Write On: 'Conclave' Screenwriter Peter Straughan

“If everything's being played on the surface, it's very hard to
make that character come to life. You want hinterland, you
want subtext. You want the things that are buried, the things
that we don't know about them, the things that maybe they don't
know about themselves. And always, the story is about this
excavation of what's underneath the surface. One way or the
other, that's kind of what story is. It's about bringing things
to the surface,” says Conclave screenwriter Peter Straughan,
about the importance of giving your characters secrets. 


In this episode, we speak to Peter Straughan about his powerful
film Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John
Lithgow. Based on the book by Robert Harris, the movie follows
five very different modern Catholic Cardinals as they go through
the process of electing a new Pope. Straughan talks about why he
loves a flawed hero, getting to tour the Vatican, what surprised
him the most, and whether or not he thinks the real Pope will
watch this movie. 


Having also written the TV show Wolf Hall about Tudor England,
Straughan also talks about the surprising connection between King
Henry VIII and the modern Catholic Church. 


“Both the world of the Tudors and the world of Conclave give us a
way of looking at human behavior and the pursuit of power from a
sort of angle that makes it particularly clear and fresh, without
the clutter of the normal secular world of elections, that really
anchors it in the human individual. So, Tudor England was maybe
the last time where the sexual desires of one man was going to
dominate the political landscape of an entire country. Maybe not
the last time. Maybe this still happens in the world. But it
becomes really pared down to basics, so you see very clearly
what's going on. And I think it feels the same with Conclave,
it's about the personalities and the morals of these few
individuals,” says Straughan. 


Just a warning, there are spoilers about the ending of Conclave
in this episode, but we give you plenty of warning before they
are discussed. 


To hear more about Straughan’s writing process, listen to the
podcast.