The Mary Sue interview with Julia Hart, screenwriter of the feminist Western The Keeping Room, starring Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld, and Sam Worthington, directed by Daniel Barber.
TMS: Where did the original idea of this story come from?
Hart: My dad is from Texas so I spent my summers in the south but I grew up in New York. So it was really interesting to spend most of my year in the north and then go to the south, which has a fascinating sense of place and characters. And I was of course always interested in the history of the Civil War. But when my husband and I were on a road trip to Georgia, we visited friends who had a pre-Civil War house in the family. And there was a myth that there were unmarked Civil War graves in the backyard. So from there I kind of worked backwards, thinking how those men would have gotten there. And I thought, it would have been the women who were alone in the house that put them in the ground. And then I thought, what kind of women would be capable of taking down these types of aggressors, and that is where our three main characters come from.
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TMS: How did you develop the female characters the film would revolve around?
Hart: I did a lot of research and the sad reality is that most of what has been documented comes from the white, male experience. But there is a fair amount of documentation about the black male experience, and a little bit about the white, female experience, and finally some second hand accounts of the black, female experience. But for the most part, and especially regarding the rural, impoverished, and certainly the slave experience, is largely undocumented. So I ended up having to do a little inventing, which women have to do in general because our history was often left untold. But I tried to turn that into a positive, and think about how I could turn these women from the past into women modern audiences could identify with. So they are intentionally anachronistic, so their relationships feel both of the time and ahead of the time. Because as women, if we are undocumented we have to create our past, and that gives us certain opportunities. But I thought that because of the place they are in, this almost post-apocalyptic rural setting, there is a sense that they are not in their own world. But that also fit the story, because women have often felt out of time.
TMS: One of the really interesting questions which has come up this year, especially speaking with writers is can men identify with female protagonists? Have you been hearing from guys during the screenings that say they identify with the three women or is that even a concern you have?
Hart: Well, what’s funny is that our entire lives, we’ve had to identify with characters we aren’t necessarily like because that is all we used to get from movies. White men have never been forced to do that because there is always a white man on screen. They’ve had themselves reflected to themselves everywhere they go. But I’ve literally written a list of men who told me they loved this movie, and I’m like “Are you single? I’ll set you up with my friends.” Because it is exciting to hear that there are men identifying with something outside of themselves. And that is an evolved thing. And I’m not saying if you don’t like the movie you are unevolved or sexist, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But I think in general, white men would benefit from opening their eyes to movies about people that aren’t just white men.
For the rest of the interview, go here.
