIONS IT’S GETTING. WITH THAT UNDER YOUR BELT, AND HARRY POTTER COMING UP... IT’S SUCH A HUGE NAME... YOU KNOW, ANOTHER ASIDE..., THE POSTERS FOR THE MOVIE HAVE BEEN POPPING UP ON EBAY, AND THEY’RE GOING FOR CRAZY AMOUNTS OF MONEY.

SK: Really?

Q: I SAW ONE, BEFORE MY COMPUTER DIED, OF COURSE. I SAW ONE CLIMBING UPWARDS OF $70-$80.

SK: -----!

Q: IT’S GOT SUCH A WIDE FAN BASE. THE THING ABOUT THE BOOK IS, UNLIKE POKEMON, IT APPEALS TO BOTH THE ADULTS AND KIDS WHO READ IT. IT SEEMS TO ME TO BE A SHOE-IN FOR A GREAT FAMILY MOVIE. WE HAVEN’T HAD A GREAT FAMILY MOVIE IN A WHILE.

SK: You know what I like about it? Who knows how it’ll turn out, but I was at the theater not long ago with my kids. You know, they run five trailers, and I think three of them were computer generated. I love that stuff. Don’t get me wrong. I think Toy Story’s brilliant, but I was watching, and I thought the one great thing about Harry Potter is it’s a throwback in many ways. It’s really an old fashioned movie in one way because it’s real human beings, and then you put in these creatures the way they use to. You know, your trolls and dragons and stuff and flying broomsticks – which goes back to Mary Poppins. I just liked that about it.

If nothing else, it’s going to be very human. I think the books are that way. The books are not about technology. Those books could have been written 50 years ago. Almost everything she’s got in there... there’s just real brief mention in the first book about Dudley having a computer and a video camera that he trashes, but for the most part, they feel timeless, and I think that’s part of the appeal.

But I think you’re right. I mean, when I was on vacation, the last vacation I had about a year ago, I was walking in an airport and I was walking by the pool and everyone was sitting there with Harry Potter books. People in their 40s! It was strange. So, it’s not just kids reading the books.

Q: MY LITTLE BROTHER ORDERED THE FIRST TWO BOOKS THROUGH HIS SCHOOL, AND WHEN HE BROUGHT THEM HOME I KINDA TOOK THE HIGH ROAD... ME AND MY LOVE OF A GREAT MOVIE THAT’S VERY SIMILAR TO HARRY POTTER. I DON’T KNOW IF YOU’VE EVER SEEN THIS, BUT IT’S A TV MOVIE, DISNEY PRODUCED, I THINK, CALLED THE WORST WITCH.

SK: The Worst Witch?

Q: IT STARRED FAIRUZA BALK, EITHER RIGHT BEFORE OR RIGHT AFTER RETURN TO OZ, AND DIANA RIGG PLAYED ONE OF THE WITCH TEACHERS... KINDA LIKE IF YOU MIXED PROFESSOR SNAPE AND PROFESSOR McGONAGALL FROM HARRY POTTER, YOU KNOW, REALLY STRICT BUT ULTIMATELY FAIR. SHE HAS IT OUT FOR FAIRUZA’S CHARACTER. IT’S ALL ABOUT A WITCH SCHOOL. TIM CURRY HAS A CAMEO IN THE FILM AS THE HEAD WARLOCK AND HE SINGS A GREAT SONG CALLED “ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN ON HALLOWEEN” THAT’S GOT THAT GREAT EARLY ’80S MUSIC VIDEO FEEL...

SK: You know, this sounds vaguely familiar. I don’t know if my kids were watching it... is it on television?

Q: IT USE TO BE, BUT THE LAST TIME I SAW IT PLAY ON TV WAS, LIKE, EIGHT YEARS AGO.

SK: Oh, well I guess that’s too long ago, but the whole Diana Rigg/Fairuza Balk thing sounds familiar to me, but I didn’t see the whole thing. That’s interesting. I’ll check that out.

