Since we started this process with the finished script in Hollywood, we've had some of the best writers, directors, actors and other creatives in Hollywood compliment us on it. I could tell you some of the names and what they've said, but not even I am that much of a narcissist.
The funny thing is, none of it really affects me. Having an Oscar-winning director or a huge producer or an Emmy-winning writer lavish praise on you, even if it is sincere, just doesn't move my meter. It's not that I don't respect them or don't like it at all, it's just that external praise from people I don't know has never mattered much to me.
My stories started as emails to my friends about the stupid, funny or ridiculous shit I did. My only real goal was to make them laugh. Everything I have built started there, and even now, best-selling author, tons of fans, blah blah blah...when I write I strip it all away and still write with that small, single-digit audience in mind. If they like it, it's good.
I sent the video of the readings for the three guys we've cast to play me, SlingBlade and [PWJ/GoldenBoy/ElBing], to the very guys they are playing: My Duke Law School friends. I wanted to know what they thought, and as a group, they loved the guys we cast.
But the most discerning, irascible, and talented motherfucker of the bunch is SlingBlade himself. He is the best friend an artist could ever have because he is the three things that artists need in an editor: 1. a genius, 2. completely unforgiving in his evaluation of anything, and 3. always fair. If it's bad, he'll call you out, and if it's good, he'll say it. His response to the actors:
"Those guys were really good. I'm impressed."
Now THAT is a compliment that means something to me.
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