But I’m sitting there, and I hadn’t known that before he even got to the table read for that scene specifically, he had taken the time out of his day to already memorize it so he could come in and start rehearsing . Did any of your memories from that time inform your script? AVC: The movie is as much about Frank’s ascent as it is his descent—in the opening scene, we see him riding high, being greeted like a celebrity. Professor in the Geography department at Midland College. MM: I think when I ultimately settled on the idea of potentially going back to Roslyn to adapt this story, my immediate sense was that Tassone was going to be a villain, because that’s how I had been conditioned to perceive him as a kid. How did you coordinate with Cory to capture that feeling? Rate Professor Makowsky. Because she’s as much of a lead character as Frank Tassone is. Website content © Television Academy.EMMY, EMMYS, and the Emmy Statuette are registered trademarks and/or copyrights Of ATAS and NATAS.TELEVISION ACADEMY and ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES are registered trademarks of ATAS. There are PDFs. But for me to be able to go back and just thank some of these people for the first time and really acknowledge just the effect that they had on me was extremely meaningful. I think in not electing not to speak to Tassone and to [Tassone accomplice] Pam Gluckin specifically, that was just a decision that was born out of mostly this notion that these two people had really victimized my community. And by then Pam Gluckin was deceased, so that decision was kind of made for us. “In Roslyn, the Frank Tassone and Pamela Gluckin scandal was one of the biggest — if not the single biggest — news story to hit the town,” Bad Education screenwriter AVC: We do see Frank moving between worlds, both figuratively and literally. But fortunately my friends were really game to sign waivers and kind of be memorialized in that way. It was probably the biggest news story that ever happened in my hometown. *You don't need the book. [Laughs] Let me think. It felt like a far deeper kind of character study that I kind of fell into accidentally, because I really thought he was going to be the villain. There is minimal homework that is directed to the lessons. And insofar as her backstory and crafting an identity for her, I think we just wanted to depict a character who had a real emotional investment and not just a tangential investment in how the scandal ultimately plays out—someone who would have a strong kind of moral perspective on these crimes that are being committed under everyone’s noses. But these were people that saw me through my worst, most formative years and were among the first ever encourage me to even pursue creative writing for the first time, who gave me notes and helped shape me as a writer and a person. And we did an entire day that was just going around and getting establishing shots of different kind of Roslyn iconography. AVC: You were in middle school or junior high when the news first broke of the embezzlement and Frank Tassone’s arrest. All quizzes and exams are open book and he gives extra credit. For as many TV shows and movies that are ripped from the headlines or based on real-life event, it’s still really strange to see something pulled from your childhood or adolescence on TV. It kind of instantly became this overnight crazy story; it was the only thing that anyone in my town was talking about, whether it was teachers, kids’ parents, my parents. Thought this class would be boring, but he made it super interesting. I was a 13-year-old at Roslyn Middle School. But in adapting the events for his film, Makowsky never lost sight of the humanity of the victims—or the perpetrators. He is a modern teacher who understand how the students learn. It was totally unexpected. Does he feel particularly at home at these education conferences in Las Vegas, or is there a different of himself that he’s showing when he’s sitting by himself ordering food at a bar at the hotel bar afterward? AVC: There is always a concern when you adapt real-life events that you can end up unintentionally sensationalizing them. Took him online and it was a great experience. As Rafael’s character says when [he and Frank] reconnect in Las Vegas, “I would have figured you would have forgotten about us the second that we walked out of the school.” And Frank, just being like, “No, we never forget. EVER. I was a 13-year-old at Roslyn Middle School. I’ve been told that tonally our film bears a very similar resemblance to that one, but I have no way of watching it currently. And you’re going around, digging through files and stuff, trying to dig up dirt on us.” I never made that connection before, but I love Thoroughbreds, and I love Paul Sparks who plays the stepdad in Thoroughbreds. Would take again. MM: He really showed up from day one. AVC: That’s something I hadn’t really thought of while watching the movie, but I am struck by hearing you describe that idea of metabolizing something, of thinking about the things we were warned against that we’re no longer scared of as adults. And I’m playing Chad Schweitzer [laughs] and I’m going, “Assle-rate? Tests & quizzes are open book. AVC: Hugh Jackman is incredible as Frank Tassone. But screenwriter Mike Makowsky’s dark comedy has lost none of its edge in that time; his incisive commentary on the private interests that regularly interfere with the public school system remains just as pertinent now, as we watch educators and families grapple with determining the best (and safest) way to keep classes going in the midst of a pandemic. [Laughs.] Do you recall being aware of the scandal as a kid? Uses some interesting language. Every day, it seemed like there was some new sensational detail that was being uncovered, firstly, by Hilltop Beacon, our school newspaper, but then by Newsday, The New York Times, the New York Post, and all these other outlets that kind of really seized on the story. I feel like far too often, we think about high school and we just want to forget that whole experience, because it was so emotionally fraught for nearly every teenager in America. MM: Right. Left: Mike Makowsky (Photo: HBO); Right: Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney star in Bad Education (Photo: HBO), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, the story of embezzlement that rocked Roslyn, Long Island. I read that you initially thought to make him more of a straightforward villain. He’s a very tall man, and he just sort of summons this energy and like stares down at me and starts screaming, “Accelerate, accelerate!” The rest of the table, nobody was expecting him to come in with that much pathos at a table read. From 13-years-old onward, he was the boogeyman of my childhood, of all of our childhoods. I wish Mr. M was my best friend!!! And I named a lot of the composite characters that were not directly depicting real subjects after friends of mine from high school, which was really fun and was also a clearance nightmare. It was certainly the most unique experience I’ve had so far as a screenwriter, but I can’t imagine that I’ll ever have an experience quite like it again. And you kind of have to imagine to yourself, “What kind of person are they when they come home and they let their guard down and they see their significant other?” So to me, that was really interesting and something that we talked about with Meredith Lippincott, our production designer, who’s incredible in terms of even putting together the small details about each of these spaces that he’s inhabiting, whether it’s his ritzy apartment in New York City, or it’s the house that he buys in Henderson, Nevada with Kyle. There was a reason why we were so highly ranked in the country as a public school system in the mid-2000s, because this was a man who really devoted his life to education. So to me, it was really interesting to kind of pull back the curtain on my own school experience and what it meant to grow up in a town like Roslyn.