Guido Segal, Screenwriter, Journalist, Film Critic, Instructor: The truth is over the
years I keep doing it and the fact that I keep going back to it means that I actually care.
Film Courage: Guido you have a quote on your Facebook I think it was from
an interview that you did and the quote begins with “Make sure you want it?”
Guido: Yes.
Film Courage: I’m wondering can I continue? I'll let you know more of what you said here if you
want me to remind you? So it's “Trust your own talent and the singularity of your own voice.
Be careful who you listen to and if this is what you want,
don't get easily discouraged.” What does that mean “Make sure you want it,” that's fascinating.
Guido: Yeah so I know a lot of talented people talented writers talented artists in general but
talent is only a part of the equation I feel like in in this medium you know it's so competitive and
so tough and it's so hard to get people to care your talent can only get you so far it's important
by the way you don't have to be talented I feel like persistence and I'm not saying anything new
here but persistence is so much more important or as important as talent so creativity I feel
like you can develop it right you don't have to be born creative you can nurture it
but there's a part of you that has has to hustle so what you can't fake it if you don't want it
and this applies to actors directors writers people can tell if you desire it and if you
don't that's totally fine and I'm not gonna tell people what line of work they should be in
but you can sense when someone really wants to tell a story when someone wants to because writing
is not necessarily easy it's whoever tells you writing is easy you know I suspect that
statement I'm not saying it's the hardest thing their hardest jobs for sure but there's something
about writing that's exhausting because it's you know it involves an emotional introspection
trying to figure out who you are what do you want to talk about what resonates with you
what resonates with other people so it is draining that's why you know I can only
write a certain amount of pages a day because I want to write something that's truthful and
writing truthful pages takes a lot of energy a lot of thought a lot of asking questions a lot
of doubt that's why you know I didn't mean that quote to be daunting what I mean is
if you really want to do this then no one can stop you just you know there can be failure
along the way that there can be many frustrations I mean daily every writer will know this you know
some days you just write great pages some days it doesn't work some days you write bad or bad
pages or you get rejections or you get awful notes you know notes that you don't know what to do with
like how am I going to apply this note and it's a job you can't say no right so what I meant is
you know if the desire is there if the flame is within you then you got the most important thing.
Film Courage: How should someone quote unquote check themselves to know if they
really want it because I think we all think we want certain things and then once we
go through the process day in and day out then it becomes clear to us what it actually is
yeah I it's a good question so I don't I don't intend to be a guru of any sorts and sometimes
the line is a bit blurry between like self-help and you know but it is a very intimate thing
you know to me at least writing is a very intimate thing very personal thing even if
I'm not writing about my own life which I rarely do it is incredibly personal I care about it
and you know there are moments of doubt of course there were moments and there are still moments
when I wonder is this the best way to channel my abilities my skills my talent the truth is
over the years I keep doing it and the fact that I keep going back to it means that I actually care
that to me is the the best evidence that I am a writer this is not a hobby this is not something
that I'm good at I mean I'm good at certain things that I don't necessarily spend time on
I don't know I guess I could have been a good lawyer I've thought about this many times I
would have certainly made more money I would have been more stable my dad would have been delighted
but that's not how it went you know there's a creative energy there's a need to express yourself
through stories because I mean I've i've been a film critic for 10 years before actually becoming
a screenwriter and you know that's that's a long story how I became a film critic I don't think any
child you know any eight ten-year-old child says I want to become a film critic right but it happened
and I'm i'm glad it did but you know being a journalist or writing a film analysis which I did
that's not that's a whole different approach it's still writing but it's not I mean it is
creative but it's it's it's not the same way to apply your your emotion your brain
it's very different so at some point I had to question myself you know do I want to analyze
a film that's already made and out there someone else's work or do I want to produce my own work
and that takes courage and that takes facing your fears and limitations and you know it's
it's really hard to write a script if you were an attorney presenting your own case so you were you
were employed by guido segal and you were speaking to the jury about why guido should continue
on this path so ladies and gentlemen of the jury I present to you my client and and he really wants
this he's not sure if it'll ever pan out or I don't know what would what would the argument be
how would you convince 12 jurors with their arms crossed that I guess what I would say
is I like a good challenge and this is the most challenging and exciting thing that I've found
I don't I don't know if I could have been a doctor in the sense that I couldn't do the
same thing over and over and over and over again and with writing it's always new no script is
or play I guess or novel they're never the same so with practice you get better at it but every
new story you face or you know you have to break down poses new a new set of new challenges
and that to me is very exciting so persistence we're going back to what you said originally that
talent necessarily it's not always in the equation it's persistence yeah I mean and especially in a
