One of the things that irritates me about writing is naming characters. It’s important I know, but if I had my druthers, all my characters would have names like “A” or “That Guy” or “Some Random Chick”. It’s too much pressure, like naming a child or something. This is name they are stuck with forever.
There are lots of names in Award and Funeral. Not just main characters, but characters that are mentioned in passing or briefly discussed. You need them to sort of fill out your universe. So to do that you have to sort of grab names from anywhere, either out of your past or out of the ether or wherever. The names of the main characters for Funeral happened this way:
When Jay and I sat down to write Funeral, we agreed the first night that the names of characters would be “Butch”, “Claire”, “Brian” and “Scott”. “Brian” and “Scott” were to be the names of the brothers, who at that time had no last names. So when Jay and I came back in a week and showed each other what we had written, we had a problem. I had made “Brian” the older brother and “Scott” the younger, where as she had “Scott” as the older brother, and “Brian” as the younger brother. After trying to talk about the story for 10 seconds we realized the first thing we needed to do was change the names. She’d say “Scott” and meant the older brother and I thought she meant the younger. So the older brother became “Greg” and the younger brother became “Jake”.
About two days later I decided I hated the name “Jake”. To me, “Jake” sounded like a character John Stamos should play, it sounded like someone cool (I guess this means I think John Stamos is cool). The younger brother wasn’t cool. So “Jake” became “Eric” most likely and subconsciously a throw back to the sarcastic, skinny, uncool character named Eric on That 70’s Show.
We’d like to think the names were sort of picked at random, but that’s not usually not the case. “Claire”, I think, was subconsciously named after Lauren Ambrose’s character from Six Feet Under. I was re-watching the series at the time, and I think it was swimming around my subconscious. “Greg” is the name of my boss at work, but the character wasn't named or based on him. You just say “Greg” and go with that. It’s only in the middle of draft 3 you realize, “Oh yeah, my boss is named Greg”. We also have a friend named Butch, but again that isn’t who we named “Butch” after. Our friend Butch is a woman anyway. This is where the names end up coming from… anywhere, everywhere. So I thought I’d run down some of the other names in the shows and give you some insight as to where they came from.
AWARD
Adam and Reilly - These first names came from my childhood friend and next door neighbor, Adam Reilly. Jay and I felt "Reilly" had a Reese Witherspoon vibe, so we wanted to give her a name that sounded like it could be someone’s last name. Adam was just left over, and it seemed like a good fit for "Adam". So my friend Adam Reilly from Pensacola FL gets a shout out.
Grady Tripp - The script Adam says he is reading is based on “Grady Tripp’s book, The Arsonist’s Daughter”. For those that don’t remember, “Grady Tripp” was Michael Douglas’ character from Wonderboys, and the title of Grady’s book in the movie was The Arsonist’s Daughter.
Marty - An allusion to Martin Scorsese.
Joanne Streams - Our version of Joan Rivers.
Sheila Kelly - Someone I went to college with.
Alexandra Kincaid - First name is a friend of Jay’s.
Lexy Valentine – I am not sure where the name came from. I did work with a guy who’s last name was Valentine, but I am pretty sure Jay made up the name. She may have to blog about it herself.
FUNERAL
Brian Scott - A homage to the original names of “Greg” and “Eric”. Before the names were changed, he was David Stillwagon, someone I went to elementary school with.
Betty – The much talked about mother of “Charles", "Greg" and "Eric” is named after my girlfriend’s mother.
Aunt Helen – Aunt Helen was Jay’s beloved Aunt who passed away. Although the story Greg tells about her, is not one of Aunt Helen’s stories (Aunt Helen had much better stories). Actually the story is from my great grandmother. In an early draft we had two aunts. One that was being honored, “Aunt Helen” and then “Aunt Ester” who was the woman who kept finding the perfume. Jay thought it would be too confusing to have two aunts, so both aunts were combined into Aunt Helen. For the record Aunt Ester was the name of my great grandmother’s sister.
Donnie Wayland – The kid “Greg” beat up as a child is the name of someone I knew in third grade. He was a twin, and his brother's name was Danny.
St. Michaels - The name of the church where Funeral is set comes from a church in Jay’s hometown in Champaign, Illinois.
