So to me, it was really interesting to kind of pull back the curtain on my own school experience and what it meant to grow up in a town like Roslyn. Bad Education retells the story of embezzlement that rocked Roslyn, Long Island (Makowsky’s hometown) in 2004 and captured the nation’s attention. I think it was just because it was stranger than fiction in so many ways. Connects and relates to students. And how many of them actually come back and visit afterwards? So if you don't skip it's an easy A. There’s a handful of things, right?

He is a modern teacher who understand how the students learn. It’s just so weird to watch that movie and see my public high school be treated as the Goliath in this David and Goliath story. [Laughs.] AVC: You grew up in Roslyn, which means you know what colloquialisms fit, what signifiers would make the movie look and feel like home. In going back to my high school and speaking with a bunch of my old teachers, I learned very quickly that he had kept a really top-notch education system while he was there. MM: That’s like my favorite question I’ve ever gotten about the movie. We don’t forget our students.”. Club spoke to Makowsky about avoiding sensationalism, how journalism and the 2016 election influenced his narrative, and why he views Hugh Jackman yelling “Accelerate!” at a table read as an honor. I was a 13-year-old at Roslyn Middle School. Grades of Participation and amount of Absences. And again, that’s a really cynical viewpoint, but I think you have to sort of look at the different societal mechanisms at play that help guide some of the decisions that these administrators and the taxpayers make on behalf of the children. It was surreal in every definition of the word, but it was a real privilege. As Rafael’s character says when [he and Frank] reconnect in Las Vegas, “I would have figured you would have forgotten about us the second that we walked out of the school.” And Frank, just being like, “No, we never forget. There are PDFs. I took his online class and he was very clear and gave good feedback. MM: Mm-hmm, yeah. I made a C in the class, but I skipped at least once a week. *Level I, II, & III assignments. It felt like a far deeper kind of character study that I kind of fell into accidentally, because I really thought he was going to be the villain. Lecture is interesting. AVC: There is always a concern when you adapt real-life events that you can end up unintentionally sensationalizing them. For a young Makowsky, this story was a cautionary tale or urban legend, which would make Frank Tassone, the former superintendent who stole millions from the school district, a kind of boogeyman. Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed. All quizzes and exams are open book and he gives extra credit. AVC: When I first saw Bad Education, it reminded me of this 2000 HBO movie called Cheaters, starring Jeff Daniels and Jena Malone, that’s actually based on an academic decathlon scandal that happened in Chicago when I was in high school. AVC: We do see Frank moving between worlds, both figuratively and literally. That's how good of a teacher he is. Professor Mak really cares about what he is teaching. I’ve been told that tonally our film bears a very similar resemblance to that one, but I have no way of watching it currently. I was in seventh grade at the time, but I had grown up in the school district and would graduate five years later out of Roslyn High School.

