A Jew-ish Wallflower

MICHAEL FOX

Perhaps it’s his Iron City roots, but Stephen Chbosky evinces no symptoms of the Hollywood curses of credit hogging and self-aggrandizement.

The non-Jewish author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, who has just adapted his much-loved 1999 novel for the screen, has no compunction about saluting the inspirations for his characters and, for that matter, his own career. His openness is refreshing, especially as he steps into the hot glare of the spotlight as a first-time feature director.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a powerfully empathetic yet unsentimental saga of young adults now playing at Fifth Avenue Cinemas, stars Ezra Miller as Patrick, an out gay high school senior who befriends Charlie (Logan Lerman), a shy, unsteady freshman with a childhood secret. The two Jewish actors are joined by Harry Potter alumnus Emma Watson as Patrick’s sister Sam.

Chbosky, who grew up in a Pittsburgh suburb, says that the catalyst for Patrick was a Jewish student he met at the University of Southern California.

“My friend was raised Orthodox, loved his faith, and was also gay,” Chbosky, 42, explained. “He had such a difficult time with those two identities, because each was true and real and beautiful for him. God, I wish he had reached out to his family, but rather than just trying to live like a normal person would, he did a lot of self-destructive, risky things and he got himself in trouble.”

That was years ago and the friend is doing great, Chbosky reported.

“He was gregarious, he was funny, he was incredibly charming,” Chbosky recalled of the friend. “So, what I did was, I took his personality and I gave a lot of it to Patrick and some of it to Brad [the quarterback and Patrick’s closeted boyfriend]. Some of Patrick and Brad’s story happened to him in high school, and I wanted to honor what he had been through. I fictionalized it because it would be disrespectful not to, but the spirit and the essence was there.”

It’s one of those curious coincidences that Chbosky ended up casting a Jewish actor in the role, though Miller is so talented and delivers such a charged performance that it’s hard to imagine another young actor playing Patrick. Chbosky, incidentally, shared anecdotes about his college pal with Miller.

“I told Ezra a great deal of it, yes,” Chbosky said. “He was really curious. One of my mantras on set for the actors is, ‘I’ve lived a lot of this story, I know a lot of this story, so if you have any questions about who actually inspired everybody, let me know.’ It proved to be a good resource.”

As a 17-year-old on a tour of potential colleges, Chbosky encountered the person at USC who would become his primary career influence. Chbosky sat in on a seminar taught by Stewart Stern, the Jewish screenwriter of Rebel Without a Cause, Rachel, Rachel and other films, and was captivated.

“He had stories about all the actors, from James Dean to Paul Newman to Marlon Brando,” Chbosky said. “Being a kid from Pittsburgh, it was a mind-blowing experience to listen to this man talk. I said to myself, ‘If this man is here, I’m coming here.’”

However, shortly after Chbosky started at USC, Stern had a heart attack.

“I [had] only heard him speak for three hours, but he meant so much to me that I wrote him an anonymous letter and made him a little mix tape to kind of cheer him up in the hospital,” Chbosky said. “But I made sure not to sign anything because I didn’t want him to think I was trying to get an agent or anything. Just a simple act of kindness. It took him a good year and a half to find me, and he’s been my hero and mentor ever since.”

Stern was the first person to read the Perks screenplay. Perhaps more important, Rebel Without a Cause was one of the great inspirations for Chbosky’s film.

“It showed me how truly timeless an honest story about young people is,” Chbosky explained of the effect of Stern’s film. “The central experience of being young is similar. Almost 60 years separate Perks and Rebel, and separate Stewart and myself, but, if you sat down with us and joined in that conversation, it’s the same experience, it’s the same emotion, it’s the same desire for a good life and hope when things have been difficult. Ultimately, there is no such thing as a generation gap – I don’t believe it. [New technologies] get invented, but kids remain the same. We would really do ourselves a great deal of good if we would just talk to each other about it.”

Michael Fox is a writer and film critic living in San Francisco.

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