Adapting Poor Things
Cinematic translation: Tony McNamara on writing the screenplay of Alasdair Gray’s novel Poor Things
Poor Things movie poster. Searchlight Pictures.
Poor Things movie poster. Searchlight Pictures.
How do you adapt a book like Alasdair Gray’s Poor Things for the screen? Our own resident writer Anita Sullivan asks Tony McNamara how he approached the screenplay for Yorgos Lanthimos’s award-winning movie.
Tony discusses his approach to adapting Poor Things for the screen, highlighting the challenges and creative process involved, along with insights into character development and narrative divergence from the original novel.
“I’d never adapted a book before, so I thought, why not begin by adapting one that seems ridiculously hard?”
What made you say ‘I want to adapt this’? (I bet it wasn’t page 1)?
“I wanted to adapt it for two reasons. One, I think Yorgos is one of the great directors of our time and I had a great time working on The Favourite with him. It seemed a great idea and I was happy he wanted to work with me again. And two, it’s such a wild unique and amazing story that Alasdair came up with that it seemed a massive screenwriting challenge to try and adapt that in some way that would serve the book well.”
What was your process? e.g. post-its, index cards, spreadsheets, research? Pull apart the physical book? Or just start at the beginning and write…?
“I have whiteboards, a giant notebook and a lot of yellow pads. I just breakdown the structure of the book and then translate that into how we would approach the movie with Bella at the centre of the story.”
How naturally filmic was Alasdair’s novel? What lifted off the page, what didn’t?
“I think the world he created was unique. Couple with that, Yorgos had a vision for it with Shona, James and Holly about how fantastical it could be. We were always working off the idea that it was a comic fantasy. All of those things contributed to how the movie felt on the page.”
Poor Things movie. Searchlight Pictures.
Poor Things movie. Searchlight Pictures.
How did adapting Gray’s book differ from adapting your own work or writing a screenplay from scratch? Would you rush to do it again or run a mile?
“Adapting is a bit harder than writing an original in a way. Even though you have the material to work from you’re translating from one medium and trying to create an object that is completely filmic and not related to its original format. It can be difficult to leave the book behind and create a movie by itself. But I like both so I would happily do it again.”
You’ve said in interviews you had an ‘I can’t do this’ moment on page 75. What was that about and how did you push through?
“At that point it was about going into the third act and I didn’t like where we were at with the 3rd act and what was going to happen. But I didn’t really have a solution to what I thought the 3rd act should be. In the end I pushed through because Yorgos told me to. I wrote a 3rd act even though I knew it probably wasn’t going to end up working, knowing I was going to redraft it a lot and work out a new version.”
How conscious were you of your audience (and the expectations of investors) while writing? If there were a writer’s cut, how would it differ from the film on release?
“I wasn’t at all conscious of that. I don’t really think about the audience when I’m writing. In terms of a writer’s cut it would have one scene that I miss but we only really cut 3 or 4 scenes out of the whole script so it did well.”
You and Jorgos talk about liberating Bella’s story from the male narrative. How do you feel you achieved this?
“I think by putting Bella at the centre of the story we go on the adventure with her, feel her experience. It felt like the journey was emotional and became a coming of age story from her point of view. Then we could carry the satire of everyone trying to control her better if it was all from her point of view.”
Alasdair Gray’s drawing of Bella Baxter
Emma Stone as Bella Baxter. Searchlight Pictures
Your ending is different to the novel’s. Tell us about that?
“The ending is different because the big change in the 3rd act where Bella chose to go with Alfie was to try and understand who she’d been before and why she tried to kill herself. It seemed more in character that she would choose that experience rather than be forced into it. And the goat head for Alfie was just a funny absurd idea I had for him in the first draft that stuck. It seemed like a logical conclusion to that story.”
What does a viewer gain by seeing Poor Things instead of reading it? What do they lose? (Would you say read the book then see the film or the other way around?)
“I think they should just do both, it doesn’t matter what order they do it in. Obviously it’s exciting for us as fans of Alasdair that hopefully more people will read the book and be exposed to his amazing genius because of the film.”
We enjoyed Godwin’s incredible creatures. How do you feel about men playing God?
“I’m against it.”
Alasdair Gray’s drawing of Godwin Baxter
Willem Dafoe as Godwin Baxter. Searchlight Pictures
What 3 words would you use to describe Alasdair’s creative essence as exemplified in Poor Things?
Has Alasdair’s work had any lasting influence on you? Will you do anything differently in future as a result of adapting Poor Things?
“Alasdair’s influence on me as a writer is just his freedom of exploration and his adventures in style while still dealing with big ideas.”
Explore more…
Alasdair Gray + Yorgos Lanthimos
Are Yorgos Lanthimos and Alasdair Gray a match made in heaven?
External links…
Poor Things read the multi award winning movie screenplay.
Watch movie trailer and video clips on IMDb.
Tony McNamara find out more about the award winning playwright, screenwriter and television producer.
SBIFF Cinema Society Q&A Poor Things with Tony McNamara.
You can hear Alasdair reading and talking about books on our YouTube channel