Q: I GUESS BECAUSE OF WORST WITCH’S INFLUENCE, WHEN I WAS READING THE SECOND BOOK (CHAMBER OF SECRETS) AND I WAS READING ABOUT THE NEW DARK ARTS TEACHER... AH...

SK: Yeah, Gilderoy Lockhart.

Q: YEAH! EVEN THOUGH I SHOULD HAVE PROBABLY BEEN THINKING YOUNGER, I KEPT THINKING OF TIM CURRY IN THE ROLE.

SK: (laughs) That’s actually a pretty good idea!

Q: ANYWAY, BACK THE POINT... I’M SORRY... JUST THAT THERE’LL ALWAYS BE THE PEOPLE OUT THERE THAT’LL SAY “KID’S BOOK, KID’S ENTERTAINMENT, NOT FOR ME,” BUT I JUST CAN’T SEE THIS MOVIE NOT CATCHING ON. I REALLY, REALLY HOPE CHRIS COLUMBUS DOESN’T DROP THE BALL ON THIS.

SK: When I first was gonna meet Chris, I didn’t know... You know, every time I meet a director, if I’ve written something, I always go in a little bit wary because I don’t know what I’m going to hear. What you fear most is that they just see it so differently than you do. I have to say, Chris has been pretty remarkable to work with. I know he wants to do the right thing here and he’s not flinching in the sense that he wants to be very faithful to the book, as I did. I have to say, it’s been a great collaboration.

Again, who knows what the movie’s going to be, but he’s been great. It’s interesting being involved with a project like this because, you were talking about earlier, there’s so much attention paid to it. There was all this stuff in the English press about, “Oh! They’re going to cast an American kid,” and all this stuff.

Q: I REMEMBER THAT.

SK: That was never going to happen with Chris. I mean, Chris from the beginning... it’s just odd for two Yanks, me and Chris, to keep defending it, saying we’d never even think about it. When I was first announced there was stuff written in the London Times that I was gonna put cheerleaders in it, you know, very American. It was insane! I pity Chris in a sense because he has to deal with such stuff and there are people sharpening the knives for this. You can feel it already.

But at the end of the day, it’s a great thing to be involved with and I’ll take all those bullocks because I really do think it’s a great project and I have from the beginning. Part of that stuff out there is the cynical bull---- stuff. You just have to dismiss those people. But some of it is real concern, and that’s just an expression of how passionate people feel about these books, and I think that’s just great. So, hopefully, they’ll be happy with the movie. It’s never going to replace the books. It’s not meant to, but it could be a kinda compliment to the books and just another expression of that world.

Q: WITH BOTH HARRY POTTER AND LORD OF THE RINGS FILMS COMING, IT LOOKS LIKE THE FANTASY FILM IS COMING BACK IN A BIG WAY.

SK: Yeah, because people are nutty for Lord of the Rings coming out, too, right?

Q: EXACTLY. THE FIRST INTERNET TEASER APPARENTLY GOT SOMEWHERE AROUND 1.5 MILLION DOWNLOADS IN THE FIRST 24 HOURS OF IT BEING UP.

SK: Unbelievable!

Q: I’M JUST HAPPY THAT ONE, FANTASY IS COMING BACK AND TWO, THERE’S ACTUALLY SOME REALLY GOOD SOURCE MATERIAL OUT THERE FOR IT. KINDA REMINDS ME OF THE SURGE OF GREAT, YET FAMILY FRIENDLY, FANTASY FILMS OF THE ‘80S LIKE LABYRINTH, NEVERENDING STORY AND LEGEND. THAT’S WHAT I WATCHED GROWING UP. THOSE WERE FILMS THAT WORKED, FOR THE MOST PART, FOR BOTH THE KIDS AND ADULTS, AND I THINK HARRY POTTER AND THE LORD OF THE RINGS WILL BE IN THAT SAME VEIN.

