Beau Willimon, creator and screenwriter of the Netflix original series, House of Cards, spoke this past Monday evening in Gilman Hall as part of an event sponsored by the Hopkins Program in Film and Media Studies. Willimon talked informally about his experiences with writing and with show business, devoting most of the hour to creating a dialogue with his audience, the majority of whom were film students.
Willimon, an Oscar-nominated producer and playwright for Ides of March, a film inspired by a play that he co-scripted, Farragut North, opened the lecture by giving himself a time limit.
“This is going to be super casual. . .I set an alarm on my phone to make sure I don’t ramble on for too long. . .I’m more interested, really, in what you guys want to know and want to talk about and maybe I’ll ask you guys some questions too. Basically we’ll just chill for an hour and talk about professional show business,” he said.
Willimon began by talking about his path to becoming a screenwriter.
“I didn’t know that I was going to be a writer the way that many of you already know that’s what you want to pursue. I started out as a painter; I was drawing and painting and that’s really my natural facility.”
As an undergraduate at Columbia University, Willimon spent the bulk of his college career thinking that he would become a painter. It wasn’t until his senior year that he discovered that his true life’s work laid in writing.
“Two important things happened the summer before my senior year. The first one was that I did this fellowship through Yale where we went up into the wilderness and painted. I did about 60 paintings in the course of six weeks, and I walked away from it feeling pretty empty.”
During that same summer, Willimon saw a flier for a playwriting competition.
“I decided to write a play for no other reason than I wanted to do something that I knew I would fail at. . .writing that first play was like trying to teach myself to draw all over again but with my left hand and blindfolded. . .I mean it was torturous in all the best ways,” he said. “Miraculously, I won this little prize, and it encouraged me to pursue writing more seriously.”
Willimon’s experiences with painting and playwriting were starkly contrasted that summer. Because painting came so naturally to him, his art was left stale and voiceless. By comparison, the newness of writing as a medium allowed him to create work that was inspired.
“There are certain gifts that people have that maybe come easily and that can be a blessing and a curse. . .If you draw well or play the guitar very well, it’s very easy to impress the people around you and then it’s not necessarily very easy to fail,” he said.
“I guess failure is going to be the topic I want to focus on tonight. I think that’s the most important and interesting thing that an artist has to contend with.”
After graduating from college, Willimon spent a year doing odd jobs and then wound up in Columbia’s playwriting program. Willimon completed the program, but struggled initially to find his footing.
“When I graduated from Columbia’s playwriting program, I had no idea what I was going to do. I was writing plays and sending them out to the world but no one cared. . .I felt like I was in the wilderness screaming at the top of my lungs and no one could hear me.”
Through a connection with an old college friend, Willimon found a job working on the 2004 Democratic primary campaign of Howard Dean. His experiences with the campaign prompted him to write Farragut North, a play that he sent out in the hopes that it would be sold.
“I sent that play out to forty different places. . .about 20 got back to me, all rejections, and the other twenty didn’t get back to me at all. I put the play away for a couple of years, figuring it would never be done and no one would ever see it,” he said.
A few years later, Willimon found an agent, who suggested that they try to sell Farragut North again.
“Maybe it was the fact that the ’08 election was coming up, maybe it was the fact that an agent was sending it out, but I just had one of those Hollywood moments. I got a call from my agent and he goes, Warner Brothers wants to make this into a movie. . .they want Clooney and DiCaprio to produce, how do you feel?”
The movie Willimon’s agent was referring to would later be called Ides of March, for which Willimon received an Academy Award nomination. After Ides of March, Willimon embarked on a new project: the Netflix original series House of Cards, which he is currently shooting in Baltimore.
Willimon anticipates that the biggest difference in writing for season one of House of Cards and season two will be, simply put, new mistakes.
“I love mistakes, because what mistakes are usually proof of is risk-taking,” he said. “There are mistakes that come from laziness or from a cavalier attitude—those aren’t the mistakes that I’m interested in. I’m interested in the mistakes that come from walking the ridge of fear. . .if you’re not doing that, then you’re treading water. You become a hack.”
The remainder of the event consisted of students enthusiastically interacting with Willimon as he not only relayed his experiences on as a part of House of Cards but also inspired them to work hard toward their goals despite adversity and frustration, both natural aspects of the creative process. Overall, this event was truly rewarding for all who attended.
