Acclaimed screenwriter Nancy Oliver has become a breakthrough success with her crafty writing for one the most-talked about movies of the year, “Lars and the Real Girl.”
The movie received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay, and critics have even been dubbed it this year’s “Little Miss Sunshine.” The University of Massachusetts alum never imagined it would become such a huge success.
“I wrote it for kicks to amuse myself, actually,” Oliver says.
The film revolves around Lars, played by Ryan Gosling, who becomes jealous and lonely when his sister gets married, and longs for a partner of his own. As a result, he orders a human-sized Barbie doll, which he makes his girlfriend.
So, how in the world did Oliver come up with such a story line? She keeps mum about the details.
“Let’s just say I had a job and part of it was to be in touch with a lot of lonely guys with computers,” she says. “The movie was a resurrection story from that. The pad line [of Lars] threw people off. But at the end of the movie, it all pieces together.”
Believe it or not, Oliver’s hopes of becoming a writer initially came in second to acting. She was heavily committed to acting, primarily in theater. Oliver was involved with the UMass theater department and embraced every minute of it.
“I had a fabulous time” she said. “I met people that I’m still in touch with today.”
Although she took courses in film, Oliver was mainly a performer. She decided, however, to dabble a bit. She began directing, and that sparked her interest in writing.
The road to success was nothing short of difficult, and Oliver certainly paid her dues.
“I totally took it for granted. It took me 27 years to get a job,” she bravely admits. “I gave up daily. I was always looking for something. I saw the system out there [on the West Coast] and thought, ‘I’m screwed!'”
She wrote for advertisements, magazines and newspapers as an outlet.
“I knew writing for theater and film was a long shot,” she said.
Oliver tried everything she could to escape writing and made some rather unconventional career choices. When all of her friends set out for New York and Los Angeles, she decided to stay in Florida.
“I had lost all hope of making it,” she said. “I decided I wouldn’t continue writing.”
Luckily for Oliver, long-time friend Alan Ball, screenwriter of the Academy Award-winning “American Beauty,” refused to let her give up. He spent years trying to convince Oliver to make the move, but the Framingham, Mass., native opted to remain in Florida, supporting herself with simple tasks such as Xeroxing, typing and filing.
Oliver met Ball while studying theater at Florida State University. They founded the General Nonsense Theater, a satirical ensemble of comical skits, which they wrote for and starred in.
She confesses, “I was a terrible student. I didn’t do anything but be in shows. It was bad.”
The pair took their talents to another avenue of entertainment – music. Oliver was the vocalist for their no-name band, which quickly fizzled as their love for film took the front seat.
“Yes, I sing and play piano, but not well,” she modestly said. “But writing itself is musical. You have to have an ear and a sense of rhythm.”
You know that one ruthless fly that just will not leave you alone? Alan Ball was exactly that for Oliver. He buzzed into her ears via telephone one particular day with a tempting proposition, and the rest is history.
Something ticked in Oliver’s head like a time bomb, and she agreed to pack up and move to Los Angeles. There, she wrote and co-produced Ball’s soon-to-be hit HBO series, “Six Feet Under,” where she remained for three years.
Shortly thereafter, she accepted an offer to be a script reader for Ball, which she proudly continues to do today.
Despite creating a heart-warming Oscar-nominated film, Oliver’s taste in the silver screen gears more towards the nitty-gritty, taking preference to martial arts and extreme action-adventure sequences.
“My feeble explanation