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Richard Price is a novelist and screenwriter. His books explore the urban world in a gritty, realistic manner that has brought him considerable literary acclaim. Price grew up in a[…]

The author of ‘Lush Life’ also wrote the script for the ‘Bad’ video.

Question: You wrote the script for the music video. Are you proud of it?

Richard Price: I cannot tell you how much that freaking video has come up. Yes, I did. I confess. I think it’s pretty funny. At the time, everybody’s reaction to it was a real freaky thing. I just wrote an eight page story leading up the song but when you’re writing it-- Quincy Jones went to Martin Scorsese who went to me and said “They want you to work with Michael Jackson.” How on earth are you going to say ‘no’ with that crew? Even just to have the experience and it was just an eight page script. I think I did a pretty good-- everybody did a good job. Michael Jackson did a decent job as an actor. Scorsese is Scorsese. I’m a good writer. The thing is, you can’t do a realistic script starring Michael Jackson, which is going to end in a song anyhow. It’s like everybody was great and the whole thing somehow was not. At the time, it was upsetting. At this point, it’s like comedy is tragedy plus time.

Recorded On: 3/3/08


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