Repo Man defies description, by design. It's a punk rock comedy, a retro-sci-fi flick, a buddy film, a social satire, and one of the best films to come out of the 1980s … or any other decade, actually.
Writer/director Alex Cox skillfully transcends genres as his aimless hero, Otto (Emilio Estevez) morphs from feckless punker to career repo man to intergalactic traveler, continually demonstrating the mantra of the trade: The life of a repo man is always intense.
What point were you at in your career before this project?
ALEX COX: I had written two scripts for money, one for United Artists and one for the director Adrian Lyne, and made a short film (40 minutes) at UCLA.
Where did the idea for Repo Man come from?
ALEX COX: Various sources. People I'd met in LA, a repo man with whom I rode around, punks from that scene.
Do you begin with story, character or theme?
ALEX COX: Urr... it depends on the project. If it's a bio-pic, it's the character.
In the case of Repo Man, probably theme: the imminence of nuclear war, the superficiality and stupidity of almost everything else.
The theme for the film seems to hinge on "the lattice of coincidence." How important is having a theme before you start to write?
ALEX COX: It depends on the project. Repo Man's theme probably changed when the ending was re-written near the end of the shoot and the destruction of LA replaced with the transcendental flying car.
How much research did you do and how did that help you write the script?
ALEX COX: Just riding around with a repo man, going to punk gigs, and a monthly subscription to The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Did you outline the whole story before you started writing the script?
ALEX COX: No, I just started writing scenes and dialogue.
What's your writing process?
ALEX COX: Write until it's finished. Then re-write it. There were 14 drafts of Repo Man. The first one probably took a month or so. Some later ones just a few days.
Was it always planned to be a low-budget film?
ALEX COX: Yes, and much lower budget. Around $120K at one stage, of which $50K – our salaries – would have been deferred.
I understand that there was talk at one time of doing Repo Man as a student film. Were you a student at the time, and how would you have pulled that off?
ALEX COX: (Producers Peter) McCarthy, (Jonathan) Wacks and I had all been UCLA students. We formed a company with the best of the UCLA critical studies profs, Bob Rosen – Edge City Productions – for the purpose of making features. The idea was that I would re-enroll to access the facilities, which I did.
How did you connect with Executive Producer Michael Nesmith, and what attracted him to the film?
ALEX COX: We met him via another producer, Harry Gittes. Michael Nesmith liked motor-themed movies, comic books (the first four pages of the script were a comic) and had had some experience with repo men in his post-Monkees days.
Do you write with specific actors in mind?
ALEX COX: I thought about the guys in the band Fear for the four repo men. I didn't know them personally, but had formed an impression by seeing them on stage.
What's the value of going after "name" actors (like Emilio Estevez) for a low-budget movie and do you think it's worth the trouble?
ALEX COX: It gives confidence to the financiers. Without the financiers, no film. So in that sense it's certainly worth the trouble.
At a certain point, do you feel that as a writer you give up a character and the actor takes him over?
ALEX COX: Oh, yes. Because the writer has to think of twenty or thirty characters, and the director of many more things besides. The actor only needs to think about his/her part (we hope).
How did you come up with the idea to use all "generic" food?
ALEX COX: We couldn't get any product placement! Apart from Ralph's Supermarket, who gave us the generic stuff, and the Car Freshener Company.
Music plays such a large role in the film. Did you determine any of the music at the scripting stage?
ALEX COX: Only TV Party, which Otto sings on camera.
How do you know when a script is done?
ALEX COX: When they give you the money to shoot it.
Did you do readings before you shot? If so, did the script change due to the readings?
ALEX COX: I wrote a couple of audition pieces for the characters of Miller and Lite. The actors liked them, and both ended up being incorporated into the script. There was also one script reading prior to the shoot.
Do you show drafts to people during the process?
ALEX COX: Of course – that's what they're for.
How do you process and use feedback?
