From Late Night to Action-Comedy: A Conversation with ‘Freelance’ Screenwriter Jacob Lentz

Ex-Special Forces operative Mason Pettits (John Cena) is stuck in a dead-end desk job when he’s reluctantly recruited by former military buddy Sebastian Earle (Christian Slater) to take on a simple freelance gig providing security for washed-up journalist Claire Wellington (Alison Brie). He begrudgingly escorts Claire on assignment to interview a ruthless – but impeccably dressed – dictator Juan Venegas (Juan Pablo Raba), when a military coup breaks out just as she’s about to get the scoop of a lifetime. Now, the unlikely trio must figure out how to survive the jungle AND each other in order to make it out alive. 

While there are big spectacular action sequences, finely helmed by Taken (2008) director Pierre Morel in his latest action-comedy flick, Freelance, there's a fine balance of character, snappy dialogue, and heart, thanks to scribe Jacob Lentz.

Jacob Lentz cut his teeth writing TV comedy, namely for Jimmy Kimmel Live! and not too soon after made a huge career leap into studying Emergency Medicine. Now he's back with his feature screenwriting debut with the John Cena and Alison Brie starring vehicle, Freelance. Jacob recently took some time to speak with Script about how this story idea initially was led by character, researching and reading many, many books on PMCs, to his writing process, and the learning curve writing his first action-comedy film.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Sadie Dean: What came first for you? This story idea, or this character, Mason, who finds himself presented with this unique opportunity to get back in the game and have, as you begin the movie and bookend it with, a purpose in this world?

Jacob Lentz: Yeah, that's a great question. It really started with thinking about that character. I started thinking about a character like that based on a friend of mine, who's la great guy, who was in the Army Special Forces - and it was a little bit of that - he'd been hurt - and I was just very fascinated by that. So, started thinking about that, what do you do when you're going 100 miles an hour? And I thought that was interesting.

Simultaneous to that, I was reading a lot of books about these PMCs [Private Military Company] and then I started thinking, ‘Oh, I wonder if there's something here with a character like that?’ And then I just kind of came across this idea of what if he does overthrow a government? Could that happen? It was kind of that sequence. And then it gets into all these murky memories of the scriptwriting process, [laughs] but I'm pretty sure it started with wondering about a character like that. And then kind of researching these companies... but then the big moment I think was figuring out how to get him into it. How do you get a guy who is stuck at home? I have to get him into this situation.

Sadie: During that research phase, and for writers, we definitely like to go down the research rabbit hole, but for you when did you know enough was enough and you had to start writing?

Jacob: I think after I read my eighth book, I was like, ‘Mow I'm just reading books.’ [laughs] I had a stack of books that I had made my way through. But during that process, I was also thinking about it. And so, I think right around the time I was wrapped up the eighth one, I was like, ‘I think I have this notion in my head.’ The one thing that I have learned and I never want to be one of those people whose like, [pontificating] ‘the writing process’ you know? Because it's hard and it's miserable, and no one likes it. [laughs] There's no secret for that. But the one thing I do I kind of count on is if I don't know, and if I'm jammed up, especially with figuring out a story or plot, I do something else; I read a book, I go for a hike or go for a walk, or I do dishes. I think there's data and evidence that suggests this, just distract your active mind and your back part of your brain, the motor, will keep going. So, I think, in some ways, just getting through these books was helping me start to kind of unspool it a little bit.

Sadie: When approaching material like this, because you come from the Late Night comedy world, now you're jumping into writing a comedy-action movie, how do you find that balance? And making them kind of do this dance together without one taking over the other?

Jacob: That's a good question. I think for me, obviously, the new thing was trying to write an action sequence, which I'd never [done], I just worked in Late Night. So, it had been mostly just focused on comedy and stuff. I was like, ‘How do people do that?’ I got some scripts, because I’ll learn from people who know what they're doing better than I do. And so, I got Die Hard, 48 Hours, and I just read how they wrote out the action because my impulse was to overwrite it and just make it very incredibly detailed. And the first go around was just this incredibly dense…That can't be right. Then the old noggin’ kicked in. I researched how people write it.

And I was trying to picture it in my mind, ‘I hope this is original, but doesn't seem over the top.’ So that was definitely the thing that I struggle with the most was figuring out how to do that. But then the comedy…I knew I wanted to kind of have a lot of that but I also didn't. The concern that I had and thankfully, there were always really smart people helping me, like managers and producers and when Pierre [Morel] got involved, he was super helpful with script notes. There were always people along the way, just kind of making sure I didn't clobber it over the head with jokes. Yeah, I shouldn't give myself too much credit on this. [laughs]

Sadie: [laughs] Once Pierre was onboard, what was that process like? And did you have any big learning curves working with him?

Jacob: Yeah, I mean, [laughs] listen, that guy knows what he's doing. He’s a very talented filmmaker, and he has his crew and all his people are so good. They're like a well-oiled machine. And then you watch them, and they're all chattering in French, and then they go and they do something and it's perfect. And I don't understand it still, they're just really good.

He gave me great notes. Super smart. Definitely understands scriptwriting. Very helpful, very experienced. And I learned a lot from that. But I can't say I learned too much from the movie making process because he's on such another level that I just felt like, I was just watching. Like, they'd rig up these action sequences, I was like, ‘How's this gonna work? This doesn't make any sense to me in any way.’ But then it would work perfectly. He's just on another level that I'm not going to compare myself, frankly. [laughs]

Sadie: In terms of the characters, any that you wrote part of yourself into or found similarities toward?

Jacob: Well, I think physically, John Cena and I are very similar.

Sadie: Obviously.

Jacob: So that was a pretty easy slam dunk. I kind of constructed Mason to be based on a friend of mine, who I really like, and then kind of just added to it. Venegas, I don't know any dictators…I was like, if you have a coup, it has to be dictator, right? And then you have to be protecting the dictator because that's the last thing you want to be doing in a coup is helping the overthrown dictator. So this is like two giant marks against this guy. And then I was like, he has to be charming…he has to be full of weird wisdom and wit. And then Claire, I definitely feel a lot of empathy on a personal level with feeling like you have something to prove and that you've kind of screwed everything up and now you have to work your way out of it. I definitely empathize with that. And that's what I thought was important about her.

Freelance is only in theaters on October 27, 2023.