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Reese WitherspoonThe first novel for adults began with the kind of inspiration that experienced fiction writers know well – a character who won’t leave her alone.
A military doctor who performs plastic surgery on mysterious clients.
“I had never had an idea for a character in my entire life. She was kind of ingrained in my mind and once that happened I knew I had to do something about it,” Witherspoon said of the co-writer this week. harlan cobain spoke in a conference room of Apple Soho Store in Downtown manhattanNot long ago he was interviewed for the upcoming podcast, Bookmarks.
“And so I called Harlan.”
The novel, which has just been published, is called “Gone Before Goodbye”. That woman became Maggie McCabe in Witherspoon’s mind Army Combat surgeon whose professional failings lead him to accept a lucrative, but questionable plastic surgery job that will take him everywhere from Russia to Dubai and embroil him in a puzzle of murder, multiple identities, and shocking coincidences. “Gone Before Goodbye” begins with Witherspoon, but features the layered plot lines and haunting stories familiar to many of Cobain’s readers.
Witherspoon, 49, and Cobain, 63, have had careers that have run parallel for decades — he an Oscar-winning actor and producer whose credits include “Walk the Line,” “Legally Blonde” and “The Morning Show” and she the million-selling author of crime stories like “Tell No One,” “Fool Me Once” and “No Second Chances.” But their interests are also interconnected. Witherspoon oversees an influential book club and is one of the most prominent champions of reading and literacy in Hollywood, while Coben has seen several of his books adapted for film and television.
Witherspoon says the two met at a conference about nine years ago and that she has been a longtime fan of his work. Once she decided to take on a novel, she approached Coben, who had never worked with a co-author.
He said, “I was wary of the idea of collaborating. I’m not that kind of guy.” “But when he told me this idea and started talking about private doctors going in illegally and doing surgeries for very rich people and then something goes wrong. And that’s my thing – but no. And I loved it. It’s like when you have an idea, you have like hooks in your mind, you know, and all these ideas go faster.”
Maggie McCabe might seem like a good and challenging role for an actor like Reese Witherspoon. And “Gone Before Goodbye” has clear cinematic scope with its mix of exotic locales, narrow escapes and deadly confrontations. But no rights have been sold and both authors say they want the book to be enjoyed as a book – for now. Cobain explained that he worked under some basic rules – no writers other than himself, and no thinking beyond the project at hand.
“The biggest kiss of death, no matter how many adaptations of my books I’ve done, is writing a novel thinking, ‘Oh, this is going to be a really good movie.'”
During their recent interview, Witherspoon and Cobain also talked about their collaborative process, Witherspoon’s family background, and what they learned from each other.
Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
AP: What was the writing process like for this work? You were sending drafts to each other?
Witherspoon: Constant communication. Original message.
Cobain: Email. I think, we met in person once every 2 or 3 weeks.
Witherspoon: We would sit for hours, just fleshing out the story, making sure we understood each character’s background so we could prepare it for future plot lines. It was really interesting, the creation process.
Coben: I warned him that novels are like sausages. You may like the final taste. You probably don’t want to see how it was made. So we really got into the weeds with it.
AP: Do you (Witherspoon) feel like you know enough now that you can write a novel yourself?
Witherspoon: I know what I don’t know. And I think, you know, partnering with a master who has done this for over 10,000 hours and who has 37 or 38 books, one of the reasons I wanted to work with someone who is incredibly skilled at this is because he really had the patience to include me in his process.
I was very confident in my mastery of character creation. I felt as confident about this character as I do about Tracy Flick (“Election”), or Elle Woods (from “Legally Blonde”). To me, this character is so obvious and the fact that we created it together and he showed me how you can create a world around a character, it was really an education for me.
AP: What was the biggest adjustment for you (Cobain) in working with another writer?
Cobain: Reese captured the part of my brain that sometimes talks to itself. I’d rather talk to Reese. I used to tease her because sometimes when we would talk, because of her acting background, her ability to create characters, I would almost see her becoming Maggie. His voice would change slightly. I would think to myself, “Now I have to actually have him because it’s like I’m talking to the real character and he’s in the room.
AP: Was there any particular incident that inspired the book?
Witherspoon: Not really. I got a lot of inspiration from my father, who was a military surgeon, my mother was a military nurse. So they used to talk about their surgeries at night. And my father served right after Vietnam. So he was watching the soldiers coming back from Vietnam. You know, he was seeing patients after a lot of struggles. And he would come home and tell us really vivid stories about surgeries, trauma surgeries and things he had seen.
I have true respect for those who serve in the military and those who are also involved in the medical community. And, I’m also really fascinated by what drives a person to be the person they are.
Cobain: He’s a novelist (now), like it or not.
AP: Will it be lonelier for you (Cobain) the next time you write a book yourself?
Cobain: Yes it is. This is going to be weird.
Witherspoon: Oh, I’ll be right here. Just call a friend.
Cobain: I’ll call Reese right now. ‘Honey, I need help.’