Peter Morgan says he's never had to get "a real job," having worked as a writer since his days at University of Leeds. It was there he wrote his first play, which landed him an agent, who got him a job writing training films—all before college graduation. Morgan says he had some years of struggle, but things changed after he penned The Deal, the first of three films that utilized British Prime Minister Tony Blair as a character. Director Stephen Frears and actor Michael Sheen reprised their roles from The Deal in The Queen, which earned Morgan an Oscar nomination, and this year's HBO film The Special Relationship.
In theatres now is the Clint Eastwood-directed Hereafter, a film that grapples with issues of life and death—literally and figuratively. The plot revolves around three character in different parts of the world who lives ultimately intersect. Matt Damon plays a reluctant psychic in America, Cecile de France is a French TV reporter affected by a near-death experience, and Frankie McLaren is a London schoolboy mourning the loss of his twin brother. But Morgan will soon return to real life; he's currently penning a biopic of rocker Freddie Mercury to star Sacha Baron Cohen.
CSW: How did you manage to go from training films to writing for the big screen?
Morgan: My big break came when I did all the rewrites on a movie with John Schlesinger called Madame Sousatzka, which was not necessarily one of his best films, but it got me out there and I worked for six months. And ever since then I've done this job.
CSW: How did that job come about?
Morgan: My agent sent me to meet John, who was not getting along with Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. He famously said, "I have a suspicion she doesn't enjoy eating, shitting, or fucking. And he wouldn't know where to start with somebody who didn't enjoy all three." That's how I got my start.
CSW: Did you ever wonder how they went from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala to you?
Morgan: Oh, all the time! But it was answered by virtue of the fact they didn't pay me for six months' work.
CSW: How did you learn screenwriting at the time? Had you seen a screenplay before? Did they even have Final Draft then?
Morgan: No, I hadn't really seen one. They didn't have Final Draft, they had the very first computers that were coming out that were the size of a cupboard and had less processing capability than my watch. I think most people were hand-writing or using a typewriter. I had bought a typewriter, I used them for my play and first few training films.
CSW: You mentioned you had some hard years; when do you feel things changed?
Morgan: After The Deal. That made me take myself more seriously and it gave me some prestige. Even though it wasn't big in terms of ratings and it wasn't big in terms of DVD sales; it was just a TV movie. But it created waves within the industry and people's view of me changed after that.
CSW: Where did you get the idea for The Deal?
Morgan: It was an idea I wrote out. We were looking at all sorts of different places to do it and then Stephen Frears' agent read it and asked if he could show it to Stephen. I said, "Of course! Are you mad?" I never thought for a minute he would do it, it was just for TV.
CSW: You revisited the character of Tony Blair in The Queen and Special Relationship. What do you think draws you back to him again and again?
Morgan: Originally, Stephen and the producers didn't want Blair in The Queen. It was me that insisted the only way the story worked was to have him. If you were writing The Queen just about those people, it's not very interesting. It's only interesting when it connects to the real world, and Tony Blair was our way in. I've used Tony as a way of piggybacking through contemporary history. He's a very useful character to do that with. It's interesting, neither Michael nor I love Tony Blair, but he's become for us the horse we ride through the way that we live now. I'm not beyond the idea of using him again, if the time is right.
CSW: You wrote Frost/Nixon as a play, and then adapted the screenplay for director Ron Howard. Was there anything you had to lose in the translation that was difficult for you?
Morgan: No. I just had such a nice time with Ron Howard. It was as pleasant a working experience as you can have. Though the play had several sort of narrators, I didn't want narration in the film. He kept insisting on it, I kept saying, "No, no, no." Then he came up with the idea of doing a mock documentary style, with people addressing the camera, and I thought it worked fine and it allowed us to say all the things we wanted to say.
CSW: How did Hereafter come about?
Morgan: I wrote it very quickly and on spec for myself. Then a friend of
mine died after I'd written it and it made me want to focus on it. Having written one draft, I thought, "Okay now I'm going to start the work." So I sent it to my agent for some feedback and they sent it to Kathleen Kennedy without telling me, and she sent it to Steven Spielberg, and he sent it to Clint. The next thing I know, they're making it and they don't want to change it. I said, "Don't be ridiculous, I've only done one draft." Clint's message back was: "Clint likes it the way it is, he doesn't want to change it."
CSW: Do you prefer to be on set or are you fine with letting the script go once a director has signed on?
Morgan: I complain whatever I do. I'm always complaining. But in retrospect I feel the perfect balance was Frost/Nixon, which was, on days of complicated dialogue I would go and I would be there to make adjustments and changes. I sort of think of what I do like a tailor. I cut the suit and an actor puts it on, but then you get to do a whole load of extra work to make it really fit so it's just right. Each actor brings something so unique to it.
CSW: Do you have a set process? When and how do you write?
Morgan: I don't listen to music. I write in the mornings. Generally, after lunch, I don't do much. And I write something every day, even Christmas. At least an hour a day.
CSW: Do you ever get writer's block?
Morgan: Never. I think writer's block happens when you're so self-critical you paralyze yourself. So you basically saying, "This is going to be shit" before you start. So you don't even start. I think the biggest thing to avoid writer's block is not worry about the script, but work on an outline. I don't write dialogue until the end of the process. I will storyline and storyline and storyline until dialogue literally comes bursting out. I will generally write a script in about three weeks, but I will plot it for about six months. And if what you're doing is plotting, it's not really writer's block.
CSW: Which do you find more difficult; writing about real events or creating something from scratch?
Morgan: In each case, I think there are bits which are easier and bits which are harder. You have freedoms and confinements in both.
CSW: How beholden are you to the truth when trying to dramatize real events? Do you ever create a scene from scratch?
Morgan: There's a difference between accuracy and truth. I would always want it to be truthful, but I am completely comfortable writing something inaccurate. What people take away from a film is an overriding truth. When I did Frost/Nixon, everyone's memories were so at odds with one another, I wondered if these people had ever been in the same room together. But what's the big takeaway—who won? So the important thing is to not misrepresent the essence of a situation or a person. And you have to act with great responsibility.
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