By: debbie lynn elias
Adam Sherman is a gifted and courageous storyteller. Calling on his own life experiences as the basis for his films, the most recent of which is CRAZY EYES starring Lukas Haas and Madeline Zima, the results are compelling, albeit very controlled, perhaps too controlled, leading to a feeling at film’s end of something being held back and hidden; the onion is peeled but not to its heart. Adam Sherman in real life is very much the same. Very calm, controlled and methodical with his presence, one can sense his introversion and desire for privacy, which begs the question as to why his films are so autobiographical. A tough nut to crack, it wasn’t until I sat down in a one-on-one setting with Sherman that some of the veneer fell away and I caught a glimpse into the true heart of Adam Sherman – that of a young boy with some insecurities and trepidation but filled with imagination and fantasy.
As I said earlier today, CRAZY EYES is a very powerful story that you’re telling. It’s also a very courageous story to tell, considering, as the press notes pointed out and as you mentioned, the bulk of it is autobiographical.
Right. Thank you.
What is it in your background that made you want to be a storyteller and made you want to write and direct?
Well, I always wrote stories. I wrote since I was a very small child. I wrote just pages and pages and pages of unreadable fiction when I was like 10 through 14. I’m talking about hundreds of pages of like adventure stories. And I was also playing with video cameras at the same time. I was never thinking I was going to be a filmmaker. I was just writing and playing with video cameras. That was what I did. Those were my toys. Then I started making short films with my friends but I wasn’t thinking that I was going to do something with it. It was just my way of playing with my friends. I was like, “Do this. Do that.” Do things like, “Let’s have a banana eating contest” and I would videotape it. Get someone to try and guzzle a gallon of water and I would videotape it. That was when I was like 13. And I would go write a story and stuff. I eventually wound up here making movies and it’s just the same thing. I just get people to do things on camera.
I see a smile there. Adventure stories? Any particular kind of adventures that you liked?
Just like fantasy adventure stories of dragons and heroes and armor and swords and craziness.
The cool stuff!
Yeah!
Do you ever plan to maybe dig up some of those old stories and do something now with them?
No. I don’t have a plan to do it. But that’s actually a good idea to look through them and see what weird ideas I had when I was a kid. Maybe put them into some of the movies I make. It’s interesting, because I started out writing such fabulous fiction and I ended up making autobiographical films. I think what it is, is that I got all that fabulous fiction out of my system when I was a kid. Now I’m grown and it’s like, “What am I gonna make a movie about?” I might as well make it about life. It’s like I wrote enough dragons eating princesses and people throwing themselves off cliffs with their face chewed off into the ocean, you know. Well, why not just write a story about what really happens in real life like right in front of me. It’s just as interesting.
Just watching your style and seeing CRAZY EYES, I would love to see you go back and take one of those pure ideas from your childhood, one of those pure fantasies, and make them something. You have a beautiful eye and you are a gifted storyteller and I think it would be wonderful to see.
Thank you. Oh, thank you. I’ll check it out. I’ll read through all of the old stuff from when I was a kid. I’m sure there’s something interesting ideas in there. Obviously, as like whole novels, obviously I was a child when I was writing them, I don’t have the emotional capacity to make it intriguing for an adult. But I’m sure there are some really bizarre ideas in there that would be interesting now.
What filmmakers or writers have influenced you over the years?
From an early age I’ve tried to control my influences. For example, I don’t watch television and I don’t watch a lot of modern films. I like older plays. I’m not religious but I like stories from the Bible because of the dramatic value. I had a Shakespeare phase. I was into Shakespeare and then plays from that time period. And then like older films and foreign films. This is what I try to watch more. There are only a few living filmmakers that I even like and I’m not going to say their names. There’s just so much junk being made and it’s so similar that it’s just not interesting to me. I don’t think it’s art. I don’t think it’s important stories to be told. It’s just some garbage someone threw up on the screen and spent $100 million on basically. I don’t care.
Do you have a favorite filmmaker from the past?
I could name filmmakers that I really, really like, but I don’t feel like doing that. It’s going to be the same ones that if you ask the same question to any other filmmaker my age, they’ll probably say the same ones. So it’s like nothing too original.
What is the greatest gift that writing and directing gives to you?
I don’t know. It’s hard. It’s a hard lifestyle. It’s taxing on my physical body. It’s taxing on my relationships. I haven’t received any really significant benefits from it in terms of recognition, in terms of not monetarily. What has it given me? I don’t know. It takes a lot from me, to be honest. But, it’s what I love to do so I have no intention of stopping. It’s what I’ve always done. What I hopefully always will do. And in terms of what is it going to give me or what has it given me? I don’t know. Maybe nothing. Maybe everything.
For Adam Sherman, his filmmaking future remains to be seen, but it is one that I personally hope will be filled with the purity and imagination of his child within, for that is an endearing man indeed.
#
