Death becomes Him - Alan Ball in conversation

Wil Anderson in conversation with Alan Ball 

Alan Ball: Vampires, Death and the Mundane:

Sydney Opera House

8 September 2011

Bringing the miraculous within the mundane is Alan Ball's catch cry... and he certainly doesn't disappoint with iconic films such American Beauty (1999) and Towelhead (2007), and multi-award TV series as Six Feet Under (2001-2005) and True Blood (2008-).

Why the fascination Wil asks? In true multi-layered styles as complex as his movie and television series are, Alan Ball responds:

As a graduate from Florida State University in Theatre Arts, Alan Ball originally sought to be an actor. As it is be known to happen, acting roles are scarce to newcomers and so he began writing "parts" for himself and colleagues...  he realised writing was what he really wanted to do.

Thinking about Alan Ball as a writer, comedy isn't usually first thing that springs to mind, though one of his first TV writing gigs was a sitcom called Oh, Grow Up, a talking dog whose thoughts were communicated via subtitles. Universally hated... the talking dog went on to become something of a grounding experience. While accolades were on American Beauty, his sitcom was deemed unwatchable. Should of given the dog a voice (and some drugs to smoke) maybe.

However, death and the mundane obviously featured prominently throughout the evening, and in fact his career. Ball, having been traumatized by the death his sister at a young age, he identified with the 'normalization' of suppressing grief and emotion that he experienced in funeral homes. His own mother was whisked off behind a curtain at the first visible sign of grieving at her daughter's funeral and his own feelings toward viewing the open casket. Later, these experiences and observations would go on to inform and personify the setting for writing a pilot for the HBO series of Six Feet Under.

 Though the subject matter isn't as morbid as the title suggests. Six Feet Under, for those that haven't experienced it, is a series that deals with, comedy (albeit dark), life, grief, denial, guilt and everything that engulfs the people that are "left behind". Ultimately, it suggests themes of: how well do we really know our loved ones - their secret lives revealed only after death. Each character's story within the series is explored fully, with Alan Ball creating a revolutionary approach to a television series where equality prevails on screen. A humanistic approach.

The prelude to this series has related moments in the film American Beauty. It touches on insanity, insecurity, fantasy, desire, conformity, the alluring of the scary but beautiful things that are behind the doors of suburbia.

Moments of Ball's ingrained observation appear throughout his body of work such as: the memory of watching a plastic bag 'dance' through an empty World Trade Centre Plaza as it mesmerised him for fifteen minutes, creating a feeling that there was this entire 'life' behind things, an incredible benevolent force that wanted him to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. A scene that was beautifully depicted in the film.

The teenage girl's dialogue captured so wonderfully between Angela and Jane in the film (...you total slut, you have a crush on him. You're defending him, you love him, you wanna have, like, ten thousand of his babies...) was also inspired by an attending a U2 concert when a teenage fan got up in front of Ball and screamed "I love you Edge, I wanna have, like, ten thousand of your babies!"

On True Blood and vampires, Ball cites same same, but different, themes of sex, desire, danger, equating vampires = sex.

First encountering Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels arriving, thirty minutes early to the dentist and wandering into a neighbouring bookstore, he was drawn to the vampire shelf and consequently read the first novel in a day. Taken by the novel, excuse the pun(s), he could immediately envision his next television series.

Alan Ball is a funny guy (fantastic humour)! A Buddhist, an activist, an ultimate observer of life and what it is to be human, Wil Anderson asked how he'd like to go. Ball replied that he would like to have his cremated ashes stuffed inside a talking dog.

Go now to your nearest DVD outlet and purchase his work... you'll want to watch it more than once!