Gotenberg, Sweden – Anneli Gelbard

BlueCat: Why did you start writing screenplays?

Anneli Gelbard: I was telling stories long before I started writing them down. Me and my younger sister traveled a lot by train when we were kids and to keep her from running around I would make up a tale about a princess or something else she wanted to hear a story about. It usually ended with the princess conveniently dying when we reached our station.

BlueCat: What is your highest screenwriting goal for yourself?

AG: I have an idea for a comedy that I would love to write together with Jerry Seinfeld.

BlueCat: What aspects of the writing process do you struggle with the most?

AG: Structure and dialogue are the hardest part for me. I find the story and the characters easily but it’s a process to find what structure that serves the story best. Dialogue for me is something that seems flat in the script but comes alive when on set. As a writer/director I see the dialogue I write as a skeleton and the actors then help me add flesh and muscles to it.

BlueCat: What movies do you watch to remind yourself that you love screenwriting?

AG: E.T., Open Your Eyes (Abre Los Ojos), The Shining, and the TV series Twin Peaks

BlueCat: What do you feel you do well as a screenwriter?

AG: I’m good at creating unpredictable turning points and unique worlds.

BlueCat: Do you feel that screenwriting is different in your country than it is in Hollywood? If so, how?

AG: Most of our funding comes from the government and they have over the years favored dramas and neglected genres such as sci-fi, and horror so if you write that kind of scripts you won’t get many films made. In Hollywood genre films has a higher status

BlueCat: What screenplay have you written which you feel most proud of and why?

AG: Emerge is my first feature script. It has taken me three years almost and I’m really proud to have written something in English since it’s not my mother tongue.