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Panel wrap: A conversation with John Lee Hancock
Although he admitted he was worried his anecdote about his first taste of the business after leaving a legal career in Houston may have been redundant from years past, it was still informative and entertaining. The writer-director explained how he (somewhat benignly) stalked fellow Baylor grad Kevin Reynolds (“Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves”) in Hollywood, who gave Hancock his first reality check. Following six months of phone calls, Hancock had lunch with Reynolds who told the would-be screenwriter that he was “not without talent,” but the director did not fall over praising Hancock. He challenged Hancock to continue writing by offering him the feigned advice to return home and practice law. If Hancock took the advice, Reynolds said it would be apparent the young lawyer was not cut out to be a writer. Hancock kept writing.
What he realized in retrospect what that most writers’ first scripts tend to be autobiographical and are generally not very good — Hancock’s was about a young lawyer conflicted about whether to follow a creative career path. Hancock stressed to the crowd that “it’s important to write what moves you.”
The director of “The Rookie” said that “writing is the fastest track” to getting into the business, although he said once you are in, there is no guarantee you can keep getting work. He compared his career as a “contract worker” to that of a house painter, always looking for another house to paint. In terms of mapping a career, Hancock said that “having a game plan is importantbut not as important as the fire in your soul.”
Hancock called the experience of working “A Perfect World”— his first major writing gig — as “an amazing film school for me … kind of a magical time …” Reflecting back, he says the fact that he’s made it now almost 20 years is a “kind of a miracle.”
The homegrown star spent a good half hour discussing his greatest commercial success — “The Blind Side.” Although it’s hard to imagine that a movie that made over $250 million at American box offices alone having trouble getting off the ground, Hancock described the painful process of getting the film made. After attaching Julia Roberts to the script just a few days after it had started circulating around the industry, he gained Fox’s interest. Then he lost Roberts, who was just coming off filming “Duplicity,” her first film in awhile, and then he had to wrestle the project back from a now-lukewarm Fox after Alcon Entertainment expressed interest.
Beyond the nuts and bolts of getting the film made, the most interesting part of the conversation was Hancock discussing the sensitive issues of race surrounding the film and his adherence to the truth of Michael Lewis’s book and the Tuohy family’s real story.
The director said he always considered the movie an “unconventional mother-son” adult drama, which he acknowledged tend to not get made much these days. He said he had to fight the desire for the industry to classify anything as a sports movie just because it has elements of sports in it.
Hancock admitted that he may have exaggerated Michael Oher’s lack of football talent, but that he did so for dramatic purposes, so there would be a contrast between where the young man started as a player and where he ended. It was interesting to hear Hancock relate that Oher’s optimistic appraisal of his own talent in 10th grade was less connected to reality than the film’s depiction.
The director also said he knew from Lewis’s experience that the race issue would rankle some people’s belief systems and make them uncomfortable, but that he was not going to shy away from the possibility of promulgating the white hero myth just because some people may find the story unbelievable or wrongly stereotypical.
Engaging, self-effacing and charming, Hancock’s 75 minutes Friday were a testament to believing in the stories you want to tell as a writer, refusing to indulge in self-pity and the resolve it takes to make it in such a youth-oriented, flavor-of-the-minute chasing business.
Success in the industry is not about getting a studio to say ‘yes,’ it’s about making it impossible for them to say ‘no.’
(A word about the Driskill Victorian Balcony room — and I know I probably say this every year — but as cozy as it is to be able to sit on the floor and listen to a distinguished screenwriter, it is pretty uncomfortable. I understand logistics may prevent a load of chairs from being easily delivered into the “Malkovich Room” (it is on some mysterious half-floor of the hotel), but I continue to hold out hope that something can be done to alleviate the stress on our rear ends and hips.)
Photo: John Lee Hancock on the set of “The Blind Side.”
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