What is it that you think kept you going during that time as a writer to not give up?

You know, when I first read it, the book wasn't called Death by Lightning.

It was called Destiny of the Republic.

It was by an author named Candice Millard, who's brilliant and who Nick, of all the actors and people involved in our show, had previously not only been aware of Candice because he'd read River of Doubt, her book about Theodore Roosevelt, but also had met her, had been on a panel with her at the Library of Congress, I believe.

Right.

for a book event years back.

So they actually knew each other.

Was there a formal stage for rehearsal before the shoot, or were you just rehearsing day of before each new setup?

What is it that you think kept you going during that time as a writer to not give up?

You know, when I first read it, the book wasn't called Death by Lightning.

It was called Destiny of the Republic.

It was by an author named Candice Millard, who's brilliant and who Nick, of all the actors and people involved in our show, had previously not only been aware of Candice because he'd read River of Doubt, her book about Theodore Roosevelt, but also had met her, had been on a panel with her at the Library of Congress, I believe.

Right.

for a book event years back.

So they actually knew each other.

Was there a formal stage for rehearsal before the shoot, or were you just rehearsing day of before each new setup?

You kept digging, it sounds like, including, I know, you apparently visited Charles Coteau's brain.

So I've seen the brain.

So this is the brain from the show, which is, this is the prop.

I stole it from Budapest.

Oh, okay.

ago the the for people who maybe have not seen the show the first scene of the show it uh it opens in 1969 and this really happened uh they were demolishing a federal building and they found the the the the workers in storage found this like this brain, this disembodied brain in a mason jar belonging to a man named Charles Gatteau.

And they were like, who's Charles Gatteau? Because even by 1969, less than 100 years after the assassination, I mean, both of these figures, Gatteau and Garfield, had faded into just complete...

if you had to boil it down, what's your thesis?

Yeah.

It just happened to happen while I was a student [laughs] at the school in Roslyn, New York.

And, you know, I remember it being the craziest thing that had ever happened in my hometown, and it happened in 2004.

And in, in the intervening, you know, whatever, 12 years between when the scandal happened and I decided to spec the feature script, you know, it had kind of become pretty obscure incident, save for if you grew up there and you remembered it.

And it was the first thing that I'd ever tried to adapt a true story, and I think that the biggest lesson that I learned from writing it, and it was an incredibly edifying and cool and illuminating experience to go back and, like, re-lens my childhood through the prism of final draft.

That was really, really, really cool, and I feel like ever since then I've been chasing that [laughs] experience.

I don't think I knew how good I had it that [laughs] I got to write that script and go make that film of all things, and, like, mythologize my childhood in that way.

What could you tell us about, about writing that scene, 'cause I thought it was great.

Yeah.

It just happened to happen while I was a student [laughs] at the school in Roslyn, New York.

And, you know, I remember it being the craziest thing that had ever happened in my hometown, and it happened in 2004.

And in, in the intervening, you know, whatever, 12 years between when the scandal happened and I decided to spec the feature script, you know, it had kind of become pretty obscure incidents, save for if you grew up there and you remembered it.

And it was the first thing that I'd ever tried to adapt a true story.

And I think that the biggest lesson that I learned from writing it, and it was an incredibly edifying and cool and illuminating experience to go back and, like, re-lens my childhood through the prism of final draft.

That was really, really, really cool, and I feel like ever since then I've been chasing that [laughs] experience.

What could you tell us about, about writing that scene, 'cause I thought it was great.