Adam Shankman, Hollywood Renaissance Man, on His YA Novel

April 20, 2016 2:34 PM EDT

Adam Shankman has tried his hand at nearly every facet of entertainment: He got his start as a dancer and choreographer in music videos, then took his talents to commercials, TV and film; soon he was directing feature films like The Wedding Planner, A Walk to Remember, Bringing Down the House and Hairspray; then producing movies like the Step Up franchise and appearing as a judge on So You Think You Can Dance. Now, he’s breaking into a new field: On Tuesday, he published his first book, a YA novel set in 1930s Hollywood called Girl About Town.

TIME caught up with Shankman ahead of the book’s release to talk about how writing resembles directing, the new dance culture and how new discriminatory laws are hurting LGBT youth.

TIME: You’ve been a Jack-of-all trades in entertainment. What made you want to pivot toward writing a book?

Shankman: I was approached by a book agent who liked my Twitter account and who liked some of the stuff that I was saying on So You Think You Can Dance. I was very busy at the time, and I said, ‘Listen, if I’m gonna do this, it would be great if I could partner with somebody, because I don’t want to have to bear the full load.’ So I got partnered with [co-author] Laura [L. Sullivan]. She started really digging into stuff that I had said about the origins of my love of reading. I really learned to read on the Oz books and the Hardy Boys books, and actually The Hardy Boys sort of led me into the Agatha Christie world. I also have a pretty sound knowledge of 1930s Hollywood movies and the like. So she said, ‘Well, what if we combined that in some way?’ And I thought that would be fun. So it would be kind of like a Thin Man-y thing, but for younger readers. We have the first two books, this one here and we just turned in the second book in the series.

Writers on Their Favorite Young Adult Books

Laura Hillenbrand, whose latest book "Unbroken" has just come out, in her home in Washington, DC. — Laura Hillenbrand, Author of *Unbroken*. "*Come on Seabiscuit*by Ralph Moody. When I was eight years old, I bought this battered paperback for a quarter at a neighborhood fair. Enthralled, I read it over and over, until the cover fell off and the pages parted from the spine. I had to hold the book together with a rubber band. The story stayed with me, and many years later, it would inspire me to become an author myself."Bill O'Leary—The Washington Post/Getty Images

Author James Patterson — James Patterson, Author of *Along Came a Spider*. "As a kid, *Peter Pan* was one of a few books that I truly enjoyed. It’s got pirates, fairies, mermaids—what’s not to like? When I was starting to write Maximum Ride, my first series for kids, I had Mr. Barrie’s story in the back of my mind."Brian Harkin—MCT/Getty Images

Author Michael Lewis poses for a portrait while promoting his book about high-frequency trading (HFT) named "Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt," in New York — Michael Lewis, Author of *Flash Boys*. “As a kid I lived on a steady diet of *The Hardy Boys*and *Archie* comic books, without the slightest sense there was anything better I might be doing with my time.”Lucas Jackson—Reuters/Corbis

Jesmyn Ward Portrait Session — Jesmyn Ward, Author of *Men We Reaped*. "When I was around eight or so, I discovered *The Hero and the Crown* by Robin McKinley at my local book fair. I charmed one of my cousins into buying it for me, and then I devoured it. The heroine is an illegitimate princess who hunts dragons in an attempt to find some place for herself in her father's kingdom; I loved the book because the heroine is tough, stubborn, and smart, and she takes on a world bent on making her less than she is. I empathized."Ulf Andersen—Getty Images

National Book Awards — Dave Eggers, Author of *A Hologram for the King*. "Barbara McClintock's *Adèle & Simon* books are, I think, contemporary classics. McClintock's artwork is ridiculously beautiful and because readers are asked to find objects that Simon has lost during various trips—including turn-of-the-century Paris and the USA—the books reward very close attention."Tina Fineberg—AP

