Meeting Mark Borkowski, NYC Playwright

Mark Borkowski is the star and writer of The Perfect Witness (starring Wes Bentley: The Last Word, P2, Dolan's Cadillac, American Beauty) and writer of numerous plays: Box of Nails, Within the Skins of Saints, The Kids are Awake, etc. Prior to this interview, I had no idea this very established playwright I was recommeded to interview was the same guy who gave me nightmares when I watched him in his believable perfomance. The Perfect Witness is a movie you can never forget. Maybe because he was so charming and calm I didn't put two and two together....

When did you begin writing?

I began writing as a child when I was 11 or 12 years old. I wrote a lot of short stories…usually horror…as a kid, I identified with monsters. Especially the more sympathetic ones. I was a weird, lonely kid who felt like an outcast so they really helped me, I don’t know …I worked out a lot of stuff.

Your first play was produced when you were quite young.

Yeah, when I was about 18 years old I took a nervous breakdown… it was a manifestation of drug addiction and trauma I went through as a child. I was hearing voices and a doctor told me to write the voices down as part of my therapy. They came out in the form of dialogue—as voices would-- and after a while I realized I had a play. I had already been involved in theatre as an actor so I was more than familiar with the form. I called the play Saturday Mourn. I showed it to a friend of mine shortly after that and he gave it to the late great Albert Benzwie (artistic director of the legendary Theatre Center Philadelphia back in the 80s). The play went on to win his one-act play festival.

That’s an amazing story.

And when I went to see it something opened inside me and I realized I could help others. From there, I continued to write play after play because I realized I could work out my demons and give them a platform to maybe help others.

What was the response?

After that play people came up to me and said they were not only touched by it but felt comforted because they too felt so alone and really related to my characters. At a young age I realized I could be of service through my work by expelling and sharing my demons.

How long did it take after that to write your next play?

Oh I immediately went into my next play. I was driving a cab when I wrote, Suicide, Inc. It was a full length play, produced at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia.

How were the reviews?

The Philadelphia Daily News called it “a multi level masterpiece”.

Did you get paid well for your initial plays?

No, you’re lucky if you break even. It’s only in the past few years that I’ve done more than break even. People, especially in New York, know who I am.

What is your genre? Has it stayed the same or changed throughout the years?

Psychological drama seasoned with black comedy. My stuff can be pretty brutal. I push the envelope in order to get my point across. I tried to conform to the mainstream, writing “commercial” type stuff but I usually end up losing interest and shelving it. I have to really feel a direct, even soulful connection to my characters in order to live with them and tell their story. In reference to form, I started out writing realistic plays, then I took the reality into the absurd. I like to place characters in hardcore reality and then challenge them with ultimately absurd circumstances which shake and transform their reality or reality as we know it. Then I found myself slipping into hyper-realism. And now, while always keeping my work rooted in reality (so people can identify), I incorporate mystical, even spiritual layers. Metaphors and symbols. Shakespeare wrote on different levels; he had witches, dreams, ghosts… He had all kinds of stuff…you know? My writing has become much more of an exploration of not just reality but dreams, mysticism and spirituality…

Can you explain hyper realism, I’m not familiar.

It’s hysterical realism… much like what we find in dreams or in madhouses. Or, less dramatically, the average hysteria we might experience when we’re being tormented in, say, the throes of addiction or the loss of a lover… For a while there I loved writing about hysteria, you know?

Give me an example.

Well in one of my plays, Within the Skins of Saints, a girl is getting ready to jump off a subway platform and a guy enters and has until the subway comes to stop her. By the end, she almost succeeds in convincing him to jump with her. She shares her dreams of saintly mutilation and the hysteria that caused her to be institutionalized and medicated. She decided to stop taking the meds and escaped the madhouse and is now ready to die and be with her lover, God (a notion that many female Saints also shared at martyrdom). I know it sounds like a dark journey but there is a tinge of hope the end. A branch for the audience to grab onto. I feel it’s kinda my responsibility, after having taken an audience into a dark tunnel, to give them a tinge of light at the end. Or at least furnish road signs so they can get themselves out.

Wow, tell me about another play of this type.

