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How the Fabelmans screenwriter brought Spielberg's childhood to life

Tony Kushner has worked side-by-side with the director for decades

January 19, 2023 12:10
The Fabelmans 9
Gabriel LaBelle in aThe Fabelmans
6 min read

Screenwriter and playwright Tony Kushner has mostly worked solo throughout his career — notably on his Pulitzer Prize-winning post-AIDS play in two parts Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.

But for almost two decades he has also worked alongside Steven Spielberg on screenplays, clocking up successes such as Munich (2005), Lincoln (2012) and West Side Story (2021). Now Kushner is collaborating with Spielberg once more, on the director’s most personal work yet.

The Fabelmans, which goes on general release in the UK next week, is a fictionalised account of the director’s own childhood.

At the Golden Globes last week it scooped up five awards including best motion picture, best director for Spielberg and best screenplay, and it’s tipped to do just as well at the Oscars in March. It stars There Will Be Blood star Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Judd Hirsch and features a truly exhilarating turn by Oscar-winner Michelle Williams, deserved winner of the Golden Globe for best actress.

“He’s given me tons of notes,” Kushner tells me when I ask about his working method with Spielberg, “but really incredibly specific and clear.

"I mean, he’s been a great dramaturg… and then, of course, [a great] director, [but] this was new, because it was just sort of decided that we would co-write the screenplay, or we were going to try to do that.

"I’d never co-written anything with anybody, and he hadn’t really either. So we thought, well, if we start this, and it’s just too weird, we’ll stop. But it was great, we did it. Three days a week, four hours a day on Zoom.”

Despite the very personal nature of The Fabelmans, Kushner is adamant that Spielberg was very gracious and open-minded with Kushner’s interpretation of his story.
“I interviewed him in the spring of 2020, and then in the summer.