1. ABOUT THE PRODUCTION At once a blistering comedy and a deeply moving human drama, RUNNING WITH SCISSORS is the mesmerizing tale of how a young man survived a nightmare childhood – while keeping his sense of humor and his sense of forgiveness intact. 2. TURNING PERSONAL MEMORIES INTO A MOVIE The film depicts Burroughs’ unsettling, humor-filled and highly personal recollections of growing up under the most berserk and often shocking circumstances. 3. HOW TO CAST LIFE’S MOST ECCENTRIC CHARACTERS As he was writing, Ryan Murphy tried to avoid the temptation of envisioning any particular actors in the roles he was creating. “I wanted them to truly be their own people,” he explains. 4. DEIRDRE BURROUGHS: ANNETTE BENING AS A MOTHER WITH DELUSIONS OF FAME AND FREEDOM For Ryan Murphy, one of the most vital characters in the film was always Deirdre Burroughs, who not only drives the events of the story but emerges as a deeply complicated and fascinating woman of her times beneath her often painfully hilarious words and actions. 5. AUGUSTEN BURROUGHS: JOSEPH CROSS AS A WRY TRAVELER THROUGH A CHILDHOOD HELL Casting a young actor to play Augusten Burroughs would become one of the first major cruxes of the production. 6. INTO THE FINCH FAMILY HOUSEHOLD: BRIAN COX, JOSEPH FIENNES, EVAN RACHEL WOOD, GWYNETH PALTROW AND JILL CLAYBURGH AS THE AMERICAN FAMILY TURNED UPSIDE DOWN This film tells the story of Augusten Burroughs who is just barely a teenager, when his mother abandons him to the care of her shrink, Dr. Finch. 7. NORMAN BURROUGHS: ALEC BALDWIN AS A MATHEMATICIAN WHOSE FAMILY JUST DOESN’T ADD UP For the role of Augusten’s father Norman, whose departure from the Burroughs family precipitates a devastating chain of events for his son, Ryan Murphy right away envisioned Alec Baldwin, with whom he had worked on an episode of “Nip/Tuck.” 8. AN AMERICAN GOTHIC, 1970’s STYLE: ABOUT THE FILM’S DESIGN The next challenge that lay in front of Ryan Murphy was creating a wholly unique visual world for the Burroughs and the Finches to inhabit.

Production Notes

From day one, Ryan Murphy has kept me involved. People had warned me, “Once you option your book, it’s out of your hands.” I was like, “Good. Go, take it away, make it pretty. Call me when I have to buy a tux.”

I’ve never felt like somebody has taken my life story and run away with it. I always felt that Ryan deeply cared not only about making a great movie, but making a movie that I, in the end, would feel was an honest reflection of my experience. I never knew what to expect in my life, from one moment to the next.

I know there will be people who watch this film and think, “Oh, it’s so depressing. What a horrible life. How could you have survived?” But I did survive. And I went on to write a book that was a big bestseller. And now, a movie.

So when you step back, you realize that my story has the happiest ending of all. Yes, it was a rough childhood. And yes, I experienced a lot of things that are outside the norm. But, I never lost my hope. I never lost my belief that tomorrow could be better than today. I never, for one moment, stopped believing that things could turn out OKAY in the end.

All of this shines through in the film, all of this hope and optimism. In the end, “Running with Scissors” isn’t really the story about a boy with a horrible childhood. It’s the story about a boy who loved life more than anything. And would never, no matter what, give up that love of being alive.

Augusten Burroughs July, 2006

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

“Where would we be without our crazy childhoods?”
-- Dr. Finch

At once a blistering comedy and a deeply moving human drama, RUNNING WITH SCISSORS is the mesmerizing tale of how a young man survived a nightmare childhood – while keeping his sense of humor and his sense of forgiveness intact. The film is writer/director Ryan Murphy’s interpretation of Augusten Burrough’s personal memoir. In the film, Murphy not only tells the story of a warped, out-of-control, 70s-era coming of age, he has also crafted a strikingly universal story about the strange power of families, the wonderment of childhood, the madness of adulthood and the revelation of finding your way in spite of it all.

The movie begins in 1971 as the neatness-obsessed but sharply observant 6 year-old Augusten (JOSEPH CROSS) finds himself trapped between his troubled parents: his mother Deirdre (ANNETTE BENING), an unpublished, not to mention unstable, confessional poet with delusions of being hugely famous, and his father Norman (ALEC BALDWIN), an alcoholic math professor who long ago gave up trying to solve the riddle of his wife’s problems or his son’s precocious behavior.

When the Burroughs’ marriage goes to pieces, Deirdre signs up for therapy with the eccentric Dr. Finch (BRIAN COX), a highly unconventional shrink who takes the family under his wing. From the beginning, Augusten is suspicious of Dr. Finch’s peculiarities – his office includes, among other oddities, a Masturbatorium where the good doctor goes to relax in the middle of tedious sessions. But when Dr. Finch fails to save the Burroughs’ marriage, Augusten’s life takes an even more wrenching turn. While Deirdre is packed off to a motel to continue her Valium-aided therapy, Augusten is sent to live in the Finch family home – a kind of Brady-Bunch-gone-bad world where for some dog kibble is a snack, sedatives are consumed like candy and grand prophecies emerge from the bathroom.

As Augusten unwittingly becomes part of the family – which also includes the shell- shocked Mrs. Finch (JILL CLAYBURGH), “Bible-dipping” daughter Hope (GWYNETH PALTROW), disco-rebel daughter Natalie (EVAN RACHEL WOOD) and Neil Bookman (JOSEPH FIENNES), Finch’s disturbed, 35 year-old, “adopted” son who lives in a shed at the back of the house – he will descend into a kind of surreal childhood hell. Yet, he will also find optimism among the horror, hilarity in the insanity and even love amid the dilapidated ruins as he never loses his spirit or his resilience. Ultimately, Augusten will survive through the most extraordinary of circumstances.

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS is written for the screen, produced and directed by Ryan Murphy (“Nip/Tuck”). Based on the personal memoirs of Augusten Burroughs, the film stars Annette Bening (“Being Julia”), Brian Cox (“The Bourne Supremacy”), Joseph Fiennes (“Shakespeare in Love”), Evan Rachel Wood (“Thirteen”), Alec Baldwin (“Aviator”), Jill Clayburgh (“An Unmarried Woman”) and Joseph Cross (“Strangers With Candy”) as Augusten Burroughs. Rounding out the cast are Kristin Chenoweth (“Bewitched”) and Gabrielle Union (“The Honeymooners”).

The film is also produced by Plan B Entertainment principals Brad Grey, Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”).

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS is rated “R” for strong language and elements of sexuality, violence and substance abuse.