Another dark play I recently wrote is called Painting Corpses. It’s about a painter who’s bottoming out on drugs and alcohol. He gets a call from an aristocrat who asks him to paint a picture of his dead wife. The money is too good to be true (100 grand) and he accepts the commission. The aristocrat delivers the body to the artist’s loft. When the artist begins to paint her…as the days pass…he starts to fall in love with her…

Whoa!

…and one night he’s very drunk and he’s imagining her lips saying beautiful things to him, her eyes looking at him, her ears listening… he imagines her the woman of his dreams.

And…eventually…he makes love to her… Oh My God!

…the next morning he wakes up and he comes to…he’s very hung over and… she’s sitting there. She’s alive! He thinks. He doesn’t know if she’s a supernatural phenomena or a psychotic delusion. One thing leads to another, and she tells him that she doesn’t want to be painted. She didn’t want it in life and she certainly doesn’t want it in death! BUT she’ll make a deal with him… He needs five primary colors to paint her… she says she will grant him the five colors if he does five favors for her. He finds himself bargaining with the dead. These five favors take him on a journey that ends up changing his life forever.

Wow! What happens in the end?

People have to see it to find out. We workshopped it at the Actor’s Studio and right now we’re trying to find finance for the production. The play is like a Charles Bukowski meets Sleeping Beauty… it’s actually a very beautiful play. One of the biggest qualms people, and some producers, have with this is the necrophilia. They don’t think he should molest the corpse. That the audience won’t forgive him. I think its bullshit. I mean, look at mythology—especially the Egyptians. Isis and Osiris. I mean, necrophilia takes on a whole different meaning when you look at it through those fucking glasses! So, okay, now I’m modifying, maybe… with extreme reluctance.

Any big actors in it?

Yeah… Elias Koteus played the lead and it was directed by Richard Masur.

How many of your plays have been on stage?

One acts, short plays, they’ve been done all over the world…too many to count. I also write screenplays.

Oh?

I wrote a film called The Perfect Witness.

I remember that movie, oh my god…that was you!?

With Wes Bentley (Ghost Rider, American Beauty). It was originally called “The Ungodly”. It’s still called that everywhere else except America. It’s being distributed in England this September.

That movie was so scary!

Oh you’re a chicken shit.

Tell them what it’s about.

It’s about a down and out film maker, he’s a newly recovered drug addict…he lives with his mom and he’s obsessed with a serial killer. Through months of research, he figures out where the killer might strike and, low and behold, he tracks him down.

You played the killer. You were great!

…. So he catches me murdering—or rather, he catches the killer murdering someone and videotapes it. He then blackmails him into being his documentary subject.

And he agrees to it.

… and as he gets to know the killer, the killer gets to know him and… well, again, I would rather our readers rent it. You can get it at Blockbuster or Netflix. It’s also on Showtime and The Movie Channel. It’s a film about addiction (to drugs or murder) and ambition. Also, personal accountability. Ultimately, it’s about a person taking responsibly for their part in something. His ambiton leads him to look the other way and allow haenous crimes to occur, similar to Nazi Germany. People do it all the time and it’s fucked.

That movie was intense. I can’t believe that was you and that you wrote it. Was that your first movie?

First major feature length movie...I’ve had a lot of short films produced. I’ve sold screenplays but they haven’t been made yet.

How long did that take to write?

About a year and a half and it took twenty four (or so) days to shoot. Editing took a while.

What? It only took twenty four days to shoot it? That’s so fast!

Yeah, well that’s independent filmmaking. It comes down to making it as quickly as possible because everyday costs thousands of dollars…. The editing took several months though.

What inspired you to write The Perfect Witness?

It started out as a play. I had a few scenes but it didn’t go anywhere. Wasn’t working. Tom Dunn, the director, and I had been wanting to write something together but we couldn’t figure out what. One day I told him about this play I couldn’t finish. He was amazed by the story and told me I couldn’t finish it as a play because the damn thing is a film! We locked ourselves up and wrote the screenplay. Within a year or two he made it into a film and cast me as the killer.

Bet it got all sorts of awards!

Yeah, I got best actor at the Portugal Film festival… We got into the Austin Film Festival. Brussels, Amsterdam, Sitges (Spain, it’s right on the coast), and a few others. Then First Look Studios swept it up, changed its name from The Ungodly to The Perfect Witness and… distributed it.

