Charlie Kaufman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, gave an excellent acceptance speech for receiving the Laurel Award at the WGA Awards on Sunday. The speech was well-timed as the guild was getting ready to engage the AMPTP in more contract negotiations.
“We are trained to do the bidding of people who are driven not by curiosity but who are safeguarding their employment,” he continued, to what was the first round of loud applause tonight at the awards show in the Fairmont Century Plaza ballroom.
Kaufman made fun of studio executives by stating, “We are indoctrinated to feel that what we do is secondary to what they do. On February 27, the WGA released their Pattern of Demands.
He declared, “Our mission is to reflect the world, saying what is real in the face of so much deception. It is not to satisfy them or critics or audiences. It is not to contribute to their riches or our own.”
Kaufman recited Adrienne Rich’s quote, “I do know that art is nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of the power which holds it hostage,” to more applause.
The remainder is at best window decoration, he said.
“We have the opportunity to examine the mess, the beauty, and the incomprehensible complexity of the world.”
The Being John Malkovich scribe said, “If we give up that for the carrot, then we might as well be the executives. “We have turned become their servants. I messed up and squandered years trying to win the favour of wealthy people.
“Avoid getting sucked by their world of box office figures! We are not employed by them! Upon hearing a third round of applause, Kaufman exclaimed. “We work for the globe, not the world of box office numbers.”
He exhorted the storytellers there to tell truthful tales. He claimed, “They misled us into thinking we couldn’t do it without them. Yet the reality is that they need us to accomplish anything worthwhile.
The ballroom then went crazy. Jessie Buckley, an actress and the lead in Kaufman’s Netflix film I’m Thinking of Ending Things, gave the director his Laurel Award.
News Summary:
- At the WGA Awards, Charlie Kaufman slams the Hollywood suits, saying, “They cannot do anything worthwhile without us”
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