Ryan Gosling in Lars and the Real Girl Courtesy of Fox Searchlight

No one in Lars' circle told him that he was in love with a sex doll and not a human being. But I guess someone who is suffering from a delusion will not see that. Did you do any research into the psychology of delusions, and how people would react to this situation?
That is the nature of a delusion. I did maybe a half an hour on the internet. I have had a fair amount of experience with people with mental illness and I drew more from my own experience of it than something theoretical or clinical. There was somebody who asked me about the Freudian aspects. But my concern was strictly human, based in the fact that I had experienced it myself.

How did you decide on the look for Bianca? She is extremely realistic — did you write into the script what she ought to look like, how she should be dressed, or that she is Brazilian and Danish? Were all of those elements there or did they come into fruition when the film went into production?
Well, it was the director who chose the actual face and body. But she was well described in the script — how she was dressed and her whole transformation was all part of the script. But it was the director who chose the one with freckles on her nose, who had a particular serenity in her expression. So it was collaboration in that way.

Bianca is a doll designed and engineered for sex, but this was something that was not explored in the film. Was that a road that you thought you would go down or did you just close that off?
In the script, they have an ambiguous relationship and you are never sure what goes on. I felt that, particularly for Lars' character, it was a private thing. I think that level of sexual tension was removed in the movie because of choices between the director and the actor, which is part of what happens when movies get made. It is a collaborative thing. So that level sort of level dropped out. But it had more to do with the creativity of Lars's subconscious in making what we would assume to be just a classic sex doll into actually what he needed to heal himself, to move forward into being a whole person.

Were you on set every day and involved in the casting and script changes throughout the film?
I missed the first three days but I was there for the rest of the shoot. They discussed [the casting] with me but I stayed clear of that. You choose your areas. They didn't particularly want me on the set — which, of course, I understand. But it was important for me to be there. It was a battle that I chose. It wasn't like it was a fight or anything. We just talked it out and established etiquette before I even got there. But I thought they did a beautiful job of casting. I couldn't be any happier. I was just blown away. And they kept me apprised of everything.

When your script is produced and comes to life, do you have a different relationship to the characters now that they have a face to them and they are flesh-and-blood? For television you must write with specific actors in mind once they have been cast. Was this a different process?
I am pretty used to it after all the years of doing shows, and of the transition from the page to the flesh. I have to say that these particular actors were so intelligent and brought so much to it that I ended up feeling like they really expanded it and humanized the ideas of things that I had on the page. Paul Schneider in particular whose interpretation of [Lars'] brother was very different tonally than what I had imagined. And I ended up just really loving what he did with it and what he discovered in the text that I didn't consciously know about. He would do something and I would [think]: "Ah, that is what I meant!" I think the actors brought a great deal to it.

Kelli Garner in Lars and the Real Girl Courtesy of Fox Searchlight

Talking about the tone, in a script like this the tone is bittersweet; it's heartbreakingly funny yet exploring serious issues. Is the tone something that develops organically from the writing and the plot, or do you decide on it from the outset?
It is different with every script for me. With Lars I didn't work for the tone. I concentrated on developing the story organically and the tone was part of that. It wasn't something that I worked at. It had to do more a point of view of the writer than a particular decision about a stylistic tone. I was totally aware and I constructed the comic moments but I didn't work for a particular response from the audience. It is a very individual thing and when they were cutting it and they were worried about getting laughs in the third act, I found that sort of curious because that is something that you can't control at all. Do people laugh because they are nervous or sad or don't want to cry?

Next up for you is True Blood, the HBO Louisiana vampire series. Can you say something about that and if you are working another big-screen script at all?
About True Blood, I can say it is a lot of fun. It is totally different from Six Feet Under, I would say — definitely subject-wise. It is sex, blood, fangs, violence, fun. We are shooting number 6 right now. I will be writing and directing episode 11. So that will be a new experience for me and I am really psyched about it. It is a great group of people. From a production [point of view], it looks great. So we have high hopes for it. And then I am working on a screenplay for Warner Brothers called Handyman. I can't talk too much about it because it is in a stage where I am afraid I will jinx it. I have to finish a draft by June. But I can say it is a southeastern Western.