The Legacy of

ALL PHOTOS BY: Peter Sorel

FRIDA
BY DIANE LAKE

Theres a stereotype of the writer who sits in front of the computer, pounding away at the keys, an observer of life but not much of a participant. I dont
think you can write about real people by having that concept of the writer,
by being an observer. You need to have the audacity to believe you can feel
what your subject felt, to love as he/she loved, to think as he/she thought. In
the end, you lose yourself and let the character take over as you write.
Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina in Frida

Frida was my first writing assignment. Id

just been signed by Creative Artists
Agency and was ecstatic to finally be paid to
do something I loved. Though technically a
rewrite, the Frida producers told me to go
back to the book (Hayden Herreras Frida: A
Biography of Frida Kahlo) and start over, do
a new draft. I jumped right in.

Not Her
Before getting the Frida assignment in
1996, if Id been in the same city with an
exhibition of Kahlos work taking place, I
doubt I would have gone. Her work just
didnt appeal to me. Id written a screenplay
on the life of French Impressionist Berthe
Morisot, and her art blew me away. It was a
joy to bring her alive on the page. But
Kahlo? Her art seemed to me so selfinvolved, almost whiny and just not beautiful. Not that art needs to be pretty, but it
needs to focus on some truth, to communicate a realness, to inspire, uplift or take me
someplace. Some would say Fridas art
does all those things. And as I learned more,
I would come to see theyre right.
As soon as I started reading about her, it
occurred to me that whether or not I
admired Fridas art was immaterial. Frida
Kahlos story was how she livedas the title
for her last painting Viva la Vida attests.
Its Fridas indomitable spirit in the face of
adversity that has led people to revere her.
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To live with joy through all that came

her way ... what strength of character she
must have had. Since great film is all
about character, Id been given a gift in
getting this assignment.

Frida the Icon

The first problem: How do you take
someone whos become an idol to millions
and humanize her? How do you separate
her real story from the folklore and idolatry?
Luckily, Herreras comprehensive book
did a lot of that for me. It became my bible
for the next year.
Fridas appeal is simply that her story is so
universal. All of us have obstacles to overcome in our lives, but few are as severe as
those thrown in Fridas path. Frankly, if I
walked into a pitch meeting and said I have
this hot story about a crippled woman who
endured childhood polio, a bus accident that
nearly killed her at 16, a boyfriend who
deserted her because of her injuries, surgeries
throughout her life to fix her back, a cheating-genius-artist husband who even slept
with her sister, multiple affairs of her own, a
struggling artistic life, problems with alcohol
... and then she dies young ... I mean, can
you imagine the reaction?
But it really happened. And thats what
makes her story so amazing.
I begin by sitting down with Herreras
book and marking the moments in Fridas

life that particularly resonate with me. I note

events that are especially cinematic. In
the 500 pages of Herreras book, obviously, choices have to be made. My
main choice? This is a love storyits
Frida and Diego, how they affect each
other, how these two explosive personalities connect and grow together.

The Love Story

I like writing about people who are
determined to accomplish what seems
impossible. And when those people really
lived, theres the great desire to do them justice, to get it right. For me, theres only one
way to do that: You try to get so close to
them that you see the world through their
eyes. You dont write about themyou
become them.
Theres a stereotype of the writer who sits
in front of the computer, pounding away at
the keys, an observer of life, but not much of
a participant. I dont think you can write
about real people by having that concept of
the writer, by being an observer. You need to
have the audacity to believe you can feel
what your subject felt, to love as he/she
loved, to think as he/she thought. In the
end, you lose yourself and let the character
take over as you write.
Boy did Frida take me over! Most of the
people Ive written about have one characteristic in common: theyre not sexually
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repressed. Nearly every screenplay Ive
written has a main character who not only
espouses the concept of free love but also
lives it. Frida was no exception. One of her
mottos was said to be: make love, take a
bath, make love again. That made me
smile. I wanted to capture that, to let people see a strong woman, who could love
more than one man and, far from being
punished for it, glory in it.
Diego provided his own challenges:
Namely, how do you make a disheveled
300-pound guy into the Casanova that he
was? How do you get an American audience
to accept a romantic lead who isnt classically handsome? Women found Diego
devastating. Could Brad Pitt-obsessed
America buy that?
But I knew one thingFrida and Diego
were my story.
Yes, Fridas life was full of pain and
struggle, and yes, she had to fight for
everything she got. But her life was also
full of great lovethe kind of love most of
us only see in the movies. Its that love that
becomes, for me, the center of her story. I
mean, we can paint paintings, write
books, sing songsthe human animal is

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capable of creating beautiful thingsbut

most of us never feel that all-encompassing, out-of-this-world love firsthand. And
of all the beauty that exists, its the beauty
of two people finding each other that I
want most to write about.

