The_Hollywood_Reporter__February_07_2018

Backlot
Awards
Watch
‘ I Found My Voice While She Found
Hers’ Liz Hannah and Josh Singer on
penning Katharine Graham’s story By Rebecca Ford
L
iz Hannah wrote the screenplay for The Post with the hope that
she’d get an agent. Instead, the 32-year-old screenwriter saw
her spec script turned into a movie directed by Steven Spielberg
and starring Meryl Streep as The Washington Post publisher Katharine
Graham. The timely ’70s-set drama has been nominated for the best picture
Oscar, and Hannah and her co-writer, Josh Singer (who won the
original screenplay Oscar in 2016 for Spotlight), will receive the Writers
Guild of America West’s Paul Selvin Award at the Feb. 11 ceremony.
Both writers spoke to THR about their process and the “high bar” set by
working with Spielberg.
What was it about Graham’s story
that made you want to adapt it?
HANNAH I only had vaguely heard
about her, but I didn’t know
anything about her life. And she
lived one that I felt deserved to be
out in the world. For me
personally, it was about
a woman finding her
voice, finally ignoring all
the naysayers — and even
herself — telling her she
couldn’t do it and standing on her
own two feet. The irony is not lost
on me that this is the script I got
noticed on. I found my voice while
she found hers.
How did the two of you collaborate?
SINGER Liz wrote an incredible spec
script, but it wasn’t a shooting
GOLD STAR SCRIBES
A comic book icon, an LGBTQ
activist and two veteran
writers land WGA honors
WGA West
Awards
Feb. 11
Beverly Hilton
draft. With these fact-based dramas,
you want to vet them — send
them out to the world and get
lots of notes, because you want
to get it right. With Spotlight, I
had terrible fear of not getting the
journalism part right.
Plus, the needs of a spec
script and the needs of
a Steven Spielberg film
are slightly different.
Because with a Steven
Spielberg film, you’re going to
get the highest degree of scrutiny
you can possibly get. Fairly or
unfairly, you get held to a pretty
high bar. We had to make this
as accurate as possible within the
context of telling a good story.
HANNAH I had never written a
movie that had been produced
◄ DUSTIN LANCE BLACK
The Valentine Davies
Award will recognize the
Milk writer’s work for
the LGBTQ community.
↑ From left: Singer, Spielberg, Hannah,
Tom Hanks and Streep on Jan. 4
at the Palm Springs Film Festival.
before, let alone written a movie
produced and directed by Steven
Spielberg. The thing about Josh
is that he’s not only an incredibly
talented writer, he also has an
enormous amount of experience in
the journalism world and in the
political world with Spotlight and
The West Wing. We really tackled
it more like a writers room; it was
a very collaborative experience.
Because of the quick timeline, he
was used to working under the
gun and under the pressure that
the first choice is the best choice
and the only choice.
JAMES L. BROOKS
The Mary Tyler Moore
Show co-creator
gets the Laurel Award
for screenwriting.
ALISON CROSS
The Paddy Chayefsky
Laurel Award goes to the
writer-producer (Roe vs.
Wade, Murder in the First).
What is your worst habit as
a writer?
HANNAH Procrastination. I think
it’s every writer’s worst habit.
But when you’re procrastinating,
you’re still thinking about it.
SINGER My wife, who is a novelist,
makes fun of me for this all
the time: I tend to get lost in
the research. I go on really deep
dives. Lawrence O’Donnell told
me early on that the word
“author” comes from authority.
I am not a huge risk taker, so I
really don’t like writing about
something unless I feel like I’m
quite knowledgeable about it.
Is there one thing you must have
in order to write?
HANNAH Because I’m 90 years old
in a 32-year-old’s body, I have
a heating pad on the back of my
chair. When you’re sitting there
for hours at a time, I don’t care
how comfortable that chair is,
it can get pretty gnarly. So a heating
pad kind of wakes me up.
SINGER I need headphones and
music. I tend to love classical,
but it can be any kind. It really
depends on what I’m working
on. There’s a trick I learned
from my wife: I’ll listen to the
same thing over and over again.
So good Bose headphones with
music to drown out the world.
And then I must have a baseball
cap, because I need blinders.
“There’s an
immediate
connection as
a woman,
knowing what
it’s like to be
in a room full
of men and
not have your
voice heard,”
says Hannah
of Graham’s
story (Streep,
center).
LEN WEIN
The late comic book icon,
co-creator of Wolverine,
will be honored with the
Animation Writing Award.
SINGER: VIVIEN KILLILEA/GETTY IMAGES FOR PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL. POST: NIKO TAVERNISE/20TH CENTURY FOX. BLACK: DAVE BENETT/GETTY IMAGES.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
82
FEBRUARY 7, 2018