SITTENFELD — Curtis Sittenfeld, Author of *Sisterland*. “I've always loved the *George and Martha* books by James Marshall. These tales of two hippo BFFs are wonderfully irreverent and full of both misbehavior and compassion.”Haraz Ghanbari—AP

Jennifer Weiner, Author of *All Fall Down*. "One of the joys of motherhood is getting to re-discover the books I loved as a girl by handing them to—and occasionally forcing them upon—my daughters. Recently, my seven-year-old and I have worked our way through the *Little House on the Prairie* books. Re-reading them was like curling up in a beloved, cozy blanket. A blanket that made us both hungry. As a girl, I loved the stories of adventure—surviving sickness, blizzards, poor crops and snotty Nellie Olson. As a grown-up, I was surprised at how much of the prose is devoted to the finding, gathering, slaughtering, preparing, and eventual devouring of mass quantities of food. The books remain touching and transporting—if you can get past a desire for maple-syrup candy, cracklings, codfish gravy and cornmeal mush."Chris Pizzello—AP

USA - 2013 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books — Ann Brashares, author of *The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants*. "*The Great Brain*, by John D. Fitzgerald. Set in a tiny town in Utah in the late 1890's, *The Great Brain* series recounts the mischief and miracles wrought by Tom Fitzgerald through the eyes of his ordinary-brained younger brother John. You idolize Tom's brilliance—his schemes make him more powerful and exciting than anybody else—but you can't escape his selfishness or his greed. I think as a kid I appreciated liberation from the regular moral categories."Katy Winn—Corbis

John Irving; — John Irving, Author of *The Cider House Rules*. "*The Doubtful Guest* by Edward Gorey. Edward Gorey is the rare writer-artist whose work has a lasting effect on children and adults."Aaron Vincent Elkaim—AP

Matthew Quick, Author of *The Silver Linings Playbook*. “Although I can't recall the title of a single edition, I remember reading and loving many *Choose Your Own Adventure* novels when I was a kid. The series made you the protagonist and every so many pages you would come to a question. There were options listed and corresponding page numbers. I remember reading each path regardless of my choice, thumbing furiously forward and backward through the maze-like stories. In retrospect, I realize this active-reading process was perhaps my first lesson on story structure.”Richard Vogel—AP

Adelle Waldman Portrait Session — Adelle Waldman, Author of *The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P*. “As a teenager, my favorite author, hands down, was Norma Klein, whom I would describe as Judy Blume for a slightly older set—or Woody Allen for a younger set. Klein wrote wry, psychologically acute novels about the romantic lives of smart New York teenagers. With intelligence and humanity, Klein describes crushes, relationships, sex, breakups and complicated friendships. Equally intriguing to me was the milieu. As someone growing up in the suburbs—who had little to do for fun but go to the mall or the multiplex—the New York Klein described was a revelation: kids took the subway to museums, walked around the Village and saw old movies at art house theaters. I live in New York today, in large part because Norma Klein’s books. She was very prolific until her death in 1989, but for a good taste of her work, try *Domestic Arrangements*, about a precocious 14-year-old with an eccentric, intellectual family and a steamy love life.”Ulf Andersen—Getty Images

Andy Cohen, Author of *The Andy Cohen Diaries*. “I loved the *Encyclopedia Brown* books. They were about as butch as I got as a young boy (not that they were even in the same league as *The Hardy Boys*, which I stayed away from). Simple to understand and there was always a shot you could figure out the mystery on your own.”Charles Sykes—AP

Gillian Fllynn — Gillian Flynn, Author of *Gone Girl*. “*The Westing Game* completely charmed me as a kid: the clever mystery, the complex characters (especially the grownups—who knew they had lives too?) and the nasty, fantastic Tabitha Ruth Wexler. I still read it once a year.”M. Spencer Green—AP

