Dean Craig is a writer/director from the UK, based in Los Angeles. His film career took off in 2007 when he wrote the hit UK comedy, Death at a Funeral, starring Matthew Macfadyen, Keeley Hawes and Peter Dinklage, and directed by Frank Oz. The film won several audience awards for Best Film including at the HBO comedy festival and prestigious Locarno International Film Festival. Its critical and commercial success led to a US remake in 2010, featuring a stellar cast that included Chris Rock, Zoe Saldana, Martin Lawrence, Danny Glover, James Marsden, Tracy Morgan and (again) Peter Dinklage.
Craig’s other writing and producing credits include the feature films Caffeine, starring Mena Suvari and Katherine Heigl, A Few Best Men with Rebel Wilson and Olivia Newton John (and its sequel, A Few Less Men), Moonwalkers, with Rupert Grint, Robert Sheehan and Ron Perlman, Carrie Pilby with Bel Powley and Gabriel Byrne, Mon Chien Stupide with Charlotte Gainsbourg, as well as creating and writing two television series - the BBC comedy, Off the Hook with Jonathan Bailey, and Hit the Road, starring Jason Alexander.
In 2020, Craig turned his attention to directing as well as writing, with his debut film Love, Wedding, Repeat. The film’s ensemble cast included Sam Claflin, Olivia Munn, Freida Pinto, Tim Key and Aisling Bea, and on its release was the no.1 movie on Netflix. Craig went on to write and directed The Honeymoon, with Maria Bakalova and Asim Chaudhry, and The Estate, starring Toni Collette, Anna Faris, Kathleen Turner and David Duchovny.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
Just tell us what it's like writing for the actors' rhythms and particular perspectives.
DEAN CRAIG
What I tend to do is I write for the character and then the actor will come onboard. I've had some incredible talent that I've been very lucky to have been sort of collaborating with, and they'll often bring their own rhythm and their own style, and sometimes their own words to the role. So it's a collaboration, especially when you've got talent, as you mentioned, Rebel Wilson. She's so specific in the way that she does her comedy and the way she plays her role. So she brought a lot of herself to the part that we did in A Few Best Men. And David Duchovny most recently in The Estate also did that. You know, he came with a lot of ideas, a lot of suggestions, a lot of funny things that he wanted to do and try out.
So, you have my rhythm on the page, and then David Duchovny brings his rhythm and his attributes. And then you get this sort of hopefully wonderful collaboration between writer and director and actor. The Estate is the film that I directed most recently, and that's with Toni Colette, Anna Faris, David Duchovny, Kathleen Turner, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ron Livingston, Keyla Monterroso Mejia. Some really wonderful actors and I think a very fun ensemble that we were able to do there. I had a very strange year where I got to do The Honeymoon and The Estate pretty much back to back with no break in between, which was challenging, but also amazing to be one minute in Venice with these fantastic actors. Really, I can't tell you how much I loved working with Maria and Pico and Asim and Lucas. They were all totally different people and personalities, but all fantastic in their own way. And then I jumped onto the set and had those fantastic actors to work with. So it's been quite a year, I have to say.
Main photo credit: Lorenzo Pesce
This interview was conducted by Mia Funk with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer on this episode was Sophie Garnier. Digital Media Coordinators are Jacob A. Preisler and Megan Hegenbarth.
Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast (Conversations about Climate Change & Environmental Solutions).
