The Film Forum

The 'Running' Man: Q&A With Augusten Burroughs

By Tom DiChiara

Related Links Get 'Running With Scissors' showtimes and tickets Watch the trailer Read an excerpt from the book Buy the book Buy Burroughs' other books Post about the film

Augusten Burroughs' mother was an unpublished confessional poet with delusions of grandeur, his father an emotionally numb alcoholic -- so when, at the age of 13, he was shipped off to live with his mentally ailing mom's psychiatrist, it should have been a good thing, right? Well, that all depends on one's perspective. The psychiatrist in question was one Dr. Finch, a gentleman whose office contained a "masturbatorium" (yes, it's exactly what it sounds like) and whose home was a dilapidated, trash-ridden eyesore where human turds prophesied the future, dog kibble was an acceptable dinner and a gay pedophile resided in the backyard shed. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, this was not the average American household.

On the bright side, Burroughs' chaotic youth led him to write a critically acclaimed New York Times best-selling memoir, 'Running With Scissors.' The intensely funny and poignant film adaptation stars Annette Bening (as Augusten's mother), Alec Baldwin (as Augusten's father), Brian Cox (as Dr. Finch), Gwyneth Paltrow (as Hope Finch) and Joseph Cross (as Augusten). Burroughs has also written the novel 'Sellevision,' two essay collections and the memoir 'Dry,' about his battle with alcoholism, instant national best sellers all. Not bad for a guy whose childhood ambition was to be a hairdresser.

In our interview, Burroughs reveals what it was like to see his childhood made into a movie, why his reaction to the film surprised him and how writing unequivocally saved his life.

'Running With Scissors' chronicles a very crazy, tumultuous time in your childhood -- your parents' divorce, your mother's mental collapse, becoming an adoptive member of your psychiatrist's pretty-much-insane family. Did you have any inkling at the time all these things were happening how unique they were -- and that they might someday provide the fodder for a book and now a movie?
Oh no, not on this scale. I've always written about my life. Before I wrote about it, I talked into a tape recorder. But I didn't think of that as writing with a capital "w," if you will. And later on I kept journals. But again, I didn't think of that as writing. It never crossed my mind that I was writing for something. But the actual writing of it ... was how I processed the world, how I dealt with my life.

When did you decide that you wanted to pursue writing as a career?
Not until much later in life, actually. It was 1998, and I had relapsed -- I was sober and I'd relapsed. And I was dying from alcohol. I was hallucinating and had alcohol poisoning. I knew I was going to have a heart attack. My heart was beating irregularly, and I kept drinking. I decided that was OK because I'd had a huge life, an enormous life, with so many more experiences than most people have. I felt actually lucky. But I also felt unlucky because I hadn't surrounded myself with people, and I didn't have a support system and a family. I hadn't handled my life well. So I figured I'd take whatever comfort I could get from alcohol and when I had a heart attack that would be it. But it bothered me that I'd never tried to write, not for myself. And it was a couple weeks after having that realization that I sat down and wrote 'Sellevision.' I wrote it in seven days. It just exploded out of me. I didn't know what I was doing from one page to the next. There was no outline. There was no higher-level brain functioning involved. It was like brain-stem writing. It just came out. And after I did that I was happy. I knew that's what I'd do for the rest of my life. And I knew I'd get published. I just never doubted that for a second because I just knew that I'd never give up. And I would keep writing, and by the time I was in my 50s or my 60s or my 40s, someone would have to publish me because I'd have to write something that was good enough if I kept writing a book a month. It just happened much quicker than I thought.

So writing was the deciding factor in you becoming sober?
Oh, it was everything. It made all the difference in the world for me. It scratched the itch that drinking never could quite reach. It just made all the difference. I am absolutely sober because I write. And I could never write if I were drinking.

Did you have any reservations about having the story of your childhood made into a movie?
Well, originally I did. I was not going to option 'Running With Scissors' for film because I just felt it would be too easy to make a cheesy, terrible movie out of it. And I just didn't have any faith that it could be made well. [Director] Ryan Murphy, though, was just so persistent. He was just a name to me. I didn't know 'Popular.' So he was just a nobody to me. We met and had a long meeting. He spent the time talking about his mother and his childhood. And he had such a deep understanding of 'Running With Scissors,' it was almost as though he wrote it himself. His mother was so similar to my mother in so many ways. And his reactions to his own mother reflected mine. It just felt odd and predestined, and so I decided to follow my gut instinct, which was to give it to him, so I did. All through the process he never let me forget that he knew that this is not just a movie; it's your life. He took such enormous care. Everything he said would happen, happened. We made our delusional dream list for casting. He said, "I'm going to get these people. I'm going to get Annette Bening." And he did everything. It was really, really unbelievable. He's an astonishing director. He's like Alfred Hitchcock in the sense that he had filmed that movie in his head before he saw a millimeter of film. It's turned out to be a great experience. My first feeling after seeing the movie was just relief that it didn't suck. But then I was just so happy because it's such a good film.

Did you have a lot of input in the making of the film?
I did. Ryan and I spoke on the phone every day or every other day while he was writing the screenplay. He wanted to know a lot. He would be like, chapter 35 ends with such and such, you turn the page and chapter 36 is a whole new chapter. I need chapter 35-and-a-half. What happened after you get out of the car? And I would fill him in. So it was a real collaboration in that sense. I wanted to give him everything he needed to make it. And I didn't want to write it. I wanted him to do it, but I wanted to give him all the tools he'd need to do it.

How does the finished product compare with what you'd imagined?
Oh, it's nothing like I'd imagined. I guess I was thinking it would be like 'American Beauty,' but it's nothing like 'American Beauty.' I never could have imagined this movie. It's so different from one minute to the next. I'm really, really happy with it. It's not just some comedy or a drama. You don't know what to feel sometimes from moment to moment in this film, and that's what's great about it. Audiences always complain that movies don't respect their intelligence and that they're trite. This is something we can honestly say you never expected Hollywood would give you. This is not a Hollywood movie. But it's not German, either, you know. It doesn't feel American. And the performances are just fantastic. No one will ever know how good Annette Bening is. No one will ever, ever know how good she is. She's just really, really shockingly accurate.

Are there any scenes in the film that were tough for you to watch?
Scenes between the Joes -- Joe Cross and Joe Fiennes -- were difficult to watch, as they were difficult to go through, as they were difficult to write. The fight scene between Alec Baldwin and Annette Bening -- you know, when Joe Cross is in the kitchen -- that was difficult. It was funny: I didn't expect to be emotionally hit by the movie when I actually saw it, but it did -- it really hit me in a few different ways. I was crying after I saw it.