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jcv123: First of all, thank you for the wonderful show you have provided us. My question will be a simple one, where did you get the idea for a show circling around a family owned funeral home? We have seen some similarities from American Beauty; the darker sides of people, the great twists in the plot, etc. but a mortuary? Definitely, as they say, 'groundbreaking'. I have learned so much about this business thanks to this show.
Alan Ball: I cannot claim credit for the premise of SFU. The idea of doing a show about a family-run funeral home was pitched to me by Carolyn Strauss of HBO. She had just finished reading The American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford, a non-fiction book about the "death-care industry" first published in the 1960s, and was fascinated by the world of funeral homes. In my research, I also read the Mitford book, but the books I found most helpful were The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade and Bodies in Motion and at Rest: On Metaphor and Mortality, both by Thomas Lynch, a funeral director and poet, and a brilliant, soulful writer. These two collections of essays about life as an undertaker gave me a sense of the tone I wanted the show to have.
davis04: You have chosen some wonderful music supervisors for this show. Yourself and crew have used music so well to accompany your show. How much input do you have in choosing music to fit the mood?
Alan Ball: Our music supervisors, Thomas Golubic and Gary Calamar, pitch five or six (and sometimes more) music choices for each scene in which we want source music to be playing; then myself, executive producer Alan Poul, producer Lori Jo Nemhauser and the writer/producer of that particular episode decide which one we think works best. It's a fun process that has turned me on to lot of music that otherwise I probably would have never been aware of.
shawnlunn2002: Which character are you like? Because given how much you write for Peter Krause, I think it's Nate.
Alan Ball: I'm like Nate in that I remained stuck in adolescence for a long time, I had a crippling fear of mortality and I took a long time to get over myself. I'm like David in that I'm gay, I was always a good little boy who did everything to make other people happy and therefore sat on a lot of simmering rage. I'm like Claire in that I'm creative, and feel the need to express myself artistically, and find myself frustrated by the rampant lies and injustice in the world. Hmmm...I think I'm most like those three characters, the Fisher kids, although there's a little bit of me (and of all the writers) in all the characters.
Xtreemli: Are any of the characters based on people from your life, past or present? If yes, which ones? Thanks.
Alan Ball: No one is based on anybody in particular...I'd have to say Nate's relationship with Nathaniel mirrors a lot of unresolved stuff between myself and my own father (who died when I was nineteen). Some stuff that happened to Nate in the pilot actually happened to me -- watching the funeral directors take my mother into a back room when she started to cry at a funeral; watching Sicilians throw themselves on a casket on a beach (although in reality the beach was black). Also in the pilot, I named a dead guy Mr. Bloomberg, after Stu Bloomberg, who had cancelled a show I created for ABC.
ksskks: Who are your influences as a writer? Any specific book, movie or TV show that you look to for inspiration? And who are your favorite screenwriters in the industry today?
Alan Ball: As sappy as it sounds, I'd have to say my biggest influence is life. Authors I admire include Harper Lee, John Irving, Ken Kesey, just off the top of my head. Favorite movies: To Kill a Mockingbird; Nashville; The Apartment; Annie Hall; Chinatown; Nowhere in Africa; Fanny and Alexander. Screenwriters: Charlie Kaufman, Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor; David O. Russell.
mik7: My name is Michael. I also have an AVM, and was pretty impressed with you dealing with that illness. It actually freaked me the hell out at first, having watched from the very first episode, then all of a sudden it felt like I was directly being spoken to. I was wondering if anything in your life or the life of some of the other writers influenced the decision to give Nate AVM? Thank you for being brave enough to put real human truth on television.
Alan Ball: My cousin Cindy was diagnosed with AVM a few years ago, and underwent the same surgery Nate did. It was the first I had ever heard of the condition.
bravemom: My questions: in the pilot episode there were several "commercials" interspersed between the scenes. I found these to be very entertaining. Do you have any plans to include these in any upcoming episodes?
Alan Ball: We dropped the commercials after the pilot because I felt like we had made our point that funerals are a business, with specific products that are marketed to a target demographic. Also, there are a limited number of such products and we would have run out of things to "advertise" very quickly.
Aceenasty: What is next on your to-do list? Who would you like to work with?
Alan Ball: I want to write a play - my playwriting career was just beginning to take off when I got the offer to come to Hollywood and write for TV. I'm also sitting on a couple of screenplays I've written which I would like to direct when Six Feet Under comes to an end. I also am looking to start a family with my partner, get better at meditating, read all the great books I haven't yet read, and hopefully write a novel myself before I die.
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Mortuary Fact
According to USA Today, Americans are increasingly considering home funerals as a cheaper and more relaxed alternative to commercial mortuary services. Traditional U.S. funerals average $5,000 to $6,000, per the Funeral Consumers Alliance. |
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