2023-07-24 15:00:00
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Oscar winner Tom Schulmann surrounded by his “classmates”: On Friday evening, the American screenwriter had a brief appearance in the revival of the successful play “The Dead Poets Society” in the Bad Hersfeld monastery ruins. © Steffen Sennewald
Oscar winner Tom Schulmann attended the Bad Hersfeld Festival and even acted in his play “The Dead Poets Society”. We met him for an interview.
Bad Hersfeld – The Oscar winner Tom Schulmann visited the Bad Hersfeld Festival at the weekend and even played a small role in “his” play “The Dead Poets Society”. Our newspaper met Tom Schulman for an exclusive interview in Bad Hersfeld. Kai A. Struthoff spoke to the American screenwriter.
Mr. Schulman, welcome to Bad Hersfeld! The most important question first: How did you like the stage version of your play “The Dead Poets Society” in the monastery ruins?
It was fabulous, loved it. Although I don’t speak German, I understood everything and it was very engaging and intense. You might cry and laugh, it was very touching. It was so imaginative visually and dramaturgically and the actors were fantastic. Jörn Hinkel did a great job directing.
How do you like the monastery ruins?
The monastery ruins are spectacular. I had seen photos, but when you see them in person, the grand old walls and the sheer size of the building are breathtaking.
The story regarding the students of the old-fashioned and strict Welton Academy has an autobiographical background. You went to a school like that yourself. Which of the students in the play are you?
Interview with an Oscar winner: Tom Schulman with editor Kai A. Struthoff following the interview at the Hotel zum Stern in Bad Hersfeld. © Monika Liegmann
The model for the school was the conservative Montgomery Bell Academy, an all-boys school but not a boarding school. Personally, I identify with Todd Anderson the most because I used to be a very shy young man. While I didn’t stutter, I avoided speaking in class whenever possible.
Although Dead Poets Society is set in the 1950s, many of the problems with the educational system that the play reveals are still relevant. Or have schools in the US changed since then?
We are witnessing a new backward-looking trend in education in the United States – particularly in Florida.
You mean because it’s now considered a crime in the Republican-governed state to expose students to books that are considered “lewd” and “obscene”?
Exactly. There is censorship in the schools, especially when it comes to controversial social issues such as dealing with slavery and racism. The students are deliberately limited in their learning opportunities. This repressive form of education, which is also portrayed in “Dead Poets Society”, is currently experiencing a comeback in some conservative states in the USA.
Director Joern Hinkel told us that he was in regular contact with you while writing the German stage version. What did you exchange regarding?
We mainly talked regarding which parts of the film should also appear in the stage version. I wrote a stage version myself for a theater in New York, but it was only 90 minutes long. I cut a lot and even left out whole characters. That’s why Joern and I revised the piece very thoroughly, especially from the point of view of what content is important for a German audience. In doing so, I orientated myself primarily towards Joern Hinkel, because he knows his audience best.
To what extent did your strict school shape you for the rest of your life? Did your personal Keating turn shy Tom into an eventual Oscar winner?
I don’t know that. But Keating’s role model was my sophomore high school English teacher at Montgomery Bell Academy. He had the same classic spirit as Mr. Keating – and he didn’t come back the following school year. There were rumors that he was having an affair with the headmaster’s wife or daughter, something like that, that we students didn’t dare to ask what happened. I found out later that he had just found a better job teaching at a university. But the fact that I didn’t know what had happened to him fueled my imagination.
Although you wrote the screenplay, it was ultimately Nancy Kleinbaum who turned it into a novel. Is writing a screenplay that different from writing a novel?
I guess so. Also, I had already finished the script by then and didn’t want to go back into the story and plow through the same field as a novel. It is quite common for the film studios to hire someone other than the screenwriter to do the novelization of the film.
Have you ever written a novel?
I tried, but it turned into a script once more. Plays and screenplays have a different narrative structure, rhythm and style. In film and television, stories are told with dialogue, action, or from what is not said. In novels you have to be much more descriptive. You need a special talent for that. I think I’m good at dialogue and telling a story through drama, but I’m not so good at the other skills needed to write a good novel.
How long does it actually take to write a script like Dead Poets Society?
I’ve thought regarding it for a long time, several years. But the actual writing only took regarding a month.
The central message of the “Dead Poets Society” is freedom of thought and speech. For many Germans, these were also the values that the United States of America stood for for a long time. And then Donald Trump came and this model fell apart. What has happened there?
To put it in a simple common denominator: immigration! I was shocked that Trump was elected, but I believe the immigration issue was central to his victory. This is ironic, because the United States became what it is today thanks to immigrants. But Donald Trump has railed once morest immigrants, particularly from Mexico and South America, from the start. He has fueled fears, particularly among older Americans, that these immigrants would transform society. But society usually changes immigrants because they want to be accepted in their new country. I believe that a similar discussion is currently taking place in Europe and Germany. Now, however, I worry that Trump might be re-elected.
Also, there are new racial conflicts in the US…
… although the USA just had its first black president with Obama. Many thought that the problem of racism was over, but the reactionary elements in society have returned. The US has never really addressed its racism problem. People would prefer to just forget regarding that part of the past.
Screenwriters and actors are currently on strike in the United States. Do you support their demands?
Yes, very much so, and I also sit on the WGA’s negotiating committee. (The Writers Guild of America is the collective union of writers in the film and television industry in the United States.) At its heart, streaming services like Amazon and Netflix are increasingly crowding out traditional television and dictating the terms. Screenwriters are often only hired and paid for a few months, making it very difficult for us to make a living. You just can’t afford to live in Los Angeles or New York on an average income of $60,000 a year or less. But I hope there will be an agreement soon, because the companies all need new TV shows and films, and we won’t go back to work until they share the wealth and solve the problems.
You yourself have just released a new film that also has autobiographical traits. What is it regarding?
The film is regarding a fiendish game called keno pool, a highly skilled, high stakes gambling game that I remember from my youth in the Nashville pool halls. There was a lot of money to lose – or win – in keno. The game was popular for much of the 20th century, but was outlawed in 17 states and has since been replaced by other high-stakes games of chance such as Texas Hold’em Poker. The film will hit theaters in the US in January and will hopefully be shown in Germany shortly therefollowing.
Do you also use your visit to Bad Hersfeld to travel through Europe?
I flew to Paris with my wife two weeks ago and we were in the Loire Valley and Switzerland. I was in Europe for two months as a student in the summer of 1970, traveling around on a budget of $5 a day! (Laughs) I’ve lived in pretty seedy flophouses. I haven’t returned to Germany since – every time I planned to visit it was bad timing as far as my writing work was concerned. I’m so glad my wife and I had the opportunity to come here. (Von Kai A. Struthoff)
About Tom Schulman
Tom Schulmann (72) was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and earned a Bachelor of Art from Vanderbilt University. He has worked in television and film since 1980. His greatest success was the screenplay for “Dead Poets Society”, which was filmed with Robin Williams. Schulman received an Oscar for the screenplay. Other well-known films he penned include Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Medicine Man, The Guru and Welcome to Mooseport. He has been Vice President of the Writers Guild of America since 2008. Schulman is married and lives in California.
Revival of Joern Hinkel’s production “Dead Poets Society”
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