ANDREW KLAVAN: When Hollywood Kicked Me Out — Transcript

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1. 0:00I write crime stories suspense stories
2. 0:02and I write a little bit of ghosts kind
3. 0:04of supernatural stuff and after the ring
4. 0:06came out which was a very popular ghost
5. 0:08story in a movie I loved I started to do
6. 0:10a very good business in ghost scripts
7. 0:12you know they were very popular for a
8. 0:14while and I'd read every ghost story
9. 0:15ever so I was selling a lot of scripts
10. 0:19in a year which is a very good living at
11. 0:21the same time 9/11 happened and we
12. 0:24started to go to war and Hollywood
13. 0:26started to do what I think is the lowest
14. 0:28point Hollywood has ever had it started
15. 0:29to make anti-war films while our
16. 0:33soldiers were in the field so that never
17. 0:36happened before you think of the great
18. 0:37anti-vietnam war films they were all
19. 0:39made after the soldiers had come home
20. 0:41and I just found that deeply deeply
21. 0:43offensive I thought you don't make I
22. 0:44don't you know if you're opposing the
23. 0:46war that's fine it's a free country but
24. 0:48you don't make propaganda films that
25. 0:50hurt your guys while they're actually
26. 0:51under fire because you're not under fire
27. 0:53you're sitting at the cafe Marmont and
28. 0:55la you know kind of tossing back
29. 0:57espressos you know keep your opinions
30. 1:00off the screen so I start to write about
31. 1:01it I wrote for the LA Times I actually
32. 1:03went to Afghanistan and reported on the
33. 1:05troops for a City Journal and my phone
34. 1:09started to stop ringing I mean it
35. 1:11basically stopped ringing it got harder
36. 1:13and harder for me to sell things it got
37. 1:14harder and harder for me to go into a
38. 1:15room and talk to the people that you
39. 1:19have to sell to so the way it works in
40. 1:21Hollywood is you pitch things as you go
41. 1:23and you say here's my idea or they say
42. 1:25to you here's our property what would
43. 1:26you do with it and of course you would
44. 1:28go in and you'd make conversation as you
45. 1:31do in any meeting and the conversation
46. 1:33would be isn't that George W Bush on
47. 1:35Nazi and I I live my life by words you
48. 1:40know my words are my profession and my
49. 1:42life and I can't lie I can be polite you
50. 1:44die I hope I am polite but I can't sit
51. 1:47there and say yes George W Bush is a
52. 1:48Nazi so I would say you know I kind of
53. 1:50see this differently and it would be I'd
54. 1:52be out in the parking lot before the
55. 1:53door hit me in the back side again right
56. 1:55and but no one heard your weeping is now
57. 1:57with the door closed and the bruises
58. 1:59behind you know I have to be honest with
59. 2:01you I never I lost a lot of income I did
60. 2:04I lost a substantial amount of income it
61. 2:07never bothered me once I have to say I
62. 2:09never I never lost a minute sleep over
63. 2:12because
64. 2:12guys were being shot you know because
65. 2:14guys were fighting for our freedom and
66. 2:16fighting against I think of vicious low
67. 2:18enemy and these Islamist killers who are
68. 2:21out there and I thought like so you're
69. 2:24losing some screenwriting jobs it would
70. 2:26have just struck me as almost bad form
71. 2:29bad taste to to get upset about that and