Interview

Tom Coraghessan Boyle (better known as T.C.) has stolen a deaf woman's identity [Talk, Talk, 2006]; gotten into bed with famed sex researcher Alfred Kinsey [The Inner Circle, 2004], and married, divorced, and even murdered the loves of Frank Lloyd Wright's life [The Women, now out in paperback]. He's published 12 novels and more than 100 stories and has been the recipient of the PEN/Faulkner and a Guggenheim fellowship. To say that he is a prolific writer is, perhaps, an understatement.
 
But it's not the volume of material that Boyle has produced which has established him as one of today's most interesting literary talents. It's his characters, often ill-fated and always fallible; his always-changing story structure, which fools readers into sometimes undeserved empathy or harsh judgment; and his vivid descriptions, which sometimes take readers to places Boyle himself has never visited.
 
In his latest short story collection, Wild Child and Other Stories (Viking), Boyle punishes a boy who cannot feel pain and asks a young girl to lie for her alcoholic father, among other ambiguous adventures in morality. The common theme throughout: What does it mean to be human?
 
 
LUCY SILBERMAN: You grew up in New York, but you've lived in California for quite some time now.
 
T.C. BOYLE: I've been out here for 32 years. Right now, I'm sitting on the third floor of a cabin in the Sequoia National Forest, at 7,200 feet, looking at lots of snow and gigantic trees. I always work–wherever I am–but I find this is a good place to begin and end books, because you're just away from the hassles of normal life.
 
SILBERMAN: I understand that you renovated your other home.
 
BOYLE: Yes. That one is Frank Lloyd Wright's first California house, the George C. Stewart House; it celebrated its centennial last year. We're only the fourth owners.
 
SILBERMAN: Was moving into that house the beginning of your interest in Wright?
 
BOYLE: Yeah. I knew about as much about him as most people do–he's such an iconic figure; a cult figure, really. I wanted to learn more about him. I've written other books about men like him: Dr. Kellogg of The Road to Wellville and, more recently, Dr. Kinsey of The Inner Circle. He fit right in with this sort of American, progressive megalomaniac that I'm interested in. I considered writing about him from the very beginning.
 
SILBERMAN: Is there something about that personality that especially appeals to you?
 
BOYLE: Growing up as a free American, and as kind of a punk, not having to do anything I didn't want to do, I've always been very suspicious of authority. These men are so fanatically devoted to their projects that they really become gurus, and dictators in a way. I often wonder, "What is the result of following, of being a follower?" Writing about Frank Lloyd Wright–it's the first time I've ever written about a fellow artist and his inspiration. I felt closer to him than I did to Kellogg or Kinsey, who were scientists.
 
SILBERMAN: You don't tell Wright's story in The Women from his point of view, although he's obviously the central figure.
 
BOYLE: I'm always looking for a structure to tell a story. I don't begin with blueprints; intuitive leaps occur throughout the process. In The Women, I was using this sort of Nabokovian layer of narration, where you don't really know what's true and what's not. I always want the reader to be aware of the fiction going on, and the fun that I'm having.

BOOK TRAILER FOR THE WOMEN BY JAMIESON FRY

SILBERMAN: How do you get interested in the subjects you write about?
 
BOYLE: I don't really know how I feel about anything until I write a story about it.

SILBERMAN: I wanted to ask you about the title story in your new collection, the novella, Wild Child. It's your telling of Victor, the wild boy of Avignon. How do you rework a story that has been the stuff of lore for centuries?
 
BOYLE: I've been asked before if I had seen the Truffaut film, L'Enfant Sauvage. I had, but when it first came out, a long time ago. While writing this, I found a copy on the Internet. I thought I should see it immediately, but then I didn't, and I haven't yet. I didn't want it to interfere with my own telling. In this case, it's basically the same story (of course, with certain liberties).
 
SILBERMAN: You know, many of your characters have experienced terrible, terrible things.
 
BOYLE: You mean, why do the characters suffer so much? Well, because in the universe in which we live, we are without control. But in the universe that I create, I am the god and creator, and by god, my characters are going to suffer. [LAUGHS]
 
SILBERMAN: I wanted to ask you, do you think you're a pessimist? An optimist?
 
BOYLE: Absolutely a pessimist. We are all doomed.


Wild Child and Other Stories is available now from Viking.

