The screenwriter of The Girl on the Train was pulled toward the loneliness…of the lead character.
Den of Geek: How did this project get on your radar?
Were you familiar with the book beforehand?
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Erin Cressida Wilson: The book had not been published yet.
It was a manuscript that I was given by the producers, and we all loved the book.
We didnt have any idea that the rest of the world would love it as much as we did.
I didnt know the timing would be like that.
It became a sensation and the script had already been written when it became a sensation.
What appealed to you about the story?
I was pulled to reading the book because of that.
No question, I think of the windows passing Rachel.
Did you tap into that memory a bit when you were getting involved in this project?
Ive spent a lot of times also commuting on trains and I always just love it.
Youre neither here nor there, nobody can find you, youre hiding.
I think its a very evocative location.
I think in a weird way its comforting to see.
I find that being alone I love it, very, very much.
I love being alone.
I dont like being alone like in a middle of a field with nobody around.
I love being alone knowing that there are people around me doing things.
I find it comforting, I love hearing my neighbors.
I love hearing people on the street.
Just as long as you dont have to talk to them.
What led to changing the setting from London to Westchester?
Were there also things that you had to lose or transform?
I didnt ever really see the location as England, or America, I saw it as the train.
I saw it as in her imagination.
That was the number one thing.
Its a straight shot from the suburbs into the city.
But honestly the book is not highly English.
The book is told from the point of view of three different women.
This in itself could lead to a very fractured narrative but I didnt want to write a fractured narrative.
In the book each chapter is from a different point of view of the three women.
Then we moved into Megans voiceover, and we quickly find out its actually not voiceover.
What is your actual process?
Do you read the book a few times, highlight pages, tear it apart?
How do you actually pick out the things and know what youre going to transfer from book to screenplay?
I researched a little less for this one.
I feel like in the past Ive been a little bit preemptive with my adaptation.
Now I just really wait a while to see.
There was an immense amount of the book not in the screenplay.
People have compared this toGone Girlin some ways.
Both of them have these very interesting portrayals of marriages.
I dont even like taking portraits of my family because I fear this falseness and setting up false expectations.
Sometimes when you scratch the surface its really not what you think it is.
Sometimes it is I guess.
I think that its a complexity to marriages that the whole world has become one-dimensional photographs at this point.
It can be very misleading and very painful when you realize life is three dimensional which includes various things.
Youve done a lot of adaptations.
Do you have original screenplays that youve written as well, or do you primarily enjoy adapting?
I really do love adapting because I feel like its sort of the voyeurs way of writing.
In other words, I dont have to say its all mine but I get to insert myself.
But yes, Ive written many originals, stage plays mainly.
For now, Im really in love with adaptation, I find it incredibly satisfying.
The Girl on the Trainis in theaters tomorrow (Friday, October 7).