city like l.a there's so many talented people and I don't say this you know lightly I mean
I've met so many talented writers that come from all over the country all over the world
and they're here for a reason but to make it here I mean I'm
again I don't want to be the one saying what it means to make it
I would say to get a job or to have a several jobs that just just to be paid to write means a lot
I want to be very realistic of course you need a dream we all have one or many dreams but
I think my goal is to keep to be paid to write and that to me is the dream it's so maybe I've become
older and jaded and more realistic but it's so hard to get paid to write to get paid to be
an artist a creative so you have to constantly negotiate with what the industry wants and the
standards and what you want and it's not necessarily the same of course when you
get to a guess to a certain point in your career that you're in control you can decide but still I
mean I remember I met paul feig right we did wrote and directed bridesmaids among ghostbusters among
many other things and I asked him paul when is the right time to do your passion project
and he said never never is the right time and you just do it if you want but know that it's risky
when you were in grade school or as a teenager were you bored in school no I actually you know
I get I was I was a nerd I was very I wasn't a troublemaker I actually loved loved school
I know that's not a common thing to say but I loved learning I loved history
I did okay with math and physics and chemistry you know all those subjects but literature history
later on philosophy like I connected to all that you know and I love I've always loved reading
I guess when I decided to be a filmmaker
you know and I still dream about directing I don't know I don't think I'm a director
by nature because I love words I work with words and that's why since I love films and
I love literature I'm a writer I mean and it makes so much sense for me to be a screenwriter
but no I mean I actually love school and grad school and you know college
was the passion project ever the right time did you find time to make yours or it's still in
the works well you know I had a tv I have a tv show that I've developed that I've written the
pilot and it's been in development for three years and it's period I mean and again I don't make it
easy on myself you know it's it's an expensive show it's period it's about the 60’s Chicago
sorry to interrupt I won't by the way this is the thing I didn't set out to be a period writer but
I guess it's it resonates with me so I wrote one show that takes place in the late 60’s in Chicago
that I don't think that's going to happen by the way because they they're going to make the movie
I think it's about the young lords and of course you know me not being puerto rican doesn't help
I got very I met some of those historical figures I interviewed them it was really interesting but
sometimes some things don't pan out and you just let them go and that's you know this
show no the show is is takes place mostly in Boston in the 60s so it's psychedelics
and you just gotta be patient you know I've written that script so many times and rewritten it
and you know it takes time and money and getting people attached this is about Timothy Leary yes
it is okay I as growing up in San Francisco knew his name a lot and around interest yeah so that's
I adapted this author who now became my friend Robert Greenfield and bob wrote about all these
figures in the 60s like you know The Grateful Dead Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, Timothy Leary
so I adapted bob and we became friends and he's like a mentor to me now so that opened up that
script opened up other doors to writing about you know the 60s and rock and roll and psychedelics
and and I clearly connect even though I wasn't born around that time I connect to that I felt
the same way even though I'm a Gen X-er or so yeah but there was something about being there
and just seeing just the counterculture movement that was very attractive and
yeah you know I what I suspect or what I feel at least is that we have an idea of those of those
times and a feeling that there was a dream of how society could have been and that it didn't
work out but for you know for a few years it felt like America at least could become place where you
know there was a certain amount of freedom and and people were against the Vietnam war and you know
expansion of consciousness and and I feel like a lot of what's happening today is still you know
is the the the effect of those of those days like we're still we're going back to some of the ideas
and theories back in the day I you know I'm seduced by the idea of of a different society
where everyone's welcome and you know you have a certain amount of freedom to do what you do as
long as you don't hurt other people I guess that's why I go back to the 60s or my idea of the 60s and
is that one of the reasons you said you don't make it easy on yourself in that doing you know doing
the time different you know in terms of costumes and cars and and getting the rights to music and
things like that would be a lot certainly I mean period by itself you can see producers get scared
because we're talk if it's a tv show we're talking about at least a 2 million dollar episode in a ten
episode season at least I'm saying right so it's costumes it's cars if it's based on real people
it's having vip which which I do but you know it's more challenging so I get this note or this
comment constantly which is why don't you write something contemporary based on your own story
and I usually reply to this you know there is a lot of me in what you read the fact that it's not
autobiographical doesn't mean it's not incredibly personal I mean I have I have been trying this is
the thing I mean this it's everyone has their own approach I don't like to write about myself
explicitly I don't feel like it's necessary but everyone's free to do whatever they feel I mean
sure I mean I incorporate parts of my life and anecdotes into my writing
but I give it to someone else and then that's my approach.
How bad do you really want it?