‘Glee’ star seemingly draws on personal life in screenwriting debut
With his screenwriting debut, “Struck by Lightning,” Chris Colfer seems poised to proves one point: he is not Kurt Hummel.
While the young actor has made a name for himself playing an openly gay and extremely talented member of a high school show choir on the Fox comedy “Glee” for the past four years, Colfer and Kurt are two separate beings.
“Struck by Lightning,” which Colfer wrote and stars in, debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival last spring. The film is slowly being released in theaters across the country and hasn’t hit Columbia yet, but if you just can’t wait that long, “Struck by Lightning” is currently available to rent on Amazon Instant Video and iTunes as well as On Demand on cable television.
Writing isn’t a new hobby for Colfer. He’s been putting his stories on paper for many years and his first novel, a fairy tale mash-up for young adults titled “The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell,” hit shelves last summer and landed a spot on the New York Times’ best seller list. A sequel is in the works.
With a resume featuring a children’s book and a slew of song-and-dance numbers, you’d begin to think all of Colfer’s work followed a lively, happy path.
But “Struck by Lightning” isn’t so sunny.
One of the biggest plot points in the film would be a spoiler in most cases, but it is revealed in the title and the action occurs in the movie’s very first scene.
Colfer’s character, Carson Phillips, is struck by lightning and meets an untimely death. The rest of the film explores his life and the events leading up to this freak accident.
“Struck by Lightning” is most definitely a dark comedy. Viewers see Carson suffer through his parents’ divorce, his mother’s prescription drug addiction, bullying at school, a college admissions snafu and, ultimately, the near-realization of his dreams destroyed by sudden death.
That’s deep stuff. But Colfer’s script has the audience laughing through the majority of the film, mostly due to witty one-liners, smart casting (Rebel Wilson shines as Carson’s best friend, Malerie) and an honest, believable performance of the part Colfer wrote for himself.
Some of Carson’s hobbies and relationships are drawn directly from Colfer’s life.
In the film, Carson is the editor of his high school newspaper and president of the writer’s club, which has a very low membership, much like the writer’s club Colfer headed and was the sole member of at his own school. In the film, Carson’s grandmother is his first editor and joyfully devours the stories he writes for her.
Colfer has described his relationship with his grandmother in interviews, recalling how he’d bring her chapters of his books and she’d return them with lots of red editing marks. However, Carson’s grandmother has Alzheimer’s disease and Colfer’s grandmother did not.
The town in the film is named Clover, which is very close to Clovis, Colfer’s real-life California hometown.
For a first-time screenwriter, Colfer delivers a film that is both heartbreaking and hilarious. By casting himself in the lead role, he performs the part of Carson as he intended him to be played. Let’s hope his next effort is equally inspiring.