David Seidler, the acclaimed screenwriter behind the Oscar-winning film “The King’s Speech,” has revealed the personal inspiration behind his work in a recent interview with filmcritic.com. Seidler shared that his parents used King George VI’s speeches during World War II as a tool to help him overcome his own stutter.
According to Seidler, his parents would tune the family radio to George VI’s speeches, highlighting the monarch’s struggle with stuttering and eventual mastery of public speaking. They would tell Seidler, “David, he was a much worse stutterer than you, and listen to him now. He’s not perfect. But he can give these magnificent, stirring addresses that rallied the free world.”
Seidler, who had his own “profanity-laden, F-bomb-filled emotional catharsis” at the age of 16, found solace in King George VI’s journey depicted in the film. He shared, “I thought that if I’m stuck with stuttering, you’re all stuck with listening with me.” Surprisingly, soon after this outburst, Seidler’s stutter faded away in conversations.
Born in London in 1937, Seidler’s screenplay for “The King’s Speech” had been a long-gestating project. He had set it aside for years until after the death of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 2002, who had asked him not to pursue it during her lifetime.
Reflecting on the process of drawing on his own experiences as a stutterer, Seidler likened it to remembering a bad toothache. He explained, “While you’ve got the toothache it’s all you think about, but as soon as you go to the dentist, and he or she takes away the pain, the last thing you want to think about was how that tooth ached.”
Seidler’s personal journey and dedication to telling King George VI’s story have not only earned him critical acclaim but also shed light on the power of perseverance and inspiration in overcoming challenges.
