Grippingly telling an original and captivating story about the diverse, and at times harrowing, experiences people are forced to contend with throughout their lives can be a daunting process for filmmakers. But when a screenwriter can effortlessly explore the distinct emotions that those occurrences create, from love and joy to loss and pain, particularly from a woman’s point of view, audiences can instinctively become more engaged in the protagonist’s journey. Such is the case with scribe J. Mills Goodloe’s enthralling new film, the romantic drama ‘The Age of Adaline,’ which is now playing in theaters. The movie’s title character powerfully showcases that no matter what heartbreaking experiences a person may go through in their lives, they can overcome their woes and obtain happiness when they finally put their trust in someone who can truly care for them.
‘The Age of Adaline’ follows the title character (Blake Lively), who was born near the turn of the 20th century, and never dreamed she would live to see the beginning of the 21st, until a mysterious car accident saves her from death and grants her eternal youth. Adaline stopped aging at the age of 29, and has miraculously remained youthful for almost eight decades. But her immortality has led her to live a solitary existence, as she never allows herself to get close to anyone, except her aging daughter, Flemming (Ellen Burstyn), who might reveal her secret.
However, Adaline’s life changes after she has a chance encounter with charismatic philanthropist Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman), who reignites her passion for life and romance. When a weekend with his parents, William and Kathy (Harrison Ford and Kathy Baker), threatens to expose the truth, Adaline makes a decision that will change her life forever.
Goodloe generously took the time recently to talk about writing ‘The Age of Adaline,’ which was directed by Lee Toland Krieger, over the phone. Among other things, the scribe discussed how he initially came up with the idea for the romantic drama in 2003, after he watched the film ‘Amélie,’ and set out to create a similarly complex and strong protagonist female who endured a solitary life for almost eight decades; and how he didn’t include an antagonist or other exterior obstacle in the script, as he wanted to tell a character-driven love story that had a lot more internal complexities to it than what’s normally included in romantic dramas.
ShockYa (SY): You wrote the script for the new romantic drama, ‘The Age of Adaline.’ Where did the genesis for the movie’s story come about? What was the process of writing the script like overall?
J. Mills Goodloe (JMG): Well, the inspiration for the story came around a long time ago, back in 2003, so the project is 12 years old. It was inspired by the movie ‘Amélie,’ which I had seen, and I thought it featured this cool, interesting female protagonist in Paris. So I started thinking about how to create a similiar protagonist female, and set the story in New York. So the story started off from there, and I started thinking about how to Adaline equally as interesting. Then I started thinking about making her live throughout a century at the same age, and started working on the story from there.
SY: Since Adaline does live her life without pursuing relationships throughout most of the 20th and early 21st centuries, what kind of research did you do into the lives of single women in each different generation she has lived through, to help with her character development?
JMG: I didn’t really do much research for the backstory of the character, as most of the story takes place almost entirely in present day. So there wasn’t much reason to go back and show her history, except in brief snippets. I primarily set the story in her present life, so you don’t have to spend too much time in different eras. So the story didn’t require a lot of research. In the beginning of filming, the movie’s director put together a reel of everything that happened throughout the century, which was great editing and directing.
SY: After living a solitary life for almost eight decades, why did you feel it was important to have Adaline finally embrace a potential romantic relationship with Ellis Jones, who’s played by Michiel Huisman?
JMG: Well, in the script, it came about after the death of her dog, which might sound a little bit trite. But to me, that was one of the few connections she was able to keep over the years-she had the same dog throughout the different eras. So she was dealing with putting her dog to sleep, as well as her relationship with her aging daughter, who’s played by Ellen Burstyn. So her daughter going into a retirement home, as her mortality is coming close at 82-years-old, and the passing of her dog force her to make a decision to alter her way of thinking about relationships.
SY: Speaking of the movie’s director, Lee Toland Krieger, who you mentioned earlier, what was your working relationship with him once he signed on to helm the drama? How closely did you collaborate with him before, and while, he began shooting the movie?
JMG: I actually didn’t collaborate too much with Lee. I met him before the shooting began, and I went to visit the set. But they pretty much shot the script the way it was written. There weren’t any rewrites during production, and there weren’t many changes during the months leading up to it. So it was nice to visit the set, but I really wasn’t needed in any capacity, other than for me to see how the film was turning out as it was shooting.
SY: How does writing your own original screenplay compare and contrast to adapting a script that is based on source material, such as when you scribed last fall’s romantic drama, ‘The Best of Me,’ which was based on Nicholas Sparks’ novel of the same name?
JMG: It’s still a challenge, whether you’re working on an adaptation or an original story. Most of the time with adaptations, you still have to do a lot of original work as you’re translating the novel’s story to the screen. I wish I could say one’s a lot easier than the other, but both of them have their inherent challenges.
When I worked on the script for the adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks book, which came out last year, about 97 percent of the dialogue in the movie doesn’t exist in the novel. Most of the story and structure also didn’t exist in the novel. So you have to do pretty much the same amount of legwork on an original script as on an adaptation.
SY: You appeared in several films throughout the 1990s. How does having acting experience influence the way you create characters in the scripts you write for the actors who will play them?
