This is one in a series of interviews focusing on New York-centric movies having their premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival.
In “The Adderall Diaries,” Stephen Elliott chronicles his tough childhood, his strained and brutal relationship with his father, his dabbling in masochism and, of course, his tendency toward the drug of the book’s title. It can be tricky material for a film adaptation, especially a first feature.
That was the challenge facing the writer and director Pamela Romanowsky, who went to film school at New York University with James Franco and had made a short film with him. Mr. Franco had optioned the rights to Mr. Elliott’s book, and they collaborated on the feature, in which he stars opposite Ed Harris as his father. The film is showing at the Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday.
In a recent interview in New York, Ms. Romanowsky, who lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, discussed her interest in the book, why she changed its setting to New York and how she assembled the cast. Below are excerpts from that conversation.
What first intrigued you about “The Adderall Diaries”?
What fascinates me about the book is the conversation about memory, how we select and edit the stories we tell to identify ourselves. I was a psychology major in college, so I’ve always been fascinated by memory. I find that the memories we recall the most often are the ones that are the least reliable. This story is an opportunity to talk about that concept in a really personal way.
How involved was Stephen Elliott in the adaptation?
He was very helpful to me. While I was in the early stages of writing the script, I spoke to him a few times. He was always very generous with his time. He gave me some additional writing he’d done and talked to me a lot about his story, his process of writing the book and where he is with his relationships now. But I think at some point when you’re doing an adaptation, you have to put the book on the shelf. Because the book that you love, you’re not going to hurt it. And a book just doesn’t automatically become a movie, especially one that is so stylized like this one is.
You assembled a strong team for your first feature. How were you able to pull it together?
It was a really long, slow climb. The hardest part about making a movie is that you need a huge team to do it. You get help along the way, and every time someone believes in you, it creates incredible momentum. I always had James Franco with me. He’s been an incredible collaborator and great friend. James and I went to grad school at NYU together and made a short together. After that, he told me he really wanted to help me make my first feature.
How did you decide to shoot in New York?
It was really important to me. The book is set in San Francisco. But I’ve lived in New York for 10 years and I really love the city. And in adapting it to be something I knew very intimately, I wanted to set it here. I wanted to shoot in some places that are special to me. So the bookstore where Stephen does a signing in the opening five minutes of the movie, it’s Word Brooklyn. I live down the street from it and is where I saw “The Adderall Diaries” in the window one day and picked it up.
What I was after in New York as a character was the idea of New York being an immigrant city, a city of self invention. You come here looking for something or someone. And usually it’s because you didn’t fit in very well where you came from. So you’re looking for a place where you can define yourself. That’s a huge part of what this character is struggling with.
Is there a quintessential New York experience you can share?
My best intro-to-New York story is gross. At the time, I lived in the East Village and was going to get on the F train and had not learned yet why you don’t wear flip-flops in New York. It was a hot summer day and I go down the stairs and fail to notice the mobile wash unit. I’m blasted with this pressure wash spray, a tidal wave of dirty water. I look down and there’s a condom and a band-aid stuck on me. I run back up the subway stairs and see a cab coming. I leap off the curb to hail this cab and my flip-flop foot came down on something squishy. I looked down and I had stepped on a rat. I went home and took a long shower and thought, you know what, I still love it here.