On The Line with Tony Gilroy...Part 2

Gilroy explains that before “Duplicity,” before the Oscar nomination and Director’s Guild win for “Michael Clayton,” before writing the “Bourne” series, “Proof of Life,” “The Devil’s Advocate,” “Dolores Claiborne,” and “The Cutting Edge” – he was a musician...

Musician first, writer second.

“I can see a career path where I would have been a very mediocre successful record producer,” he says.

The thought amuses him.  His face brightens with another full smile – every feature engaged.  Tilting back in his chair, balanced precariously on one leg, he recalls playing in bands as early as junior high (which he loved) and being miserable at school (which he hated).  His scholastic shortcomings prompted teachers to offer him an out during his junior year.  “If you’ll shut up and take a couple of extra courses, we’ll graduate you in the spring,” he was told.

By April he was applying to colleges and by fall he was a student at Boston University.  “At the time, if you could pay full freight and you were breathing, they would take you.  So they took me.”  And surprisingly he liked it.  And he was good at it, particularly at writing papers – particularly at making money writing papers for other people.  “My learning curve was quick.”  He smiles again, this one less bright…and infused with a good dose of mischief.

Also quick was his college career:  He dropped out during his second year to follow the music.  From Boston to Los Angeles and back again, Gilroy was making enough of a living, playing guitar in various bands.  Well that, and running a phone scam selling copy toner, “I made a lot of money – selling shit on the phone.”  Another mischievous smile.

But then the joy ride began to wind down.  There was a missed opportunity with a band that had a shot.  There were songwriting deals that began to fall apart.  There were habits developed that were…”of the time.”  “And sort of cataclysmically, the house that I was living in burned to the ground.  I lost everything – literally everything but a guitar.  And my car.”

“I was wiped out, he says, “in a lot of different ways.”  The fire was an “epic bit of punctuation.”  So he went home.

Back under the same roof with his father, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Frank D. Gilroy, the junior Gilroy began writing more fiction in earnest.  He was writing, his dad was writing – He pauses to think about what it was like to be back there.  He remembers it felt good.  Yet he knew he couldn’t stay forever and hadn’t a clue how he’d ever get back out.

A temporary solution came when he got a deal to start a band based on some songs he’d written.  “Temporary” because he was facing a dilemma:  He couldn’t pursue both music and writing.  For Gilroy, it had to be either/or.  So he took the job offer to get into New York City, but ultimately decided to quit music – “cold turkey,” he says.