Alex Kustanovich (1)
Alex has an M.F.A. (in screenwriting) from UCLA film school and a B.F.A. (in production) from NYU film school. His screenwriting credits include: OUT OF THE COLD, RED MOON RUN, and THE SOFT KILL.
(This is an edited version of Aubrey M. Horton's interview with Alex Kustanovich --> 3-23-99.)
ACT I -->
HORTON: At what age did you know you wanted to be a writer?
KUSTANOVICH: At a very early age. I was never sure I wanted to be a screenwriter . . . and I'm still not sure whether it's a correct decision on my part.
However, I've always wanted to be a writer. And I remember since I was . . . maybe . . . eight or nine . . . growing up in the Soviet Union . . . I used to be terrible at math and terrible at all technical things. And I always was very good at writing.
And I remember making up stories about my summer vacations . . . that they actually read out loud in front of the whole school.
H: Then you really did start young as a writer?
K: [But] that wasn't a conscious decision to become a writer. It was just simply something I enjoyed doing. It came easy to me.
Like I said . . . I'm not sure if screenwriting is my genre. I love writing short stories. And the only reason I'm continuing to write scripts is because I've gotta make money. I can't make money writing short stories.
H: Okay, so . . . you were born in the Soviet Union, i.e., Russia.
K: Correct. Belorussia, actually.
H: Belorussia?
K: Belorussia used to be part of the Soviet Union . . . which is basically the same thing as Russia, but it's just a different republic. And now it is a different country . . . although they're merging back again.
We lived in Belorussia . . . and from there we moved to America when I was sixteen years old.
H: Did you go to a lot of films when you were a kid?
K: No. As a matter of fact . . . my introduction to film was . . . not to 'film' . . . y'know . . . literally to 'film' . . . but . . . my interest in 'film' . . . [started] in Louisville, Kentucky, when we came from Russia after having lived in Italy and Austria for a year . . . and I was sixteen years old at the time we came to America.
I was put in a school . . . and they didn't have English as a second language. I didn't speak a word of English. And I would just simply play hooky . . . 'cause I was getting 'F's' anyway.
And there was a theater near us called J Town Movie Theater. And for a dollar you could see two films. And the year was 1979. And I would see movies like GREASE . . . and [so I] got interested in just the practice [of the English language] . . . 'cause I couldn't understand a word. So I would pay attention to the visuals. And slowly . . . to see how the movie was constructed.
And then later . . . a movie was being shot in Fort Knox, Kentucky. The movie called STRIPES . . . with Bill Murray . . . written by Harold Ramis and directed by Ivan Reitman. And they needed Russians . . . [and] they knew that there were some Russian families living in Louisville, Kentucky.
My friend and I applied . . . and we got jobs as extras in that film. And we were on the set of that film for . . . I think . . . three weeks. In Fort Knox, Kentucky. They would just drive us from Louisville . . . to, like . . . an hour-and-a-half drive to Fort Knox. And they shot half of the film there.
So . . . being on that set . . . I got even more involved . . . my interest deepened . . . by being in that film.
I talked to Ivan Reitman. I said, "Listen, I really want to be a filmmaker."
And he said, "Well, if you want to be a filmmaker, and you're serious about it . . . and you want to stay on the East Coast . . . NYU has a great film program."
H: So . . . basically . . . at the age of sixteen . . . you came to the United States . . .
K: Right.
H: You were not that good in English . . . so you went to see some films . . . [and] that fascinated you . . .
K: Right.
H: But TV . . . that wasn't the same thing. TV didn't [interest you] the same way?
K: No. TV does not do anything for me still. TV still doesn't do anything for me. TV is simply, for me, a TV box . . . I use it most of the time only as a monitor for videos. Not a lot of great care goes into TV movies . . . TV shows. Some of them are very witty. They're very smartly written. But they're . . . it's not film. And I was interested in film. That is . . . visual images and how they translate to film . . .
H: So . . . it wasn't so much learning English . . . it was actually getting involved in the storytelling process . . . and you preferred to watch a film . . . for story . . .
K: Right.
H: And that fascinated you . . . and that's what got you into 'the business' . . . so to speak.
K: That's correct. That's correct.
