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“House of Cards” Comes to Columbia: An Evening with Beau Willimon CC’99, SOA’03

Making no promises to shy away from House of Cards spoilers, the series’ Emmy-winning creator and screenwriter, Beau Willimon CC’99, SOA’03, visited campus on March 24 to share stories and straight talk about his time at Columbia, his film and TV career, and the keys to creative success.

More than 200 College alumni and students turned out for the event, which took place at Casa Italiana. Willimon was interviewed by Annette Insdorf, director of undergraduate film studies, who taught the “one and only film course” he took.

With candor and humor, Willimon described his education and career path, beginning with his decision to attend Columbia over his father’s preferred Yale. The latter had “all the grittiness but not the energy” of New York, Willimon said, explaining that "one of the coolest things" about the College was its location and the fact that it offered two campuses in one — the actual campus and the "other school", New York City. The elder Willimon got behind the decision, in time becoming “a big fan" of the university.

A double major in history and visual arts — he also rowed crew and wrote and illustrated for Spectator — Willimon recalled his early shift from painting to play writing. His first one-act work, The Goat Herd, won him $1,500 in a contest. “It was the world’s worst play,” he said with a laugh. “But I loved the idea that you could tell a real story in space and time, and real dimensions.”

The experience also helped him realize how much he loved failing: “The discipline required to learn something new was exciting to me,” he said.

Speaking about theater, Willimon continued, “If you’re going to be a playwright, you have to know what came before you — you have to read every Greek play, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen. You need to know what’s been done so you can break all the rules.

“Writers are professional thieves,” he added, describing his decision, in House of Cards, to echo a Henry IV, Part II scene between Prince Hal and Falstaff, soon after Hal becomes king. “Both scenes were about love and betrayal, royalty and peasantry,” he said.

Willimon also spoke about the influence of partnerships, both political and creative. He recalled how a friend, who was working one summer on Chuck Schumer's Senate campaign, enlisted him in the effort. Willimon went on to work for Schumer, Hillary Clinton and John Dean — experiences that provided fodder for his 2008 play, Farragut North, he said. (It later became the film Ides of March, for which Willimon, George Clooney and Grant Heslov earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.)

Willimon then turned to his current partnership with director David Fincher on House of Cards. The critically acclaimed political drama, which has earned a number of Emmy and Golden Globe Awards as well as nominations, is now in its third season on Netflix.

Neither he nor Fincher knew anything about TV when they began, Willimon said, but signing on with Netflix was a boon that came with complete creative control and — at the outset — two guaranteed seasons. That meant developing 1,600 pages of scripts, the equivalent of several feature films, he said.

The importance of collaboration was a theme throughout the night, referenced in regard to Willimon's work on both Ides of March and House of Cards, which has a writing team behind it. “It’s important to have your own artistic vision, to bring your own voice,” he said, “but greatness is only achieved by inviting others into that vision.”

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