In Conversation with David Seidler

Overview

Script to Screen and the NZ Writers’ Guild are hosting a conversation with award-winning screenwriter David Seidler on Sunday, July 5 from 4pm until 5pm.

Seidler was British-born Jew, but moved to New York during the World War II German Blitz of London. As a result of the emotional trauma of the war, Seidler developed a speech impediment.  As a kid he stayed quiet, developing into a self-aware teenager with a stammer. It wasn't until he was a 16-year-old teenager that Seidler realised that saying words like 'fuck' helped ease his stammer. Two weeks after this realisation he auditioned for a small part in his school play.

The screenwriter went on to start his Hollywood career at 40, writing Tucker: The Man and his Dream for Francis Ford Coppola. Seidler had always been inspired by king George VI, who also suffered a speech impediment.  As a child his parents would say things like "David, he was a much worse stutterer than you, and listen to him now. He's not perfect. But he can give these magnificent, stirring addresses that rallied the free world."

In 1981 Seidler wrote to Logue, the stammering king's speech therapist, asking to interview him. Logue was keen, even wanting to share his notebooks he kept while treating George VI. However, the Queen Mother however asked Seidler not to pursue the story during her lifetime. The Queen Mother died in 2002, but Seidler only started writing the story in 2005 when he suffered throat cancer and became inspired afresh to tell the story.

Seidler's screenplay The King's Speech won both an Oscar and a BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay.