Meet Jordan Orlando | scriptwriter, writer, script doctor, film director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jordan Orlando and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jordan, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I think risk is the true engine and north of any career. And I consider that getting older is losing the ability to take risk. If you think about it, every new search, every transformation leads us into an unknown space, and in the unknown there is also the possibility of failure, of death. But what would we be if we didn’t search? Life is marked by the search, youth is marked by that, and as we stay in “safe” places is that life begins to leave. Art is a path of double risk, first because it is always difficult in itself (it always was in history), to make a living from art. And then because true artistic thought, the poetic search, is a non-conformist search that is always pushing the limits of the known to go into the unknown, to ask uncomfortable questions, to dig a little deeper inside ourselves. So to answer your question… risk is an essential part of my life and my career (which are the same for me) with its double sharp edge: on the one hand our survival instinct tells us “stay here, look for a shelter”, but on the other hand our inner self asks us to keep searching. Sometimes the search is outside, many other times it is inside. And most of the time the movement is reflective: looking outside for something that reflects inside us. Art is a bit like that in general, I think love is too. Both are acts of understanding, those moments where we feel that we are connected with that which speaks to us, be it a book, a person, an event. We are not alone for a moment, but then we have to keep searching because life is movement, and all movement is a risk.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My art is the art of trying to get inside human psychology and the human soul. Of getting in there and seeing the contradictions and conflicts. The journey that I usually propose is that journey where one sees that the protagonist is in a labyrinth, one knows that it is wrong for him to be there, but at the same time one knows that this person had no choice and that perhaps one would have entered into that labyrinth in that circumstance. To show that we all live under the same sky, but that each one of us has his own storm. And it is an art that keeps growing and transforming, and mutating as I also transform and grow as a human being, as a man, as a person, as a social being, as a father, as a husband. And I would be lying if I said that getting here was difficult. There were difficult moments, of course, but I have always been very lucky and in spite of everything I have had recognition and help and I have managed to be in the artistic world and survive, and pay my bills since I was 18 years old. Of course I also demanded a lot from myself, I studied a lot, I exercised a lot, and that effort is something difficult at times, the demand is something that if you don’t handle it well can paralyze or automate you. I think the important thing is to find the right measure. It has happened to me that demanding too much has made me exhaust my energies and not be able to do more, and it has also happened to me that from so much search for perfection I can’t do anything. Then it is also difficult not to replicate or copy oneself. Entering the Fordist method in writing, especially in film writing, is very easy. There is a lot of that: structure formulas, number of pages, etc. And that is the death of art. I’m not saying that there is no structure, of course there is, but the structure should arise from the very nature of the work. Whoever has been to Barcelona and seen Gaudí’s work will understand what I am talking about. When I have seen that work I have reconfigured my idea of “genius”. Nowadays the word “genius” is said so flippantly. But when you see someone who has done something different from everything and everyone… who has changed the rules, then you are forced to think about your own work and how you deal with your own art and its conception.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am from Argentina, and I once heard a writer say that the true Argentine passion lies in friendship. Buenos Aires, where I grew up, is a city that never rests and where you always have something to do, of course: with friends. It’s easy to make friends and spend time together. I currently live in the north of Italy, where there is also a very social spirit and where meeting is always a good plan. So assuming my best friend crosses the Atlantic Ocean and comes here… I think I’d take him on a tour of Italy. Where the culture, the history, and the proximity with the people is free, pleasant and friendly. And the rest doesn’t matter. I think that’s the really important thing about friendship… no matter where you are, it matters who you’re with.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The list is too long. Many years ago I thought, from reading some testimonies of people who fought for the rights of people with disabilities, this idea of “supports”. And I thought that we all have had throughout our lives, even if we are not in the group of “people with disabilities”, assistance of various kinds to achieve everything we achieve. I recognize so many supports that I have had, from family supports, to various sources of inspiration, teachers, life examples, films. I come from a very conflictive family, but at the same time, with people of great heart. I call it emotional illiteracy: they are not bad, they are just clumsy, and sometimes they generate bad things, but many other times it was not like that and they have helped me and accompanied me a lot. Undoubtedly my sister turned out to be a guardian angel who always knew how to take care of me and protect me, and I think it was thanks to her that I was able to develop myself in many other things. But then life is very wide and I have done so many things… I have been in so many places and met so many people, and received help, knowledge, wisdom, kindness and inspiration from so many… The learnings are out there, even when no one is giving you a lesson. Sometimes it’s just a matter of opening your eyes and understanding what’s going on. And that alone is invaluable.

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