Film Courage: How important is it for you to have a strong personal connection to the
material that you’re writing?
Gary Goldstein: I think it’s really important. I think it’s so important. If you’re writing
something for you like a play (a stage play) or something that’s personal. Obviously.
Absolutely. But even on something that’s not particularly about you or something of
your life or your concern, you have to find your way into it and you have to find your
way, how do you connect into it?
What makes you the unique writer of any story or any script is your perspective and what
you bring to it. If you and I were to write the same script, we might get to the same
end goal and the story might not be similar. But how we get there would be very different
because we’d be bringing our own experiences to it and our own views of things and other
people’s views of things that we’ve seen, you know.
So I think being able to connect, to find stories that you connect with or find great
connections that you relate to because it becomes very honest that way and so whether
it’s comedy or drama, honesty and real experiences and (like what we talked about earlier) things
that you overhear in the supermarket, that you can use because that moved you or made
you laugh and you can use that, those connections are really critical I think to make good writing,
for good stories. You don’t have to but I definitely think it’s a big help.
Film Courage: Why did you begin writing?
Gary Goldstein: Ahhh…that’s a good question. You know, I think I started writing…my very
first writing was when I wrote movie reviews for the high school newspaper. And I think
part of it was there was a certain escape factor to it back then. Movies were a good
escape and writing about them was just…I had a lot of thoughts about them.
I loved movies and I read a lot of film criticism and it was really a big part of my world and
it meant a lot to me. And it was like “Oh, I want to do that. I can write that. And I’ve
read so much and I’ve seen so many movies, it’s fun. Let me take a crack at it.”
And it was fun and I liked being able to share opinions and get conversations going about
things and hear people who had different opinions than mine and all of that and again I just
loved writing the words and crafting the words and it just sort of evolved and I’ve always
loved movies and theater, and television and stories and books and telling stories and
reading stories and all of the so.
And at a certain point if you want to be part of that, you are either on one side or another.
So I started as a a publicist promoting other people’s movies and being able to talk about
other people’s movies, writing and selling other people’s movies.
But then at a certain point I realized I wanted to start telling those stories. I wanted to
be the one to create those movies and those stories. That started speaking to me much
more then being on the other side of the table. So it just sort of evolved.
And also it’s something that ultimately I think I have more of talent for than other
things. So you go where you have the most talent, the most ability.
Film Courage: Do you remember the defining moment where you said “I think I want to
leave the publicity world?”
Gary Goldstein: Yes I do!
Film Courage: Oh…you do? There was a defining moment?
Gary Goldstein: Yes, exactly. I was there like it was yesterday. My boss was leaving
to go on a trip for three weeks. And she said to me “You they want you to sign a contract
here.” Because I think I was at a place where they were going to promote me (give
me a little bit of a promotion or whatever, some title promotion and give me some new
duties or something.
And she said “So they want you to sign a contract.” “Well how long is the contract
for?” And she said “Well, it’s a 6-year contract. It’s 2 years, 2 years and 2 years.”
And so she said “While I’m away, read it, take a look at it and sign it. And then
when I come back, I’ll sign it and we’ll move forward."
And when she was gone I was like “I can’t sign that contract?” And I just realized
that I didn’t want to be there. It just wasn’t right for me. It was a tie and jacket
job for me at the time. You know, it was very political and all of that. And not that screenwriting
doesn’t have its own politics and all of that.
But I don’t know. I just felt like I wasn’t accomplishing what I felt I wanted to do at
a young age. I just felt like this wasn’t where I needed to be. Even though I was doing
well, it was where I needed to be.
My father was visiting me around that time. My father passed away last year but he was
a very bottom-line, kind of money-oriented guy (very meat and potatoes, not a show biz
guy at all). He always supported what I did but didn’t have a great sense of it.
But I said “You know, Dad…they want me to sign a contract. What do you think I should
do?” And he said “Well, do you want to stay there?” And I said “I don’t.”
And he said “Well, then you should leave.” And I said “I can’t leave this job. This
is a job that people aspire to.” And he said “What do you want to do?” And I said
“Actually, I want to write. I want to write movies and television.” And he said “Then
that’s what you should do.” And I said “Well, what if it doesn’t work out?”
And he said “Listen, you don’t want to be my age and look back and say I should have
done it and then it’s too late.” He said “If that’s what you have to do, you have
to do it.” And I was like shocked that he said that. And not that I always listen to
him but it was coming from an I interesting place. And I just thought about it and I said
“He’s right. I’m not going to sign that contract.”
And my boss came back and she said “So did you sign that contract?” And I said “No.”
And she said “Oh? So you just didn’t get to it yet?” And I said “I’m not signing
that contract.” And she said “You’re not signing that contract?” And I said “No.
I’m leaving. I’m going to write for television.” And I did. And then I called my father and
said “Dad, I quit my job.” And he said “You did what? How could you quit your job?
Who quits a job like that?” And you know, for years after that he’s say to me “You
know if you stayed there, you probably would have been president of that place.
But I was just so glad to be gone and it was a good experience for certain things. It certainly
helped me in many, many ways as a writer, as a marketer of my material but that was
the time that I knew I had to move on. And I never looked back.
Film Courage: So when you got your things together in a box or whatever, did you feel
awake?
Gary Goldstein: I felt so great. When I was saying goodbye to people… It was really
funny and I don’t mean to be arrogant about it or anything because it was a difficult
time work wise and personally at that time but I just kind of needed to go. And I remember
one of the people I worked with he said to me “You know, what you’re doing is so
brave to leave.” And I said “No, it would be more courageous to stay.” Meaning that
it was tougher to stay than to go in a certain respect but I didn’t realize what a deep
pool I was diving into becoming a writer. Like I said I was just so optimistic about
it, I wasn’t quite aware of the difficulties of it. And so for me it was just the thing
to do. Staying there would have been more difficult. But I was happy to go. I was done.
Film Courage: Do you think a lot of people do that in Hollywood? They stay in certain
things because…
Gary Goldstein: Everybody in life stays in things that they are just not happy with because
sometimes they just don’t know where to go. I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve kind
of always known what I’ve wanted to do. I have things that I’m passionate about.
My work is my enjoyment. So I feel very, very fortunate for that.
But a lot of people aren’t happy in a job but they don’t really know what else they
want to do. And I would never recommend someone not be happy with something and just up and
leave without knowing where they are going because it could be a very long time to get
another job and you are always worth valuable while you’re employed (whatever you’re
doing).
Yeah but I think there are definitely people living in those desperate situations but I
encourage people who really aren’t happy in what they do to find their passion and
to figure out a way to make it a career if you can. Not everything can be. Not everything
is that monetizable or that realistic but work is a big part of our lives and it really
helps if you can enjoy it.