Augusten Burroughs--Running with Scissors

Written by Dan Hudak |

Some stories are just too outlandish to believe, and “Running with Scissors” is no exception. After all, who can honestly say that as a young teen he was sexually molested by a 35 year-old man, had an alcoholic father and crazy mother, and at the age of 15 was sent to live with his mother’s zany psychiatrist?

Augusten Burroughs, that’s who. And not only was Burroughs the author of the personal memoir “Running with Scissors,” which has spent the last two-and-a-half years on the New York Times Bestseller List, he was also a collaborator with writer/director Ryan Murphy (TV’s “Nip/Tuck”) on the “Scissors” movie that opened nationwide October 27.

“It rings so true it’s a bit startlingly,” Burroughs said about watching a movie based on his life. Although he was able to appreciate it as a film, he also expectedly found it a “surprisingly emotional experience” to relive parts of his life on the big screen.

In the film, Augusten (played by Joseph Cross) has a weird home life that just gets weirder as he gets older. Mother Deidre (Annette Bening) is an untalented, narcissistic poet who’s convinced she will one day be “big” and is always encouraging young Augusten to “write from within.” Father Norman (Alec Baldwin) is an alcoholic philosophy professor who’s so distant he’s a non-entity.

Soon Augusten realizes he’s gay, and is sent by his mother to live with the eccentric family of her shrink, Dr. Marion Finch (Brian Cox). The Finch family is more disturbed than his own: daughters Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood) are sociopathic malcontents, and mother Agnes (Jill Clayburgh) is virtually catatonic. Joseph Fiennes also stars as Neil Bookman, the older man with whom Augusten begins a relationship.

Although the first-rate cast does an excellent job presenting his life’s story, seeing the story on the big screen was never something Burroughs desired. “I never wanted to option the story,” Burroughs said, citing Hollywood’s proclivity to bastardize source material for the sake of artistic license. “But Ryan was very persistent, and when I finally decided to meet with him he told me stories about his own mother, which was very similar to my own experiences. He promised me he would take good care of the story and keep me involved every step of the way, and he did.”

So was any artistic license taken? “Any time a book goes to film some triage takes place,” Burroughs concedes, but quickly adds that “the book is completely true” and “the movie is very close to the book.” The differences are in the little details, Burroughs said, such as the characters that are not in the movie, including his brother, and the way he received money from Agnes.

As for his own career, Burroughs plans to return to writing fiction after completing a memoir based on his father.

“I love writing fiction, and becoming completely immersed in what I’m doing,” said Burroughs, whose previous fiction novel “Sellevision” is currently in development as a feature film. He is also developing an hour-long, weekly series for the Showtime.

“Writing fiction is a wonderful escape,” he continued. “You can explore so much, do so much – travel, meet people, fall in love.”

Still, whether it’s fictional or biographical his approach to writing is much the same. “I don’t approach writing intellectually,” he said. “I approach it instinctually. My writing comes from my feelings and reactions. It’s born out of me, my hunger, confusion and need to understand.”

It seems like he was able to learn something from his mother after all.