 |
|
| photo: Hat Head Studio | |
Paul Rudnick is best known for his plays (I Hate Hamlet; Jeffrey), screenplays (The Addams Family Values) and books for adults (I Shudder). Gorgeous is his first book for young people. He said it started with the notion of the three dresses and a designer as a modern-day wizard. "When I started writing in Becky's voice, that's when it started to flow," Rudnick said. "With so magic in [the novel], it's connected to someone who's as skeptical and delighted as any of the rest of us might feel in her situation."
Were there any surprises as you wrote for this audience? Did you find yourself pulling back on any themes?
Not for a second did I hold back. In The Addams Family, my favorite character was Wednesday Addams. She's so deadpan and has a wild imagination; there's such a freedom to her. Whenever I spoke with little girls, that's who they related to. [With Gorgeous,] I thought, if I can honestly write from the perspective of a teenage girl, the audience would find that appropriate. Teenage readers are very precise about their passions and their heroes, and sometimes their villains. No one can be more enthusiastic, and no one can feel more betrayed when that star does something they don't approve of.
How has playwriting informed the way you write dialogue in your novels?
I'm a big eavesdropper. Once you can find a character's personal style, the way they talk on the phone, then you've got them. You feel like you're taking dictation.
When you use dialogue, you can reveal characters without having to explain them. It's something I honed working in the theater. It's a real discipline because you've only got a couple of hours, and you want to do your best for your actors.
Do you have connections with the fashion industry?
I've always had a great interest in fashion, even clothes that I'd never wear or could never afford. My mom got Vogue; she was beautifully dressed and loved the fantasy aspect. My friend William Ivey Long has won five Tony Awards for costume design, and he's one of the most educated men I've ever met, not only on fashion but the history of fashion. He can make women look absolutely ravishing and confident. He also knows what they want to reveal, and what they'd rather not. Beyond that, I'm as much of an addict as anyone for People and Us, and we all become a great audience for the Oscars. It's like walking the plank when they step out on that red carpet. Now with the Internet, they know how merciless people can be. An 11-year-old knows the difference between Armani and Prada and Valentino, and the difference between ready-to-wear and couture. It's a wonderful thing to tap into because there's a shared archive and shared knowledge.
Did you base Tom Kelly on anyone in particular?
There are all sorts of confident designers, men and women, and Tom is a composite of them. They're very opinionated about how the rest of us should look. It can be maddening because they're so precise at all times. Whether Tom Ford or Donna Karan or Marc Jacobs, you have to have incredible taste, to be sure of your audience, be a few steps ahead, and also a great businessperson. Those figures always fascinate me because they can be so famous so quickly and fall so fast.
Becky's best friend, Rocher, also acts as a kind of truth detector.
The scene when Rocher tries on one of Rebecca's dresses. That's such a moment, when you're standing next to the person who's won the lottery. Why not me? It's a real test of friendship. Is it over because you can't keep up? Are you a hanger-on? Or are you more important than ever? Rocher's the voice of the most honest, sane, gut-busting truth.
There's so much humor and yet so much poignancy in the novel, too, not only with the isolation Rebecca feels, but the responsibility that beauty brings with it. How do you walk that line between humor and pathos?
The book was only going to be funny if it were deeply serious. There had to be real stakes. There's a lot of life and a lot of death. Becky's only 18, and that's such a tipping point in anyone's life. You can go wrong or you can find your way. I wanted it to have a serious undercurrent. Another inspiration was The Picture of Dorian Gray--what if someone got to remain beautiful and young forever? It's dangerous, and that book does not end well.
That's part of Becky's path--beauty is serious business. While appearances matter, there are aspects of someone's life that matter more. I wanted you to care passionately about Becky.
The mystery of Becky's mother's past drives the book in many ways. Was that frame for the novel there from the beginning?
The structure is a mother-daughter love story. It's so important for readers to know how much Becky loves her mother. She spends the rest of the book finding out about her mother's life, and that helps her understand her mother and appreciate her more fully. That's where the supernatural element comes in. When we lose someone, we all hope there'll be another moment of communication and affirmation in some way. By the end of the book, Becky and her mom know each other completely. --Jennifer M. Brown