To Mexico
Luckily, the studio was agreeable to
sending me to Mexico to do research. Other
than a day trip to Tijuana, Id never been to
Mexico. And Mexico City was a revelation.
I was surprised at how European it
feltspectacular museums, impressive
boulevards, lovely squares full of flowers and
surrounded by outdoor cafes. This was not
the Mexico of Tijuana. I hoped I would be
able to evoke the rhythm of this city, its
energy, in the script.
Everywhere I go I see her. Outside
Fridas childhood home, I sit and watch
todays city dwellers come and go in this
pleasant neighborhood. Suddenly, a young
girl in a school uniform walks by looking
just as I picture Frida must have looked.
Inside the houses courtyard, I sit on a bench
and spy on the nuances of her life, trying to
picture her walking down these paths.

Screenwriter Diane Lake

When I get up and walk down the stone

paths, there on a dusty stone before me I see
an unusual, black butterfly with yellow
markings. The yellow markings are remi-

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(From left to right seated at table) Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Ashley Judd and Alfred
Molina in Frida, written by Diane Lake

niscent of the rows of black watermelon

seeds in her painting Viva la Vida. The
beautiful butterfly keeps trying to fly, but
cant. There is a moment when it almost
gets off the ground, but no. Still, like Frida,
it keeps trying.
When I see the houses in San Angel that
Diego had built for himself and Frida, theyre
being renovated. So when I get into the
room that would have been her studio, its
just wooden floors, glass windows, a very
clean, modern space for an artist who was
beyond modern. I stand at the window,
looking at the view of the lovely San Angel
neighborhood that Frida would have had as
she painted. The fact that her paintings
reflect this view doesnt surprise me at all.
Part of her genius was the ability to paint
what was inside herthe world within, not
the world outside.
When I visit the Preperatoria where
Frida went to school, I stand in the auditorium where Frida first met Diego and
imagine him painting the mural while she
spied on him. Out in the courtyard I see her
running with her friendsas one of the few
girls at the school, she was bold enough to
hold her own with the boys. I can imagine
all of them pursuing her. And I can see Alex,
the most popular boy in school, feeling lucky
she chose him as her boyfriend.
Here in the Preperatoria is the Frida that
could have been ... what? ... normal?
Whatever that is. But its not normal really; Its just ... free from pain. If shed never
had the accident, what might her life have
held? Would she have developed the artistic
style that she became famous for? Perhaps
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she and Alex would have married and had

children, and Fridas art would have been full
of happy children at play.

