Inside Gillian Flynn's Dark and Rage-Filled Empire

Goodreads: So your debut is finally getting the adaptation treatment. How does it feel to see your first book come to the screen?

Gillian Flynn: It’s vindication. I always felt that this was a book that felt so ripe for the screen. It’s also just a vindication of people seeing it and discovering it. It was a book that a lot of people weren’t that interested in. It got good reviews, but it was not a screaming success, let’s put it that way. And, to me, it’s a great f---ing book.

It's a book about dangerous women. And because it was a book about female rage and female violence, it was—particularly at that time—a topic that people weren’t that ready or interested in talking about. That was 2005, and when we were trying to sell [the film rights], we heard a lot of, "You know, maybe the next book. Maybe not this one."

Goodreads: It seems that your books have changed the mystery and thriller genre in that way, by bringing forward these female characters who are imperfect, who do show rage and violence.

GF: Yeah, it took a while. I mean, Dark Places came along, and Libby’s a really unlikable female narrator and she’s full of rage. She kicks people, and beats people, and attacks people. And people weren’t that into that one, either! And that’s a great book, as far as I’m concerned. I mean, I love that book, personally. I’m proud of that book. Again, it was a time period that those kinds of books weren't common, that I know of. Certainly not as common as they are now. Now you can walk into a bookstore and say, "I want a book with a dark female narrator," and they can walk you over to any number of books. That did not happen back then.

It goes along with time’s changing. To me it’s no surprise that Sharp Objects is coming to life right with the #MeToo movement, with the #TimesUp movement, that women have, over this 12-year time period, found rage and found their voices and said "enough."

Goodreads: You're an executive producer and wrote three of Sharp Objects' eight episodes. What can fans of your book expect from the series?

GF: It’s a loyal adaptation, but you get to see all its warts…here is a phantasmagoria of a place brought to life. There’s no other place like Wind Gap. So to get to see it bloom to life, to get to see Adora's lush Victorian house and her hog farm and Wind Gap's parks and lush places, where it seems if you left a car for too long, a vine would grow over it. You'll see the femaleness of the place and the ominousness of the place. You can feel that in a way that’s so striking. And to see the actors and actresses really bring these people to life is really something different and exciting.

Because we did have that room in the series, we were able to play with more subplots and add a few more twists. It’s faithful to the book, but we’re able to take a few more loop-de-loops and add a few more weird cul-de-sacs to Wind Gap. And play with certain characters’ backstories. You get to know more about a few more characters…we just got to have room to play with those characters and grow them more. And say, "What would these people be like? What would they be doing?" It’s fun to get to revisit it now. I had not looked at it in those 12 years since it’s been published. And to look back and say, "No, really, what was the deal with this guy?"

Goodreads: What did you find is the main difference between adapting your novels from films versus the series?

GF: It’s purely the decadence of not having to figure out what to include and what not to include. Just being able to sit and have a big feast in the writers' room and say, "OK, here it all is!" Then it becomes more about "Where do we put it all, and how do we do it?" We just get to enjoy it.

Goodreads: What's your review of the adaptation?

GF: It lives up to its gothic creepiness. It keeps all the female rage and isn’t afraid of that. It doesn’t try to make Camille into some likable, easy-to-digest female. It presents her in all of her difficult true character and lets you decide.

Goodreads: You are a very busy woman! In addition to your work on Sharp Objects, you also co-wrote the upcoming film Widows with director Steve McQueen, and wrote and serve as showrunner on the American adaptation of the U.K. television series Utopia for Amazon. And that's just the TV and film work. You're also signed up to take on Hamlet as part of The Hogarth Shakespeare series, and then there's the secret book you're currently working on!

GF: This is a house that runs on Red Bull and 5-hour Energy right now!

Goodreads: How are you balancing the work you're doing for television and film with your writing?

GF: I get up kind of early and write on my novel. And that is kind of coming together the way Sharp Objects did, which is piece by piece, and then all of a sudden you look up and it’s done.

And then the other thing I’m doing, which the writing is completed for, is I wrote all nine episodes of a show called Utopia, which is an adaptation of a U.K. series that’s about a group of comic book nerds that come across a graphic novel that may be hinting to a possible end of the world. Light stuff like that! I created and am showrunning that, and it will go into production at the end of the year.

Goodreads: You seem to be building your own media empire!

GF: It’s sort of interesting…I mean, in a way, it makes perfect sense if you look at my parents and my childhood. My parents were junior college teachers. And my mom taught reading, she had her master’s degree in reading, and she taught reading comprehension. She was always putting a book in my hand. And my dad taught theater and film. So I was constantly either going to the movies with my dad or reading with my mom. I was constantly toggling back and forth in those worlds. And so now, I’m still kind of doing that! For me, it feels so right and perfect.

It’s just being able to maintain it. I can’t possibly maintain this level I'm at right now, so as soon as I’m done with Utopia, I’m excited to go back to purely the book world for a couple years. Because I do owe—I make it sound like the Mob—"I do owe a number of people some books! They’re going to come after me pretty soon!"

But it’s true. As much as I love the collaboration of TV and movies, I’m actually ready to go back to my little hidey-hole for a year or two and be in book land and write those books, because I know exactly what they are, I just need the time.

And what happened is I got swept up in Utopia, and I just love the idea so much, I get so excited about that. But, yeah, as soon as I’m done with that, I’m going back to book land for a little bit.

Goodreads: What can you tell us about the book you're working on? We're all dying to read it!

GF: I’m not saying too much, but it’s kind of an ensemble. There’s a shifting number of voices, about four different characters. I will say that I started writing it right after President Trump got elected. But I’m not saying too much more…. It’s political, well, it’s mainly a dark psychological thriller, for the most part. I think that’s the most accurate way to say it.

Goodreads: I’ve read that you’ve described it as an alternative reality set in the current time. Is that accurate?

GF: It has shifted since then, but I think that’s still fair to say.

Goodreads: Gone Girl was one of the most successful thrillers of the last 20 years. How did its success change your life?

GF: It’s given me the chance to write more, that’s basically been the great thing about it. I mean, I would say before Gone Girl, I was always proving myself so that I could write. And hoping that I would always be able to write for a living, which was my dream. And Gone Girl has given me that calling card and confidence that I would be able to be a writer forever. I feel that under my feet, which is a great place to be able to write from: to know that I can experiment more, that I can try more things, that I’ll always have that ability to stretch even more.

Goodreads: Your books are so dark. How do you get in that frame of mind? Where do you go mentally to write these characters?

GF: It’s frighteningly easy for me to slip into the darkness; it’s crawling back out that’s trickier. I’m an empath, so I can get into most people’s brain space. I think most writers are. You grow up feeling like an outsider, and grow up trying to figure people out and what makes them tick. And you have that sort of ability.

Goodreads: What books are you currently reading and recommending to friends?

GF: I loved This Will Be My Undoing by Morgan Jerkins, How to Stop Time by Matt Haig. Like everyone else, I loved Tangerine by Christine Mangan. And then, randomly, the one I just finished reading was The Murder at Sissingham Hall. I finished it last night, and it’s by Clara Benson. It's absolutely delightful, and I would recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of Sarah Caudwell, or Agatha Christie, or anyone who loves really clever British murder mysteries set in the '20s. I’m literally going to read the next book in the series tonight.