Kaui Hart Hemmings
Kaui Hart Hemmings
Kaui Hart Hemmings is an American writer who was born and raised in Hawaii. She attended Colorado College and graduated in 1998. Her debut novel The Descendants was adapted by Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash into the highly acclaimed 2011 American film The Descendants, starring George Clooney...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
CountryUnited States of America
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One day during filming, George Clooney was wearing his surf shirt and board shorts, and my six-year-old daughter was in the background as an extra, playing in the sand - playing herself. She and Clooney suddenly looked equally Hawaiian, equally related to the place I call home.
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I wasn't creative enough to imagine my first novel becoming a film directed by Alexander Payne. Nor did I consider the possibility of seeing Hollywood stars moving through my personal version of Hanalei town: going to Tahiti Nui, rehearsing a scene in front of my cousin's cottages, driving the snaky roads.
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Sometimes I loved the disruptive student in class who livened up lectures with wisecracks - it put a spin on things, added flavor, made me laugh. Other times, I wished the heckler would just shut up so I could learn something.
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Nothing has changed that much, even during filmmaking for 'The Descendants.' I wrote. I took the kids to school. I cleaned the house. And I had dinner with George Clooney.
caught front gone mortified
I've never gone back to the stacks after my book's expiration at the front of the store. Not because I'm above it or anything, but I'd be mortified if someone caught me looking for my own book.
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My seven-year-old daughter knows old songs and how the neighborhoods got their names. There are little things: Businesses receive blessings from Hawaiian priests before opening, and everyone's kids have their debut luau. You can't really get through a day without doing something Hawaiian.
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In putting setting to work, I like to think about long shots and close-ups. The long shot is the overall view of the place in which the characters live - the island, the town, the wide sweep of place. Then we narrow in. The close-up, the tight focus, makes the place different from anywhere else.
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That's how you know you love someone, I guess, when you can't experience anything without wishing the other person were there to see it, too.
disappointment easy hard
Why is it so hard to articulate love yet so easy to express disappointment?
sorry giving wanted
I'm sorry," I say. "I didn't give you everything you wanted. I wasn't everything you wanted. You were everything I wanted.
feelings doe feels
Because feeling love does make you feel superior. Until you find out you aren't loved back.
growing-up kids islands
...we’re just kids growing up on an island, doing bad things in pretty places.
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I don't ask what Alex sees in him because I'm afraid my disapproval will make her latch on to him even more. That's how it works. I'll have to pretend he doesn't bother me and that I don't want to drown him in the bay.
air want destination
I'll never be ready. Yet at the same time, you always want to reach the end. You can't fly to a destination and linger in the air. I want to reach the end of this thing, and I feel terrible about it.