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Larry Ferguson
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“If you throw something hard enough, it’ll hit you in the back of the head,” says Larry Ferguson ’63, his cowboy boots perched on the table as he describes his return to the Villard Hall classroom where he’d once sat as a “nutty kid from way east of Klamath Falls.”
“I was unprepared for the emotional impact of it…My eye kept drifting to the chair, probably the same wooden chair I’d sat in years before, and in it I saw a kid who looked just like me—with tattoos and a big bolt in his nose—but with the same fierce, hungry look in his eyes.”
Ferguson says it was like watching the past collide with the present, right there in front of him. And the shy Klamath kid that “nobody paid attention to” now had all eyes on him at the front of the room.
He was hooked.
So, after achieving notable success in the movie business—acting in over 173 productions and writing for over thirteen films—Larry Ferguson now comes back to the UO each spring to teach students a bit about both talents.
Despite the fact he’s “played this part” for three consecutive years, Ferguson still doesn’t see himself in a professorial role. “I am a professional craftsman,” he says. “I come to share the knowledge gained from practical experience—and, at times, success.”
His casual manner understates what has been a truly blockbuster career. Earning credits on such films as The Hunt for Red October, Presidio, Aliens 3, and Beverly Hills Cop II, it’s clear that Ferguson has become a formidable presence in the action film industry.
“Larry is an incredible resource for our students,” says John Gage, head of the English department, who initiated the Advanced Screenwriting course with Ferguson three years ago. “Not only can he charm them with stories about working with famous stars, but he also has the insight to be able to teach them, and with great sensitivity, about the craft.”
Lesli Larson, Ferguson’s co-instructor for the course, prepares the class for the one-week intensive seminar by performing a close reading of Larry’s script, The Hunt for Red October, and comparing it to the film version. “In general, we look at the overarching structure of the film and script: its three-act structure, character arcs, uses of subplots and motifs, and the relationships between verbal and visual action.”
Concurrent with this more theoretical study, students are also developing their own creative material to present to Larry and to the rest of the group during his visit. Leigh Cook, a junior who has her sights set on Hollywood, pitched her story about a murder in a small Texas town. It was an idea she’d been developing for over seven years, she recalls, so it felt a bit like “throwing a baby to the lions.” She says that Larry’s “gruff but articulate” response to her work challenged her to reshape her characters substantially.
“It usually takes a while for me to soften to critique, at least a week to realize ‘okay, maybe this person has a point, maybe this character is weaker than the rest.’ But we didn’t have that luxury in this course,” Cook says. “We brought in something new or revised every day of that week, which actually ended up being very good for me.”
Ferguson explains that he prefers for the students to come to their own conclusions about the depths and complications of their own characters. “It’s about teaching them to own what they create,” he says. “Say a student has built a structure without enough doors. A good teacher will lead him into that room and walk him around in it until he discovers that, hey, it might be nice to have another exit!”
“He likes to hear everyone’s ideas,” says Lauren Ridgely, a senior journalism major who’s recently decided she’d like to write for television. Ferguson says that he sets the classroom stage this way because “the first and most important thing a writer has to learn is that what he or she has to say is vital.”
While he wants them to own what they create, he also warns them of the creative reality: ownership can be a fleeting experience. “There’s a brief moment after you finish creating a movie when it’s yours,” he says. Then he laughs. “You should pet it, and then let it go… As moviemakers, we work in a collaborative medium; everything is a negotiation.” It’s the nature of the industry, he says, one that often seems like a swimming pool full of sharks.
On the other hand, artistic collaboration also produces the most interesting dramatic work. He speaks about Shakespeare and Bill Kemp with as much familiarity as he does John Travolta and Jim Carey, saying that actor/writer collaboration is crucial. “The reality is that it’s an actor-driven business,” he says. “If John Travolta wants to do it, it’s a movie.” For this reason, the class spends most of its time on character development, though plot structure in the movie business is equally important.
Margaret Maffai, an honors student majoring in philosophy, says that Ferguson’s experience and perspective was an invaluable resource. “He helped us in learning about the business, the people side of getting a contract, getting our movie made.”
Ridgley agrees, “It is very daunting to think about approaching the Hollywood crowd but Larry made us feel like we had every right to interact with guys like Spielberg and Connery… It is nice to have at least one voice that isn’t saying, ‘it’s an impossible dream!’”
Larson says Ferguson is definitely a charismatic figure in the classroom, but he is one who also sets an example of discipline for his students. He wakes at five each morning to write.
But this seasoned screenwriter still has a streak of the renegade in him.
“I have very few rules. The ones that I do have I’m always looking for ways to break.”
He soars through classes without lesson plans, letting students’ questions guide their mutual discovery. Articulating the process for his students has taught him a great deal, says Ferguson. “I believe teaching and learning are the same moment. They’re not different activities, one antecedent to the other. They are simultaneous moments.”
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