Going to meet writer Susan Orlean at the Avalon Hotel, I
don’t know if I was subconsciously expecting to find Meryl
Streep donning a straw hat and clutching a potted orchid. Streep,
whose portrayal of Orlean in “Adaptation” garnered her
an Oscar nod and the Golden Globe, is known for her ability to not
only create characters but to deftly inhabit them with such
intimacy and realism that the viewers truly believe she’s
their best friend.
But instead of being faced with my ol’ pal Meryl, I was
greeted by a fair-skinned red-head, with a face as expressive and
delicate as, well, an orchid. I was struck by her uncanny likeness
to actress Tilda Swinton, who played her agent in the film ““
but alas, I reminded myself once again that I wasn’t living
in Charlie Kaufman’s movie. “Adaptation” is based
on Orlean’s book “The Orchid Thief,” which was
originally launched as a story she wrote for the New Yorker in 1995
called “Orchid Fever.” After she wrote it, she
convinced Random House to expand the story into a full-length book;
at the same time she was approached with producers who wanted to
option it. When Kaufman was hired for the job, “Being John
Malkovich” had not yet been released, so Orlean had no idea
about the kind of bizarre, demented fruits his fertile mind
produces. But what Kaufman came up with for his adaptation of her
book was beyond what Orlean or anyone else could have imagined.
Kaufman includes himself writing the screenplay (alongside his
fictitious twin brother) as the main focus of the film. Two-thirds
of the way through the film, Orlean’s story deconstructs to a
flashy Hollywood script complete with drugs, adultery, pornography,
car chases and crocodile attacks. Orlean talks to the Daily Bruin
about the pains, pleasures and puzzlement of having her work
reinvented into such a strange, sprawling piece of work.
Daily Bruin: Has anyone told you that you bear a remarkable
resemblance to Tilda Swinton?
Susan Orlean: I have had a lot of people say that to me. People
also say I look like the girl who plays the waitress ““ Spike
(Jonze) had both of them do their hair red. I just got an e-mail
from somebody who said, “Every single woman in the movie
looks like you except for the person who is supposed to be
you!”
DB: I’m sure examining a film based on your book would be
full of unexpected coincidences like that, but with such a bizarre
script like “Adaptation,” how did you react?
SO: It was not what I was expecting nor was it what any of us
were expecting. I think for a lot of people it was a shock, but
after the shock passed, it was a thrill to see something that smart
and that inventive. I feel like the book is really well represented
within this very complex structure. The book itself is still really
present so that’s pretty neat.
DB: You made yourself a dominant presence in your book which was
supposed to be about John Laroche, and now Kaufman has made himself
the main presence in the screenplay based on your story. Was it
upsetting that he shifted the spotlight from your book onto
himself?
SO: Oh, no. When something is adapted, normally it is dissolved
into the movie and no longer exists as a book. He made the book
itself a character in the movie, which is so rare. I think for any
writer that is a thrill that goes well beyond the idea of having a
conventional adaptation.
DB: You said in your book “Dealing with what really exists
is a greater challenge than fictionalizing it.” Did you see
Kaufman’s adaptation as a cop out?
SO: No, I know that he really did struggle and he didn’t
want to invent a bunch of stuff that wasn’t in the book.
It’s less of a cop out that he grappled with the book and the
themes of the book: striving, yearning, desire and the struggle to
write the book which was duplicated in his struggle to write the
screenplay. I couldn’t imagine a better outcome.
DB: Anything specifically that you would have changed?
SO: My only regret is that the movie had a different name. I
certainly understand why it had a different name but vanity, or
whatever it is, makes you think, “Aw, I wanted the same name
as the book.”
DB: Have you encountered people who didn’t understand that
the latter half of the movie is fictitious?
There are some people who are a lot smarter than I thought, but
on the other hand, there are some people that I think who are very
astute and intelligent who were very confused. When I say to them
“No no no, no, no, that’s the Donald part of the
movie!” And they say, “Oh! Now I get it!”
I’ve been a little surprised, but I’m all right about
it (she said with hesitation). It’s slightly funny
actually.
DB: Weren’t you at all concerned about people thinking you
were an orchid-snorting, porn-posing, murdering adulteress?
SO: I’ve kind of made my peace with it. Either it will
make them curious and think, “Who is this wild woman?”
or they’ll think “Oh what a horrible person and
we’ll never read her stuff.”
DB: Does it make you cringe to watch yourself on the screen
having a torrid romance with Laroche?
SO: The first time I saw it I was very nervous, but it actually
came as a pleasant surprise. I didn’t get that feeling of,
“Oh my god, what have I done? I’ve ruined my
life,” which I was prepared to experience, frankly. But
it’s really done in a subtle, very sophisticated way.
Everything about the movie is pretty measured and understated.
I’ve seen the movie seven times now, so I’m pretty used
to it.
DB: Did you wish that Meryl Streep had contacted you to study
for her role in the movie?
It turned out to be more comfortable for me (that she
didn’t) because it’s not an impersonation. It would
have been kind of freaky and it’s irrelevant for her to study
my mannerisms, my gestures, it has nothing to do with the
character. At first I felt sorry because I thought it would have
been really neat to have gotten to know her, but it’s turned
out that I have gotten to know her since then.
DB: Did you see yourself in the character she created?
SO: The character she created is so authentic and so intuitively
correct. There were a few moments where I sort of laughed because
it felt so familiar, not necessarily personal, but very
understandable. I just love it.
DB: What about Chris Cooper’s Oscar-winning portrayal? Was
he at all like the real Laroche?
SO: Oh God, absolutely, dead on! Really, really, really. I mean,
it was extraordinary. And even physically speaking, Chris Cooper is
a dead ringer. I think it was a little weird for (the real Laroche)
when he saw the movie for the first time ““ weirder for him
than it was for me because I wasn’t looking in a mirror.
DB: Do you keep in contact with Laroche?
SO: Once or twice over the last couple of years. I had heard he
had a baby so I sent him an e-mail congratulating him but I
hadn’t seen him until he came to New York to see a screening
of the movie. It’s very typical when you’re working on
a story that when you’re done you move on to the next things.
It always sounds so hostile, but after you spend two years, you
develop a rapport with someone, but it never goes beyond the
immediate reason for you to be in touch.
DB: Was it difficult for you to write objectively ““
perhaps even negatively ““ about Laroche after getting to know
him for so long?
SO: It’s always a struggle, particularly when you spent as
much time as I did. You gain a person’s trust and you want
them to like you so they’ll talk to you, but then you turn
around and want to be objective. But he was very comfortable with
being a subject. He likes being abrasive and combative, so writing
about that wasn’t going to bother him.
DB: Is it frustrating that our entertainment culture is so
film-driven that many people hadn’t even heard of books like
“The Hours” or your book until movies came out based on
them?
SO: I like to look at it more positively and say, “Great,
now two million people who hadn’t heard of the book before
now are turned on to the book. I mean, it’s quite sobering
and a little sad-making if you love books or are a writer and you
begin to realize that there’s just no comparison in the
numbers. Fifty-thousand copies of a book sold is a really good,
very successful book, but 50,000 people seeing a movie is a
joke.
DB: Are you working on anything now?
SO: I’m working on a new book about Keiko the whale who
played Willy in “Free Willy” and this amazing life that
he’s had.
DB: Would you let Kaufman do another adaptation of one of your
books?
Oh yeah, absolutely. I’d be thrilled. I think he’s
exceptionally talented and there’s a certain unlikely
simpatico in the way our minds operate that really worked for this.
I know it would be an adventure.
Interview conducted by Amber Noizumi.