Paul Haggis INTERVIEW |

He’s the guy who penned the Million Dollar Baby screenplay that won Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman and Clint Eastwood Oscars.

But Paul Haggis isn’t full of himself. On the contrary, this Canadian-born writer/director is disarmingly down to earth.

I met up with him in Vancouver (in a small room at the Four Seasons hotel, supervised by some nameless, impatient PR person) to talk about his new film, Crash. He was friendly, open, a little nerdy, and seemed legitimately excited to be interviewed, even by a nobody such as myself.

We talked about everything from criticisms of the film, to his experience with hitting the big time, and how he navigated the shift from relatively-unknown TV writer to Hollywood hot commodity in less than a year.

Paul Haggis

Jen Selk: Were you surprised at the Million Dollar Baby acclaim?

Paul Haggis: I knew it was going to happen. As soon as Clint Eastwood came on board I knew it was going to be special. That was three and a half years after I wrote it, so it took a long time. I mean, we had Hilary Swank on board, we had Morgan Freeman, then last Christmas Clint came on and I knew it was going to be big.

The movie picked up so many Oscars, but the screenwriting was overlooked.

That’s okay. I loved Sideways. I was happy they won.

Do you ever feel, as a writer, that you’re often overlooked? It’s my impression that writers don’t often get the recognition they deserve. Has that been the case for you?

Sure, I agree. And that’s a bit of a shame. Oftentimes writers feel like … ‘Hey, hey, hey hey! I’m the guy who wrote all that down! I’m the guy who set the whole scene up. And in the case of Million Dollar Baby, Clint shot every word of mine. Every scene’s there. Every word’s there, but sure, that’s the way our society works. People tend to credit the director, but you know what? I got the chance to work with great people. I got the chance to do a good movie. That’s all I really care about.

Had you been to the Oscars before?

No, it was my first time. It was cool … just great – the red carpet and seeing all those people, those icons, people you really respect – actors, directors and writers. And them coming up to you and telling you what great work you did … that’s heavy stuff. You know, Nicole Kidman or someone coming up and saying, “You did really good work.” … that’s exciting.

Post-Oscars, did things change for you right away?

It changed for me last year after the Toronto film festival. We started to show Crash around and Steven Spielberg saw it and asked me to work with him on a project … and as soon as people heard that I was working with Clint Eastwood, things changed. It was a pretty heavy experience, but Crash was a big, big turning point.

You finished Crash ages ago. Why did it take so long to get to theatres?

Well, it didn’t really. It always takes at least six months to promote a film. The thing with Million Dollar Baby was that with Clint Eastwood on board everything changed. That movie wasn’t supposed to come out until May, but Clint said no, he wanted it out in December. He changed his mind. And everyone went, ‘Okay!’ Because with a Clint Eastwood movie, you don’t have to worry as much about promotion because people will come to see it because Clint did it.

But for me, it’s like ‘Who the hell is Paul Haggis?’ We couldn’t promote Crash on the back of my name. We had to promote it on the backs of the stars, and hopefully, word of mouth.

Well, I think it’s going to be huge.

Wow. Really? Well, I hope so. That would be great. No one’s predicted that it’s going to be huge. But I’d love it.

It’s a little heavy, though. A bit depressing?

I find it really hopeful. I think it’s a really hopeful film. And I just want to say that I have great hope for us as people, but this is who we are. You know, deal with who we are. We need to do that.

You’re actually from London, Ontario, but you’ve lived in L.A. for nearly three decades. Do you consider yourself an American?

No, no, no. I’m an American citizen and a Canadian citizen. I consider myself both. I feel that I wouldn’t criticize something that was other than myself … because I live there I refer to ‘Our President’ for example, but I’d also say ‘Our Prime Minister.’ Whenever I write about something, I’m always writing about us – me.

Thandie Newton and Matt Dillion in Crash

People have wondered why a white Canadian guy is writing about racism in L.A. Any response to those criticisms?

You know, it’s interesting, because I asked Terry George the same thing about Hotel Rwanda. I said, ‘Terry, how did you have the balls to make this movie?’ And he said, ‘Well, I waited nine years and no one else was doing it.’

The only person who’s doing anything about race is Spike [Lee], and that’s it. And so, I think there are different perspectives. And I think it’s actually a racist statement to say that artists can be branded by colour. If you can understand the given set of circumstances of a person’s life and you cannot judge that person, you can write it.

