‘Shutter Island’ Author Dennis Lehane on New Series ‘Smoke’ and Its Real-Life Inspiration (Exclusive)
If you like your thrillers dark, then here’s a good one for you: Created by Shutter Island and Mystic River author Dennis Lehane, the new Apple TV+ crime drama series Smoke follows a detective with a troubled past (Jurnee Smollett) and an enigmatic arson investigator (Taron Egerton) in the Pacific Northwest as they pursue the trails of two serial arsonists.
But there’s much more to it than arson, because it’s got Lehane, one of the greatest thriller writers of our time, at the helm. I was lucky enough to get to chat with him about Smoke, which premieres this Friday, June 27, as well as some of his previous work.
Courtesy of Apple TV+
I’m a big fan of your books, so I was excited to see that you’re the creator behind this new show. What can you tell us about it without giving too much away?
I was approached to do a story based on a real case that happened in the 1980s in Glendale, California. I wasn’t terribly inspired by it until I came up with this idea that every single person, I think if they looked into their hearts, would realize they’re attracted to one thing that can kill them. I wanted to find everybody’s one thing in this show, and that’s what I built out for the characters. So it’s really about the kind of sexiness of self-destruction, even though the form it takes is fire.
So this was a real arsonist?
He’s the most infamous arsonist in American history. His name was John Orr. He was simultaneously shopping a book around New York City about an arsonist, essentially. I just thought it was just so wonderfully batsh*t that I said all right; that’s what brought me in.
But then I need to lock onto something about the unconscious of my main characters. I like to play with that a lot. There’s what you do on the surface, and then there’s what drives it, which is rarely understood by the person and themselves. So I like playing around with that. The thing that I most care about is characters and whatever effed-up journey they’re going on.
Yeah, I’ve noticed that. That’s why I like your books so much, because some crime fiction is too plot-heavy, and I don’t care about anybody in it. And then I lose interest.
Yeah, that does happen.
So wait, the arsonist was writing a book and trying to sell it? Did it ever become a book?
It’s a book. I own it. It was not published, I think he self-published after he was arrested or convicted. But it exists.
Is it… good?
No, it’s terrible. Absolutely terrible. I only read a few pages. I just was just like, ‘Oh, this is just abysmal.’
That was kind of what I imagined.
But yeah, just the idea that he was running around trying to sell this book that had in it details that only the actual arsonist of the crimes could know…
Yeah, that is totally nuts.
Yeah. I think what I’m really trying to tee up is this idea that … there’s this whole thing where I’d hear people say my whole life, “I want to be happy.” And I’d be like, “Do you?” It troubled me.
And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that’s because I’ve never known anybody who really wanted to be happy. People don’t want to be happy. It’s like the Talking Heads song about heaven: Nothing ever happens. Happy is a state of mind that lasts for all about four minutes, and then you move on. What people really want to do is feel alive.
Yes, I totally agree with this.
So we’re looking at that through a really twisted lens. Everybody on this show is addicted to feeling alive, and they’re doing so much destruction because of it.
I also loved your more recent book, Since We Fell, by the way. I’ve read it a couple times.
Thank you very much.
Do you think you’ll ever turn that into a show or a movie?
People have talked about it. I mean, it’s gone back and forth. It was in development at one point, but I don’t know what’s going to happen right now. It’s hanging out there. It’s not with anybody. It’s not high on my priorities. So it would take somebody else.
©Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection
You’ve had some very successful film adaptations — Mystic River, Shutter Island, Gone Baby Gone. I don’t know if you can answer this, but if you had to pick your favorite adaptation from book to screen, what would it be?
Oh, I can’t answer that. I’m sorry.
That’s okay, I sort of guessed that!
It’s because every single one of them is really good. Some of them are spectacular. And the people who worked on them did a great service to me and to my work. And so to pick one would be an insult to the others.
(c) Warner Brothers/courtesy Everett Collection
Last question: Do you have anything on the horizon that you’re working on that you can talk about?
Hoping we get a second season on this, as we built the second season out. That’s our dream. And then I’m fiddling around at the beginning of the adaptation of my last book, Small Mercies.