Jerry Spinelli, Author of *Maniac Magee*. "When I was 12 I thought breaking a tackle in sandlot football was the hardest thing a person could do. And then I read *Kon-Tiki* by Thor Heyerdahl. It instantly inflated both my worlds. My planet now stretched from the West End of Norristown, PA, to the vast reaches of the Pacific. And the other world—the world of my dreams, my future—swelled to the stars. I remember that I closed the book with a sense of both ending and beginning. He had arrived, he had done it. And I—as if his feat had given me permission—I could launch a voyage of my own. I knew not yet the vessel or the seas, but whatever the destination, I knew I could get there."Courtesy of Penguin Random House

Simon Doonan And NEXXUS Create Window Display At Duane Reade In Tribute To The 2013 Tony Awards — Simon Doonan, Author of *The Asylum: True Tales of Madness from a Life in Fashion*. “The most mind-expanding tome is still *Alice's Adventures in Wonderland* by Lewis Carroll. Like Led Zeppelin or Jimi or Bowie, Alice should be a right of passage for every kid. The trippy narrative, interwoven with the creepy John Tenniel illustrations, is a cosmic blast of creativity which can unlock the imagination of even the most conventional kid.”Jemal Countess—Getty Images

Dick Cavett, Author of *Brief Encounters*. "I’m told I began reading at age three. I soon fell deeply in love with *Rufus M.* (1943) by Eleanor Estes—a children’s author and children’s librarian. I’ve assumed it, and she, were long gone. It pains me to learn that she lived well into my later life and that I could have met her and expressed my delight. Damn. Among many laugh-out-loud escapades, small boy Rufus plants beans in his garden to contribute to his not-wealthy family’s dinner table. Sadly, in his intrepid enthusiasm, he couldn’t resist going out at night and digging them up to see how they were doing. The book, still in print, is wonderful. It’s for kids, but certainly not only so. Get it."Richard Shotwell—Invision/AP

Martin Amis at Edinburgh International Book Festival 2014 — Martin Amis, Author of *The Zone of Interest*. "I must have read *Goodnight Moon* to my children several thousand times, and I was never bored by it. The book has its own soporific poetry—and it quite often worked."Pako Mera—AP

Do you have plans for an adaptation?

I don’t yet. My long relationship with Hollywood tells me that right now, I don’t see anybody creating a period YA piece. Twilight was super easy because it’s like, people sitting in the woods looking at each other, and then with a little bit of special effects. The Hunger Games was its own dystopian universe. In my own way I have been in the YA world with A Walk to Remember and Last Song, so, it’s a world that I know, but this is period, so it’s expensive.

I only ask because there are so many huge book deals today that are sold along with their movie rights.

There are, and I always chided myself—like, ‘Leave it to me to come up with an idea that doesn’t feel like an easy sell.’ You know what I mean? Even if the idea is right, the character’s the wrong age. I created a complicated situation for that. But I’m not afraid of writing anymore, and it ended up giving me the courage to also write a script. It’s a TV pilot script that Warner Brothers Television has optioned.

What is it about?

I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about it because it’s not on the market yet, but it’s a life experience thing about when I got sober. But it’s a comedy. And not Mom. It’s not Mom!

How did your experience as a director inform your writing process?

I’m just accustomed a) to telling stories; b) I imagine and create the world, so that’s the easy other part; c) I’m pretty good at telling people what to do, so I could look at my characters and go like, ‘You need to go over there.’ I could choreograph how the world works, so to speak. And there was a moment at which I didn’t know if I could direct or not—it all seemed like an outrageous idea, and I did it, and it became less outrageous. The same thing kind of happened with writing.

Did that process of figuring out that you could in fact direct take place just over the course of your first feature film, or over several?