SK: I think that’s right. They’re two completely different worlds, but like you say they both fell under that umbrella of fantasy. That’s one of those things that movies can do well, just transport you to a whole other world. You say growing up watching this stuff. It was like me. I remember seeing adventure movies and things like that. It was just exciting for me as a kid to just get transported in a way. I’m 40, so I sorta watched stuff in the late ’60s, early ’70s which was harder edged, character based, and I love that stuff, but I’ve always loved the Fantasy spectacle Hollywood can do when they do it right. As opposed to just kinda churning out crap.

That’s the thing that just drives me crazy. There’s nothing like seeing a really magical movie. It stays with you so much. I mean, it stays with you through your life. It’s a real gift for kids. I see my kids, they watch things... My daughter went through a period when she watched Mary Poppins over and over, and Snow White ... Snow White was an amazing piece of animation. You just see that when things are done well, then kids respond. It’s truly this great thing. I do think that’s some good stuff, I have to say, on the animation side. Some of those movies are pretty good.

Q: YOU MEAN THE EARLY DISNEY STUFF?

SK: Well, obviously the early Disney stuff, and I think even in the last 10, 15 years. You know, Beauty and the Beast is a good movie. A few of those things are really wonderful movies for kids. Believe me, when you have kids, you see everything, and you see stuff that’s outrageously bad. You realize, you know, a lot of work goes into Beauty and the Beast. A lot of work goes into The Lion King. They get a little over commercialized, and I think that’s always the danger, but the movies themselves, when you look at them, they’re really nice. I just see it in the faces of my kids. They really work.

Some of them I don’t understand. Again, walking through a mall with my kids about 6 weeks before Pocahontas opened, and it was just insane. They had ---- everywhere in every window. You start to just put your chin up and go, “---- this! You’re working me too hard!” You know, let the movie come out and then everything happen. That I don’t like about it, but I also don’t want it to cloud how good some of those movies are. I mean, they are pretty good. I think this stuff’s exciting, in the fantasy side, because I don’t think we’ve seen a lot of it in a while.

Q: YEAH, IT WAS JUST KINDA LEFT BY THE WAYSIDE... I GUESS AFTER JIM HENSON DIED.

SK: Yeah, I think that’s true. I think he would have done something. I think he would have continued to do stuff, and I think, also, some of those movies didn’t work financially the way they wanted, so people got worried. I think some of that was because they were somewhat ill-conceived.

One of the great things about Harry Potter is it’s not like stars have been shoehorned into it. It’s an all-English cast. You’ll recognize some of the people. There’s great actors in it, like Richard Harris and Maggie Smith and Robbie Coltraine. If you watch movies, you’ll recognize these people.

Q: AND HANS!

SK: And what?

Q: HANS! HANS GRUBER!

SK: Hans Gruber?

Q: YOU KNOW, FROM DIE HARD.

SK: (laughs) Oh yeah! That’s right!

Q: ALAN RICKMAN! HANS! “SHOOT THE GLASS...”

SK: (laughs) But that stuff... It’s not like, let’s find a way to make Julia Roberts McGonagall. That’s what’s great about it. I don’t know, I guess maybe it’s just how I grew up watching movies. I remember there were some people saying, “Are you worried that (the cast) is all English?” No! When I was a kid, man, seeing an all English movie just was more exotic to me. I loved that accent. It was like I was in another world.

Q: EXACTLY! MARY POPPINS DID THAT TO ME. MARY POPPINS WAS ONE OF THE MOST WATCHED FILMS AT MY HOUSE. IT MIGHT AS WELL BEEN ON A LOOP. I LOVED IT... FOR A WHILE THERE THE WORD “AD-VER-TIZ-MINT” WAS A WHOLE NEW WORD. I WAS LIKE, “OOHHH. WHAT A STRANGE WORD. I WONDER WHAT THAT MEANS!”

SK: (laughs) Yeah!

Q: THEN WHEN I WATCHED IT LATER I WENT, “WAIT A MINUTE! HE SAID HE WANTED TO PLACE AN AD-VER-TIES-MENT!”

SK: (laughs) Yeah! I’ve been driving my kids crazy since I’ve been spending so much time in London saying things like “priv-a-cy.” My daughter just rolls her eyes. But I love that stuff. I’ve always liked that. I like language. I think kids will like it, too. I think it’ll be magical for them in some ways. I mean, I hope it works for them because it’s for everybody, but you really want those kids to have the same experience that you and I did when we first started going to the movies. That they get excited.

I’m gonna tell you, and I know it sounds schmaltzy, but there’s still nothing like sitting with your kids or a group of kids and seeing them react well to a movie because they’re not as cynical. They don’t enter in saying, “Well, ---- him, ---- him.” They have no agenda other than to have a good time. When it works, man, it’s just remarkable. I get this going back to when I was a kid and I see that I just go, man, that’s why I wanted to work in movies.

Q: EXACTLY. A GOOD EXAMPLE OF THAT TO HAPPEN TO ME RECENTLY WAS WHEN I SAW DINOSAUR. I REALLY LIKE THAT MOVIE...

SK: Yeah, I do, too.

Q: SOME PEOPLE HATE THAT FILM, BUT I SAW IT A SNEAK PREVIEW WHERE THE RATIO OF ADULTS AND KIDS WAS ABOUT 30 PERCENT ADULTS AND 70 PERCENT KIDS, AND THE KIDS WERE JUST GOING NUTS WITH THE MOVIE.

SK: What I loved about Dinosaur was that first 15 minutes with no dialogue, pure cinema... that was amazing.

Q: I THINK THE MOVIE MISSED BRILLIANCE BY AN INCH. IT WOULD HAVE TURNED A BILLION PEOPLE AWAY, BUT IF IT HAD HAD NO DIALOGUE, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN AN INSTANT CLASSIC. HELL, JUST ERASE THAT STUPID MONKEY FROM THE FILM AND IT WOULD HAVE BEEN 100 TIMES BETTER. I MEAN, PEOPLE GET ALL UP IN ARMS ABOUT EPISODE 1 AND JAR JAR, BUT I THINK THE MONKEY IS MUCH WORSE. THE REASON THOSE TWO CHARACTERS ARE ------- PEOPLE OFF IS THEY’RE BOTH BRINGING MODERN REFERENCES AND SLANG INTO THE MOVIES.

SK: I actually haven’t seen the new Star Wars movie. I can’t believe I haven’t, but I haven’t. I agree with you, though. That was the one thing that bothered me about Dinosaur as well. I also think it could have been a classic without dialogue. That’s what I thought when it started. I was like, “My God! This is amazing.” I was sitting there watching it going, “They’re not going to have them speak!” Then of course they started speaking and that was OK, but I do agree with you on the monkey stuff. They tried to fit a little “Hakuna Matata” in there. They thought they needed a comic character.

In Harry Potter, for example, there are comic characters, but they’re really complex, though. I mean, Hagrid is a really complex character, and he’s a very sad character, but he’s funny. But he’s more charming in his behavior. He’s not doing jokes, he’s not falling over buckets and stuff like that. He’s just ... well, he’s Hagrid and he’s just great because he is Hagrid. I like that about it. Also, like, for example in Book 2, Gilderoy Lockhart is a funny character, but again he’s a real character as opposed to just a device to get some jokes in.

I hate that contemporary stuff. It really bothers me in movies when they do... you were talking about inserting a certain slang and stuff. It bugs me when they’re in a world where that would not be because there’s a way to do humor that’s universal and you don’t have to say “awesome” and stuff. That drives me insane. You’re in an 18th-century barroom, and somebody says, “Awesome. She looks awesome!”

Q: WE’VE STRAYED SO FAR OFF THE COURSE IT’S NOT EVEN FUNNY, BUT THAT’S COOL. I FOUND THAT THE INTERVIEWS I DO WHERE THAT HAPPENS, WHERE WE JUST START BULL-------- DURING THE INTERVIEW, TURN OUT PRETTY ENTERTAINING.

SK: It’s enjoyable for me when it goes like that, too. I haven’t done a lot of talking on this movie (Wonder Boys), I hadn’t done any talking until Curtis started asking me to do some stuff on this. You get asked often the same questions. Not so much on Wonder Boys, but I did on Baker Boys. It was insane.

Q: (IN A MOCK, DWEEBY VOICE... THINK COMIC BOOK GUY FROM SIMPSONS) WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING WITH MICHELLE PFEIFFER?

SK: Yeah. “What was it like working with brothers? Do you have a brother?” Yes. “Are you and him Jack and Frank?” No. No, I sit in a room and make ---- up. Trust me. “Are there elements that are similar?” Yes, but, you know, there are elements that are similar between me and you. You know, you start to want to open a vein after a while.

Q: WELL, I JUST WANT TO TOUCH UPON ONE MORE HARRY POTTER THING BEFORE WE MOVE ON TO THE LAST FEW QUESTIONS, AND THAT’S THE CAST. PERSONALLY, I THINK IT’S TO COLUMBUS’ AND WHOEVER THE CASTING DIRECTOR IS GREAT CREDIT TO CAST THREE UNKNOWNS TO PLAY THE LEAD CHILDREN.

SK: Yes.

Q: I REMEMBER WHEN THERE WAS ALL THIS TALK ABOUT HALEY JOEL OSMENT BEING CAST AS HARRY. AS MUCH AS I LIKE OSMENT, HE WOULD HAVE BEEN SO TERRIBLY WRONG FOR THE PART. LIKE YOU SAID, THIS MOVIE HINGES ON RON, HARRY AND... HER...HERM... HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE THE GIRL’S NAME?

SK: It’s Hermione (Her-my-knee) actually. I had to find out, too. I didn’t know how it was pronounced.

Q: WELL, IT REALLY HINGES ON THOSE THREE CHARACTERS. I JUST WANTED TO GET YOUR REACTION TO WHAT THEY’VE DONE. HAVE YOU SEEN ANY FOOTAGE OF THEM, YET?

SK: I saw their tests. Dan Radcliffe, who plays Harry... um.. Number one, I wrote the script basically from Harry’s point of view the entire movie. He’s literally in every scene. So, you’re quite right. He shoulders the movie in many ways. What’s amazing about Dan Radcliffe in the test I saw, he was reading some of my dialogue. He has an innate tendency to underplay, as opposed to sitcom kids where everything’s with an exclamation point. Dan underplays everything and it’s really cool to watch because Harry’s meant to be slightly mysterious. He’s watchful, when others talk he’s watching, he observing and you believe Dan could put things together.

And in a sense... the other two... Ron is just funny. This is a funny kid, this Rupert Grint. And Hermione, played by Emma Watson... Emma’s just got this Hermione thing. She’s a very smart little girl. She doesn’t have to pretend to be smart. She’s 10 and she’s, like, 10 going on 25.

What was great about it was I remember Chris going... I think Chris said this to me. I know it was discussed in the group. He said, “I have nothing against Haley Joel Osment. I think he’s great. There’s only one problem. He’s not English!” So, it was just never going to happen. I think Chris was just never going to do it.

I think Chris did meet with the kid from Stepmom, [LIAM AIKEN] but when you have a relationship with someone, you meet them. He’s a good little actor, and I think Chris wanted to give him a fair shot, but Chris was always going to go English.

