PAINT'S Writer and Director Brit McAdams Opens Up About Her Writing Struggles and Big Hair With Barbarella

Hey, friends! Barbara here. Paint starring Owen Wilson as the host of a public access show, similar to Bob Ross in many ways, is in theaters now. The film is perhaps the best non-rom-com rom-com I've ever seen, tying together a comedy about ego with a sweet love story. When PBS Burlington tries to boost its audience by bringing in a hot new painter, it threatens Carl Nargle's comfortable celebrity status. His mixture of massive ego and deep insecurity creates a conflicted persona that Owen Wilson explores perfectly. I came for the afro, but I stayed for the humor, the history and the classical music.

I had the opportunity to sit down with writer/director Brit McAdams to pick his brains on the writing and some of the film's choices. Check it out!

I'm fascinated by the whole writing process. I'm actually working on a script, and it's one of those things where I write, and then I can't watch it for a long time, and then I kind of come back to it. The script for Paint took something like thirteen years. What were the obstacles you encountered during your work and how did you overcome them?

"I wrote it in 2010, and it got blacklisted, which is a list of highly rated unproduced screenplays, and it happened very quickly. We got the green light and we got a lot of money. I did a lot of dancing. When I heard this news, I ran down the Santa Monica boardwalk and hugged my good friend, Scott Beehner. I bought a series of shots for the bar, that's the only time I've done that. What you need to know about that is that people buy them back from you, which I didn't know. I didn't think that was going to evolve into that.

"So everything was great, and then it just spent a little over a decade falling apart; things just come together and fall apart, and you kind of have to build a whole company to make a movie. The good thing for me is that I've improved as a writer and as a director over that time, and the script has gotten much, much better. The world has changed with it." me too", and me being at my age, it gave me a chance to look at the world differently and to understand my place in the world, and the scenario, ultimately, improved a lot, so that was the gift of failure. Yeah, for the writing difficulties, I'm sorry; it's terrible. It's just horrible. If you get stuck, I think a lot of times it's because every character doesn't have desire, so make sure every character has a desire, something they want and also something that's holding them back. When I'm stuck, I'm like, 'Oh, I don't have characters defined enough and that's what hurts me."

Awesome. I appreciate the suggestion which is very helpful.

"Good luck. That's terrible. That's terrible."

I'm my worst critic. I think a lot of people are. Are you very hard on yourself?

“Yeah, I usually hate myself. I think that's part of it. You go back, and you read something, and you're like, 'Damn, this is terrible. done, and then you go back and you're like, "This is absolutely terrible. It's part of the process, I think. Luckily, it's one of the things that's great that it took so long to Painting because it got better, and I really like the movie. I'm proud of it. It got to a really good place that it wouldn't have. But yeah, the disgust of oneself, it is the motor that animates the writing."

When you were writing, did you ever portray Owen Wilson as this character, or when did he get involved in this?

"He's been involved for about five years. The thing with Owen, as the storyline has evolved, he's really brought out the heart of this character. He's really someone who's so grounded and so easily hurt, and you can feel him hurt. He has this thing or he can get very arrogant and confident, but he can really get hurt, and I think that's really the gift he brought to that by as an actor. The other thing he brought is, I mean, you talk about struggling with the writing, he's an Oscar-nominated writer, so to get him on board and be able to t.. .