Anne Hogben meets Oscar-nominee Jeffrey Caine

While on a short trip to West Cork I dropped in on Jeffrey Caine at his home in Glengarriff to talk over a cup of tea. It was a few days after the disappointing BAFTA Awards and a few days before he flew to Los Angeles for the Oscar ceremony on 5 March.  His screenplay for The Constant Gardener was nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category (won, it turned out, by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana for their adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain).  He says he was delighted to be nominated in such a competitive year.  

The Constant Gardener had been nominated for 10 BAFTAs but only came away with one, for Best Editing.  Caine says he was disappointed that the British Academy had not seen fit to reward many good British films this year.  In doing so they’re assisting the decline of an already troubled industry. “It is a constant source of dismay to me how low the screenwriter is regarded both here and in America.  I really wish that the Guild could develop the kind of clout that the Writers Guild of America has.”

He tells me that he was once summoned by a major Hollywood studio to a meeting in Los Angeles. Under the terms of the WGA Agreement there is a provision requiring that a writer should travel first class. The junior executive in charge of making the travel arrangements phoned him up to ask if he would fly Virgin Upper Class which was virtually the same standard but considerably less expensive than first class. Caine refused, not that he disagreed about the standards, but because of perceived status. If he accepted Virgin Upper Class, then the next time he could be asked to fly Business Class and, after that, what? Bus travel instead of car? The YMCA instead of a four-star hotel?  It was a slippery slope. (As it happens, on that trip he met a senior executive from another studio which might have led to another deal.  If he had not been in the first class compartment they would never have met).  

“The industry has always had a low opinion of writers, ever since the early days of the movies,” Caine insists. “In the silent movies, dialogue was added on in frames, for those who could read.  In those early days the movies were seen as a novelty, not as a branch of drama.  In theory the screenwriters credit is ‘above the line’ –  in reality the industry would prefer to see writers ‘below the line’.  Even at the recent BAFTA Awards the writers were seated in the below the line tables.  What does that say about how writers are treated in Britain?  I feel it is imperative to take a stand.  The Guild should take a strong line on this – a group voice speaks for everyone.”  He stressed that he was not complaining on his own behalf, but on behalf of all writers.

Caine says he would prefer the term “screen playwright” to have become standard in the industry, but it is too late to make that change now.  “Most people don’t realise what a screenwriter does.  I write a play. To be filmed.  But producers and studios are often at pains to keep a writer down the line.  An actor, however great, however talented, only has to learn how to get inside his/her character.  I have to get inside the head of every character.  But we get the least amount of respect for our work.  Yet no actor will accept a role until he has seen the script.  Actors don’t sign up to play a role on the basis of the book alone. Some actors don’t even acknowledge that they worked from a script. To listen to their Oscar acceptance speeches you’d think they took the book onto the set every day, turned to a particular page and improvised the dialogue.”

He liked the recent WGA campaign called ‘Somebody Wrote that’, with large posters on Sunset Boulevard reminding the public that dialogue is created by writers, not actors. “It is a problem of perception. We need to educate people about this.  The director’s vanity credit is still being fought by the WGA.  In my experience producers rarely defer to the writer’s skill, yet feel qualified to make a judgement or to suggest changes without considering the consequences. Nobody ever tells costume designers or make-up artists how to do their job. Why are writers the only group singled out for this kind of treatment?”

Caine is disappointed that the WGGB Awards have not taken place for so many years.  The Awards gave a profile to British writers, he says. “Winning an award given by one’s peers is the greatest acknowledgement of one’s work. Being nominated for the recent WGA Awards was a real pleasure. It is the only place where the writer’s standing is acknowledged; the red carpet, the cameras, the writer-nominees being interviewed etc.  “Whereas at the Oscars and other awards ceremonies the writers tend to be ignored by the media.  At the BAFTAs George Clooney referred to us as the bridesmaids club.  How can we bring about change?  Like the local West Cork joke about asking directions - if I were you I wouldn’t start from here.” 

Anne Hogben is the Guild's Assistant General Secretary.

The full text of this interview appeared in the Spring issue of the Guild's magazine, UK Writer.