What was your writing process like?
I was pretty disciplined once I had the idea; the beginning, middle, and end, and a page of just a breakdown of where each character goes. This was before I had kids.
I was just going to say, how did you find the time?
It’s a lot harder to write now that I’m a father, but I’m trying. But at the time, I was very disciplined in the sense of, I just banged it out. I remember—I guess I’m going to name-drop—I remember talking to Taylor Sheridan, who was, back in the day, my acting coach. He was living in a little apartment off of Melrose, and now he’s this huge showrunner, big amazing writer. And I just remember seeing him years later, and I’m like, “Hey, how do you do it?” Just the same question you asked me.
And he’s like, “You see this? I go in that office, and I sit there for eight hours, and I don’t come out until I’ve got a couple pages.” So it’s really just simple, brass tacks advice, but that’s what I did. I clocked in, like a job. I sat in front of my computer, and I listened to all these podcasts, and I read books on writing, and I just forced myself to do it. I really enjoy the process, and I look forward to those times that I have time to write. I really do like it. It’s hard. It’s a brutal, lonely existence, as you know, but it’s rewarding.
Junction is a film about opioid addiction, something that’s been well covered in documentaries, movies, and on television. Why choose this topic for your directorial debut?
I know on the outside it might seem like kind of a weird topic for Bryan Greenberg. It’s taking people off guard. But I had a brief encounter with addiction. I’m not an addict—I want to make that very clear. I’m an ally. But I was prescribed OxyContin for routine surgery, and then I became a little hooked, and I had trouble getting off of them. It kind of stuck with me because I’m the type of person that doesn’t want to be controlled by things, and that really pissed me off.
