birth name: Benjamin Isaac LaMott
professional name: Ben LaMott
date of birth: November 2, 1985 (31)
hometown: Cambridge, Massachusetts
current residence: Los Angeles, California
occupation: director, screenwriter, recovering model
status: I find myself searching through the ashes of our ruins
family: Thomas, Susannah, Ryan, Emmett, Rosemary
personality: INFP / Scorpio
It would surprise exactly no one that Ben LaMott's first memory was of watching films: every day after school, the Boston native would plop himself in front of his family's television to absorb all the celluloid he could handle. Through all the phases he went through, including music, architecture, writing, sports, and every other hobby under the sun, one thing was constant: Ben wanted nothing more than to create what he loved: creative, vibrant, and absorbing stories that would help other see the world in the way that those early films had taught him to see it. Although Thomas had hoped that Ben would follow his older half-brothers into medicine, his mother, Susannah, had seen and sought to nurture her shy son's artistic side, indulging his interests by allowing him to take lessons in videography and even starring in some of his earliest attempts at remaking some of his favorite stories and at telling his own. After Ben received his BFA from the undergraduate film & television program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, the program awarded him funds to make his first film, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, which he did in his native Boston. Hoping that the warm reception received by Guy and Madeline on the festival circuit was the sign of exciting things to come, Ben and his best friend and writing partner, Justin Hurwitz, moved across the country to Los Angeles, where they both threw themselves into building their careers. Justin took to their new locale more easily than Ben did, earning himself writing credits on The League and The Simpsons. Meanwhile, Ben felt himself stalling, frustrated by his false starts and lack of success. In the midst of his despair about ever making it in film, he wrote the screenplay based on an idea that the two had been working on since beginning college: a jazz-inspired musical that mingled the magic he had always loved in old Hollywood films with the realism of the disappointment that sometimes follows chasing your dreams (a reality that, though he was loathe admit it, he was experiencing more and more every day). Despite all the charm and hustle that he threw into getting the film produced and funded, Ben's every attempt was met with resistance: no studio was willing to throw money away on a lost genre in the hands of a rookie director. Recognizing that succeeding in filmmaking would require more than sheer ambition, Ben began to, as he later put it, "whore himself out" for writing work. To support himself, he also worked as a bartender, substitute teacher, and occasional model. Finally, he began to make headway: he shared screenwriting credit on The Last Exorcism Part II and Grand Piano, both of which were released in 2013. That same year, Ben was finally able to return to his dream: he wrote and directed a short film, Whiplash, as a proof of concept based on a screenplay that he had written partially based on Justin's experiences in their high school's competitive jazz band. When the short won the Sundance Film Festival Short Prize, Ben was able to secure funding and make the full-length version of Whiplash, which starred J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller. 2014 was something of a charmed year for Ben: midway through the editing of Whiplash, he met Maeve, the younger sister of actress Rebekah Wolfe. The two began dating, moved in together, and eventually became engaged. At the same time, Whiplash's critical and commercial success meant that doors finally began opening for Ben to pursue his dream. Five years after he had originally written the screenplay, Ben secured a production company to fund and distribute what would become La La Land. The film was made in 2015 and released the following year to nearly universal acclaim. La La Land tied All About Eve and Titanic's record for fourteen Academy Award nominations, ultimately winning six. These included a Best Director Oscar for Ben, who, at age 31, became the youngest person to ever win the award. And yet, as all the stars aligned to give Ben what he'd always wanted - namely, the opportunities and creative control that being an Academy Award winner would provide - his personal life fell apart. His engagement to Maeve ended in the midst of award season, leaving Ben at an early professional high and a personal low. With his future plans irreparably altered by the end of his engagement, Ben faces a future full of opportunity and, for the time being, heartache. Personality Ben is kind, affectionate, and charming with a witty, wry, and self-deprecating sense of humor. He is deeply curious and seeks out connections, as he wants to learn from and understand the people and world around him. Ben spends much of his time living in his head, which leads him to be reserved in crowds and to avoid fighting for the spotlight. While he is generally calm, he can be almost manic in moments of inspiration, being prone to insomnia, self-isolation, and perfectionism. Because of this tendency toward self-criticism, when things don't go his way, he can be stubborn and easily discouraged, although he tries to hide this from others by turning his frustration inward or finding other outlets, which can be more or less healthy depending on his mood. Facts Filmography (20??, announced) "The Eddy" director (2018, pre-production) First Man director (2018) The Claim writer (2016) La La Land director, writer 🏆 (2016) 10 Cloverfield Lane co-writer (2014) Whiplash director, writer 🏆 (2013) Whiplash (short) director, writer 🏆 (2013) The Last Exorcism Part II co-writer (2013) Grand Piano writer (2009) Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench director, writer, producer, cinematographer, editor, soundtrack lyricist pb: Julian Morris / credits of Damien Chazelle / journal |