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C R E A T I V E L E A D E R S H I P A W A R D
C O L L A B O R A T I O N I S
K E Y T O T H E T A L E N T
O F C A R L T O N C U S E
STORY BY DEBRA BIRNBAUM
PHOTOGRAPHS BY TERENCE PATRICK
When Carlton Cuse was starting
W
out in the business, his office on
the Warner Bros. lot was next to
that of John Sacret Young, creator
of “China Beach.” He spent hours
at Young’s side, not only learning
the craft of writing for television and features, but also about the
process of showrunning. “He was very generous with me,” recalls
Cuse. “And I appreciated that.”
That experience — as well as his later partnership with
screenwriter Jeffrey Boam (the “Lethal Weapon” movies, “Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade”) — taught him the value of creative
collaboration. As he worked his way up through the industry
— from “The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.” and “Nash
Bridges” to the groundbreaking “Lost” — he’s been paying it forward,
again and again. The ranks of television’s top producers
include many graduates of what Damon Lindelof jokingly calls
the Carlton Cuse School of Showrunning: Eddy Kitsis and Adam
Horowitz. Shawn Ryan. Pam Veasey. Glen Mazzara. And more.
“I don’t think there’s anything that makes me happier or
prouder than to see writers I have worked with go on and have
their own shows and have success,” Cuse says. “It’s hard to
explain how much joy I take in that. It’s the fulfillment of everything
I aspire to do in my relationship with other writers.”
For Cuse, mentoring others — whether producers, actors, editors
or anyone else who crosses his path professionally — is a natural
part of the creative process. It’s simply the way he’s always
worked, and he can’t imagine doing otherwise.
“We live in a society where the dominant idea is the singular
accomplishment, when in fact the evidence really points in the
other direction,” he says. “You could argue that the best directors
working in movies today is a duo: the Coen brothers. The
Emmy-winning TV show for 2015 was won by two guys (David
Benioff and D.B. Weiss, for “Game of Thrones”). To me, collaboration
is the essence of what makes TV successful.”
Producing a complex TV series in this competitive climate
CUSE’S
BREWS
The showrunner
has written
and produced
crowd-pleasers and
critical successes
for nearly four
decades.
Nash Bridges
Lost
Bates Motel
The Strain
can be particularly challenging: showrunners face an overwhelming
workload on a limited timeline. Television isn’t a
medium where you’re in control of all of the elements — unlike,
say, novel writing, where you’re sitting at your desk at home, and
“you have absolute control over everything that’s happening in
your artistic world,” he says.
So the one lesson Cuse tries to impart: Be malleable. “You
need to have a vision, but you need to also adjust and modify
your vision to the circumstances you face,” he says. “You need to
both hold an artistic vision in your head and be adaptive. To do
both of those things at the same time is the core of the job.”
If there’s indeed “too much TV,” as has been famously argued of
late, Cuse himself might be partially to blame: The mega-producer
now has a slate of shows spread across multiple networks,
from FX’s vampire hit “The Strain” to A&E’s family psycho-drama
“Bates Motel” to USA’s upcoming futuristic “Colony,” starring
“Lost” alum Josh Holloway. His Jack Ryan thriller — based on
the Tom Clancy novels — just landed at Amazon, after a fierce
bidding war.
All of those series have something in common: Cuse works
closely with other creative partners. There’s Kerry Ehrin on
“Bates Motel,” Chuck Hogan and Guillermo del Toro on “The
Strain,” Ryan Condal on “Colony.” With each, he says, he plays
a different role, adapting to his colleague’s relative strengths to
ensure the show’s success.
“I love the process of being able to take an idea and work
with someone who’s really creative and passionate,” he says,
“and try to figure out in what ways we can make the most out of
something.”
Of course, not everything succeeds. He admits he’s faced challenges
along the way — “nobody goes into this business who
doesn’t have a healthy ego,” he says. “It’s a business with a tremendous
amount of disappointment and failure. The goal is try
to not to take those experiences personally, but to try to apply
them as learning experiences.”
And even after all his years in the business, he says he’s still
learning.
“It’s always weird when I see words like ‘old guard’ and ‘veteran’
next to my name,” he says with a laugh. “I feel like I’m still
figuring it out.”
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