At a certain point, you don’t ever actually know if you’re gonna be good. I still wonder. I think it would be a delusional person who didn’t have some self-doubt skulking around in there at some point. I’ve always been a person who says yes more than no. The only thing I ever really wanted to be was a chorus boy. So then when the opportunity to choreograph came along, I just said yes. I didn’t know if I was going to be any good—I don’t think I was very good, certainly when I started. I think that I stepped into choreography in a moment when suddenly, some of the most-working choreographers died of AIDS. And I feel like, whether it’s true or not, I got some of their work.

What is the movie you’re proudest of that you’ve made?

Probably Hairspray. It was the only movie I ever fought for to make. I was like, ‘I need to make this.’ It felt like my cylinders were pumping in a great way. I felt like a thoroughbred. And I really understood that movie. I like Bringing Down the House very much, and there’s a part of me that also likes A Walk to Remember because I felt like I was saying something, much to my surprise, that was so beautiful. It wasn’t noisy, it wasn’t brash, it just was like, ‘You can make a choice to live like this.’ And it spoke to my romantic soul in a pretty profound way.

You mentioned your love of 1930s movies. What do you like about them?

I very much like the rhythms of them. They have a musicality that I find extremely appealing. I like the innocence. The old movies just went straight for a feeling, and it was all so new then, and it felt new. And I also loved the romance of not knowing who slept with who—although now I know since I’ve read all the biographies. I wish we didn’t know everything about all these actors today. I wish that it wasn’t on my newsstand every second. The movies would be much more interesting to me.

You serve on the board of the Trevor Project. What do you see as the biggest obstacles LGBT kids face in America today?

I think the best and worst thing that could have happened for LGBTQ youth today was when marriage equality passed, because big change means big backlash. And who’s gonna suffer the most? Kids. Kids trying to come out when their parents are angry about being told what they have to accept by law when they don’t believe it necessarily in their hearts. [That’s] going to create a strong feeling, as we now see with all of the discrimination legislation that is happening in the country.

I saw that you recently signed the letter from a group of executives to the Governor of North Carolina about the law striking down protections for LGBT people. Do you think that will be successful in deterring other states from enacting similar laws?

I think that and history. The percentage of Americans who believe that everyone should just f—ing lay off the gays at this point—I’m very interested to see how this plays out in the general election, because can you believe how absent it has been from the primary discussion? It’s like, not even a thing.

I know you have a ton on your plate, but what other upcoming projects are you most excited about?

I’ve been working with HBO on a project that I really love that I hope goes forward—I don’t know if it will—that’s about Stonewall, but it’s from the perspective of the Mafia kids that opened it. There’s three boys from Little Italy that saw the opportunity in the revenue stream and who apparently had no point of view about gays. So they’re the ones who opened the Stonewall. One of them, Ronnie Lorenzo, and I are working on this together. So that’s something that’s very exciting to me.

There’s also a delightful project that we’re working on which is 17 Again is being done as a musical for the stage, so getting that ready—that’s in really good shape. And I’m waiting to find out about three different movies right now.

How do you keep so many balls in the air?

I don’t know—I don’t know what else I would do. I wrote a script that Warner Brothers Television optioned, as I told you. I wanna talk to Nick [Sparks] about doing one of his things as a musical. I don’t know, I just keep making stuff—I would be a disaster if I stopped making stuff.

Do you ever read your own reviews?

Unequivocally do not read my own reviews. It’s a cliché because it’s true! I did on my first one and that ended that. Unkind. I was treated like a serial killer who had murdered all their children.

I like The Wedding Planner! And both Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Lopez have done so much since then.

It sort of gave them fresh trajectories. Matthew was going one way, then suddenly he did a string of romantic comedies, and so did Jennifer, so it was their flashpoint. I’ve been a part of some weird direction changes. Like when I did The Pacifier, Vin Diesel made no sense and yet it all worked, and I suppose you could argue that Bedtime Stories was Adam Sandler’s first real family movie. The weirdest part about that is, I’m actually a pretty dark guy, and yet I seem to make things that are so bright and cheery.

Hollywood Renaissance Man Adam Shankman on His First YA Novel

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