Do you consider that your biggest accomplishment so far?

Yeah, it’s one of them….it even got picked up by Showtime and—oh, I think I said that already.

Wow! If you could do something else? I mean, if you weren’t an actor or writer?

Oh I’m a carpenter. That’s sorta my survival job. I was very poor as a young man…

And now?

I get commissions to write screenplays…for example these Russians came to me with a short story called The Animals, and I adapted it into a screenplay. After I’m done, they translate it back and shoot it as a Russian language film. The money is okay. I also get royalties for my plays… right now three of my plays are being done…

Oh, where?

In Philadelphia TheWalking Fish Theatre is doing my play The Kids Are Awake. My two one acts, Don’t Listen to What it Sounds Like and I like to Watch ‘em Beg Ma are running at The Producers Club here in New York.

What’s that about?

Watch them all and find out.

Ok, I will and I'm going to tell my sisters I met that scary guy in A Perfect Witness, I can't believe it, that's one of my favorite movies!

Talking with Thomas C. Dunn: Writer and Director of The Perfect Witness starring Wes Bentley

Thomas C. Dunn is the director of the captivating movie A Perfect Witness (in Europe, it's titled The Ungodly) starring Wes Bentley (American Beauty). I was thrilled to speak with him about this amazing directorial debut film, his work as a screenwriter and his collaboration with Hollywood greats such as Beth Grant (Little Miss Sunshine) and Kenny Johnson (The Sheild). He also spoke to me about his sucess as a playwright and his ongoing collaboration with writer Mark Borkowski (Cost of a Soul). The two co-wrote the screenplay and continue to write even though Thomas resides in LA and Mark in NYC. I cannot wait to see what they will produce next. A Perfect Witness was one of the best psychology thrillers I have seen to date and I was quite amazed at how the two completed the film in such short time for the film festivals.

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer/director?
I’ve been writing since I was really young, mostly short stories--hopefully not my best work, then I started writing poems in high school…short plays, full length plays…now I’ll go back and forth from plays to screenplays. As far as directing, my friend Mark Borkowski showed me this play he was writing and he was stuck on the idea and I told him, “The reason you can’t move forward is because it’s not a play, it’s a screenplay.” We began to collaborate and finished it together…we just kept working back and forth until it made sense to both of us and we had in mind that he would play the lead role of the serial killer and I would direct. It was his first major role in a feature film and my first time as a director. That became ‘The Perfect Witness.’ For the international release, it’s called ‘The Ungodly.’
Wow!
We wouldn’t do the film any other way even when it was suggested…It’s sort of the norm, just from a financial point of view, if people see that Mark didn’t have a big name as an actor or I haven’t directed several other films, there’s always a risk. We had offers to move in a ‘bigger’ actor, a more experienced director…but for Mark’s role as the serial killer, we wanted someone you couldn’t recognize from ten other films. I thought it was perfect for him because you simply don’t know what to expect…Mark’s unpredictable as an artist and a person so he just really fits the role.

You filmed in Philly…that was his choice, right?
Well, we wrote mostly in LA and NY. The film was supposed to take place in Philly but it was cheaper to do it in LA…After we scouted Philly though, I said, “Let’s just find a way to do it in here…It’s got the sort of edgy, inner-city grit and realism we want.” And we found a way to make it happen.

Mark said it only took twenty four days to shoot...
He exaggerated. It took twenty-two or twenty-one, depending how you count—on one of our days, the camera had a problem and we only shot two hours. But I had a brilliant cinematographer, Paco Femenia. He kept the crew going, the actors were locked in, everything was storyboarded and we always made sure we made our days. Sometimes you’re forced to take short cuts, but there were a few scenes, like the elevator scene…when I was told by my first AD we weren’t going to have time to do it, and I just found a way to make sure we still got it in…you know that scene where the nurse is standing in the middle of Wes and Mark and she can sense this crazy energy between the two of them?

Yeah, and I’m so glad you made that decision to keep it, it was quite well done. The bloody scenes were also intense, what was that like behind the camera?
We had a special effects person, Steve Tolin, to help design all of that but in the end it’s interesting…if you look at the scene where the waitress was terrorized…someone once said to me that was a hard scene to watch because it was so bloody but we purposely didn’t show any blood in that scene! The audience pictures a lot more of what’s going on then you actually see. It’s the emotional toll on the victim that was important to us, not showing blood.

