SYBIL ST CLAIRESearch WILDsound  11 Questions with 2010 Screenplay Finalist SYBIL ST CLAIRE 1. What is your screenplay about? Bloom is a modern day fairy tale about an unintentional cougar. Ella is an embittered, pill popping ex-Broadway star with a checkered past and a bad attitude to match. Washed up, broke, and hostile, she takes the only job she can find teaching at a small Appalachian college where she lashes out at her peers, terrifies her students, and antagonizes the Southern Belle who runs the place. But when she meets rugged, independent Joe, a student half her age who is battling leukemia, Ella is slowly transformed in spite of herself. Laced with magical realism and set against the backdrop of growing a garden as a metaphor for growing one’s self, we traverse Ella’s spiritual re-birth as the couple’s relationship takes them on a journey into “soul gardening.” A journey that blossoms into a tumultuous love affair that may destroy both their lives as Ella finds herself at war with Joe’s controlling mother and ex-girlfriend and faced with the possibility of losing him forever. Bloom is a celebration of the redemptive powers of love, loss – and of life – finally, exquisitely lived. 2. Why did you decide to write this screenplay? I was really interested in telling a story about an older woman and a younger man that was rooted in love as opposed to lust, predation, or desperation. While I am all for a stellar romp in the hay, I believe that real and lasting romantic love can exist between an older woman and a younger man but that story is almost never told. Bloom was also an opportunity to address a form of discrimination – ageism. “Women of a certain age” are simply not valued in our youth obsessed culture, but we all age. How about we learn to feel good about ourselves as we do? Film is a powerful tool and it can be used to re-frame cultural viewpoints. If we can present older women as valuable and desirable, as vital and vibrant with compelling stories of their own to tell (which is the truth) then perhaps we can get a much needed revolution started in Hollywood. 3. How long have you been writing screenplays? I’ve been a published playwright for almost 20 years but I only recently started writing screenplays when I returned to college at the age of 45 to earn an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. Completed in May of 2009, Bloom is my very first screenplay and was actually my graduate thesis! Six months later I landed my first professional gig as a screenwriter working on a comedy about scattering ashes called Maam’s Crossing. Produced by Tony nominated Broadway and film Producer John Arthur Pinckard in conjunction with Grand Pictures, and co-written and directed by Colleen Davie Janes, Maam’s Crossing is set to begin filming in Ireland in March of 2011. So, while I’m new to this genre my career has taken off rather rapidly. 4. What is your favorite MOVIE of all-time (name only one and explain why it's on top)? American Beauty because Alan Ball is a freaking genius. Nuff said. Really. 5. What artist in the industry would you love to work with? I would love to work with Sandra Bullock and Susan Sarandon. They are both strong, passionate, talented women whose work I deeply admire. There are roles for both of you in Bloom, so no need to fight ladies. 6. Who was your hero growing up? I don’t know that I had a hero when I was growing up but my Mom has become my hero. She was a high school drop out and a single mother (my Dad was MIA from the get go). She often worked three jobs just to make ends meet. When I was a teenager she went back to school to earn her GED and went on to become a nurse. Despite having the deck completely stacked against her she made sure that I believed in myself and in my gifts. She’s still going strong, by the way, and just began her film-acting career at the age of 70! You have to admire that. 7. Ideally, where would you like to be in 5 years? In five years I will have won an Oscar and be living in Asheville, NC making my living as a screenwriter and as a practitioner of Theatre for Social Change. 8. Describe your process; do you have a set routine, method for writing? I would not say that I have a set routine. Sometimes I write all day every day. Sometimes months will go by wherein I write nothing at all. For me, it is generally about hitting deadlines, whether personal or professional. As to methodology, I have tons of techniques I like to use but we learn about people by how they perform under pressure so one of my favorite methods for crafting character is to take away their favorite coping mechanisms or void filling behaviors and just stand back and watch them disassemble. I’m also a Joseph Campbell acolyte and I put a lot of stock in the Hero’s Journey as a template for dramatic structure and as a source of inspiration. 9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about? As a theatrical artist I am passionate about Theatre for Social Change, which is a collection of transformative techniques that can be used as teaching tools, vehicles for self-study, methods of problem solving for groups of any size, and as a means to build community. I am also passionate about adventure travel and have been zip lining in Guatemala, kayaking in Croatia and Alaska, and hang gliding in Hawaii. I’ve lived in Italy, on sailboats in the Caribbean, and last summer I lived on a floating university/ocean liner for three months with ports of call in Spain, Greece, Morocco, Egypt, and Turkey teaching for Semester at Sea. 10. What influenced you to enter the WILDsound Script Contest? I was intrigued that feedback was given and that there were multiple contests throughout the year. I was also pleased that the winning scripts would be presented in Toronto, Canada. It’s such a happening, eclectic, friendly town! 11. Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers? One of my screenwriting professors knocked the wind out of me when she asked me, “What do you have to say that is worth $160,000 a second?” My first panicked thought was, “NOTHING! I have nothing to say that is worth $160,000 a second!” That question keeps me in line to this day. I’d advise others to ask themselves this questions as well. It’s a powerful way to remember that films are expensive and in screenwriting there is no room for grandstanding, no time to indulge verbosity, no use for meandering. Every word must be golden, every sentence economical yet potent, and absolutely everything must advance the story or be cut.
SYBIL ST CLAIRE
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