Uncovering the Untold Secrets: A Revealing Interview with David L. Williams
20 hours ago
My interview with the 2022 Black List writer.
David L. Williams wrote the screenplay Clementine which landed on the 2022 Black List. I had the opportunity to chat with David about his creative background, writing a Black List script, and the craft of screenwriting.
Scott Myers: Congratulations on getting that 2022 Black List on your resume.
David L. Williams: Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Scott: Let’s start with some background here. I read a bio. It says, “David’s a former Brooklynite turned Angelino who’s been writing screenplays since working at Blockbuster centuries ago.” Then it say you’re a former pro‑gamer and a Division One athlete. I definitely want to get into all that. Let’s start at the beginning. You grow up out in the East Coast. When did you start getting interested in film, TV, and writing?
David: It starts way back when I was about eight years old, maybe a little earlier than that. My grandfather got me into movies in general. He snuck me into a bunch of movies in theaters, R‑rated movies that I wasn’t supposed to see.
Thanks to him, my earliest memory in movie theaters is “Pulp Fiction.” I saw that when I was about six. Luckily, I didn’t know what was going on, except for a couple of scenes. That was quite the trip.
Scott: That’s perfect synergy. Tarantino’s mom used to take him to R‑rated movies when he was a kid too.
David: Just handing the baton on over, not that I’m going to be anywhere within a thousand yards of his kind of career. That’s funny. Hopefully, the next person who watches “Clementine” or something and then goes from there, whether or not they’re supposed to see it as a kid. That’d be funny.
As a kid, I was also already into writing. I wrote a lot of short stories, especially in 4th and 5th grade, some weird stuff. Also, in high school, I wrote a ton of poetry as well. I was into writing. I tried my hand at a couple of novels. It didn’t quite work out. I don’t have the attention span. I get bored, not my jam.
What happened, like you alluded to in the bio, is I was working at Blockbuster. I ran into “Blade Runner” and fell in love with it. Something clicked. I…
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