Neil LaBute was born on March 19, 1963. He attended Brigham Young University for his B.A and graduate theater programs at the University of Kanas and New York University. LaBute has enjoyed numerous off Broadway and regional productions of his plays. The author has also become famous for his film productions, which began with his Sundance Award winning film In The Company of Men (1997). He won the Cannes Film Golden Palm Award in 2000 for his direction of the film, Nurse Betty. His play Reasons To Be Pretty was produced on Broadway in 2009 and nominated for the Tony for Best Play. He just finished directing the Chris Rock scribed film, Death At A Funeral.
Keep the mental attitude of, It’s a matter of when, not if. Don’t let doubt even enter the equation.
Morning, Los Angeles
LABUTE: For me there was no great push towards the theater. There was no one influential person. There was no being taken to the theater all the time and it being part of my life as a kid. I saw pretty standard school plays. With my brother being older I would occasionally go to the odd play with him at his college. I’d also go to the local community theater. There was, however, some connection with what I did see that made sense to me. I had some reaction to the live performance and I said to myself, “I like what’s happening there” and in junior high there was probably a drama class that I took as well. I don’t think we even did productions in junior high, there was just a single performance course.
But in high school it started happening to me. It always comes down to a good instructor. I had a great instructor in my junior and senior years. His name was Terry Parker and he was doing interesting shows. He just had a way of whipping the whole department into shape. He got us into statewide competitions and things that were interesting. I didn’t grow up in an area where I was privy to great material. I couldn’t run down to the Spokane Public Library and find all the new plays, So there was a point where I started writing my own stuff. I would write a monologue and then I’d try to slip it past him. I’d put some name on it and see if I could sneak it by as the work of some author from New York. And usually I did. I then wrote a scene for some people in a competition and that carried me over to college.
Brigham Young was almost a mirror of how I grew up. They weren’t that interested in new material. They sent [students] back to the classics. But in college [I got involved with the] American College Theater Festival (ACTF), and, I have to say, my whole career is built on the ACTF. You had to get permission from any living authors to do their work and you had to bring the letters with you [when you would put on another playwright's play]. But if it was something you wrote you could bring it right with you. So it was no hassle [to do your own work]. And this was before email and all of that. So it was a pain in the ass to send a letter off. So I was the go-to guy who could write quick, funny, interesting scenes. In college I was writing a lot of short sketches and comedy stuff. My ideal at that time was to get onto Saturday Night Live, so I spent a lot of time doing that and other theater work. Every so often in a theater I’d do a collection of sketches and make a show out of it.
So when I first graduated I came to New York with a bunch of sketches and thought, “How am I gonna get onto Saturday Night Live? It’s impossible to even get in the door.” Somebody I knew, with whom I went to Brigham Young, worked for an art dealer, and this art dealer had this amazing Rolodex filled with big names. Loren Michaels was one of the names in that Rolodex. So I was like, “Dude, give me that number.” One Sunday, I built up my courage and called [Loren] at home. Unbelievably, he answered the phone, and I was like, “Look, I know this is weird, but this is what you have to do sometimes. I know I’d be great for your show and it’s impossible to get to you so I figured I’d just try you at home. And you may not like it but you gotta give me marks for trying. Would you just take a look at my material?” And he basically said, “Don’t call me at home. Get an agent or whatever, but don’t call me at home.” And I ran into him years later and he actually heard about it and it made him laugh. And he was like, “Of course I remember.”
Anyway, I’d moved to New York post undergrad and I was bumming around thinking I was going to do some plays and just get something going. Then a friend of mind decided to go to graduate school and I thought to myself, “You know, I should have a terminal degree” just in case this doesn’t happen I should at least be able to teach it and keep my hand in it that way. I like teaching. So, I went to Kansas to get a masters and spent a couple of years there. They had a good library and I got into British Theater. I would check out like twenty books at a time, and I’d just read and read everything I could. I’d do plays all over campus. There was an explosion of theater there. I met really good actors. That’s where I met Paul Rudd. Still, even after I graduated from there I was still thinking I had to get a PHD.
So around 1990 I went to Chicago for a little while. I started to taste the theater scene there, which has always been good, and I figured I would send out a couple of PHD applications. I got into NYU s program and figured, “I better take this. This will be good.” And it was good and bad but it was in New York, so I was around a lot of theater. I had really good teachers. You got to meet really good people, no matter what the department politics turned out to be.
HYLTON: Did you get production opportunities through NYU’s program?
