From left: Will Tracy, Clint Bentley, Noah Oppenheim, Bradley Cooper, Hikari and Guillermo del Toro were photographed Nov. 21 at Penske Studios in Los Angeles. Photographed by Mark Griffin Champion One thing the three original and three adapted screenplays chosen to be featured on this year's THR Writers Roundtable have in common is the theme of trauma and grief. In fact, some of the writers (or, in some cases, co-writers) used their screenplays to work through their own pain and heartache. "I wanted to show the audience that grief never leaves you and you always walk with a limp after it," Train Dreams co-writer Clint Bentley says about the film he made shortly after losing both of his parents, while Hikari based Shannon Mahina Gorman's character Mia in Rental Family on experiences she had when she was 7 years old. Related Stories News Chelsea Handler Zings Ex 50 Cent at Critics Choice Awards After Rapper Turns Toward Diddy's Son Lifestyle How 'KPop Demon Hunters' Star Audrey Nuna Avoided a Wardrobe Malfunction at the Critics Choice Awards Bentley and Hikari sat down with Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein), Bradley Cooper (Is This Thing On?), Will Tracy (Bugonia) and Noah Oppenheim (A House of Dynamite) on a rainy Friday morning in November to discuss the origins of their Oscar-contending screenplays, why writing dialogue is like "music" and at what point the writer's hat comes off when they have other duties like directing, producing or operating a camera (Cooper did all of the above on the film he co-wrote with Will Arnett and Mark Chappell). Some of you have backgrounds in acting, news and even politics. How did you get into screenwriting? HIKARI For me, it's always the character. Bradley, you said you research a lot once you start finding a character who you want to tell the story [of], and [I'm] exactly the same. Once I learn about the job, about the people who exist in this world, I dig into what they do and why they do what they do. And that's how I start building a story. NOAH OPPENHEIM For me, it's all about storytelling fueled by curiosity. I love to peel back the curtain on worlds that I don't know much about and talk to people about their lives. And then the question is, what's the best way to convey that story? Journalism is a great way to do it, but sometimes fictional storytelling is a more effective way of highlighting issues in the world, especially right now, where people are so polarized that everyone only consumes their own news sources that affirm their preexisting biases. But movies like these can get people from all ends of the political spectrum talking about the same issue at the same time, which is a beautiful thing. Will, you've come a long way from your days at The Onion. WILL TRACY I always wanted to write movies, but I applied to film school and didn't get in, so I thought, "Well, there goes that." After college, I was fired from a few different jobs and then became an intern at The Onion and wheedled my way into them letting me write jokes, and so I wrote jokes and eventually was hired there, and then went from that to a late night comedy show, then to Succession. And then I guess circuitously found my way to the thing that I wanted to do. GUILLERMO DEL TORO Have you been back to the film school, like, "who is laughing now?" TRACY I had to do a talk at NYU, which is where I had applied, and I didn't mention it. From left: Will Tracy, Clint Bentley, Noah Oppenheim, Bradley Cooper, Hikari and Guillermo del Toro were photographed Nov. 21 at Penske Studios in Los Angeles. Photographed by Mark Griffin Champion Guillermo, you had your start in special effects and makeup. DEL TORO I was a writer before anything else, and for me, this project is a training of 50 years. [People] would say, "Let's talk about the impressionism." [I'd say,] "Oh yeah, like Frankenstein." "Let's talk about architecture." "Oh yeah, like Frankenstein." TRACY Something like Frankenstein - which is something you always wanted to do - when you finally get the chance to do it, that's a lot of pressure, right? DEL TORO I felt no pressure. [Bradley Cooper and I] went together through a beautiful experience [on 2021's Nightmare Alley], and that's what allowed me to do this. With that, I learned that, after 50-something, the movie tells you what it wants to be, including the screenplay. CLINT BENTLEY I was always a writer as well and actually came from trying to write literature first and failing very poorly at that. It started there, and then [I was] writing short films. Then I met Greg Kwedar, whom I've been working with for 15 years, and we were just friends who wanted to make a film together. I had no idea how to write a screenplay, and so we just read every great screenplay we could get our hands on. The first film that he directed, Transpecos, that we wrote together, we wrote it over and over and over again, probably like nine page one rewrites. By the time we get to the point where it's like, oh, okay, we kind