Tracy Letts
Tracy Letts
Tracy Lettsis an American playwright, screenwriter and actor who received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play August: Osage County and a Tony Award for his portrayal of George in the revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth4 July 1965
CountryUnited States of America
hard harder puts work
You don't work as hard to watch a movie. You work harder to watch a play, so what the audience puts into it is interesting.
bum carry everybody fear great hope lift script shoulders throw time
When I write a play, and we read it for the first time, the great fear is that everybody is going to say, 'You're a bum and you can't write. This stinks.' and throw the script in the garbage. The great hope is that they're all going to lift me up on their shoulders and carry me to the streets, singing, 'He's a genius, he's a genius!'
I try to write fun - though difficult and challenging - things for actors to do, because I know if they're having fun, they're going to give it everything they got.
allow arc audiences characters ends love opportunity scenes
I like it when actors get an opportunity to chew into something. They love scenes with beginnings, middles, and ends - scenes that give an arc to their characters and allow audiences to get to know these people.
believe cut longer patience scene
I don't believe moviegoers don't have patience. Screenwriters are told a scene can't be longer than three minutes, that you have to cut to the chase. Not true!
cut frequently movies plays
When books and plays are made into movies, they frequently want to cut out the valleys and just show the peaks.
affinity greater knows
I don't know what it says about me that I have a greater affinity with the damaged. Probably nothing good.
writing character shoes
Well, one of the things we're supposed to be able to do as playwrights is write from a place of empathy, get into another character's shoes and experience things both mundane and tragic. And people don't -- like me right now -- people aren't necessarily the most eloquent when trying to express their emotions. I guess I feel as a playwright that those people deserve a voice, too, a voice that isn't so articulate that they themselves can no longer identify with it.
giving-up giving soul
A certain giving up of control is good for the soul.
like-you failing feels
If you feel like you're in control of everything, and then things aren't going well, you feel like you're failing.
cells people genetics
We're all just people, some of us accidentally connected by genetics, a random selection of cells. Nothing more.
shade window nighttime
The window shades have all been removed. Nighttime is now free to encroach.
entirety john nature performed tracy
The nature of the beast is that film is a director's medium. It's not a Tracy Letts play, it's a John Wells film. 'August: Osage County,' as a play, is done. Written. On the shelf. It'll be performed in its entirety for years.
fan preference
I'm not a fan - this is a personal preference - I'm not a fan of tour-de-force writing. I admire it, but it's not where my inclination is. I want to hide.