Q: FOR ME, WHAT’S SO GOOD ABOUT THE CASTING SO FAR IS NOT JUST THAT THEY GOT ENGLISH KIDS, BUT THAT THEY AREN’T KNOWN. IF YOU HAD, SAY, HALEY JOEL OSMENT IN THE LEAD YOU WOULDN’T BE SAYING TO YOURSELF, “HEY, THERE’S HARRY POTTER UP ON THE SCREEN,” YOU’D BE SAYING, “HEY, LOOK. THERE’S HALEY JOEL OSMENT RIDING A BROOMSTICK!”

SK: I think that’s true, and that has always excited me about it because I know there’s been stuff where people say, “Well, wait a minute. He doesn’t look right. He’s supposed to have this kinda hair, this kinda...” I understand people reacting that way, but on the other hand, what’s great about this, I think you will just accept them as the characters almost immediately. The truth is physically, in many ways, they do resemble the characters in the book. Rupert really does have red hair and all that stuff. I know when Jo (Rowling) saw Dan, she just flipped. When she saw his test, she just flipped. She said, “Oh my God! That’s Harry!”

Q: AFTER SEEING A COUPLE PHOTOS OF DAN AND THE KIDS I JUST THOUGHT THEY LOOKED RIGHT FOR THE ROLE, PERSONALLY.

SK: Well, Dan’s very English looking. Dan looks English. That’s what Harry would look like. I think sometimes Americans when they read this book have in mind... you know... Macaulay Culkin or whoever is easy to grab as a kind of reference point. They look very much like the kids you see in the UK. It’s a great little group. I have to say, I think they’re going to be great, again because Dan has such subtlety and Rupert is so funny, just naturally funny and Emma just has the essence of Hermione. I just think there’s really a good chance of a chemistry there. From everything I’ve heard there really is chemistry between the three of them and that’s important.

Q: ALL RIGHT. SO YOU HAVE THE MAIN THREE. NOW YOU HAVE AN AWESOME SUPPORTING CAST. I MEAN, I ALMOST FLIPPED WHEN I SAW THAT JOHN CLEESE WAS PLAYING NEARLY HEADLESS NICK.

SK: Yeah, that’s really just a sort of dip in, dip out moment. He has more stuff to do in 2, quite a bit more. But that’s the kinda stuff that’ll be in the movie. There’s even a guy that Americans haven’t heard of that’s playing Peeves that’s a remarkable actor. [Webmaster: Rik Mayall] It’s such a great cast. It’s just a remarkable group of English actors. To have Maggie Smith in the movie and Richard Harris... it’s kind of amazing. It should be pretty special in that way. I mean, there are no losers in the cast. (laughs)

Q: SINCE YOU’RE ALREADY WORKING ON THE SECOND FILM, ARE THEY PLANNING ON KNOCKING THESE OUT?

SK: I don’t know about knocking them out because one of the challenges with Harry is doing it right, and that requires time. Now, once you get the first one going you have certain, as you know reading the books, you have certain sets that don’t have to be built again. I mean, The Great Hall, things like that. Those are big challenges. But these kids are going to grow. You can’t have Harry shaving in (Book 3, The Prisoner of) Azkaban, so I think that’ll become an issue at some point.

I think the feeling is, if everybody feels the first movie works, then there will be more. As long as the audience wants them. I know that everyone is happy with (what’s been done so far.) I mean, Chris is a little more than halfway done shooting and I know people are thrilled with what he shot so far. That’s what I’m hearing. If it works, I think you’ll see more. I don’t know how quickly they’ll come. I think the second one, there’ll be an attempt to have it come out reasonably quickly after.

At least for now, it’ll be seven books, and he’ll leave when he’s 17. It’ll be great if they could do the movies. I don’t know that anybody actually thinks they’ll get to 7, but it’ll be great to have one come out every year. I don’t know how that could be pulled off. It’d be very hard. It’s gonna really depend on the first movie. If people like it and they go... we’ll see.

But this wasn’t done like Lord of the Rings. As I understand it, he was shooting three at one time. That’s just... You know, all I can say is, having directed, I don’t know how you’d do that without ultimately just falling over.

