An Interview with Alicia Erian
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AC: Seem like a pretty minor vice. Especially if it's window shopping.
AE: Well, it's not always window shopping...But I work really hard. I'm working on a movie script right now, I just started this other novel...
AC: The script for the movie of Towelhead?
AE: No, Alan is writing the script himself. In fact, he's done. He's finished a draft. I'm writing a script for Miguel Arteta, who made the movie, "The Good Girl." He read the book of stories and wrote to me and said, "I'd like to work with you on a project." He said he wanted three months to work with someone in person.
I had six weeks before school started. I said "I've got six weeks, do you still want me to come out there." He made it happen in like two weeks, which is totally unheard of for Hollywood. So I went out for six weeks. I lived in a great house, we worked together part of the time. I mostly worked on my own, but he had an outline from a previous writer that I worked off of. And that was an amazing experience. That script has to be turned in Tuesday; he gave me an extension. I'm still forty pages away.
AC: So did shopping help get you through the depressing years, living with Jasira for three years?
AE: I didn't have the money then to shop the way I wanted to. Now I have more money....
[But] those were bad years. I was deeply, deeply depressed. Those years were awful. I think back on those years and think, I never want to be in that place. I'd go to they gym, a twenty minute walk, there and back, come home, do dishes, do laundry, go to the library, write this book I didn't like writing, come home, do some more chores.
And I'd get up and do it again. There was nothing there that made me happy. But I kept telling myself, you will be happy. Make this book, and you'll see. It's hard to think like that. It's not my natural way of thinking. But you have to think like that. If you don't, then you won't get anywhere. Then once you start to get somewhere, then you can start to relax. But you have to put in those hours, and that sweat, or you'll get nothing. You've got to put out so you can get it back.
AC: Seem like a pretty minor vice. Especially if it's window shopping.
AE: Well, it's not always window shopping...But I work really hard. I'm working on a movie script right now, I just started this other novel...
AC: The script for the movie of Towelhead?
AE: No, Alan is writing the script himself. In fact, he's done. He's finished a draft. I'm writing a script for Miguel Arteta, who made the movie, "The Good Girl." He read the book of stories and wrote to me and said, "I'd like to work with you on a project." He said he wanted three months to work with someone in person.
I had six weeks before school started. I said "I've got six weeks, do you still want me to come out there." He made it happen in like two weeks, which is totally unheard of for Hollywood. So I went out for six weeks. I lived in a great house, we worked together part of the time. I mostly worked on my own, but he had an outline from a previous writer that I worked off of. And that was an amazing experience. That script has to be turned in Tuesday; he gave me an extension. I'm still forty pages away.
AC: So did shopping help get you through the depressing years, living with Jasira for three years?
AE: I didn't have the money then to shop the way I wanted to. Now I have more money....
[But] those were bad years. I was deeply, deeply depressed. Those years were awful. I think back on those years and think, I never want to be in that place. I'd go to they gym, a twenty minute walk, there and back, come home, do dishes, do laundry, go to the library, write this book I didn't like writing, come home, do some more chores.
And I'd get up and do it again. There was nothing there that made me happy. But I kept telling myself, you will be happy. Make this book, and you'll see. It's hard to think like that. It's not my natural way of thinking. But you have to think like that. If you don't, then you won't get anywhere. Then once you start to get somewhere, then you can start to relax. But you have to put in those hours, and that sweat, or you'll get nothing. You've got to put out so you can get it back.