ALEX COX: Keep changing the script until it attracts the actors & the money. If it doesn't, after a certain amount of time, give up.
Do you ever put the script away for a while after finishing a draft?
ALEX COX: Put it away if you don't like it or can't figure out a way to raise money for it. Once put away, rarely is it retrieved.
Did the story change during shooting or editing at all?
ALEX COX: Yes, especially with the ending, and with Dennis Dolan, our wise editor, and his input.
What's the value of being open to change during production?
ALEX COX: It depends on the project. If the script is perfect, it might be a big mistake.
What did you learn from working on that script that you still use today?
ALEX COX: Nothing that I learned writing or directing Repo Man was of any particular value. It is always the same struggle, always the same problems, always the same tedious and irritating search for money.
What's the best advice about writing that you've ever received?
ALEX COX: Set yourself a deadline and keep to it. Get to the end before you go back and start tweaking the beginning.
Any words of advice to a writer working on a low-budget script?
ALEX COX: Don't waste your money on screenwriting software. If you can't set two tabs and remember to capitalize character names, find an easier job -- actor, or producer.
With Otto you created an essentially passive main character – which screenwriting books and seminars tell us not to do. How did you make it work?
ALEX COX: Pay no attention to screenwriting books or seminars. They are as useless as screenwriting software and almost as damaging as 'professional script doctors.'
Write what's on your mind. Otto had to be a blank page or he couldn't have made the transition from rebel to reactionary so effortlessly.
What's your darkest memory from Repo Man?
ALEX COX: It was a pretty happy experience. Miserable relations with my girlfriend, probably. Like everyone from UCLA, she too had aspirations to be a director.
What's your favorite memory of working on Repo Man?
ALEX COX: Sy Richardson! The best actor I have ever worked with and one of the finest people, too.
What movies have inspired you?
ALEX COX: Citizen Kane, Wages Of Fear, The Mattei Affair, Yojimbo, Deuxieme Souffle, Killer Of Sheep, Madadayo, The Wild Bunch, For A Few Dollars More, King Kong (original version).
Repo Man mixes a lot of genres and broke a lot of ground for filmmakers who came later. What's the value of mixing genres the way you did?
ALEX COX: It's more fun. But it tends to annoy critics, who pretend to enjoy it sometimes, but are deeply conservative in their wizened little hearts.
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Jonathan Demme: The value of cameos
John Sayles: Writing to your resources
Peter Bogdanovich: Long, continuous takes
John Cassavetes: Re-Shoots
Steven Soderbergh: Rehearsals
George Romero: Casting
Kevin Smith: Skipping film school
Jon Favreau: Creating an emotional connection
Richard Linklater: Poverty breeds creativity
David Lynch: Kill your darlings
Ron Howard: Pre-production planning
John Carpenter: Going low-tech
Robert Rodriguez: Sound thinking
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Academy-Award Winner Dan Futterman (“Capote”) on writing real stories
Tom DiCillio (“Living In Oblivion”) on turning a short into a feature
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George Romero (“Martin”) on writing horror on a budget
Rebecca Miller (“Personal Velocity”) on adapting short stories
Stuart Gordon (“Re-Animator”) on adaptations
Academy-Award Nominee Whit Stillman (“Metropolitan”) on cheap ways to make it look expensive
Miranda July (“Me and You and Everyone We Know”) on making your writing spontaneous
Alex Cox (“Repo Man”) on scaling the script to meet a budget
Joan Micklin Silver (“Hester Street”) on writing history on a budget
Bob Clark (“Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things”) on mixing humor and horror
Amy Holden Jones (“Love Letters”) on writing romance on a budget
Henry Jaglom (“Venice/Venice”) on mixing improvisation with scripting
L.M. Kit Carson (“Paris, Texas”) on re-writing while shooting
Academy-Award Winner Kenneth Lonergan (“You Can Count on Me”) on script editing
Roger Nygard (“Suckers”) on mixing genres
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