 Despite claiming to be "allergic" to autobiographical films, he was persuaded by HBO executive Maud Nadler to write a screenplay based on his own adolescence when he told her that, as a teenager, he joined his school's debate team to try and overcome his stutter.He says that he is uninterested in teen films, so "the only way I was going to do a teen movie is if I felt like I could try to be more honest about what the actual experience of being a teenager is like.