Tinsel-Taught: 5 Lessons for Writers from the Movies

When I first realized I might be writing a novel about Hollywood – both the Hollywood of 1955 and of today – I was so daunted by the research required that I tried to start a different one. I’ve only been on one film set – when my first novel was adapted into a short film – and the shoot only lasted four days, so my experience was limited. But I’ve long been fascinated by our culture’s obsession with celebrity, with the fact that we gobble up the notion that “stars: they’re just like us” right up until the moment one of them cheats on their spouse, or dies of addiction, at which point we gleefully judge them for making terrible choices we believe we never would.
So, as daunting as the research was, I couldn’t hold myself back from the novel that was to become June. I’m a big believer in making research fun, so in addition to reading and interviewing, I decided to watch some movies. I figured since Hollywood was my subject, it wouldn’t hurt to watch a few Hollywood films that were about, yes, that world. Here, in a nutshell, is what I learned.

Movie: “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952)
Lesson: Make ‘em laugh.
So sings Donald O’Connor in this show stopper from one of my favorite movies about making them. Yet even as the brilliant vaudevillian does make us laugh – I never fail to crack up when he’s wrestling with that dummy behind the couch – one can’t help but notice the note of desperation in his voice, or the physical toll taken on him as he’s literally driven into the ground, or through a wall. He’s an entertainer, and his lesson is that if this is the life you’ve chosen, you always entertain, no matter the consequences.

Movie: “Notting Hill” (1999)
Lesson: The fame thing isn’t really real, you know.
In this romantic comedy, Julia Roberts plays an A-lister who falls in love with a “regular guy,” played by Hugh Grant. At first, they can rely on their personal chemistry, but when the press gets wind of their affair, things get much more complicated. Still, she holds out hope that he’ll want her for herself, in spite of all the baggage her fame brings, and in this scene – best known for its “I’m just a girl” speech – she tries to explain how much more real their connection is than her renown. But he doesn’t bite, at least not yet – from his tiny brush with her fame, he’s terrified, while for her, after a decade of inconvenience, it’s just her life.

Movie: “Lost in La Mancha” (2002)
Lesson: Some productions are just doomed.
There’s a cringe-worthy scene in this “un-making of” documentary about the doomed production of Terry Gilliam’s adaptation of Don Quixote, when Johnny Depp, in costume, is sitting on set in the middle of a desert landscape, waiting for the fighter jets circling above to fly off (they can’t shoot over all that noise) – and the jets never do. Turns out, the location is smack dab underneath airspace where the jets will be conducting target practice for the foreseeable future – and that’s just one major setback in a litany of disasters that plague the production, from a flash flood that damages equipment, to the lead actor, playing Don Quixote, sustaining a back injury that forces him out of the film. I watched the movie through my hands, cringing at the seemingly unending disasters, and yet unable to look away.

Movie: “Sunset Boulevard” (1950)
Lesson: I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.
In this classic noir about a silent film actress pushed out by the “talkies” – yet still holding on with a tenuous grip on reality to the dream of a comeback – Gloria Swanson chews up the scenery in a most delicious way. She will stop at nothing – including murder – to get another chance at fame, even as it becomes clear that her era on screen is definitely bygone. From the moment we meet her, it becomes clear she’s an ego of outsize proportion, the kind only Hollywood could grow, and her desperation to cling to notoriety is both moving and horrifying as the story unfolds.

Movie: “The Player” (1992)
Lesson: Only in the movies.
This dark comedy about a producer who murders an aspiring screenwriter is all about how power corrupts, and is jam-packed with fabulous cameos by more than sixty early-nineties Hollywood players. When I first saw this movie in high school, I remember being shocked that none of these people had a grip on reality, and though (of course) it’s only a movie, this send-up of what goes on behind the scenes reinforces all our stereotypes that the people who make movies are ego-driven, dog-eat-dog, and only out for themselves.