As an actor, Danny Strong has appeared on TV in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Gilmore Girls" and "Clueless."
He is also the writer of HBO's "Recount," which airs tonight amid perhaps predictable grumbling about accuracy from the real-life people involved in the 2000 presidential recount.
So what's it like when the real-world characters in your film suddenly come to life and start objecting to it?
Yeah, you know, first off, they're objecting to a film they haven't seen. It is a little premature. But I understand that if they feel they don't like the portrayal, they'd speak up against it.
You don't sound flapped.
Because the film is accurate and fair and truthful.
But you haven't heard from [Florida's secretary of state at the time]Katherine Harris. No! That's because she doesn't want to criticize the film until she's seen it.
Hey, you're a writer now. Were there earlier things that didn't go anywhere?
I had written four scripts before I sold "Recount" as a pitch. Each script furthered my writing career but didn't sell, so I didn't make a dime in those four years, five years. My second script got me a manager who is an outstanding literary manager, and it got me meetings. The script after that really kind of blew up. I ended up taking 50 meetings with producers and got signed by an agent. And then my next script didn't really do anything.
These were all comedies. I was trying to write studio high-concept comedies like "Liar Liar." Because those are the types of scripts that are most likely to sell. After my fourth one didn't sell, um, I was pretty depressed. . . .
I realized that not one of those scripts is a movie I would want to go see. I was writing movies to sell, not because I was trying to create something that I really loved.
Do you have any good recommendations for people pitching things?
I would say that what HBO really responded to was my genuine passion for the project, that they felt that I genuinely loved it. That's why they were willing to take a chance on a writer who wasn't in the guild. Because they thought that if this works, it could work great -- and he doesn't have a quote so it was as cheap as they come. And they rolled the dice.
Did you seek out advice once you were trying to structure it and trying to put it together?
