Kenyon alum, screenwriter Jay Cocks talks movies, Marty

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.

Collegian: How did you first meet Scorsese?

JC: I met him at an interview for Time magazine. I was told to go out and find a student filmmaker. There was this wild phenomenon in the '60s called "student filmmaking"-I was a young journalist at the time. And through the help of another friend at Kenyon, I heard about this guy who was cutting a movie in the editing room. My friend said that it looked pretty good and that I should come to talk to him. He actually wasn't a student at the time, but had been recently and was now teaching. It turned out to be Marty. And that's how I met him-in the winter of 1968.

Collegian: Are there any movies you've seen recently that you would strongly recommend?

JC: Last week, I saw this incredible film at the RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, NC called Son of Man [written and directed by Mark Donford-May]-which is just an extraordinary movie made in South Africa with an all-black cast. Basically, it's a retelling of the Jesus story-in contemporary terms-set in an African country torn by civil war. It's an amazing movie. I don't know if it will ever even get a commercial distribution, but it's really remarkable. There's also a very good movie by Hollywood scriptwriter, Scott Frank (Out of Sight) in his first time directing, called The Lookout. You know, everybody loves to talk about film noir and kind of "reinventing film noir" and "rekindling" it or whatever … well, Scott Frank really did it! … You know, you think you've seen it all, but this movie has really got some great bad guys. Check it out.

Collegian: Have you ever thought about directing?

JC: I've thought about it … but, you know, I didn't want to do it unless I could be as good as my friend Marty. And no one's as good as Marty! So I figure, why bother?

Collegian: Alright, here comes the cliché, stock question: From your experience in the film industry, what would be the most beneficial piece of advice you could give all the aspiring filmmakers at Kenyon?

JC: Well, when I told Marty I was coming out here, he said, "Oh that's great, that's great!" And I said, well listen, tell me something I should tell these kids, because they always want to hear about you. And he gave me one word: read. He said, tell them to read. That's really, really important. Marty actually came to reading late [in life], but now he reads insatiably. He reads as much as Kluge. It's unbelievable. So, my advice would be his advice-and it's especially great advice for students at a school like Kenyon.

Collegian: What about Marty, are there any secrets about him that you can share with us?...

JC: [Chuckle] Well, you know, Dave, I'm saving those for my memoirs.