JMG: Well, that came about because I was working for a director for about seven or eight years. My only acting came in when at the last second, when he needed an actor to cover someone who didn’t show up, or he needed an extra person in a scene. But I’m the worst actor ever, and I have no aspirations to act.
I share the same name as my father, and I put him in ‘Maverick’ (on which the writer served as an assistant to the film’s director, Richard Donner). Everyone thinks it was me, but it was actually my father, who’s 30 years older than I am. But I’m not the best actor in the world.
SY: Blake Lively plays the title character in ‘The Age of Adaline.’ Did you speak, and collaborate, with her at all about the protagonist’s motivations, emotions and actions during the filming process?
JMG: As the writer, and even a producer, on a film, you have to leave that process to the director. I learned early on in my career that you can’t have those types of conversations with the actors, without the director being there with you. The directors usually don’t like that at all; they’re the ones who like modulating the performances.
Whatever interactions I have with the actors, including Blake, is more of a personal conversation, such as asking, “Hi, how are you?” Everything she needed from me was in the script, which during production stayed pretty close to the way I had written it. She gave a wonderful performance under Lee’s direction.
SY: Speaking of helming, you made your feature film directorial debut with the 2002 sports drama, ‘A Gentleman’s Game.’ Is directing more films something you’re interested in pursuing?
JMG: Yes, that’s what I would love to do; that’s my next challenge. I worked for a director for eight years, and directed (‘A Gentleman’s Game’), but I have spent the past several years writing. I’ve always wanted to swing around to go back to directing. But right now, I have a lot of projects that are moving forward quickly, so I haven’t been able to step aside and work on something as strictly the writer-director. But directing again is something I am interested in doing.
SY: How does writing a script compare and contrast to directing a film?
JMG: Writing is much harder. When you’re directing, you have a team of people around you. If you get into a jam, you can talk to your cinematographer, producers, first ADs (assistant director) and cast. There’s a whole team of people you that you can work and collaborate with as you’re filming.
But as you’re writing, if you get into a jam, you’re alone in your room, there’s no one, other than your wife, that you can have that conversation with as you’re working. Otherwise, you’re stuck, and you can’t bring a team of people around to help you figure out why a scene doesn’t work, and that solitary nature is the hardest process for a writer.
SY: Also speaking of the cinematography, how important do you think it, along with the other visual aspects of the film, are to showcasing Adaline’s emotional struggles throughout her life?
JMG: Well, I got lucky on this film, because the director and the cinematographer (David Lanzenberg) are geniuses, and they made me look fantastic. So I wish that I could take more credit for, or have taken a bigger hand in, all the visuals that they did. But they took what was on the page, and multiplied it 10 times, and made it so much richer and vibrant than I could have ever dreamed. The biggest surprise I’ve had on this project was how gorgeous it looks.
SY: What do you hope audiences can take away from the film, particularly in terms of Adaline’s character development and relationships?
JMG: I just think it has a good story. I like that it doesn’t have a lot of the conventions of the typical romantic dramedy. I wanted to tell a story that had a lot more complexities to it than you normally see in it. It’s almost a throwback type of film, because it doesn’t have a big, obvious antagonist. It doesn’t have the elements of most films I’ve been seeing lately, and hopefully audiences will see that, too.
SY: Like you mentioned, ‘The Age of Adaline’ doesn’t have a set antagonist, as it instead focuses more on the title character’s relationships and emotions overall. How important was it to you to emphasize her character development throughout the film?
JMG: That aspect of the story as really interesting to me. Sometimes in romantic stories, there’s a third wheel, or their parents are trying to keep them apart, or they’re forced to face another type of obstacle that they have to overcome. But I like how in this story, the obstacle is all based on her past and who she is, and I think it’s more elegant that way. I like that we didn’t have to throw in that extra plot device to make her relationship hard. When Harrison’s character comes into the film, it adds a nice complication. But his role isn’t played as an antagonist trying to break up Adaline and Ellis’ relationship.
SY: Speaking of Harrison’s character, William, how important was it to show how his reappearance in Adaline’s life has influenced the way she has approached relationships since she last saw him.
JMG: The whole film was really based on the relationship between those two characters. It’s the most significant relationship she had in the film. The film has a different feeling because of her involvement with him. I think their relationship helped make audiences think the film has an interesting premise. Hopefully it gives this complex idea to this interesting story that’s being told, especially between Adaline and the two men in her life, and the father-son relationship.
SY: How important was it to also show how Adaline’s past involvement with William influenced the way she approached her growing bond with Ellis?
JMG: Hopefully the story acts as a closure for her. She hadn’t seen William in 40 years, but their relationship was still very dear to her heart. So it was nice that she could have a closure with him, and finally be able to move on with her life.
SY: Besides ‘The Age of Adaline,’ do you have any other projects lined up that you can discuss?
JMG: Yes, there’s a movie I wrote called ‘The Mountain Between Us,’ which will hopefully start shooting this summer. It’s going to star Rosamund Pike, the wonderful actress from ‘Gone Girl,’ and it’s being made with Fox.
Written by: Karen Benardello