Charlie Kaufman’s not such a weird dude anymore.
Having shared an Oscar nomination with his imaginary twin Donald for 2002’s “Adaptation,” the notoriously reclusive Kaufman is arguably the most famous screenwriter in Hollywood. Speaking with director Michel Gondry at Block Cinema on the Northwestern campus Tuesday night following a screening of their new film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and yesterday with PLAY, Kaufman seems more comfortable with fame. Some of that can be attributed to Gondry, a talkative Frenchman whose self-effacing attitude complements Kaufman’s droopy shyness.
PLAY: This is the second film where you’re in a character’s mind. Could you maybe talk about what draws you into the mind?
Charlie Kaufman: I guess, I mean I don’t know, I guess I find myself, you know, inside of my mind … my experience of the world is completely mine and completely subjective and I don’t really want to lie about that.
PLAY: I noticed a lot of interesting scene transitions in the film.
Michel Gondry: It was a necessity to the story. There was a very specific way of how I could film it, so I had to find it a transition.
PLAY: How did the two of you work together to create the story?
CK: Michel had a friend in Paris who had an idea, kind of a conceptual thing, of sending people cards that say “You’ve been erased from this person’s memory.” Michel came to me because he liked the idea and wanted to see if I was interested.
PLAY: You’ve said this is the only movie you’ve pitched to studios. What was the general feeling you got while pitching “Eternal Sunshine?”
CK: They were surprisingly ecstatic, which was surprising to me. I wasn’t expecting anything and it turned out to be a kind of bidding war situation on this, so we ended up in a good situation for ourselves with a good person.
PLAY: The film has a very low-tech look with the special effects.
CK: I remember at one point early on, I was wondering how to tell the story, and how (Joel, Jim Carrey’s character) would remember from scene to scene that the (memory erasing procedure) was going on, and I had this idea that he would start writing things on the walls of the sets so that he would be able to refresh his memory. Of course, Michel had seen “Memento.” It forced something that needed to be forced out of the script anyway.
PLAY: How do you feel about people misunderstanding your films?
CK: I don’t care. I’m trying to do what I’m trying to do and I’m trying to do it sincerely. I’m not in the business of trying to convince people to like my stuff. If everyone liked what I did I would probably think there was something wrong with what I was doing. My goal would be to get everybody to like it, and it’s not.