Accidents
I suppose its useless to speculate, but I
cant help it. Were all formed by the accidents of life. The day Frida left school and
got on that bus was the day her surrealistic
life began. One minute shes the most popular girl in school with a boyfriend she loves
dearly, and the next minute shes crippled for
life and deserted by that boyfriend. A life of
sweet ease becomes a life of endless trials.
And shes only 16.
Some lives require more courage than others. Some accidents are more devastating
than others. After their marriage, when
Diego slept with her sister, Frida was hurt
more intensely than when shed been in the
bus accident. It is the geniusand the salvationof the artist to take lifes catastrophes and exorcize them through the canvas.
I wonder if theres a way to show that on
film ... how incomparable beauty can come
out of great tragedy.
So much of what I saw in Mexico made it
into the script: the places Frida and Diego
lived, the Canals of Xochimilco, the pyramids at Teotihuacn, Diegos murals at the
National Palace and the Palace of Fine Arts.
I read about her trips to New York and Paris;
I know they, too, need to be dramatized
because they, too, helped shape her.
The writing is the best part. Its just ... so
much fun. Im sorry. I dont agonize or have
to get drunk or avoid deadlines. I dont get
writers block. I love it. I love sitting in front
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of the keyboard and letting Frida, Diego and
all the rest of them start talking.
I smile and laugh and frown and even
cry as I recreate their world. I get so
involved I forget to eat. Im in a basement,
a windowless room, so I lose all track of
time. Im in heaven.
I happen to be at a friends house in
Washington over Christmas as I write the
script, and the computer I work at is next to
the laundry room. I interrupt my writing to
move a load of clothes from the washer to
the dryer, taking a second to hang up a
blouse that cant take the dryers heat.
Being too lazy to take the blouse upstairs to
hang it in a bathroom or somewhere to dry,
I hang it from a cabinet handle near the
washer. I sit back down, read over the last
scene I wrote before laundry broke in,
where Frida and Diego are in New York and
she wants so badly to go home to Mexico.
Then I look up and see the hanging blouse.
Fridas painting, My Dress Hangs There,
pops into my head. That provides the
impetus for my favorite visual, almost surrealistic, technique in the script.
Since Fridas art came from her life, I
wanted to do something that would help the
audience see how Fridas life affected her art
and vice versa. I could see her looking at her
Mexican dress hanging on the clothesline out
of her New York window, and so wanting to
be in Mexico and not New York. What if
that dress then turns into her painting, which
gives the film the transition it needs to take
her and Diego back to Mexico. It works. So
well, in fact, I use it more than once.

An End
All good things do come there. Soon the
script is finished. I think its beautiful. I just
love it. I head to FedEx and send it off to
the producers. Then I sit back down and
read it, intending to bask in my brilliance.
And I hate it.
Now, this is my first writing assignment,
so I dont know that this is my pattern. But it
is. When Im writing and when I finish a
script and read it over and rewrite and finetune, I end up with something of which Im
very proudsomething I cant wait for
everyone involved with the project to see.
But the minute I send it off and read it
again, I always think the same thing: How
could I have thought this was any good?
How could I have let it go?
Im OK with that, thoughnow, anywaynow that I know its just my
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When Im writing, and when I finish a

very proud ofsomething I cant wait for

ALBERTO VILAR
GLOBAL FELLOWS
IN THE
PERFORMING ARTS

everyone involved with the project to see.

at New York University

script and read it over and rewrite and

fine-tune, I end up with something Im

But the minute I send it off and read it

Acting

again, I always think the same thing: How

Dance
could I have thought this was any good?

Design for Stage and Film

Dramatic Writing

How could I have let it go?

method. I think its like sending your
daughter off to school for the first time. You
were happy with her while you could see her,
knowing what she was up to, helping her if
she needed it. But once out of your sight,
who knows how the world will treat her?
Will they see how wonderful she is? Will
they take time to get to know her? What if
theyre too busy at school to give her the
attention she deserves?
But they do tend to her. In fact, for the
next five years, foster parent after foster parent tends to her. Shes out of my sight, certainly out of my control, and I just hope for
the best.

Filmmaking
Instrumental Performance
Jazz Studies
Music and Technology
Music Composition
Musical Theatre Writing
Vocal Performance
Cross-Disciplinary

Well Always Have Paris.

No matter what happens to your script
out there in the real world, you always
have the writing. You gave those worlds
life. You.
So remember what you have: Writing is
turning cartwheels naked in the yard on a
soft summer night with a full moon above in
a starry sky. Its the most fun you can have
alone. I swear.

HE

Since Frida, DIANE LAKE has gone on to write

Nancy, an original screenplay for Paramount
Pictures based on the life of British aristocrat
Nancy Cunard; Picasso, a mini-series for NBC; and
A Thousand Cranes, an original World War II
screenplay for Digital Domain. In addition to pro-

VILAR GLOBAL FELLOWSHIP

brings together exceptionally talented students in the performing arts from

around the world to study at NYU and
work with world-class artists from
prominent New York City institutions.
Fellows receive full tuition and housing for
two years of graduate study.

jects she has in development with Wendy

Finerman and Viacom Pictures, Diane is putting
together financing to develop the acclaimed
Katie Schneider novel, All We Know of Love.

For more information, visit

[Link]/vilar/film
New York University is an affirmative
action/equal opportunity institution.

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