Ask The Author Special Event: Interview with James Ellroy: The Black Dahlia

James Ellroy:The absolute savagery of the act of murder itself. The post-war milieu, and the allure of the victim herself.

ATA Moderator: You've called the Black Dahlia case the classic American tragedy, are there any recent cases that you think fall into that same category?

James Ellroy:I don't know. I don't follow contemporary crime.

ATA Moderator: Is it hard to revisit Betty Short after so many years away from her? What have you learned about her in the 20 years since writing The Black Dahlia? Do you think you would portray her differently if writing The Black Dahlia today?

James Ellroy: It's not hard. I've been constantly interrogated about the story since I wrote the book nearly 20 years ago. The story remains in my unconscious, and I'm thrilled that I am able to go out and discuss it in conjunction with Brian De Palma's wonderful movie.

ATA Moderator: You have been very upfront about the fact that your obsession with Betty Short was due in part to your own mother's murder. After tackling your mother's death in your memoir My Dark Places, do you feel more detached from Betty Short?

James Ellroy:I feel hellaciously close to both women. Quite often discourse distorts my relationship with them. I look at Mr. De Palma's film as a summation and a synthesis of this long period of my life and I'm thrilled that he's given me such a wonderful visual record of my book.

ATA Moderator: You haven't been entirely positive about the screen adaptations of your other books but have been complimentary of The Black Dahlia film. Did you have more involvement in this project?

James Ellroy:I had no involvement in The Black Dahlia, I just got lucky.

ATA Moderator: Are there elements of the Black Dahlia story that you feel are better served in film than in a book? Are there elements of the book that you think a film can't capture?

James Ellroy: Mr. De Palma's film is a compression and a reduction of my story, that nevertheless isolates and wonderfully informs the key themes --­ the triangulation of one man, the Josh Hartnett character, with two women, the Swank and Johansson characters, and the Black Dahlia herself.  As good a movie as it is, my book is better!

ATA Moderator: There has been a lot of talk about the casting for The Black Dahlia film. Were you surprised by any of the choices?

James Ellroy: I was very pleasantly surprised with Josh Hartnett as Bucky Bleichart. Ironically, he is the only actor in the two major cinematic adaptations of my books, who looks like the character, which is to say he looks like me – except he's handsomer, you know, he's a movie star, and he's 25 years younger than me. That aside, I was also especially impressed with Mia Kirshner as Elizabeth Short.

ATA Moderator: Do you have a favorite scene in the film?

James Ellroy: The boxing scene.

ATA Moderator: Who were your biggest writing influences early on in your career and have they changed?

James Ellroy: Right now, I am my only influence. Early on, my greatest influence was the Los Angeles policeman-turned-novelist, Joseph Wambaugh.

ATA Moderator: I know you were a caddy as a young writer, what was the oddest job you worked at while pursuing your writing career?

James Ellroy: I made a pornographic audiotape for a magazine called Velvet Talk, in 1980, which was me and three women sitting around grunting and groaning in a sound studio.

ATA Moderator: What is your writing process?

James Ellroy: I write by hand. I don't have a computer; I don't know how to type.  I have a woman who has typed for me for 25 years. I write very long outlines. I take a shitload of notes, and I rewrite until I think it's perfect.

ATA Moderator: When did you know you had "made it" as a writer?

James Ellroy: When Alfred A. Knopf gave me a three-book contract in 1990.

ATA Moderator: How do you think publishing and writing world has changed in your years as an author?

James Ellroy: It has become more commercialized.  But there is always room out there for young writers to ascend, and for new people to knock an editor on his ass and get their book published.

ATA Moderator: What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

James Ellroy: Don't write what you know. Write the kind of books that you like to read that you think nobody else is writing.

ATA Moderator:  What is your favorite book you have written?

James Ellroy: My favorite book is the memoir, My Dark Places, about my mother's 1958 murder.

ATA Moderator:  What are you currently working on?

James Ellroy: I'm working on the sequel to my novel, The Cold Six Thousand. The concluding volume of my Underworld USA Trilogy.

ATA Moderator: Thanks to James for taking the time to talk to us and to all of you who sent along questions before the interview.

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