‘Juror #2’ Screenwriter Jonathan Abrams On Creating a Character-First Legal Thriller [PODCAST]

Contending at the Water Cooler

Jonathan Abrams grew up on the potboiler legal thrillers of the 1990s. I’m talking about films such as A Few Good Men or The Firm or The Client or any of the John Grisham or Grisham-esqe adaptations that ruled multiplexes 30 years ago. These are films that have a storied cinematic legacy based in classic films like The Verdict, 12 Angry Men, or even To Kill a Mockingbird. Since then, the legal thriller has waned somewhat in popularity as Hollywood output became increasingly focused on tentpoles, superheroes, and a sequel-friendly culture.

But those legal thrillers of the 1990s inspired Abrams to become a writer and eventually led to his screenplay for Clint Eastwood’s critically acclaimed Juror #2.

“Those are the films I grew up on that made me want to be a writer, that are some of my most memorable experiences at the movies when I was a young person, A Few Good Men especially,” Abrams recalled. “It’s that combination of movies that I loved growing up, and then a great reverence for, when these movies work well, they work so incredibly well. They’re just so good. I just felt like there was a void, as you note, in the marketplace for those movies, and always for me, it comes down to what’s the movie I want to see.”

Abrams’s collaboration with director Eastwood introduces us to Nicholas Hoult’s Justin Kemp, a married expecting father with a past history of addiction. Justin receives a jury summons and becomes the second juror on a trial of a man accused of killing his girlfriend and dumping her body in a ravine. Problem is, and this is not a spoiler because it’s in the trailer, Justin discovers during the course of the trial that he actually is responsible for the victim’s death, setting up a legal morality play. Does Justin live with the guilt of sending a bad man to prison for a crime he didn’t commit, or does he abandon his wife and newborn child by doing the right thing?

These questions of right and wrong and the choices humans make every day while trying to be good people live at the heart of Juror #2. Eastwood worked with Abrams over several drafts of the screenplay to bring them to the front and center of the narrative. They collaboratively whittled away extraneous material to fashion a simple story that hinges on a morality play.

These questions are what Abrams hopes the audiences wrestles with as they watch the film.

“As a viewer, as an audience, as a person, I go, ‘Well, could I live with myself? I’m a good guy. I don’t know if I could do that’,” Abrams explained, describing the struggles Justin goes through in the second half of the film to justify staying silent and condemning an innocent man to prison. “I feel like that’s what he is trying to do throughout the second act of the movie, which I hope the audience is like, ‘Yeah, this could work. Okay. I’m good with this.’ But then realizing, no, it’s not that easy. So for me, those were the twists. They were all character driven about the moral implications of his choices.”

Here, in an podcast interview with The Contending, Abrams talks about the script’s journey to production, including the inspiration and sources he drew from to ensure the plot was as legally sound as possible while still remaining an entertainment. He talks about the awe-inspiring collaboration with Eastwood and meeting him for the first time in his Malpaso Production office on the Warner Bros. lot — a space Eastwood has held for over 50 years. He also talks about creating compelling characters out of the other jury members and some of the great moments that didn’t make the final draft. Finally, he reveals his next project, a perfect way to end this “wonderful” time of year. (Hint: that’s a film reference, not a sarcastic comment on the holiday season.)

Click below for my full conversation with Juror #2 screenwriter Jonathan Abrams. Juror #2 streams exclusively on MAX beginning Friday, December 20.

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Podcast Music:
Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com
Track: Here We Go! by cinematic alex
https://tunetank.com/track/802-here-we-go/

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