We spoke with screenplay writer Virgil Williams who co-wrote “Mudbound” at the film’s NYFF premiere.
He and director Dee Rees co-wrote the screenplay, which was adapted from Hillary Jordan’s novel of the same name.
What did you love about the book?
Virgil Williams: The book was written by Hillary Jordan. So many things struck me. The first that struck me was it was an American classic. I think that this book belongs on high school reading lists. I think it’s on par with To Kill A Mockingbird especially for this generation. What struck me also personally is … my grandfather fought in World War II. He fought in a black unit. His brother fought in a white unit because he could pass. To have these two soldiers who come back from the war, one white, one black, it struck a personal chord in me. It was really also about, I have two daughters and the more things change the more they stay the same. So here I am trying to bring up these two young women, to try to be strong young woman in this current world, and it’s challenging, but this book speaks to a lot of that. This book sort of teaches us that love is the only way out of the mud. That we’re better together than we are separate. It teaches us that hate and ignorance are like a cancer and it teaches us about the power of unity. It also teaches us that we have to fight for love. I think that a lot of people think love is a thing that happens to them but now I think that we have to fight for love. We have to fight for the right thing and that’s what this movie is thematically all day. That’s what drew me to the book. It felt like responsibility. It felt like, God herself …
Like a calling?
Virgil Williams: Yes! Because my agent begged me not to do it, begged me not to do it.
Did he change his mind?
Virgil Williams: Oh, his mind has been changed. Yes, his mind is sufficiently changed.
In terms of the process, how long did it take to write this?
Virgil Williams: That’s a great question. It took about a year to write the screenplay. Before Dee Rees or before Cassian came on board, about four years went by where we were rewriting the script and rewriting the script and getting it to a place where the world could see it.
Have you seen the movie yet?
Virgil Williams: Oh yeah, I’ve seen it a couple of times.
What’s your favorite moment to see brought to life?
Virgil Williams: There’s a couple. The sequence where Jamie reveals the reason why he’s decided to help Ronsel is big, where the Tuskegee Airmen, or the Redtails show up and save him. That wasn’t in the book that was something that I added. And I think that works really well, it’s cinematic, there’s emotion to it and it helps you understand that character and then the ending. The ending is different from the book too, when he goes to get his boy, that’s a movie moment to me, and I knew that this needed to be a movie, not a book and when he holds that boy and crosses the ocean again for love instead of war, that’s a movie moment.
Have you been in touch with the author? Has she seen the movie?
Virgil Williams: Hillary Jordan is like one of my buddies. We’re homies. We became friends through this process. It was important to me, as a writer, to be very respectful of another writer, and really, really be in touch with her throughout the process. I called her before I told her I was going to change the ending and she was a little mad, but I think she’s okay now.
And what about seeing such a phenomenal cast speak your words?
Virgil Williams: Blown away. Blown away. I was lucky enough to work with Jason Clarke on a television show. I’m a television writer, that’s how I pay the bills. Blown away. Carey Mulligan, what Mary J. Blige turns into is amazing, because Mary J. Blige goes away. The discovery of Rob Morgan is fantastic. Jason Mitchell, I mean, wall to wall, side to side. The whole squad was … It feels out of body, I’m incredibly blessed.
And you were working on the script while working on TV simultaneously?
Virgil Williams: Yep, I would go to my day job and then I would come home and spend time with my wife and my two daughters and have dinner and then I would say I was going to the Delta, and then I would go into the office and go into the Delta.
How did you initially get your foot in the door to even start writing for TV?
Virgil Williams: I wrote. I wrote. I mean it really started a long, long time ago when I was a child actor in Chicago. I was in a movie called The Blues Brothers and that’s when I sort of knew. It was California or bust as I got older, and I just wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote until the door opened.
Mudbound will hit Netflix on November 17, 2017.
(Photo Credit: Jason Kempin/Getty/Netflix)
