Kenyon Collegian

Issue date: 5/3/07 Section: A&E

Last Friday, I had the privilege to sit down (in P. F. Kluge's living room) and talk with Jay Cocks '66, screenwriter (The Age of Innocence, Gangs of New York, De-Lovely). Cocks and his wife, actress Verna Bloom (High Plains Drifter, Animal House, The Last Temptation of Christ), spent the past week visiting Kenyon classes in drama and writing, and viewing a collection of student films. Mr. Cocks talked about his visit, student films, his current writing projects and his relationship with Martin Scorsese. Here is an abridged version of that interview.

Collegian: Can you describe your experience back at Kenyon this past week?

JC: Enriching. I really hope that you got as much out of what Verna and I had to say (at a couple of acting and directing seminars and such) as we got from students. The students asked great questions. They have a lot of talent, curiosity and ambition. While in the professional world, you're usually just left with ambition. For me, it's a great pleasure to be able to try to help them along as part of this general, worldly education.
I thought the student films were excellent! And, I thought they marked a big improvement in quality over what I had seen just a couple years ago [when I last visited Kenyon in the spring of 2005]-which was the last time I had looked at any concentration of Kenyon student films. These were more diverse and nuanced. They seemed more imaginative. There was a real, consistent quality; a real kind of vein of ambition that ran through them, which was both very commendable and exciting to see. Also, a real technical proficiency, which I didn't see the first time I was here. So, Professor Tazewell must be doing something right.

Collegian: Do you have any completed scripts that you are currently looking to get made?

JC: I have one called The Great Bridge; it's based on a [non-fiction] book by David McCulloch [written in 1972], and it's about building the Brooklyn Bridge. I'd just love to get that green-lit right away! That's one of my dreams. I also have another script about the jazz musician Billy Strayhorn-who worked a lot with Duke Ellington-called Lush Life.

Collegian: What can you tell us about Silence-your upcoming project with Martin Scorsese?

JC: Well, let's just hope that that's his next movie! It's a very tough movie to get made. It doesn't have an overtly commercial theme. It's a historical movie, which makes people very nervous that it's about religion, which makes people very nervous, indeed, that it's about a clash of culture, which makes people just as nervous as they are about religion! So, all these things combined make it what you would call a kind of tough sell. But Marty has been very adamant about wanting to make this film and is trying very hard …We will do it when the casting and timing come together.

Continued...

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