Beau Willimon
Beau Willimon
Pack Beauregard "Beau" Willimonis an American playwright and screenwriter. He is the creator of the Netflix original series House of Cards and served as showrunner for the first four seasons...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth1 August 1975
CountryUnited States of America
creating roles actors
When you're creating new roles out of scratch in my opinion working with the actors is a great asset. You can learn a lot from that.
anyone exciting people psyched side themselves
People in D.C. are so psyched when anyone dramatizes them in an exciting way. They're a lot more open to looking at the nastier side of themselves than the media is.
absolutely factories gonna job prep sat
There were many years when I was hand-to-mouth and didn't know how I was gonna make rent. I've done every job under the sun, from busing tables, temping, and working in factories to SAT prep and detailing cars. So to be able to make a living where all I do is write is absolutely liberating.
best cynical fact human politics represent worst
The way I see politics is, I don't think it's cynical to accept the fact politicians are human beings, that they're flawed, and they represent the best and the worst of us.
hollywood life playwright theater work
The economics of being a playwright are abysmal. I like to think of the work I do out in Hollywood as a way to actually make a life in the theater easier.
certainly life stranger time washington
I certainly keep my eye on Washington all the time because often life is stranger than fiction.
amount money power reality terms wield work
The reality is that politicians, in terms of the amount of power they wield and the amount that they work, don't actually make that much money.
ability cram flesh narrative opened painting plays realized static stories three time trying ultimately
Writing plays supplied for me everything that painting didn't, which is the ability to tell stories in real time, in a real space, in three dimensions, in flesh and blood. I realized I had been trying to cram all this narrative into my paintings, but ultimately painting was a static medium. So it just opened up this whole new door.
appeal change chunk guess less paid powers tv
When you're lucky enough to get paid a nice chunk of change to write a movie or a TV show, you have no right to complain, really. I guess it's more of an appeal to the powers that be that the less they interfere, the more likely, actually, they are to get something that works, I think.
amongst bubbling narratives tap
The media doesn't create narratives, really. They're not that powerful. What they do is they tap into narratives that are already bubbling amongst their viewership or readership.
campaigns dabble finds himself likes operative political profession stumbling trajectory tv writer
I was always a writer - working on campaigns was never a profession for me. It was something I did on the side, really, so the trajectory hasn't been a political operative who likes to dabble in writing and finds himself into stumbling on film and TV - that was always my goal.
dark lights political portray time turn
The political world is a dark place. If you want to portray it accurately, authentically, you've got to turn out the lights from time to time.
break governance gray land leaders life maintain order paved setting white
Real leaders have to live a paradoxical life, where they must break the rules in order to maintain them. If your expectations are high, you're setting yourself up for disillusionment. The land of governance is paved with gray streets, not black or white ones.
against attempt banging failure tried until wall
You always want to try, in everything you do, to attempt something you've never tried before, and the only way to succeed at that is through failure, and the only way to succeed through failure is just banging your head against the wall over and over until you get to that interesting thing on the other side.