A Conversation with the Celebrated Author and Screenwriting Educator on His Satirical Novel, Hollywood Insights, and the Craft of Writing
Richard Walter, acclaimed author and screenwriting professor, discusses his novel Deadpan, the evolution of storytelling, Hollywood’s changing landscape, and offers invaluable advice for aspiring writers seeking success in film and literature.
Richard Walter is a storyteller in every sense of the word—an acclaimed novelist, sought-after script consultant, and legendary screenwriting professor whose insights have shaped generations of writers. For decades, he led UCLA’s esteemed screenwriting programme, imparting lessons that have guided many towards successful Hollywood careers. Now, with his latest novel, Deadpan, he takes readers on a darkly comic journey that blends satire with piercing social commentary.
In this exclusive interview, Walter reflects on the inspirations behind Deadpan, the evolution of screenwriting, and the enduring power of storytelling. With his signature wit and sharp observations, he shares invaluable advice for aspiring writers, underscoring the importance of brevity, clarity, and emotional engagement. Whether discussing his own literary influences or recounting the unconventional success stories of his students, Walter’s perspective is a reminder that great stories transcend mediums—and that, even in an industry that constantly reinvents itself, the fundamentals of compelling storytelling remain unchanged.
Richard Walter’s insights into storytelling and screenwriting are unparalleled, blending wit, wisdom, and decades of experience into a masterclass on the craft.
What inspired you to write Deadpan, and how did you balance humour with such a serious subject?
Deadpan was inspired by Kafka’s timeless story The Metamorphosis in which a man awakens to discover he has been transformed into an insect. I wondered if, instead of an insect, he was changed into something else. Standup comedian held greater promise than, say, a hippopotamus, or a fern.
Since so many comedians are Jews, I made the comic Jewish, which led me to render his alter ego anti-Semitic, creating a story in which an anti-Semite spends a day in the life of a Jew.
If the central character is a comedian, the tale has to be funny.
Having taught screenwriting at UCLA for decades, what are the most common mistakes aspiring screenwriters make?
The most common mistake screenwriters make is to write too much: too much dialogue, too much description, too many pages, too many words. A screenplay is an elaborate list of two–and only two–kinds of information: sight and sound. Exclude feelings, thoughts, memories, and related phenomena that occur exclusively in the head.
Overwriting arises most commonly in descriptions of characters. Shakespeare needed only three words to describe Hamlet, arguably the richest, deepest, most complex character in English-language dramatic literature: ‘Prince of Denmark.’
“A screenplay is an elaborate list of two–and only two–kinds of information: sight and sound.” – Richard Walter
How do you think the screenwriting industry has changed over the years, and what advice would you give to writers trying to break in today?
Except for one item, everything has changed. Movies used to be silent; now they have sound. They used to be short; now they’re long. They used to be black and white; now they’re in color. They used to be viewed exclusively in theaters; now they appear also on flat screens in audiences’ homes.
One of the two biggest changes is finance. While studios produce movies budgeted at hundreds of millions of dollars, production costs have actually plummeted; today everybody has a movie studio in their pocket. A writer from New Zealand sent me a dazzling feature-length film with Hollywood-level production values, which he shot for ten thousand dollars on his smartphone.
Distribution used to be limited to a half dozen studios and three TV networks. Now there are a zillion channels and hundreds of production companies, with distribution readily available via that same smartphone.
The challenge today is to win attention. Happily, diminished budgets mean less attention is needed. That’s why we are living in film’s new Golden Age, with oodles of people making scads of movies, providing screenwriters with more opportunities than ever, and audiences with a vastly expanded inventory of alternative choices. What is freedom if not that?
That’s why there’s never been better time to launch a career in film, and the best way to do so is as a writer.
Throughout all of film history, only one thing remains the same: story.
A worthy movie tells a compelling story.
Escape from Film School satirises Hollywood—how much of it was drawn from your own experiences?
If Deadpan was swiped from Kafka’s …Metamorphosis, its predecessor Escape From Film School was stolen from Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard. In the latter, an impoverished wanna-be screenwriter, fleeing repo men bent on seizing his car, steers abruptly into the driveway of an aged silent film star. In …Film School, a Vietnam-war era draft evader, attempting to elude federal marshals, steers abruptly onto the USC campus where he enrolls in the cinema program in order to qualify for a student draft deferment.
Yes, I was a film student during those years; no, I was not pursued by police. Yes, I became a screenwriter and film professor; no, I am not divorced from a former classmate/movie-director wife but still married to my first bride, one among a handful of people in Los Angeles who has nothing at all to do with the movie industry.
Can you share a memorable success story from one of your former students?
During the early ’80s the hot picture was Beverly Hills Cop. To cash in on what appeared to be a trend, everybody was writing cop-buddy action melodramas.
Nobody was producing westerns.
A student in my class wrote a western.
Instead of yet another Beverly Hills Cop knockoff, he created a script that stood out. It garnered a low-ball option deal, though the film was not produced. All the same, the script won him top representation, rewrite assignments, novel adaptations, the eventual sale of original material, and a productive, profitable career that is still going strong after forty years.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors, whether they are writing novels or screenplays.
Show, don’t tell. Avoid static settings such as restaurants, bars, and cars where characters narrate rather than act out the story. The players are called actors, not talkers.
Don’t have people yakking on the phone.
Movies must move.
If every sight and sound palpably, measurably, identifiably advances the story, it doesn’t matter what happens in the script or what it’s about. There are only two genres: good movies and bad ones. The former engage audiences; the latter are boring.
Successful narratives elicit passion. Writers don’t have to make their audiences feel good; they only have to make them feel. Scare them to death, burden them with inconsolable grief. Provoke, disturb, offend, upset, infuriate them, and they’ll follow you to the ends of the Earth.
“Movies must move.” – Richard Walter