Q: I’M SURPRISED WE HAVEN’T SEEN A TRAILER FOR HARRY POTTER YET. [Webmaster: The first trailer appeared 1 March 2001 in the U.S.]

SK: Yeah, I know they’re showing a lot of restraint because the ideas was to have a teaser for Christmas, but a genuine teaser. Very short. I think the feeling was, “Let’s get more footage, let’s make sure it’s right. We got plenty of time. There’s not problem with awareness on Harry Potter.”

Q: YOU’VE WORKED AS A WRITER, AS A DIRECTOR AND AS BOTH AT THE SAME TIME. WHICH DO YOU PREFER?

SK: It depends. Both can be rewarding and both can be a pain in the ---. You know, writing is very solitary. What’s nice about directing is you get out with people and it’s a true collaboration. If anybody says it isn’t, they’re insane. That’s also what’s special about film is it really is a collaborative art. It’s great to work with people that are talented at what they do. It’s an amazing thing to witness.

I like both. They’re different sides of my brain and different sides of my personality. I’ve always said I’m first a writer in the sense that I’m a writer who directs because I started as a writer. I value writing. I really do believe that most really fine movies originate with a fine script. I don’t know too many movies that started with a shitty script. I’m not saying it has never happened, I’m just saying that the odds are if it’s a good script, it leads to a good movie, despite when Hollywood sometimes tries to look the other way.

So, I like both. I really do enjoy both because I love working with actors. It’s something I just felt very comfortable doing from the beginning and I think it’s because I’m a writer. Writers and actors share one thing, which is obsession about character. At least I do as a writer. I’m more interested in character than plot, so I’ve always enjoyed talking to actors. So I miss that. I thought I would have done another movie with Michelle (Pfeiffer) and Jeff (Bridges) and Gweny (Paltrow) probably, too. Certainly with Michelle. I always thought I’d do another movie with Michelle.

Q: YOU STILL MAY.

SK: Yeah, I still may. I think it’s just one of those things where it’s been 10 years already, and I’m kinda surprised. We really worked well together and it’s just easy. It was real easy.

Q: YOU WORKED WITH THE DUDE, HOW COOL IS THAT?!?

SK: Who?

Q: THE DUDE!!!

SK: Who’s The Dude? (pause) Oh, Jeff! (laughs) How could I miss that?

Q: WELL, HE WASN’T THE DUDE THEN...

SK: He still was The Dude. Jeff was truly one of the, not only the best actors, but just one of the great, great guys of all time. It’s shocking how great he is. He’s just totally untouched by the bullshit of Hollywood. Both he and Beau... Beau was really great to me on that movie because Beau had directed and had a great sense of.... like he just knew if I was under the gun.

I remember once shooting Beau and he just nailed it on the first take. It could not have been better. I did one more and I started to walk up to him, because I needed to move on, and I got halfway there and he goes, “I know. Move on.” You know, ’cause I always try to give actors a few extra takes even when they nailed it just to be fair and they might show me something interesting, but he knew. He knew it was a big day and he just said, “No. You don’t have to ask me. I know.” He was just a great guy. That was an unbelievable experience. Michelle, Jeff and Beau were just unbelievable for a for a first time director. I mean, they treated me like I was David Lean, with unbelievable respect. It was great. That was a great experience.

Q: BESIDES HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS, ARE YOU WORKING ON ANYTHING ELSE?

SK: No, not that I know of. There’s an old project of mine that’s sorta bubbling around. We’ll see what happens. It’s something a wrote a few years ago that’s always sort of been out there. But no, nothing. I’ve just been Harryland for the last year and half, two years. I like it. It’s great. It really is great.

Q: ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO ADD OR PLUG OR ANYTHING?

SK: Umm.. Go to Wonder Boys. Someone go, please!!! [Webmaster: It's now available on video and DVD.]