‘The Listener’ Screenwriter Alessandro Camon Shares How The Pandemic Shifted His Story

The 2020 pandemic is a moment in modern history that I’m sure will stick with us for quite some time. For some it was a disheartening time with isolation and losing loved ones and for others it was a time to slow down and reflect on the ways we’ve been overworking ourselves. The pandemic also gave people time to tap into themselves creatively in a way they haven’t before and for screenwriter Alessandro Camon it gave him the opportunity to expand of a deeply rooted idea for a story.

In “The Listener,” written by Alessandro Camon (Academy Award nominated writer of the 2009 film “The Messenger”) and directed by Steve Buscemi, Tessa Thompson stars as Beth, “a crisis helpline volunteer who gets on the phone every night, fielding calls from people feeling lonely, broken, hopeless.” Viewers spend a shift with Beth as she traverse an assortment of callers over the night. When speaking with Alessandro Camon he shared with Glambergirlblog where the idea of “The Listener” came from and how the pandemic helped shift his story.

Tessa Thompson in The Listener

“It was an idea that I had many, many, many years ago. I just wanted to write about the character. I wanted to write about the job. That’s often an inspiration for me if I can find a job that hasn’t really been talked about and that is interesting and unusual and that is a way into a world that’s always a great way for me to get the ideas flowing,” he said adding, “So I was always fascinated with the job of a helpline operator. I met a few. I talked to them, so I had the character in my mind, but I didn’t know how to make a film out of it until the pandemic because two things happened at that time. First of all, a lot of us had a hard time with social isolation and so people were more lonely and more in need of having this kind of help and these kinds of conversations so I thought okay the movie is now very timely and somewhat necessary but also something changed in the way the job is done meaning people started doing it from home. I didn’t want to write a movie that takes place in an office when somebody just sits in a cubicle and stares at a computer screen. Not visually interesting enough, but the moment I thought okay she could be home, so we have different rooms with different moods, different lighting. She can move around. It’s still a very intimate movie. A very small movie but suddenly it has a flow.”

The interesting dynamic of “The Listener” were the calls Beth received throughout the night which Alessandro said were based on people he knew. Writing the conversation between Beth and Ray (voiced by Jamie Hector), the war vet from Afghanistan and Iraq, was the conversation closest to Alessandro’s heart.

Before wrapping up the chat with Glambergirlblog, Alessandro gave great advice for storytelling. He said, “I think there is an advice that everybody receives at some point usually early in their career which is write what you know and that’s very good advice. It’s a very wise strategy. Write what you know because that’s going to ring through. It’s going to sound authentic, but I don’t think that is enough. I think what’s equally important and maybe more important is to write what you care about. Even if you don’t know it you can learn it and as long as you care about it you will learn to bring to it. It may not be your lived experience but if you bring curiosity and compassion to the task it will still be true.”

Watch the full interview with Alessandro Camon below.

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