< (c) 1999 -- all rights reserved > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For ACT II of Alex's interview --> click on --> "Alex Kustanovich (2)" below.
(This is an edited version of Aubrey M. Horton's interview with Alex Kustanovich --> 3-23-99.)
ACT I -->
HORTON: At what age did you know you wanted to be a writer?
KUSTANOVICH: At a very early age. I was never sure I wanted to be a screenwriter . . . and I'm still not sure whether it's a correct decision on my part.
However, I've always wanted to be a writer. And I remember since I was . . . maybe . . . eight or nine . . . growing up in the Soviet Union . . . I used to be terrible at math and terrible at all technical things. And I always was very good at writing.
And I remember making up stories about my summer vacations . . . that they actually read out loud in front of the whole school.
H: Then you really did start young as a writer?
K: [But] that wasn't a conscious decision to become a writer. It was just simply something I enjoyed doing. It came easy to me.
Like I said . . . I'm not sure if screenwriting is my genre. I love writing short stories. And the only reason I'm continuing to write scripts is because I've gotta make money. I can't make money writing short stories.
H: Okay, so . . . you were born in the Soviet Union, i.e., Russia.
K: Correct. Belorussia, actually.
H: Belorussia?
K: Belorussia used to be part of the Soviet Union . . . which is basically the same thing as Russia, but it's just a different republic. And now it is a different country . . . although they're merging back again.
We lived in Belorussia . . . and from there we moved to America when I was sixteen years old.
H: Did you go to a lot of films when you were a kid?
K: No. As a matter of fact . . . my introduction to film was . . . not to 'film' . . . y'know . . . literally to 'film' . . . but . . . my interest in 'film' . . . [started] in Louisville, Kentucky, when we came from Russia after having lived in Italy and Austria for a year . . . and I was sixteen years old at the time we came to America.
I was put in a school . . . and they didn't have English as a second language. I didn't speak a word of English. And I would just simply play hooky . . . 'cause I was getting 'F's' anyway.
And there was a theater near us called J Town Movie Theater. And for a dollar you could see two films. And the year was 1979. And I would see movies like GREASE . . . and [so I] got interested in just the practice [of the English language] . . . 'cause I couldn't understand a word. So I would pay attention to the visuals. And slowly . . . to see how the movie was constructed.
And then later . . . a movie was being shot in Fort Knox, Kentucky. The movie called STRIPES . . . with Bill Murray . . . written by Harold Ramis and directed by Ivan Reitman. And they needed Russians . . . [and] they knew that there were some Russian families living in Louisville, Kentucky.
My friend and I applied . . . and we got jobs as extras in that film. And we were on the set of that film for . . . I think . . . three weeks. In Fort Knox, Kentucky. They would just drive us from Louisville . . . to, like . . . an hour-and-a-half drive to Fort Knox. And they shot half of the film there.
So . . . being on that set . . . I got even more involved . . . my interest deepened . . . by being in that film.
I talked to Ivan Reitman. I said, "Listen, I really want to be a filmmaker."
And he said, "Well, if you want to be a filmmaker, and you're serious about it . . . and you want to stay on the East Coast . . . NYU has a great film program."
H: So . . . basically . . . at the age of sixteen . . . you came to the United States . . .
K: Right.
H: You were not that good in English . . . so you went to see some films . . . [and] that fascinated you . . .
K: Right.
H: But TV . . . that wasn't the same thing. TV didn't [interest you] the same way?
K: No. TV does not do anything for me still. TV still doesn't do anything for me. TV is simply, for me, a TV box . . . I use it most of the time only as a monitor for videos. Not a lot of great care goes into TV movies . . . TV shows. Some of them are very witty. They're very smartly written. But they're . . . it's not film. And I was interested in film. That is . . . visual images and how they translate to film . . .
H: So . . . it wasn't so much learning English . . . it was actually getting involved in the storytelling process . . . and you preferred to watch a film . . . for story . . .
K: Right.
H: And that fascinated you . . . and that's what got you into 'the business' . . . so to speak.
K: That's correct. That's correct.
< (c) 1999 -- all rights reserved > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For ACT II of Alex's interview --> click on --> "Alex Kustanovich (2)" below.