Charles Wright - The unseen star of Funeral. His name comes from the name of the show Jay and I first wrote together “Charlie”.
There are lots of names in Award and Funeral. Not just main characters, but characters that are mentioned in passing or briefly discussed. You need them to sort of fill out your universe. So to do that you have to sort of grab names from anywhere, either out of your past or out of the ether or wherever. The names of the main characters for Funeral happened this way:
When Jay and I sat down to write Funeral, we agreed the first night that the names of characters would be “Butch”, “Claire”, “Brian” and “Scott”. “Brian” and “Scott” were to be the names of the brothers, who at that time had no last names. So when Jay and I came back in a week and showed each other what we had written, we had a problem. I had made “Brian” the older brother and “Scott” the younger, where as she had “Scott” as the older brother, and “Brian” as the younger brother. After trying to talk about the story for 10 seconds we realized the first thing we needed to do was change the names. She’d say “Scott” and meant the older brother and I thought she meant the younger. So the older brother became “Greg” and the younger brother became “Jake”.
About two days later I decided I hated the name “Jake”. To me, “Jake” sounded like a character John Stamos should play, it sounded like someone cool (I guess this means I think John Stamos is cool). The younger brother wasn’t cool. So “Jake” became “Eric” most likely and subconsciously a throw back to the sarcastic, skinny, uncool character named Eric on That 70’s Show.
We’d like to think the names were sort of picked at random, but that’s not usually not the case. “Claire”, I think, was subconsciously named after Lauren Ambrose’s character from Six Feet Under. I was re-watching the series at the time, and I think it was swimming around my subconscious. “Greg” is the name of my boss at work, but the character wasn't named or based on him. You just say “Greg” and go with that. It’s only in the middle of draft 3 you realize, “Oh yeah, my boss is named Greg”. We also have a friend named Butch, but again that isn’t who we named “Butch” after. Our friend Butch is a woman anyway. This is where the names end up coming from… anywhere, everywhere. So I thought I’d run down some of the other names in the shows and give you some insight as to where they came from.
AWARD
Adam and Reilly - These first names came from my childhood friend and next door neighbor, Adam Reilly. Jay and I felt "Reilly" had a Reese Witherspoon vibe, so we wanted to give her a name that sounded like it could be someone’s last name. Adam was just left over, and it seemed like a good fit for "Adam". So my friend Adam Reilly from Pensacola FL gets a shout out.
Grady Tripp - The script Adam says he is reading is based on “Grady Tripp’s book, The Arsonist’s Daughter”. For those that don’t remember, “Grady Tripp” was Michael Douglas’ character from Wonderboys, and the title of Grady’s book in the movie was The Arsonist’s Daughter.
Marty - An allusion to Martin Scorsese.
Joanne Streams - Our version of Joan Rivers.
Sheila Kelly - Someone I went to college with.
Alexandra Kincaid - First name is a friend of Jay’s.
Lexy Valentine – I am not sure where the name came from. I did work with a guy who’s last name was Valentine, but I am pretty sure Jay made up the name. She may have to blog about it herself.
FUNERAL
Brian Scott - A homage to the original names of “Greg” and “Eric”. Before the names were changed, he was David Stillwagon, someone I went to elementary school with.
Betty – The much talked about mother of “Charles", "Greg" and "Eric” is named after my girlfriend’s mother.
Aunt Helen – Aunt Helen was Jay’s beloved Aunt who passed away. Although the story Greg tells about her, is not one of Aunt Helen’s stories (Aunt Helen had much better stories). Actually the story is from my great grandmother. In an early draft we had two aunts. One that was being honored, “Aunt Helen” and then “Aunt Ester” who was the woman who kept finding the perfume. Jay thought it would be too confusing to have two aunts, so both aunts were combined into Aunt Helen. For the record Aunt Ester was the name of my great grandmother’s sister.
Donnie Wayland – The kid “Greg” beat up as a child is the name of someone I knew in third grade. He was a twin, and his brother's name was Danny.
St. Michaels - The name of the church where Funeral is set comes from a church in Jay’s hometown in Champaign, Illinois.
Charles Wright - The unseen star of Funeral. His name comes from the name of the show Jay and I first wrote together “Charlie”.
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