Manusförfattaren till ”Young Washington” berättar hur filmen skildrar den första presidentens väg in i vuxenlivet | NTD

Without him, we wouldn't have the United States. But who was George Washington beyond his fame as our first president and Revolutionary War General? A new film, Young Washington, will make you see him in a new light. Earlier, I spoke with a screenwriter for the film, Diedrich Hoogstraten. Diedrich Hoogstraten, thank you so much for joining us here today. Thanks for having me. It's a joy to be here. Now, this film, Young Washington, just couldn't have been released at a better time as we're approaching America's 250th anniversary. This new, incredibly cinematic, action-packed movie, Young Washington, shows George Washington in his early years before he became known as the father of America. Why did you choose to write a movie about Washington's earlier years, mostly in his 20s, when he was a young officer? You know, our director, visionary director, John Irwin, your viewers might know him from Jesus' Revolution, American Underdog, and of course, House of David, the show about King David on Amazon. John wanted to really tell this coming-of-age story, this origin story of the original American, if you will. The idea being that if we get to know an enigmatic figure, you know, George Washington, to many of us, is a figure on the dollar bill, is a statue, is a portrait, is a story in your history class, perhaps. What if we make him human, fully human? What if we start to see him as a boy and a young man going through a lot of trauma, a lot of failure, so that we can ultimately understand him better, respect him even more, and see how he develops the characteristics, the virtues, really, that we all know and love him for? So that was the purpose. Let's create a picture, a fuller picture of George, if you will, so that we can truly understand him, and as a result, the revolution and the whole American experiment even better. Right. In the movie, it's clearly portrayed that Washington learning from his failures, and he goes from sort of a self-centered person chasing status, not that self-centered by today's standards, but he goes to completely serving others in his young age. So that's just one of the many values shown in this film. What do you hope the audience takes away after watching this? What a great observation there. And I think for young people, my own children, other folks, including myself back when I was in my 20s, what a great lesson to realize that all of us, you know, are pretty self-centered, a little ego-driven as children, as young people, and that's totally natural. But what if we then take all the setbacks, the difficulties, the challenges that we face, if we look at ourselves not as victims of these circumstances and these events, but what if we see them as lessons? You know, in the film, we have George's mother, Mary, say, failure is a tutor sent by God. This idea that if you learn from your failures, you know, you've gained wisdom and you can move forward and be a better person. If you don't learn the lesson, she says, you fail twice. You know, you failed the first time and then you fail to learn a lesson. What if all of us did that more, especially in this day and age, as we know, it's very easy to feel fragile, perhaps to feel victimized. Absolutely. But what did you learn about the real historical figure of Washington while you were researching for this film? How did you get to know the essence of the character you're writing for? That's such a tough one because there is a lot we don't know about his early years. There's a lot we do know, obviously, when he becomes, you know, the general and ultimately the beloved first president who gives up power as the first to do so. What we learned was that his relationships were so crucial with his mother, with the governor of Virginia at the time, Robert Dinwiddie, a British obviously sent by the British crown with his brother, who taught him a tremendous amount because people may not realize, unlike the other founding fathers, George Washington was not able to attend any type of school. After his father died, he just was needed on the farm and he was a self-educated young man. He became very smart and very wise. But through these relationships and ultimately with some of the British officers around him, with his best friend, Christopher Gist, through these relationships, he develops his character that we talk about. He develops this resilience, this sort of integrity of taking, really carrying the consequences for his actions and his decisions. And ultimately, this idea of serving others. I was not really aware of it. And, you know, the historians agree on the facts of his life, of his early life. But like I said, there's a lot we don't know. And so my co-writers and I, we had to take some creative liberties. We did to try to weave a dramatic story, always respecting the era, the customs, the way they would talk, never projecting our modern sort of vision or ideas onto that era. We wanted to be deeply respectful for what we know the historical truth to be. This film, it's very action-packed. It makes you forget you're watching a piece of history. It puts the audience right on the battlefield. And when we watch historical films, many times it feels like, you know, we're doing homework. But how did you write it to make it feel so emotionally charged? That's a great compliment. Thank you, Jack. The idea was always, John Irwin asked, like, how can we make history exciting again and interesting? He did this, I believe, with the biblical times, with House of David. And we certainly tried to do it here. We wanted big explosions and guns. We wanted a love affair in there, a girl that's based in historical fact. I'm not going to give it away, but there is a bit of Jane Austen there. There is a kiss. We wanted to make it as compelling as we could. We want people to go to the theater, get their popcorn and be entertained. John Irwin will always say, we're in the business of mass entertainment. We're not here to be didactic. We would like to educate folks, but that's not the main purpose. We want to entertain. We want to do it right. We want to get people to get excited about this. And what if it could lead ultimately to a little bit of patriotism, even in an audience that might not at this time feel comfortable feeling that or expressing it? And that's fine if they don't want to express it. But if they can go to this movie and appreciate this man in his early days, in this part of the country, before it was a country, it was the colonies. What if all of us can share that experience, lean into it? Maybe there's a little bit of a sort of a unifying factor there. That was not initially really how we wrote it, but I think it came into the writing process as we realized what we were trying to create and at which time we were creating it. On a personal note, Diederik, you were born outside the U.S. in the Netherlands and are now a U.S. citizen. Where did you get the enthusiasm to write about Washington's life and the founding principles of America? Right. I often think that an outsider to a country can sometimes be most appreciative of it. When you go back to Alexis de Tocqueville, if folks don't know, in the 1830s, a French philosopher who traveled to the new world, the new country, and was deeply appreciative. Like his book, you can read it today. It's a love letter to America. I similarly, a lot of years later, came to this country and was just blown away by the space, by the freedom, the sense of liberty in this place to this day. I often say to my American friends, my American-born friends, you may not realize what you have and you would realize it if you've lived in other places. The hospitality, the people, the culture, you know, something that's going on with the World Cup right now, right? People leaning from Europe, learning about America, and just realizing this place is fantastic. It's not what the media told us it was, especially in this day and age. And so I think that I have a deep appreciation for what America is today. And it made me very curious to learn, like, how did it become this way? Who are the people who forged this country out of an idea? First time in history. And by the way, of course, I'm very well aware the longest lasting experiment, if you will, in self-government, in Republican self-government. It just hasn't been done before. Hopefully it will be done again. But we are very, very lucky and blessed, I believe, to be a part of it. Becoming a citizen in 2019, after many years on a different visa and a green card, it was one of the greatest days of my life. My children now are fully Texan. You know, they wear cowboy boots to church, I always say. So it doesn't get more Texan than that. I am just very grateful to be a part of the American story now. Diederik Hoogstraten, thank you so much for your insights here. We're looking forward to seeing Young Washington coming out in theaters on July 3rd. Really appreciate your time and insights. Thanks for having me. It was great.