I don’t see why I should be limited to writing about a white experience … and you know, I’d love to see more of this. If anyone else wants to step up and make another movie like this, I’m happy.

You’re background is in television. What do you think about ‘movies-are-superior to-tv’ snobbery?

It was hard to get this movie made – I mean for me as a director, because people said, ‘Oh, he’s a TV guy, he’ll do a TV movie.’ And we all, we love to judge people. We love to separate ourselves – that’s actually what this movie [Crash] is about. It’s about us saying, well I don’t like to be judged myself, but I’ll judge this other person.

It was really hard to get this movie made in general, actually. First of all because of the subject matter, and secondly because there is no central character, and as a director, that’s tough.

It’s also tough because if you talk about racism, people aren’t going to go see the movie. I would be like that too … I’d think ‘Ugh, racism movie.’ That’s why I wanted to make this a really entertaining movie. I wanted it to shake you up … Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people.

How do you avoid being preachy?

I think when you have people talk about difficult subjects, you put them under a lot of pressure. I mean, Sandy Bullock’s character wouldn’t say those things if A) she didn’t think her husband was cheating on her [and if] B) He wasn’t patronizing her and talking down to her. She’s never said those [racist] words in her life before!

But now, it’s like, the most hateful stuff you’ve ever heard comes out of her mouth because it’s like, “You’re talking down to me? How dare you talk down to me?’ This is reality. ‘I just had a gun in my face. That wasn’t real? That wasn’t the same gun in your face? You weren’t just as scared seeing those two black guys? And guess what, I was right! You were wrong! They put a gun in our faces. So take your liberalism and shove it out the door!’

And afterwards, she has to eat that. She has to live with what she’s saying. And that’s tough stuff. A lot of factors contribute to us as people, saying the things we say …

It’s not about preaching.

You were car-jacked. Did you find yourself thinking any of those same thoughts that you wrote for Sandra Bullock’s character?

No, because actually what you think about is the gun. You don’t have time to think about the colour of a person’s skin. You think about the gun that’s pointed in your face. That’s the impression it leaves. And afterwards, being a writer is such a strange existence, because rather than anger, you become curious. Or at least you get through your anger really quickly.

I was really curious about these two kids [who carjacked me] and who they were. You know, how long had they been friends? How had they just spent their evening? Do they think of themselves as criminals? Most people who are criminals don’t think of themselves as criminals. They think of other people as criminals, but not them, and so, slowly, over ten years, those ideas seeped into my subconscious and I wrote about it.

I never expected to write this movie, it just sort of flew out of me.

Any favourite TV projects from your past?

Yeah, you know EZ Streets was my favourite. No one saw it, but it was my very favourite. That and Thirtysomething.

Is there anyone you really want to work with now that you’re sort-of big time?

Oh, there are tonnes of people. You know, there’s Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman … there’s just tonnes of people I want to work with.

Jen Selk’s review of the film Crash is here.

More interviews with various artists, writers, and vagabonds can be found here.

Sidebar Listicle

From there to here, from here to there, Haggis-things are everywhere. Here’s how Paul Haggis’ past projects got him where he is today.

What a dreamboat, 1977.

In 1977, Haggis wrote for The Love Boat – a show all about romance on the high seas. Go, Gopher, go!

What WAS Willis talking about? 1978.

It’s 1978 and Haggis is working for the TV series Diff’rent Strokes – a show about a rich Manhattan family who adopt the children of their late maid.

Suddenly serious, 1986.

It’s 1986 and Haggis is working on the dramatic series L.A. Law – set in the same city as Crash.

Cops, robbers, and race, 1993.

In 1993 Haggis co-created Walker, Texas Ranger. It was all about fighting crime, with “Cord” Walker drawing on the traditions of his Native American ancestors, and his partner using whiter, contemporary methods.

E-Z does it, 1996.

It’s 1996 and Haggis is writing the TV series EZ Streets – his favourite TV project that no one ever saw. It’s about three violent dudes who seemed destined for conflict.

It all comes Crash-ing together, 2004-2005.

It’s all there: from love and race in the city of angels, to cops and violence. Nearly all the components of Crash can be found in the last thirtysomething (ya, I said it) years of Haggis’ career.

Smell the Kevin Bacon moment. Smell it.

A significantly-shittier  (thanks Dose copy editors!) version of this Paul Haggis interview published as three separate pieces in Dose on May 9, 2005. See clipping below.

Published in Dose magazine, May 9, 2005.