He is hilarious and completely understands how the modern student learns. You eventually come to see the larger critique, especially once you start thinking about how property taxes affect the school resources. I got to see them as adult humans for the first time in speaking to them on a more one-on-one level, not just as a teacher/student. Mike Makowsky: bio, photos, awards, nominations and more at Emmys.com. It’s very strange for me and very, very difficult to process for me and my family and my friends back home, my old teachers. There is minimal homework that is directed to the lessons. It was certainly the most unique experience I’ve had so far as a screenwriter, but I can’t imagine that I’ll ever have an experience quite like it again. Bad Education is a 2019 American crime comedy-drama film directed by Cory Finley and written by Mike Makowsky.It is based on the true story of the largest public school embezzlement in American history. We suggest you use the latest version of any of these browsers: Visiting the site with Internet Explorer or other browsers may not provide the best viewing experience. Because we shot the majority of the film in and around my hometown on Long Island. He’s a very tall man, and he just sort of summons this energy and like stares down at me and starts screaming, “Accelerate, accelerate!” The rest of the table, nobody was expecting him to come in with that much pathos at a table read. We don’t often have a chance to really go back and process them. I read that you initially thought to make him more of a straightforward villain. If you show up and study for Test, easy A. Alot of quizzes. It was totally unexpected. I’m still kind of just beyond myself that people care about what happens in my small town in 2004, and that now suddenly the name Roslyn is invoked in articles and interviews and on HBO, and that it’s kind of like a thing with capital. And insofar as her backstory and crafting an identity for her, I think we just wanted to depict a character who had a real emotional investment and not just a tangential investment in how the scandal ultimately plays out—someone who would have a strong kind of moral perspective on these crimes that are being committed under everyone’s noses. Left: Mike Makowsky (Photo: HBO); Right: Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney star in Bad Education (Photo: HBO), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, the story of embezzlement that rocked Roslyn, Long Island. Do you recall being aware of the scandal as a kid? Professor in the Geography department at Midland College. MM: Right. You definitley have to read the textbook in order to pass his exams. Tests & quizzes are open book. The downtown clock tower and Kitchen Kabaret, which is this kind of famous local eatery off exit 39 that if you’re not from the immediate area, might not mean so much to you, but visually, for anyone that’s grown up on Long Island and Roslyn, it means a great deal. 3. When his name was invoked in our town, it was in relation to it being some sort of cautionary tale or a blight on our community. AVC: That’s something I hadn’t really thought of while watching the movie, but I am struck by hearing you describe that idea of metabolizing something, of thinking about the things we were warned against that we’re no longer scared of as adults. And then immediately, it was just this thing, where I was getting lunch with Cory [Finley, director] right after, and we both just looked at each other and we were like, “Wow, this is going to be an insane process.” We were just so fortunate that he wanted to come and play with us and embody that role. There were these deep-seated wounds that are still strongly felt by people whom I care about quite deeply in my town. There are 20+ professionals named "Mike Makowsky", who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. But for me to be able to go back and just thank some of these people for the first time and really acknowledge just the effect that they had on me was extremely meaningful. And going back and speaking to my old teachers, I realized you don’t become a public school educator because you intend to steal $12 million. With Bad Education in the running for Outstanding TV Movie (and Jackman nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Limited Series Or Movie), The A.V. Definitely one of the best classroom experiences I have been apart of!!! EVER. MM: He really showed up from day one.

Did any of your memories from that time inform your script? It was kind of, at least from a literary perspective, very difficult for me to resist the idea of grounding the stories through the perspective of a high school journalist, because I also worked at that school paper years later, which, in a large way, defined my high school experience. He's very funny. He is an exceptional professor and takes his job seriously. For as many TV shows and movies that are ripped from the headlines or based on real-life event, it’s still really strange to see something pulled from your childhood or adolescence on TV.

View the profiles of professionals named "Mike Makowsky" on LinkedIn. AVC: You were in middle school or junior high when the news first broke of the embezzlement and Frank Tassone’s arrest. I have to track down Cheaters, although I imagine that it’s probably not available on HBO Max because they’ve done a notoriously bad job of inventorying their old TV movies. He's a awesome teacher, keeps the entertaining, and memorable. So it is a kind of profoundly one-sided relationship in a lot of ways in trying to diagnose the root of what about Tassone’s status as an educator felt less than totally satisfying: what he could have told himself at the beginning of this process, when he went to Columbia Teachers College, when he went and became a public school superintendent, that his expectations versus reality, I think, and getting to the root of what that really entailed was a really interesting rabbit hole to go down for all of us. But fortunately my friends were really game to sign waivers and kind of be memorialized in that way. Because she’s as much of a lead character as Frank Tassone is. AVC: Hugh Jackman is incredible as Frank Tassone. Does he feel particularly at home at these education conferences in Las Vegas, or is there a different of himself that he’s showing when he’s sitting by himself ordering food at a bar at the hotel bar afterward? I specifically did not speak to any of the perpetrators of the embezzlement scandal, but did speak with a lot of other people that were tangentially first-person observers to what had gone down, whether they were faculty and staff of the school or parents who had had close working relationships with Tassone through various initiatives. He really cares about his students. There was not one person in my class that made lower than a B-. During a field trip to Monsters, Inc., Mike met Frank McCay, and developed a goal to attend Monsters University and become a scarer. Participation matters Gives good feedback Inspirational Hilarious EXTRA CREDIT But screenwriter Mike Makowsky’s dark comedy has lost none of its edge in that time; his incisive commentary on the private interests that regularly interfere with the public school system remains just as pertinent now, as we watch educators and families grapple with determining the best (and safest) way to keep classes going in the midst of a pandemic. Level of Difficulty. Is there a particularly obscure or deep-cut reference you’re proud to have worked into the script?