Popular Posts

Thursday, April 10, 2025

'Right Choice-ing' at the fork in the road

 

“The films of which I'm most proud I've written are the ones that pivot on forgiveness.” – Peter Morgan

 

Born in England on this date in 1963, Morgan is best known for his historical films and plays The Queen and Frost/Nixon, and for creating Netflix’s wildly successful series The Crown.   He also co-wrote the screenplay for the award-winning movie The Last King of Scotland.  

 

The son of immigrants who fled to Great Britain to escape the Nazis (his father) and Soviet repression (his mother), he started writing while at the University of Leeds. His big breakthrough came with The Queen, for which he won a Golden Globe and the lead actor Helen Mirren an Academy Award.   Since then, everything he’s written has been successful and influential, for which he was honored with the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to drama.

 

 “As a dramatist, you have 200 choices at every fork in the road,” he said.   “But the audience will reject it if you make the wrong choice, if they feel you are trying to shape the character in a way that suits you.  It rings false immediately.  People can sense when you're being cynical or schematic.”

No comments:

Post a Comment