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Lauren Dukoff has practically made a career out of photographing Devendra Banhart. The two have known each other since before she was an established chronicler of rock n' rollers—like Kim Gordon, Mary J. Blige, and Morrissey—and he was hailed as "Freak Folk's Very Own Pied Piper," back when Dukoff took photos of whatever was around her, and Banhart, then a budding musician, was around her. Dukoff has translated her experiences with Banhart and their colorful band of artist and musician friends into the appropriately named Family (Chronicle), her first book of photography, which spans years of friendship and multiple tours at home and abroad. In addition to Banhart, Family features photos of Joanna Newsom, Bat for Lashes, Vetiver, Vashti Bunyan, among others; a foreword by Banhart; as well as text, artworks, bios, and songs (on digital download) by some of the artists in the book. (LEFT: LAUREN DUKOFF AND DEVENDRA BANHART. PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHRONICLE BOOKS.)

I called Banhart and Dukoff at the studio, where he was laying tracks and she was hanging out, camera ready.


LUCY SILBERMAN: So we're recording... Are you guys in the studio together?

LAUREN DUKOFF: Yeah. I'm outside, he's inside. [LAUGHS]

DEVENDRA BANHART: You're outside, I'm going to go outside too ‘cause I want to get a cup of [IN A NEW YORK ACCENT] coffee. Look there's [musician] Adam Green. Hi Adam!

LS: You know each other from high school, right?

DB: Yeah, when I first moved to America, Lo was like my first friend.

LS: Do you remember how you met?

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For students of film there are surprisingly few resources that provide a true behind-the-scenes look at what can be considered the ultimate insider industry. Enter Natalie Portman, who, at only 27 years of age makes a stunning movie veteran, and Christine Aylward, a consultant who turned her attention to film development a few years ago. A chance encounter on a film set brought them together. Years later, the result, a user-friendly web portal that covers all aspects of the movie-making process called MakingOf.com, launched on Thursday at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Aylward and Portman held court at SoHo's Apple Store in New York City to walk us through MakingOf and to answer questions. Portman, who was quick to point out, "This site, I'm not intending for it to be about me," was the clear center of attention. Apple store handlers turned dozens away from the first-come, first-serve event. Though she described herself as "near Luddite," the young actress-cum-director demonstrated a handle on what she hoped the site would accomplish, and spoke briefly about her role in the design and content of MakingOf, summing the site's features up, "What would I want to see?"

Aylward kept the discussion nailed to the specifics. There's no centralized resource for behind-the-scenes content that shows how films are made. The Mission: To champion the art and the craft of creating entertainment. MakingOf.com includes interviews with well-known directors (Ron Howard on Angels and Demons; John Krasinski on his directorial debut) and actors (Olivia Thirlby on The Answer Man). Soon they will add conversations with everyone from film editors to stuntmen to costume designers. The "Filming Now" section hosts trailers, movie clips, and on-set footage from films in progress. "The Vault" boasts the same features, but for your favorite classics of the silver screen. And "Community" provides a forum for both industry insiders and those trying to claw their way in to discuss... everything, and showcase their own work.

It's a work in progress, but the interest is there. Questions from the audience included what the guests of honor considered the most underrepresented areas of film; which directors Portman would like to work with; if Aylward and Portman have met any resistance to the site; and, perhaps inevitably, dating advice and how to win over Portman—who quipped, "not in an audience". At least one person took the site's message to heart: An actor from Puerto Rico took the opportunity to pitch his film.

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A boatful of beautiful people is headed to scenic Harper's Island, where Henry and Trish, the also-beautiful perfect couple, are soon to be wed. Liquor flows; everyone is ready to celebrate. Or are they? What sounds like an introduction to any other boring ship-wreck or exotic monster movie is actually the set up to a genuine murder mystery program, the likes of which America has rarely seen. The 13-episode series takes cues from British programming by creating an entirely self-contained storyline, in which at least one character is killed off each episode in a surprising and graphic new way.

Christopher Gorham stars as Henry Dunn, the lovable boy next door and seemingly innocent groom to be. Fans of Ugly Betty will recognize their old friend Henry Grubstick, but Gorham is quick to caution that while his character on Harper's Island may initially come off sweet and simple, he couldn't be more different from Betty's Grubstick. Gorham speaks to Interview about the highly secret series.


LUCY SILBERMAN: I feel like I should call you Henry.

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Actually, that's all I answer to these days.

LS: Should we just jump right in? Should we talk about Harper's Island?

CG: Yes, please.

LS: How much did you know about the plot and about your character before you started filming?

CG: It was a strange process. I wanted to talk to the show runner [Jeff Bell] to find out how it was going to work. I felt very confident in what he wanted to do, which was to create a closed-end murder mystery story in the vein of Agatha Christie, with some modern elements of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer—with really great characters that you really care about so that, as they're getting picked off one by one, it matters. We have 25 characters to introduce in the beginning so there's a lot going on.

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