Graduated Mamaroneck High School, 1985. Classmate of Dan Futterman.
Bennett Miller Detailed Biography
As a perfectionist who sometimes borders on being obsessive, director Bennett Miller has enjoyed taking his time between films, even to the point of rivaling idols Terrence Malick and Stanley Kubrick. His first project, the little-seen but much-acclaimed documentary “The Cruise” (1998), was released seven years prior to his next film, “Capote” (2005), a rich and atmospheric account of the famed author’s foray into rural Kansas to cover a brutal quadruple murder that eventually became his classic novel, In Cold Blood. Though the time between “The Cruise” and “Capote” was spent directing commercials, Miller read numerous scripts in search of the perfect script for his first feature. Then actor, novice writer and old friend Danny Futterman came to him with the idea of writing “Capote.” With a swift pat on the back, Miller said “Good luck,” and went about life. A couple years later, however, Futterman showed up with a first draft and Miller new he had the right project, and with it a bright career ahead.
Miller grew up in the New York suburbs and met Futterman in the library of Hommocks Middle School in Larchmont when both were 12. While attending Mamaroneck High School, they took theater and participated in the school’s Performing Arts Curriculum Experience program. At 16, both attended a summer theater camp in Saratoga Springs where they met Philip Seymour Hoffman, the actor who later gave them a brilliant and nuanced lead performance in “Capote.” The troika retained their friendship after camp even though all went their separate ways. Miller moved on to the theater program at New York University, but switched to film after realizing he wasn’t learning anything. His stint in the film program lasted but a couple years—he dropped out of NYU altogether because he spent more time playing chess with homeless people in Washington Square Park than attending class. His dreams of becoming a filmmaker—born when he was a 12-year-old running around with an 8mm camera—fell apart.
For the next few years, Miller worked on other people’s films and took on various odd jobs. Eventually, he got it together to make his first movie, “The Cruise,” a portrait of Timothy “Speed” Levitch, an eccentric, quasi-homeless New York tour guide who’d rather sleep on a friend’s couch than pay rent. Miller knew Levitch when the two were teenagers—he was a friend of Miller’s younger brother—but had forgotten about him until the two encountered each other in the city. Miller spent some time with him and thought that the flamboyant bus driver would make a great subject for a movie. In 1996, he followed a receptive Levitch around with a camera, but later scrapped the footage. The next year, Miller returned and recorded over 70 more hours of tape. The documentary then traveled around the festival circuit—Toronto and Newport included—and eventually had a theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles, as well as a broadcast on the Cinemax series, “Cinemax Reel Life.” Miller also won an 1999 Emmy for Best Documentary.
Miller parlayed his cult success into a lucrative career as a commercial director for Hungry Man, where he helmed spots with major advertising agencies across the country. While directing ads, Miller was on the hunt for a script so he could make his first feature. After Futterman submitted his first draft of “Capote,” Miller knew right away that he had the right one. The only problem was finding a studio to back a first-time director and a first-time writer. Luckily, they had another old friend, Hoffman, attached to the project—the only actor Miller and Futterman considered for the role of Truman Capote. Pitching a project around town with an unproven director was daunting, but Miller left no doubt that he could make the film—his obsessive drive to flesh out all details of the story and production impressed studio executives. Eventually, Miller got the backing he needed and production began in late 2004. Less than a year later, the completed film was shown to raves at Telluride, Toronto and the New York Film Festival.
Based on Gerald Clarke’s Capote, A Biography, the story told of the author’s journey to Kansas in 1959 to cover the grisly shotgun murders of the upstanding Clutter family. Though an outsider from cosmopolitan New York in a small rural town, Capote spent the next six years interviewing friends, neighbors and the two itinerant murders, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith. Capote developed a strange, but familiar bond with the artistic and sensitive Smith—a relationship that eventually led to his downfall. Capote’s role in the subsequent trials of Hickock and Smith was dubious at best, destructive to his soul and creative output at worst. In order to continue writing, Capote funded the defendant’s numerous appeals. But to have an ending, he withdrew his support so the state could execute the killers. The psychological toll of watching Smith hang was too much for Capote to bear—he became an alcoholic and never finished another novel.
Though it was Hoffman who received the majority of press and accolades for his performance—and rightly so—Miller was also recognized by his peers. He was nominated for a 2005 DGA award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Feature Film after earning a win for Best Film at the 2005 National Society of Film Critics award. Miller then earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Director, but faced an uphill battle against frontrunner Ang Lee (“Brokeback Mountain”). Meanwhile, Miller returned to making commercials as his agent began inundating him with scripts—another vehement search that may take another seven years.
