"12 Years a Slave" Screenwriter John Ridley Talks About Faith, Hope, and Clarity

Writer John Ridley didn’t come up with the idea for “12 Years a Slave.” That came from the wife of director Steve McQueen. She brought Solomon Northrup’s memoir to their attention. But it was Ridley, 48, who toiled four years on the screenplay, even though he wasn’t being paid and the production company, Brad Pitt's Plan B, had no funding to make the film. “I had immense faith in the material and the director,” said Ridley. He also had enormous confidence in his own abilities, a wager that paid off handsomely with universal critical praise, nine Oscar nominations (including screenplay), and $49 million so far in domestic box-office plus another $79 million internationally.

Ridley spoke thoughtfully and graciously with Hollywood Is A Place Where from Texas where he is scouting locations for an ABC pilot called “American Crime.” He was exhausted, having just returned from a grueling two-day trip to London to attend the BAFTA awards. (While “12 Years” was named Best Film, he lost to “Philomena’s” Steve Coogan.)

John Ridley on the set of his next film, "All Is By My Side"

Q: How do you prepare yourself to write such hateful dialogue for such abhorrent characters?

A: In the memoir [by Solomon Northup] there were a lot of things that were put in perspective. I’ve never been visited by that kind of hatred, nothing like what these individuals went through, but there was a level in Solomon’s writing, like with Mistress Epps or Master Ford, where he would try to explain some of the complexities of humanity. That was interesting to me that it was not – no pun intended – black and white, that these folks were purely evil. I think that’s really important for the story.

Q: Did you struggle with having to write these characters?

A: It never bothered me because it was true; these things happened. It was huge education for me. You think you know about slavery, you think you know about that era. I found out that I was ignorant about a lot of things. If there were things I was learning chances are there were things for others to learn. I never felt bad about what I was writing, that it was difficult, that I shouldn’t go down this road, or that it was too toxic for me as a writer to tolerate. I was fascinated by the depth of a lot of the things that I learned.