The Dialogue: Bruce Joel Rubin

Screenwriter Bruce talks to interviewer Jay about his experiences of bereavement.
Title: “My Life (1993) stars Michael Keaton as a man with terminal cancer who makes a video of his life for the unborn child he may never meet.”
“But also in my 20’s in the 1960’s I had a very profound experience... with the psychedelic drugs that were emerging at that moment in time... My roommate had been a cohort of Tim Leary...”
Title: “Dr. Timothy Leary (1920-1996) was a writer, psychologist, philosopher, advocate of psychedelic drug research and 1960s counterculture icon.”
”... where Tim was playing with the drugs that he was also experimenting with in the university setting, and my roommate had a tablet of LSD, and he said, ‘Here, you should try this sometime.’... a big supplier from the Sandoz laboratories of LSD that he brought to Tim... ‘can I leave this jar’ of pure LSD that he was bringing from the Sandoz laboratories...”
”And so that night when I tried to use that old tablet... of LSD it had no effect whatsoever... a whole eyedropper full of LSD goes down my throat... and anybody who’s ever seen Jacob’s Ladder knows what I’m talking about.”
Title: “Jacob’s Ladder (1990) is directed by Adrian Lyne and stars Tim Robbins as a traumatized Vietnam war veteran whose post-war nightmares drive him insane.” (0:03)

Jay: “The whole thing you experience it on this really psychedelic plain.”
Bruce: “They’re all part of this world of the unconscious...” (0:06)

Bruce: “This was way before Platoon.”
Title: “Platoon (1986), directed by Oliver Stone and Apocalypse Now (1979), directed by Francis Ford Coppola...”
”He seems to be having all these flashbacks to Vietnam that he doesn't understand, but in fact the flashbacks are the real time... his projection of himself...”
Jay: “Before or after he dropped the LSD.” (0:09)

Bruce: “The worst experience is when nothing comes.”
Jay: “It’s really a denial of ego.” (0:16)

Bruce talks about writing My Life. (0:21)

Jay: “This is the scene in Ghost where Sam... gets shot.” (0:24)

Bruce: “The very first movie I ever did was called Brainstorm.”
Title: “Brainstorm (1983) is about a pair of researchers who develop a system of recording and playing people’s actual experiences.” (0:43)

Bruce tells Jay about scripts he wrote: “For whatever reason they don’t actually get produced, often for really crazy reasons...” (0:55)

Bruce talks about writing Deep Impact. “Time magazine... called me the Dr. Kevorkian of American cinema because I was so preoccupied with death...“ (1:05)

Bruce: “And you’re suffering ego, because ego wants to say I did this...” (1:19)

Jay: “What’s the best piece of advice or most effective insight, practical insight that you've had in the years that you’ve been working?” (1:24)

Bruce: “It’s called Mimzy.”
Title: “Mimzy tells the story...” (1:27)

Bruce: “So I’ve written... a movie... called Strange Son, which is a wonderful movie about two women with children who have autism...” (1:28)