Anyone vaguely familiar with the theater or Hollywood's top writers has heard of David Mamet, and knows he is a force to be reckoned with. Many have called him a genius and one of the greatest living playwrights. Since the early '70s David Mamet has been spellbinding audiences with vivid, gritty plays such as American Buffalo, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and Glengarry Glen Ross - all of which were adapted into movies. He created what some have dubbed "Mametspeak," a description of his dialogue, which is sharp and filled with abbreviated sentences and iambic rhythm.
In the early '80s, Mamet branched out into writing for film with such notables as The Untouchables, Wag the Dog, and The Spanish Prisoner. As he said in a recent interview, "I wanted to direct just 'cause it looked like that's where all the fun was happening and it is. It's fun while you're doing it... it's film camp. You get to play dress-up with all your best friends."
Mamet grew up in Chicago, living most of his life with an exacting stepfather in what would now be called a dysfunctional family. Later, he went on to study at Goddard College, a school which has no grades and no requirements, which he later wrote was a failed experiment in education. He was never a good student, but was always a voracious reader. During his last years of college Mamet began writing and has never stopped as "it became a habit."
After bouncing around to dozens of jobs throughout his 20s, he was eventually able to support himself as a writer. During those years, he associated with less-than-respectable characters through poker games and work in a shady real estate investment office. He picked up the rhythms of the hangers-on and blue collar workers he hung out with and later used their dialogue and stories as fodder for his writing.
Unlike many playwrights before him, Mamet has successfully bridged the gap between Hollywood and the theater. During his 30 years in the theater and in film he has accomplished quite a bit: he has written 21 screenplays, three novels, dozens of essays, several songs, four children's books, two books of poems, about 25 plays, three Chekhov adaptations, directed six films and won numerous awards, including a Pulitzer. One might think that, having produced so much over the past thirty years, Mamet has simply churned out all his works by formula; therein lies his prolific genius. His work continues to be consistently fresh, inventive, and incredibly tight and enjoyable.
Just as his dialogue has become a staple of his style, Mamet's look has as well: thick round glasses, a stubbly beard, and a crew cut which he calls "an honest haircut." He speaks softly, yet beneath the surface is a power and sharp wit ready to pounce and devour anyone at any moment.
Mamet has directed only six of his screenplays. While writers have been appalled at the mauling of their scripts when translated to the screen by others, Mamet says he has had pretty good luck in the past. Also, he says, "I always think of it like a decorator. You know, someone says, 'will you decorate my apartment?', and you decorate the apartment, and they say, 'come over for tea'. Decorator comes over and says, 'oh my god, they moved the couch.'"
That being said, Mamet refuses to let the movies he writes and directs be changed at all. "Part of the deal is, if you like the script and you like the budget, you gotta give me final cut. That's the deal. People seemed to like Spanish Prisoner, so it makes it easier to do this movie, and if people like this one it will make it easier for the next one," he says. For a director to have final cut (which means: once Mamet is finished with the movie, the studio is forbidden from changing the film at all) on all of his movies is rare, but for a man with such an incredible track record, it is expected.
Having had such tremendous success in the independent film world, Mamet wants to try his hand at the studio system. "Well, sure, I've been having such a good time making independent films that it's only human nature to want to go into an arena in which I know nothing and get my brains beat out," he quipped.
A perk of working for a studio is that the returns on his films and the exposure will increase drastically, for none of the movies he has written and directed have had much commercial exposure, aside from receiving positive reviews.
Despite his insistence on full control and his confidence in his own work, Mamet is not a tyrant on set. He explains, "Sir Nigel [Hawthorne] said a wonderful thing to me. There's the scene, [in which Arthur and Grace are] talking on the stairs, and he turns away from her, and she's talking to his back and there's a wonderful close up of her and she says, 'What are you doing it for? What are you doing it for? What's the point of all this? Why are you doing it?' And he says 'For justice, Grace.' And it's a shot on his back, a very, very beautiful shot and I said, 'Nigel,' I said, 'okay, when she asks you that, turn around and look at her and say 'For justice, Grace.' He says, 'No, that's a huge mistake, it's too important a line to whack it on the head.' And so he doesn't turn around. It was a wonderful insight on his part."
This exchange illustrates the type of subtle yet powerful scenes and shots that end up in a Mamet-directed film: precise, powerful, and dramatically significant.
Along with this, Mamet feels that once a cast is decided upon, the director must realize "that's what you're gonna get. The idea that the director's gonna mold the cast really doesn't work. They say if you sign with the devil, you're gonna shepherd the devil and vice-versa."
Mamet first saw the original play upon which his latest film, The Winslow Boy, is based 20 years ago, and he said he loved the language of the play, as well as the 1950 film adaptation. The original play was written by Terrence Rattigan, who adapted true events from 1908 in building the plot. Mamet said that in adapting his version of it, he wrote some extra scenes and some transitions, but most of the language is Rattigan's.
When speaking of The Winslow Boy, he says he enjoyed that the movie was a period piece since all of the other movies he directed were set in contemporary times. "It's once upon a time. It's a lot more fun if you set it in once upon a time. You say, 'Well, what do the characters look like, what do they wear, and how does that aid the story?' Rather than setting the movie in contemporary times, there's an unfortunate impulse to say, 'What kind of job does the guy work at? What kind of clothing does he wear.... All stories are once upon a time," he says.
Like Wag the Dog, for instance? "Oh, yeah, that would be once upon this time."
Despite such a hectic work schedule, Mamet shows no signs of slowing down. He has already released four books this year, three in April alone. He recounts, "I was asked to write a Jekyl and Hyde script (slated for Al Pacino) last year so I did that. It takes place at the turn of the century.... In fact I've got a new [children's] book that's just coming out. It's about Boston. It's called Henrietta. It's about a pig who goes to law school, so it's the same old story."
Does he feel challenged anymore by writing and working? "Well, gettin' up in the morning, that's a very big challenge, I feel like if I can do that I have proved myself for that day," he answers.
Can he possibly continue on this course in the future - writing and writing? "I'd like to take a day off.... I'd like to make a new movie over the next couple of years. And I start directing a play today, and I hope to be doing this magic show [with Ricky Jay], I hope." And therein lies the secret to his success: in addition to his dramatic and comedic genius, he constantly carries a notebook and never stops working. From the looks of it, he loves every minute.
David Mamet currently lives in Newton, Mass. with his wife Rebecca Pidgeon and his children.
