Kenneth Lonergan Biography, Age, Movies, Plays, Lobby Hero, Interview

Kenneth Lonergan Biography

Kenneth Lonergan is an American film director, screenwriter, and playwright. Lonergan is best known for co-writing Gangs of New York (2002), and for writing and directing You Can Count On Me (2000), Margaret (2011), and Manchester by the Sea (2016).

He earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Director for Manchester by the Sea, and was later nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for You Can Count On Me, Gangs of New York, and Manchester by the Sea, winning for the latter at the 89th Academy Awards.

Kenneth won the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay for Manchester by the Sea at the 70th British Academy Film Awards.

Kenneth Lonergan Age

Lonergan was born on October 16, 1962 in New York City, U.S. He is 56 years old as of 2018.

Kenneth Lonergan Parents

Kenneth was born to a psychiatrist mother and physician father. Lonergan’s mother is Jewish, and his father was of Irish descent.

Kenneth Lonergan

Kenneth Lonergan Wife

He married actress J. Smith-Cameron and have a daughter, Nellie.

Kenneth Lonergan Career

His film career began with his screenplay for the gangland comedy Analyze This (1999). He was then subsequently offered a job writing The Adventures of Rocky and also Bullwinkle (2000).

You Can Count On Me Kenneth Lonergan

Kenneth directed his own screenplay for You Can Count On Me (2000); the film, which was then executive produced by Martin Scorsese, and also went on to receive and be nominated for numerous writing awards. Lonergan contributed to the screenplay for Gangs of New York (2002).

Margaret Kenneth Lonergan

His filming took place for his second film as writer/director, Margaret, starring Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Matthew Broderick, and J. Smith-Cameron in 2005. The film then spent over five years in post-production, with Kenneth, the producers and various editors unable to agree on its final cut which resulted in multiple legal disputes. It was finally released in 2011. Margaret then ranked 31st in a 2016 BBC poll of the 21st century’s greatest films.

Kenneth Lonergan Manchester By The Sea | Manchester By The Sea De Kenneth Lonergan

Kenneth wrote and directed Manchester by the Sea, which was then released in 2016 to critical acclaim. Kenneth also had a small part in the film, as a pedestrian. David Fear of Rolling Stone later said that the film proves that Kenneth is “practically peerless in portraying loss as a living, breathing thing without resorting to the vocabulary of griefporn.”

He also wrote the BBC/Starz miniseries Howards End.

Kenneth first theatrical success came with the play This Is Our Youth (1996); it was then followed by The Waverly Gallery (1999), based on his grandmother’s Greenwich Village gallery, and then later Lobby Hero (2002). Lonergan’s play The Starry Messenger premiered Off-Broadway in 2009 and then starred his wife J. Smith-Cameron and Matthew Broderick.

Kenneth Lonergan Movies

Year	Title	Credited as
Year	Title	Director	Writer
1994	Doug		Yes
1999	Analyze This		Yes
2000	You Can Count On Me	Yes	Yes
2000	The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle		Yes
2002	Gangs of New York		Yes
2011	Margaret	Yes	Yes
2016	Manchester by the Sea	Yes	Yes
2017	Howards End		Yes

Kenneth Lonergan Plays

Year	Title
1982	The Rennings Children
1993	Betrayal by Everyone
1996	This Is Our Youth
2000	The Waverly Gallery
2001	Lobby Hero
2004	True to You
2009	The Starry Messenger
2012	Medieval Play
2016	Hold On to Me Darling

Kenneth Lonergan Lobby Hero

Kenneth Lonergan Interview

Published: October 31, 2016

Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

TAVI GEVINSON: Ugh! I’m not going to listen to you googling something.

KENNETH LONERGAN: I’m just checking one thing because of that vicious remark you made in the e-mail.

GEVINSON: [laughs] But isn’t it funny to imagine you heckling your own movie for being made?

LONERGAN: Yes. Okay, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was 1982. It’s so good. Look at the poster.

GEVINSON: I love the kids arguing about Star Trek in Manchester. My friend and I were texting about the movie, and she was like, “I like how much of it is about just how hard it is to get anything done, ever.”

LONERGAN: [laughs] That’s something I grapple with every day. I can’t get anything done.

GEVINSON: And there are so many scenes where people just, like, literally cannot hear each other, over the phone or in a big room.

LONERGAN: I know, but that happens all the time.

GEVINSON: There are so many of those little moments where my friend and I were just like, “How can you know that that’s going to work and be as impactful as it is?” Because there are things that feel so small but are such a big part of life.

LONERGAN: Well, do you remember the first time someone close to you died, and you went to the house, and you thought everyone would be sobbing? Half of the people are talking about other stuff and laughing. I thought [the post-funeral scene in Manchester by the Sea] was a bit like that. Because they’re teenagers and they don’t know what to do exactly. They get on kind of comfortable ground by talking about something else—because they’re really good friends, and they really like him.

GEVINSON: And then that other girl is like, “We shouldn’t talk about this.”

LONERGAN: She’s trying to make a big scene out of it. But his friends are like him, and knew his father. And she’s very self-conscious; she just puts her foot in it whenever she says anything.

GEVINSON: I was laughing so hard. Very Jessica [the character Gevinson played in This Is Our Youth].

LONERGAN: Jessica might say that, but Jessica is way more sensitive than that character, I think. My friend Claude, who Warren is based on—about half of Warren is based on him, not the whole thing, the other half is made up—he came to see the play in 1998. Afterward, we went out to eat with some other people we had gone to school with, and someone said, “Which one are you, Kenny?” And Claude was like, “I think you’re Jessica!” [laughs]

GEVINSON: Whoa.

LONERGAN: I was like, “What do you mean?” He was like, “Because she’s the one observing things and making comments and thinking about what’s going on, where they’re all going to be later.” I was like, “Oh, well, I never thought of that.” But she’s the only one that’s invented. Not totally. There are people I met in high school who she’s based on a little bit.

GEVINSON: Do you have any clue as to why you’re so good at writing young people?

LONERGAN: Well, no. But I remember that time in my life really clearly. And subsequent times in my life, I couldn’t quite tell you what was going on.

GEVINSON: Is that, like, a trick of memory?

LONERGAN: I think when you’re embarrassed four years straight, it really sticks with you. [both laugh]

Kenneth Lonergan Biography, Age, Movies, Plays, Lobby Hero, Interview