Eric Roth chuckles into his bristly silver beard when I refer to him as the new kid on the block, but that doesn\u2019t make it any less true. His debut play, an adaptation of the 1952 western High Noon, is about to receive its world premiere, and the fact that he turned 80 last year is neither here nor there. \u201cMaybe I\u2019m the old new kid on the block,\u201d he concedes from his home in Los Angeles. His baseball cap bears a picture of a typewriter, as though there could be any doubt that he has writing on the brain.<\/p>\n
Admittedly, Roth is more experienced than the typical first-timer. Behind him lies not so much a hinterland of a career as an imposing mountain range, all of it in movies. He won an Oscar in 1995 for writing Forrest Gump: he\u2019s the one you can credit (or blame) for lines such as: \u201cLife is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you\u2019re going to get.\u201d<\/p>\n
I loved working with Robert Redford. One of the loneliest men I\u2019ve ever met<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
His own CV has something of the chocolate box about it, mixing chewy toffees \u2013 Michael Mann\u2019s whistleblower drama The Insider, Steven Spielberg\u2019s Mossad thriller Munich \u2013 with bonbons like David Fincher\u2019s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in which Brad Pitt is born elderly and ages backwards, and recent versions of A Star Is Born and Dune. All earned him Oscar nominations. Film or play, the pleasure is the same. \u201cI love to put one word in front of the other,\u201d he says. \u201cSee if I can get the right one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018A little more human\u2019 \u2026 Billy Crudup and Denise Gough in rehearsals. Photograph: Johan Persson<\/p>\n
His swerve into theatre was sparked by the realisation that non-musical westerns were a rarity on stage. \u201cI thought, \u2018What better vehicle than this parable?\u2019\u201d Directors agreed: Ivo van Hove was attached at one point; Thea Sharrock is now in the saddle. Most actors, Roth tells me, were wary of stepping into the cowboy boots of Gary Cooper, the film\u2019s star. Cooper played Will Kane, the marshal trying frantically to rustle up a posse on his wedding day, having learned that a vengeful outlaw is due back in town on the noon train. Billy Crudup was undaunted, though. His interpretation of Will, says Roth, is \u201ca little more human. Not that Gary Cooper wasn\u2019t human but he maintained that mask. Now we learn more about Will and his fears.\u201d Denise Gough plays his wife, a pacifist Quaker urging him to flee with her rather than stand firm.<\/p>\n
The film served as an allegory for life during the US anti-Communist witch-hunts of the early 1950s. Its screenwriter Carl Foreman was blacklisted for refusing to name names. \u201cIt\u2019s about cowardice and courage,\u201d says Roth. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of cowardice in America right now, with people voting against their own interests. Incipient racism is being fostered by the actions of our leaders. High Noon applies to that but also to other eras, like the people who had the courage to hide Jews during the second world war.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Farcical novel\u2019 \u2026 Roth picks up his Oscar for adapting Forrest Gump. Photograph: Michael Caulfield\/AP<\/p>\n
Roth has often expressed a preference for adapting imperfect or mediocre source material. He called the original novel of Forrest Gump \u201cfarcical\u201d, dismissed Benjamin Button as one of F Scott Fitzgerald\u2019s poorer works, and was bored by Dune when he read it in his teens. He knows where I\u2019m going with this. \u201cThat\u2019s an unfair question,\u201d he grumbles good-naturedly, acknowledging that High Noon is an exception. Adapting it was \u201c1,000% a challenge. It\u2019s the pinnacle of what a western could be.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also found himself navigating the demands of theatre. \u201cMovies are written in closeup. In my first version of High Noon, I wrote the stage direction, \u2018He shuffles his feet.\u2019 The director asked me, \u2018And how are we seeing this from the balcony?\u2019\u201d A sprinkling of Bruce Springsteen songs will further distinguish play from film. \u201cThey\u2019re anachronistic, which makes for an interesting combination.\u201d<\/p>\n