Aside from Wes Bentley, were there any other mainstream actors in The Perfect Witness?
Yes, Beth Grant, who plays Mark’s Mom, has been in everything. She’s just an amazing actress. She’s been in Little Miss Sunshine, No Country for Old Men, Rain Man, The Rookie, Matchstick Men…she’s had a career that’s spanned decades. There’s also a small scene where a cop stops Wes and Mark from fighting…

Yeah, I remember him and he actually trusts Mark’s story that Wes’ character is freaking out because he’s not on his meds…
…he’s one of my best friends, Kenny Johnson. He was on The Shield for years and he’s now on Saving Grace with Holly Hunter. And then Joanne Baron, who plays the sister, has done a ton of work and was really a pleasure to work with, so these actors may not all be household names but they’re really experienced, professional and enthusiastic. Even the waitress, Marina Gatell…she’s a well-established Spanish actress, just not as well known over here.

It did really well in Europe, right?
Yeah. You know, our original title for The Perfect Witness was The Ungodly, but it had to be changed in the US. We were told any title that can be viewed as potentially negative toward God, distributors won’t pick up, because there’s this nebulous fear of some religious backlash. It’s absurd. We’re catering film titles to the US bible belt which probably wouldn’t watch it anyway. But in Europe and everywhere else, it’s being released as it should be, as The Ungodly. The UK release, for example, is in September, 09.

Were there many challenges to making an independent film?
Yes, time, money, resources. But the lack of some of these also forces you to be even more creative and that can actually improve the end result. So there’s no excuses. I made the film I wanted to make. It can be a double standard when it’s finished though because we all complain about Hollywood releasing big budget films with tons of effects and very little story then when certain films are made independently, we complain because they don’t have those same effects. So I think it’s important that we balance going to see blockbusters with also seeing independent films. Even supporting local musicians at shows and buying their CD’s there, it really make a big difference to truly independent artists and helps shape the landscape of what films and music are made in the future.

How did you guys get the money to do the film?
A lot of the money came from Spanish funds and some of it was private equity, just individual investors.

How did you get the money from Spain?
A Spanish company had read one of my other scripts and approached me about funding it. Mark and I had just completed writing The Perfect Witness though and when I told the Spanish company about this other screenplay, they asked to read it too. They called afterwards and said, ‘we love it. Let’s do this first…’ We were really the first US/Spanish co-production and we needed to hire some Spanish actors and crew. It was a great asset to the film though because we got access to European talent that we might not have had. I went to Spain for some casting, parts of post-production…I also worked with the composer in a little village on a mountain outside of Barcelona. As a result, I think the film has a European feel blended with Americana and I really like that about it.

And you wrote a lot of plays?
A play I wrote, The Thread Men, was just published by Samuel French as one of the best short plays of 2008…

What’s The Thread Men about?
These two people get locked in an elevator together: one is a psychiatrist and the other one acts increasingly crazy. The elevator just becomes this pressure cooker. And the audience starts to realize that these two characters share some secrets from their past…It becomes increasingly tense and dangerous as the psychological chess match between the two of them plays out.

Hmmm, I like the sound of that…sounds like you were an English major?
Yes…I was around film all the time but didn’t take film courses. I graduated as an English major from UCLA.

Do you feel this (English) degree helps you?
Not particularly. I mean, it exposed me to new writers and novels and gave me an opportunity to write. At the same time, I think I was already on this path of discovery and was learning before university and am still learning long after…

When did you meet Mark (co-writer and actor of The Perfect Witness) anyway?
I met Mark when I was in college. We would be working on stuff together back then and it would get to 3 in the morning. I’d say, ‘I have to leave to finish a paper that’s due in the morning.’ And he would say, “what, a new play?” I would say, ‘Mark, a paper. I’m in college, remember?’ He always forgot I was still a student (laughing). We would be collaborating on this intense play and then I would go home and have to write a Chaucer paper.

