Lee Goldberg
Dream Town
DOSSIER: When you write in your Eve Ronin or Ian Ludlow series, or in any of your standalone novels like MALIBU BURNING or CALICO, do you try to keep specific actors out of your head for certain characters, or is that just impossible with as much film & TV as you’ve done? Have you come up with a Tony Shalhoub/James Garner detective mash-up character? Who would play that?
GOLDBERG: I’m spent much of my career forced to picture actors as the characters I was writing about because of my decades as a TV writer/producer… so it’s a true escape for me now *not* to picture any actors when I am writing my original novels (as opposed to the Monk and Diagnosis Murder books I wrote years ago). The only time I have done it is with my new thriller Malibu Burning. I definitely pictured Walter Matthau, back when he did Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, as my arson investigator Walter “Shar-pei” Sharpe.
As for your other question, no, I haven’t. Mainly because I have no idea what the hell you are talking about.
DOSSIER: Given The Dossier’s background in security and antiterrorism, we took note when you called the police while four individuals nearly broke into your home earlier this year. Since nobody is going to read this, what new mitigations have you put in place to help keep people off your property? We’re thinking you’ve either installed laser cannons or taken up jujutsu lessons.
GOLDBERG: Nothing that exotic. I went old-school: Steel bear traps, spring-loaded maces, and covered pits that are lined at the bottom with poison-tipped punji stakes or filled with live rattlesnakes (or both, to hedge my bets).
DOSSIER: When and where do you write, and what kind of environment do you prefer? (Music/silence/ocean-front veranda where sea nymphs emerge from the water to serve you chilled Bollinger and Oreos?)
GOLDBERG: Sadly, no sea nymphs. Just my dog laying on my office couch, loudly licking his ass or barking in a dream.
I do my best writing between 8 p.m and 2 a.m. in my home office. I like to listen to instrumental TV and movie soundtracks while I work (and to drown out the canine farting). If I am writing action, I might listen to Goldfinger (or other Bond scores), The Bourne Identity, or Mission Impossible (mostly Lalo Schifrin’s original TV soundtracks, and a couple of the features). If I am writing “procedural” scenes, I might listen to Jon Burlingame’s excellent collection of Quinn Martin TV series soundtracks (Streets of San Francisco, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, etc), or Jerry Goldsmith’s Police Story, or Morton Steven’s Hawaii Five-O, for example. I have a collection of hundreds of soundtracks to choose from.
I wish I could munch on Oreos and potato chips while I write, but these days it’s Keto Bars and roasted almonds… washed down with Diet Coke.
DOSSIER: Given the fact that all of life contains humor (even dark moments), how would you have injected humor in a film as critically acclaimed as Manchester by the Sea? Instead of Casey Affleck being a sad janitor, would you have cast him as a broken-hearted studio executive who roams the world on a G5 instead? You know, something we can really laugh at and detest at the same time.
GOLDBERG: I don’t remember that movie well enough to offer tips for lightening it up. The humor has to be natural part of the characters and their relationships, not something injected or lathered on later. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Terms of Endearment, and Fiddler on the Roof, for instance, are filled with tragedy and pain, but also warmth and humor. You can do both.
DOSSIER: Without bringing back the classic TV shows like Spenser: For Hire, Hunter, The Rockford Files, Columbo, or Quincy, how do you draw from the quality of those shows while trying to make something that’s a fresh hit for today?
GOLDBERG: You start by not drawing from other shows and creating something totally fresh. Monk, Columbo and Rockford actively subverted all the tropes, cliches and archetypes of the detective genre. On the other hand, I’d argue that Spenser and Hunter were by-the-book, standard genre shows that were simply done very well…but with strong character relationships (Spenser & Hawk, Hunter & McCall) at their core. Poker Face is a great example of a fresh spin on the tropes of the genre…evoking some of the pleasures of Columbo while also being nothing like it.
Website: LeeGoldberg.com | Amazon Author Page
Jeff Circle 