TV screenwriter gives Asotin students a crash course in the arts

ASOTIN — At one point, Bryan Fuller scanned the faces of the 20-some students who’d signed up to listen to him at the Asotin High School library, and he asked “How many of you are interested in screenwriting?”

Silence. One quiet student indicated, “Maybe.”

He seemed to pivot.

And before his more than hour-long talk had ended Friday, the television screenwriter and producer — who had grown up in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley in the 1970s and ’80s — had riffed on subjects like popular music, visual arts, film production, psychiatry, astronomy, serial killing (he didn’t recommend that skill) and artificial intelligence.

It was essentially a crash course in the arts, from someone who had basically crashed into television moviemaking nearly three decades ago and is still swimming in its mainstream.

He might have added a word to the students’ vocabulary — “extrapolate,” one of whose definitions goes, “to project, extend or expand known data or experience into to an area not known or experienced.”

That’s how he makes his living.

The chief creative force behind TV series like “Hannibal” (2013-15, extrapolating from novelist Thomas Harris) and “Pushing Daisies” (2007-09), Fuller has also written for “Star Trek: Voyager” (1997-2001) and been co-creator of “Star Trek: Discovery” (2017-24) and “Star Trek: Short Treks” (2018-20).

He has also served as executive producer for numerous other TV projects, including “American Gods” (2017-21), based on the popular Neil Gaiman novel.

A specialist in the horror and science-fiction genres, Fuller, 55, came across as friendly, fluid and accessible, and he might have scored his highest points with these students by emphasizing the uniqueness of their environment, not only the L-C Valley but the Pacific Northwest in general.

“You guys have all heard of David Lynch?” he said of the filmmaker who died two months ago at age 78. “Really weird filmmaker. He grew up in Spokane. There’s something fun and fertile about the Pacific Northwest for the weirdos. It’s OK to be weird. David Lynch did.

“I grew up in the L-C Valley,” he said, “and one of the things that tripped my imagination was that we had a serial killer when I was growing up that started right here in Asotin.”

He paused a moment.

“This may be too dark. Is it OK to talk about serial killers?” he said, looking to librarian Joe Higgins.

Higgins nodded.

“And because I loved horror films,” Fuller continued, “I was completely divorced from the fact that people’s lives were being lost, because I didn’t have the perspective of what that meant. We used to ride our bicycles out to the bridge over in Clarkston to look at the bloodstains from the dead bodies.

“It was a wild time,” he said. “If you’re curious about science fiction and horror, there’s lots of great horror stories here.”

Fuller actually attended high school 5 miles north of Asotin at Clarkston, and after graduation he attended Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, specializing in psychiatry. A professor noticed that his real passion lay in movies — their psychological aspects in particular — and he recommended he attend film school.

He did so, and after many rejections and disappointments, he began a career he now sees as a lived-out fantasy.

Asotin can attribute this visit to the fact that Fuller is closely related to an Asotin middle-school teacher, Randy Fuller. A recent family event occasioned a reunion, and the two Fullers began plotting a spur-of the-moment visit to Asotin High. Higgins got involved, and the plan was finalized last week.

Several of Fuller’s student listeners were versed in the arts, and his multifaceted career allowed him to address those interests individually.

His primary message? Follow your passions and don’t give up.

“It’s your own life,” he said. “You don’t have to live it for anybody else. The things you want to do, you can seek them out and give yourself permission to pursue them.

“Believe in yourselves,” he said.

He repeated it twice.

Grummert may be contacted at daleg@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2275.