Introduce Yourself : Where I get my ideas for writing screenplays by Jerry Smith

I saw "Taxi Driver" in 1976; that summer after 11th grade and I took my first bus ride to NYC. At the age of 16 I was fascinated. Fascinated not by the glamour of Broadway or 5th Ave, but by the city’s darkness and desolation. With my attraction to the bowels of the metropolitan and the natural progression of things, I became a vigilante. For the better part of 4 years I fought my own personal drug war. Much of the material I first wrote about was extracted from my personal experience. That personal experience gave me, “In An Insane Society,…”; a trilogy of screenplays that will give its audience a vicarious pleasure; I know it gave me great pleasure to bring a little bit of justice to the lawless NYC streets in the 1970s when, for all intents and purposes, all drugs were legal.

With over 400 street fights to my credit and the Guardian Angels introduced to New York, I decided to turn my energy toward the ring and became a professional fighter. For the better part of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s I was one of the top ten kickboxers in the world. Again, writing from experience, I wrote “Let’s Get Ready To Rumble”

In 2005 I was in Hollywood pitching my big budget, “Phoenix Project”, a story about our government bringing drugs into America right under the nose of President George Bush Sr. I pitched it to Leverage and they loved it. One problem though, he explained, “I have one client and he’s 34 years old. (the average age for Phoenix Project was in the 60s) Do you have anything else?” I mentioned that I had some scripts about my life in the streets as a vigilante and he was very interested in that. He offered to pitch it to HBO for me. Of course I agreed. That summer I was back and forth to and from each coast and things were going well. My last trip there was met with very good news. After the meeting I called my mom (my inspiration) to tell her the good news and before I could tell her, she explained about my dad being diagnosed with Myelofibrosis. I shut everything down and helped Mom take care of him till he passed.

For the next 12 years I took care of my mom until she passed away; the saddest day of my life. Now an orphan, I’m back to pitching my work. I just finished “Mommy’s Hero”, a beautiful story about a little boy with amazing powers to heal people. Sometimes it amazes me how I can write a script like that; something so gentle, when I can look back at my life in the streets when I had no problem breaking the knees of some drug dealer. It’s a strange world we live in. I guess that’s why we write; to share that strange world with those who would never know how bizarre life can be.