Inside Sean Malcolm’s Mind: Secrets Behind His Most Captivating Stories Revealed

Sean Malcolm wrote the original screenplay “Mother” which won a 2019 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. I had the opportunity to chat with Sean his background as a screenwriter, his award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl has meant to him.

Scott Myers: Where did you grow up and what role did stories play in your childhood?

Sean Malcolm: I was originally born in Gainesville, Florida. A child of the late ’60s and early ’70s. My parents, as I often tell people, were part of a pack of wild hippies. We traveled around quite a bit, never in one place for more than a few years. I lived in a couple of different cities in Florida, then we moved out to Colorado. I spent some time in American Samoa with my dad and his new family in the late 70’s. Then I went back to Colorado, then back to Florida. Then I came out to California in the early ’80s and have been here ever since.

As far as stories, I remember when I was living in Denver in the ’70s — probably from the time I was seven onward, my mom loved going to the movies, and I would pretend to be asleep in her arms so she could sneak me in to all kinds of films, and not have to pay. There wasn’t a lot of ratings enforcement back then, so I saw everything from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Zardoz, Phantom of the Opera, Rollerball, Harold and Maude, all the mainstream, big, ’70s, golden‑era films. Bonnie and Clyde, the Godfather films, The French Connection, Apocalypse Now. I saw a lot of that stuff in the theater when I was very young, and I think it definitely had an impact on me, in terms of my love for film and stories.

I also read Grimm’s’ fairy tales, C. S. Lewis, and things like that. We didn’t have “Harry Potter” and all this YA stuff that kids have today, which is interesting, because my son, who is ten years old, is just discovering Harry Potter, and he’s super into it, which is great to see. It takes incredible writing and world-building to pull a ten-year-old off their devices these days.

So, I suppose I always loved films and great stories, and I always loved telling stories, too. I love setting up the framework and the context of a story, or a great conversation with a great payoff or a great punch line. Sometimes it drives my wife and my friends crazy because I…