Tony McNamara – screenwriter of The Favourite, spoke with Kena from Film in Revolt. The Favourite earned a Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay, as well as nominations for Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz — and Best Picture, Director for Yorgos Lanthimos, Editing, Cinematography, Production Design and Costume Design. The Favourite also won Best Screenplay at the British Independent Film Awards and was nominated for Best Screenplay for Motion Picture at the Golden Globes.
Massive congrats on all the awards and nominations you’ve received as screenwriter on The Favourite, I saw it in cinemas a few weeks ago and died laughing. How’s your morning?
My morning’s alright, it’s England… in January… pretty miserable, but thanks.
Yeah sounds like England to me… I read in another interview that Director Yorgos Lanthimos thought you a “perfect match” for the film because you don’t have much of a Period English film background, as the spotlight is primarily on the characters in this film. That being said, the period element is incredibly poignant and hilarious, what was it like to inject your style and ideas into a completely different context? Did you have to do much research?
I didn’t do heaps of research – we decided earlier that we just wanted the basic skeleton of what actually happened and to make a film that was a little bit different, a bit funnier and a bit fresher than the typical period film. Yorgos knew my tone, the way I used language, and I’d written a period play called The Great and the language used in that is not dissimilar.
I also read that you and Yorgos weren’t too miffed about strictly adhering to history, you were writing a story based in historical fact and I’m sure most cinema-goers would just take it as fact; did you feel like you were rewriting history almost?
We were writing a story about three women, and I made sure I knew about all of them, and then adjusted their characters in different ways or exaggerated their elements. We wanted to tell the political story, and the bones of that story are true; the government changes etc. We wanted to do that really simply and not get bogged down in the detail of history like a lot of period films do. We wanted to be close enough to history that it had a truth to it, which is easy because it’s not a period of English history that most people are familiar with. Most people don’t actually know what happened between the two women; they only know the result. They don’t know the detail of the event, so we had some freedom in creating that detail.
The choice to add the c-word on a few occasions was absolutely genius, and I loved its every appearance, but has it affected The Favourite’s reception in the US? Unlike Australians they’re quite touchy about that word… How and why did the c-word come to feature in The Favourite?
The studio was a bit worried about it, yes, particularly in the US, but it seems to be making lots of money and the reviews are great… I think we might have caught it at the right time where everyone’s okay with it at the moment? And historically it was in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and in use at that time, so I used it because of that. We were trying to be contemporary, but it’s also a word that they would have used, so it fit. At the time I didn’t think ahead to what the studio might think but they never had a problem with it in the script or while we were filming.
What are you working on now?
I’m writing a movie for Yorgos Lanthimos… (Another one!?) At the moment, yeah. (Yessssss) I’m writing a book, a dark comedy, female driven story… A few other things and projects in TV and film.
And do you base yourself here in Australia to write?
Yes. I travel to get the job – at the moment I’m in London because I just shot a pilot for Hulu that I wrote. But usually I’m based in New South Wales and then travel to L.A. or wherever. It’s easy now, because Yorgos and I wrote the script whilst I was in Sydney and he was in London. I would just write drafts and we’d get on Skype. It’s a very global industry at the moment.
What’s it like to see your words being performed on set or screened in cinemas?
It’s amazing! I was in pre-production and then we had rehearsals with the actors for three weeks and then we’re on set… It’s great! You’re working with incredibly talented people, even down to the Production Designer Fiona Crombie (she’s Australian) and it’s great to be on set to watch them work. And it’s amazing to watch Yorgos work. We’ve worked together for so many years but I’ve never seen him on set… that was fun.
Do you have a favourite line from The Favourite?
It changes all the time. Every time I see it I have a new favourite line. My favourite line at the moment is Nic Hoult saying, “Must the duck be here?”. The other one I really like is the way Emma delivers “My maid is on the way up with a pineapple.” She’s so funny. You’re blessed as a writer because they deliver every line as well as it could possibly be delivered.
What is a film that made an impact on you in your youth?
The Godfather because its exceptional film making – it’s a gangster film, but about family & corporate America.
Thank you very much Tony it’s been a pleasure to chat with you about your work! Best of luck in the Oscars from everyone at Film In Revolt!