When Dennis Lehane's novel "Live By Night" was adapted by Ben Affleck into a feature film, it was just the latest gritty, crime-filled book of his to get the movie treatment; voice actor Rob Paulsen has been going strong in the business since the early 1980s, but a recent bout with throat cancer almost derailed his career.
Dennis Lehane says he will never write about Los Angeles
Dennis Lehane is known for his gritty, crime-filled novels, many of which have been adapted into movies such as “Gone Baby Gone,” “Mystic River” and “Shutter Island.”
Now, his book “Live by Night” has been made into a film of the same name by Ben Affleck, who previously collaborated with Lehane on “Gone Baby Gone.” Affleck wrote, directed and starred in “Live by Night.” It’s a Prohibition-era gangster flick set in both Ybor City, Florida and Lehane’s hometown of Boston.
Host John Horn checks in with Lehane on the art of crafting a movie on paper. Here are edited excerpts from their conversation.
Interview Highlights
On turning a novel into a screenplay.
The analysis I always use is like a surgeon working on his own kid. The perspective is a little shaky. Now that I've been doing a ton of screenplay and TV writing, I feel it's not so much of a problem anymore.
Writing visually as a novelist
Before there was cinema, novelists thought cinematically. I think Shakespeare thought cinematically. It's just code for visual. But at the same time I do read some stuff and think, Wow, that role is written for this actor. That just doesn't occur to me [in my writing process]. It's not realistic.
On choosing the filmmaker for his books
I'm extremely difficult and picky about who I will sell to. That's my last vestige of control so I'm pretty serious about it. Once I've done it, I say, I respect you as a director, I respect you as a producer. Then I say, Go with God. Because my job is to get out of [the] way, artist-to-artist. The last thing you need is to have the novelist craning his head over your shoulder as you work.
How location impacts the storytelling
When I knew "Live by Night" was going to journey out of my comfort zone, which is Boston, the place I journeyed [to] is very telling. I took [the character] to Ybor City. And if you've ever been to Ybor City in Tampa, it looks just like a baby New Orleans. There's lots of wrought iron, red bricks and cigar factories. If you close your eyes or if you look above the roofs of cars, you could easily be transported back to the 1920s. I'd never write about L.A. Period. It's Chandler. It's Ellroy. It's covered. It doesn't need to be touched. So I'll stick with Boston.
On seeing his words come to life
I've discovered that I'm kind of "set allergic." I don't like to go to [location] sets much. I discovered this really strongly when I was working in TV. I would much rather be in the writer's room, imagining and conjuring things up. But when you see ["Live by Night"] on the screen, it's certainly the most beautiful, most visually rich film of any that I've had adapted. It's very old school that way. It just feels like something out of the old studio system.
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Voice actors: the unseen heroes of film and television, Part II
This segment is the second half of a two-part series on voice actors. Listen to our other segment with voice actress Tress MacNeille here.
You probably wouldn't recognize most voice actors walking down the street, but you almost certainly recognize their voices. From cartoons to video games, voice actors carry a cast of characters inside their heads. Today we hear from veteran Rob Paulsen.
Paulsen has been the voice of many faces since 1983. As a child, Paulsen was into rock 'n' roll. "I got a kick out of creating voices and singing popular songs in characters and dialects," he says. Little did Paulsen know this training would prepare him for roles in "Animaniacs."
During auditions early in his career, Paulsen highlighted his unique talents: "I would interject, whenever I could, the fact that I do dialects in character and sing. I knew it would separate me from the crowd."
At age 60, Paulsen says he has been healthy all his life. But earlier this year, he discovered an unchecked lymph node was in fact stage 3 throat cancer. Now five months out of treatment, Paulsen still experiences a significant amount of pain in his throat. But it has not compromised his speaking voice: "I'm still able to do all my characters, which is what people want to hear."
"I have to say, pound for pound, voice actors are the most talented, fearless, unafraid-of-trying- anything actors I have ever worked with," Paulsen says."It's not about how big your boobs are [or] how big your muscles are, it's about pure talent."
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