Dylan McDermott was fascinating as the films antagonist. Was everything he delivered on screen directly from your script or had he taken some personal liberties with the character? If so, what did you think of those specific changes?



Well that's the amazing thing about filmmaking. It's so incredibly collaborative that the end result is hard to pick apart. I mean, I'm pretty sure 90% of the dialog and action is as scripted, but within that there is so much room for an actor to inhabit and shape a role. So the end result feels like it's 90% the other way. Dylan had a really strong vision for the character, luckily for all of us. Because we weren't sure that a leading man type, such as himself would want to play such a despicable character. But something in him had the same morbid fascination that Duncan originally had -- plus he brought an amazingly dark sense of humor to the whole thing. I guess that's one thing I could point to as a specific change -- he sort of added this feeling that the killer found playing the role of "dad" hilarious in a sick way. Like he's mocking even as he's being as cheesy as possible. I can't thank him enough for what he brought to the movie.





The ending was seemingly very well planned out in order to keep the protagonists safe and free from being caught for their actions, alongside avoid embarrassment for the family. Following the story thoroughly, viewers are able to pick up the little key pieces that make the set up in the final act very plausible which, as someone who personally cares about details, I can truly appreciate that. On that note, was there an alternate route in which you had planned on taking for the ending? Possibly something darker or just completely different?



Yes I really wanted to make sure that all the details lined up for the ending. And actually, some of the details were cut out because in the end when you watched it it was just too much and you didn't need them all to believe it. For example, they built the campfire to let the body fall into it after "the accident" so that would cover up the other bludgeoning marks in case there was an autopsy. But that's not included in the final film. There was, in fact, a much different alternate ending where the son can't decide whether to kill his dad or turn him in... It seems like an impossible choice. So he ends up imprisoning him in the pit under the house, bringing him supplies and keeping him down there for the rest of his life. But we decided that just left too many questions and didn't feel final enough emotionally.





Clovehitch was put together so beautifully that I personally could not find any loose ends anywhere in the film. When it comes to writing, are you always focused on having the story make sense in every aspect or does that factor depend on the type of a script you're writing?



Oh I always want it to make sense. My favorite approach is to just set up a situation and some characters who I know are motivated strongly and then let them do the best job they can to achieve their goals, step by step. Almost like you're playing D&D. When you take that approach instead of deciding what the ending is going to be or what you WANT to happen, you'll often have very little plot holes left to clean up.





Speaking of writing, what's your process? Do you have a specific way you like to do things or is it a different, whole new experience each time you write?



Yeah, that said it is always different. I'm always starting over and thinking "I have no idea how I'm going to do it again" every time. It's not a neat orderly process to take blank pages and fill them with characters and stories. It's just a big fat mess every time and you have to embrace that. I think for most people, they're used to seeing only the end product -- a clean neat script where every set up has a pay off. But when you're writing, 99% of the time you are dealing with a sloppy mess that drives you crazy BECAUSE it's not done yet. You have to have the temperament to face your mess every day and keep going, even though the mess is telling you that you're a fraud.