LABUTE: Yes, but again it was pretty much my own muscle. If I couldn’t get one production at a place I wanted, then I’d go out and rent a space and do one myself. I wasn’t big on being told ‘no.’ I’d move on and make it happen on my own. I thought that I would get a lot of contacts out of NYU, but what I found was it was a very insular program. Writers stayed with the writers and directors stayed with directors, and all of the filmmakers wanted to do everything on their own films. So I wasn’t writing films for anyone. That was a bit of a let down. But I did meet writers who I’ve remained in contact with and teachers who are now friends. I’ve also gone back and taught there. Because of the nature of the place, it felt very competitive so I think I wrote with a type of speed and excitement because of the nature of that atmosphere. That was a very good for me. I got my first agent out of it. And I got a reading at the SOHO Rep. There was a period where one of my teachers got hired on a short lived Fox Television Show, and all of these interesting actors were on the show, like Oliver Platt, Stanley Tucci, and Mandy Potenkin. It was a New York-based comedy set in this apartment building called Urban Anxiety. I was hired as a student to come write for them because this teacher liked what she saw in my work. I was actually writing for them while I was in school and I was able to join the Writer’s Guild. So from that prospective, lots of good things happened [while at NYU].
I think you make your own destiny in many ways. The fact that I go off and do theater as often as I do drives my agents nuts. They’re like, “Holy crap. Don’t you know what’s important in life.” And I say, “Actually, yeah, I do.” To me, it’s hugely important to return to the theater on a regular basis.
The last semester I was at NYU I did an exchange program to The Royal Court in London. I was in the literary department just reading plays and I got to shadow people within the Royal Court. It was a very interesting time.
I used to look at The Dramatists Sourcebook and I would do cold submissions to festivals all over the country. I received tons of letters saying “No thank you.” I also did a cold submission to Sundance Playwrights Lab and I got in. That sealed the deal on going back to Brigham Young for the PHD. Good things came from that festival. They have a set cast of actors they bring up and cast in your show, so you can work on it and read it in the beginning and it culminates in another reading at the end. But [Sundance] didn’t push [your play] towards product. We were the audience for everyone else’s plays. It was more, “How can we make this better?” Stacy Edwards was in my play there. She ended up in my film [In The Company Of Men] when I decided to make the movie five years later. Each moment at Sundance has led to something else equally wonderful. I actually wrote a screenplay of my film for someone else, which they decided not to do. And so I was like, “Fuck it. I’m going to make it myself” and then I was back doing some theater. People always say, “You came out of nowhere.” Well, I was around for a long time before I came out of nowhere.
HYLTON: How do yo u feel about working on small vs. large budget film projects?
LABUTE: I’m getting leery of working on bigger projects. You give up a lot of control on big projects, as there are other forces in play. Which is absolutely natural, because if it was me giving up that much money I would be looking over someone’s shoulders, too. But it doesn’t make it pleasant. There are just too many people/producers involved, and they’re all giving you notes and they all have some ideas as to what needs to be done to the film. I feel when you’re hired as a director you’re there to guide the ship, in the same way as when I’m a writer I have a director direct my show, and I then hand it over to them. When I hand it over to them I say what I think, but it’s up to their interpretation of the work. I am able to compartmentalize it.
I expect the same sort of a thing with film, but I probably shouldn’t expect it. A lot of these producers or studios want to make good films but even more they want to make money. It’s a business and it’s a business they’ve chosen rather than selling radios, BUT it is still a business. They would like it to be a good movie, but they want it to be a successful movie. Honestly, without the outlet of theater I probably would’ve gone nuts, both due to the time that it takes to get a film going and because of the way that they are made. You can see why actors, who give up more of their creativity, become directors and they write their own stuff and then become producers. They want to have some control over what they do.
But overall, you have to have an outlet. And I’ve been lucky because I’ve had places I could go and do my plays. I work hard on what I do and I fight for what I think is good. Theater gives you a much quicker turn-around time and immediate satisfaction, plus nothing ever beats live experience.
HYLTON: So if you’re a young writer going in to meet an agent for a first time how would you approach the situation?
LABUTE: It’s hard to remember at times that the agents are working for you. It’s a symbiotic relationship, but it’s also parasitic. They are not bringing as much to the table as you do. They have certain gifts and crafts, but their ability lies in something else — the arts of negotiation and introduction. It can feel like it’s a job interview [when you first meet with them], but you should remember to have the confidence that they are wanting to have you on their roster. They should be selling themselves as much as you are selling yourself — you should be as sold on them as they are on you when you walk out of there. Don’t be afraid of the notion that if it’s not these guys then it’s going to be someone else.
It can be very daunting, but remember, you wouldn’t be through the door if they didn’t think they could do something with you or get something from you. You have to go in with your head held high. The good news and the bad news is that there is no one way to get in, no one path to success. Just find your door. It’s different for everyone, but keep looking for doors because eventually you’ll find one. You only need one opportunity. Keep beating the drum. Keep the mental attitude of, “It’s a matter of when, not if.” Don’t let doubt even enter the equation.