Wow, LA seems so cool.
Mark and I have a crazy story of how we really first got together…we did a play, Everyman. It’s a 15th century play written in verse. It alternates between two character dialogues and monologues. Mark was playing the character ‘Knowledge’ and I had this small, five line part. The lead guy suddenly quit though and the director…he was crazy…said, “Anyone else want to do the lead?” And I said, “I will.” It was that simple. The director would just leave the theater and everything was up to the actors to do themselves.

Sounds awful…
The play opens with the main character, ‘Everyman,’ dying and having to make an accounting of how he lived his life to God. Even though it’s this Christian-morality play, Mark convinced me to mime overdosing from heroin in the opening scene. Mark was modernizing it. The director just shrugged. So one night, during a rehearsal, the theater fills up with 50 women from some Jewish women’s group that had pre-paid to see a different show. The director rushes backstage in a panic and tells us we have to put our play up, even though it’s a Christian play. Half the cast had already gone home for the night but Mark just wrote their names on my hand and told me to go on and do it. I had to improvise almost the whole thing, looking down at my hand and skipping around actors who weren’t there, ad-libbing in verse…I’m on stage, sweating and anxious as hell, doing my best, and I can hear Mark laughing hysterically behind the curtains…and that was our first time working together.

You’re writing screenplays now?
I just finished a new script I will work to direct, called The Assassin Club…and currently, I’m working on a screenplay that will be filmed by a Greek director, Vangelis Liberopoulos…I just got back from a month in Athens doing research and now I’m writing it…It deals with the Greek riots that lasted about a month last December after a 15 year-old boy was shot by a policeman.

Anything that stood out to you when you were there in Athens?
When you get behind some of the things that happened, it’s really amazing. Take for example, the cops who worked 20-22 hours a day during the riots. Many of them had second and third jobs because they only make about $15,000 US a year. Because of the hours they worked during the riots, they had to quit these extra jobs so they’re really struggling for money. The government steps in though and gives them a bonus of 500 euros for all their hard work. Three months after the riots end though, the government says, ‘yeah, you know that bonus? It was more like a loan that we’re now deducting back out of your pay checks.’

That’s not right!
I spent the whole month in Athens hearing some really interesting things. As a writer, it’s important to be a good listener. If you mean what you say and do what say, you gain people’s trust and they can really open up to you. I think if you stop any one person in the street and sit down and hear about their life, they will become fascinating…

What are the European films festivals like?

They’re all so different. For example, in Brussels, there were 500 people screaming at me in a French to sing when I got on stage to introduce my film. It’s their fun sort of way of heckling the director. I just started ad-libbing the Willy Wonka ‘Oompa Lompa song’ with my own lyrics. It ended with something like ‘Oompa Loompa doompity da, here-is-my-film-enjoy-Voila!’ They just went nuts!

Are there any celebrities you’d like to meet…I always ask this cheesy question.
I don’t have a strong desire to meet this or that specific person. I’ve met a lot of celebrities and I mean, I absolutely appreciate their talent but I don’t really know them as people…Maybe there’s ones I’d like to work with but not just to meet…When I see independent artists creating music, writing scripts, etc., not really knowing if anyone will ever hear or see the end result of their efforts, that’s actually inspiring to me. I can appreciate them just as much for their hard work, belief and talent…

What was Wes Bentley like? I want to meet him!
He’s a great guy. He worked extremely hard on this film. Usually actors get some breaks, to relax in their trailers every now and then but we really worked him non-stop. He did a great job…he was in every scene!

How did you support yourself when you were still just an up and coming writer/director?
I did all kinds of jobs but just continued to write as I worked. Anything, everything. I mean I was a stockbroker in New York for two years a long time ago...

What a contrast!
Yeah, and I convinced them that I couldn’t work on Fridays so I would work four days, wrote three. I saved money and after two years, took off and traveled for 10 months through Asia, just writing, learning, jumping trains, crossing borders…I think experiencing other cultures is a huge asset for a creative person.

How do your parents feel about you having such a creative lifestyle?
They’ve never said throughout my entire life, ‘do this or do that’. They’re always there for me, unconditionally. They’ve allowed me to make my own choices and supported those I made. Sometimes parents try to steer their children at the expense of ruining their relationship with them. Just love your kids, support them and let them follow their passion…

That’s very true, if everyone did what made them happy, people could get a lot more done. Thank you so much for meeting with me to discuss your work. It’s fascinating, I love it.
Thank you and you’re welcome.