Ethan Hawke, star of "The Good Lord Bird," and Mark Richard at a cast and crew hoedown in Powhatan (Photo by Jeff Okun)
Mark Richard, the Southampton County-raised author (of works including the short story collection “The Ice at the Bottom of the World” and the novel “Fishboy”) and screenwriter whose credits include “Hell on Wheels,” “Fear the Walking Dead,” and “Man in the High Castle,” spent 2019 in Central Virginia as executive producer/writer for Showtime’s eight-episode adaptation of James McBride’s novel “The Good Lord Bird.”
The production featuring Ethan Hawke as abolitionist John Brown premieres at 9 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4, and it's a focus for the final day of this year’s virtual edition of the Virginia Film Festival, running Oct. 21-25.
Richard, originally from Lake Charles, Louisiana, maintains a sense of place and family in Franklin and in Richmond, where he once lived on Strawberry Street.
Richard and Hawke, now an executive producer, shared views.
“It’s kind of a Huck Finn story,” Richard observes, “with that incredible Mark Twain combination of melancholy and humor. McBride wrote this transcendent story that he made live through these characters.”
THE GOOD LORD BIRD
Actor Ethan Hawke portrays abolitionist John Brown and Joshua Caleb Johnson plays "Onion" in the Showtime series "The Good Lord Bird." (Photo by Kevin Lynch courtesy Showtime)
In New York, Richard and Hawke discussed the concept with McBride. “And it was one of those really long nights, hotel rooftop to hotel rooftop across Manhattan,” Richard recalls. Outside his hotel, he and McBride conversed until 3 a.m. Their mutual connections included McBride’s familiarity with southeastern Virginia through relatives and shared church experiences. “He’s a deacon in a church in New Jersey, I’m a deacon in a small Black church in Franklin,” Richard says.
Despite the aligned positives, the process proved daunting.
“It was a hard show,” Richard says, his voice belying some understatement. “Ethan is a force. And he embraced the danger of the story.” His recognition comes primarily from independent films. “The Good Lord Bird” confronted the machinery employed for making entertainment product.
“Believe it or not, there are smart people in Hollywood, and especially at Showtime,” Richard explains, “but some people got nervous about the whole thing. They weren’t comfortable with the idea of comedy and tragedy occupying the same space." He chuckles, then adds, "I'd say, ‘Man, you need to bone up on your Billy Shakespeare.’ ”
McBride lent his voice “when we couldn’t push the rock up the hill again,” Richard says. That, and a solid relationship with Executive Producer Jason Blum, made the series happen.
Richard remained here to recharge and be near family. Further, the pandemic shut down Hollywood. A gig teaching at William & Mary came from another fortuitous crossing of paths when his sister Julie and W&M’s creative writing assistant professor of English Jon Pineda met last fall at a James Madison University student-parent orientation. Pineda, having seen a newspaper piece about Richard, asked about Julie's last name and a possible relation.
Richard has taught off and on for 30 years, and he says the classroom "and smart young students with ideas" invigorate him. “The Zoom is fine, but I miss people.”
Richard walks his dog Coco along the riverfront, and he enjoys observing falcons, herons and eagles from his condo windows. All his birds are at home.
