Born in the USA

Writer-Director John Sayles Pays His Dues

by Nina Shengold and photographs by Jennifer May, February 26, 2009

Independent. The word echoes through the American mythos with a clatter of cowboy boots. “Independent filmmaker” carries the same smack of feisty, lone-wolf autonomy. But John Sayles, who writes, directs, edits, and frequently acts in his work, never claims an above-the-title credit (“A John Sayles film”); in conversation, he invariably uses the first-person plural: our film. Call him an interdependent filmmaker.

Since 1980, Sayles and his producer partner Maggie Renzi have made 16 films, starting with the shoestring-budget Return of the Secaucus 7. He’s supported his indie habit with Hollywood rewrites ranging from quirky B-movies (Piranha, The Howling) to blockbusters like Apollo 13 and The Mummy franchise; he’s also directed videos for Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” “I’m on Fire,” and “Glory Days.”

Between movie gigs, he’s published three novels and two story collections, most recently Dillinger in Hollywood. Like a latter-day Woody Guthrie, Sayles spins populist tales that crisscross the continent, from Alaska (Limbo) to Florida (Sunshine State), with pit stops in the Rockies (Silver City), Chicago (Eight Men Out), New Jersey (City of Hope), Cajun country (Passion Fish), Texas (Lone Star), and Latin America (Men with Guns, Casa de los Babys). He’s written about striking coal miners, Cuban immigrants, lesbian midwives, and alien slaves. Talking to him, it would seem that the only story he’d rather not tell is his own.

Affable and verbose, Sayles can shrug his way out of a personal question in seconds. Ask him about growing up in Schenectady, and after a nod to Proctor’s Theatre, he’s off on a tangent about Guyanese politics. Ask what background information he’d give to an actor who had to play him in a movie, and he’ll tell you about the character bio he wrote for Joe Morton in City of Hope.