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Martin, I read that you were the one who pitched the story idea to Emilio, so I was curious how that went, because obviously it was good enough that it got made?

MS: He was preparing Bobby at the time. It was 2003, his son Taylor, was working for me as an assistant on The West Wing. We had about six weeks off in the summer of 2003, before we started the new season. So I had this romantic idea that we would do the Camino. I organized a family reunion in Ireland first and frittered away four weeks. When I got to Madrid, I had two weeks left. So me and Taylor were looking at a map and trying to figure out how we could do the Camino in two weeks (laughs). It was ludicrous, so we rented a car and drove it to check it out for future reference.

And in Burgos, that’s the town where the little boy steals the bag, we stayed at a bed-and-breakfast called The Mill. At the pilgrim’s dinner that night, the family that owned and ran the place were serving supper and their daughter, a very beautiful young girl, looks at Taylor, he looks at her, and they have been together since that moment. They married; they live in Burgos, very near the cathedral in the film. So I came home without him thinking, “How do I explain this?” (laughs)

So that was the seed that got planted. Also my father was raised about 80 kilometers from Santiago, so I kind of knew about it growing up and I had this romantic image of it that I would walk it someday. But I just nudged Emilio saying, “There is something really special going on out there on the Camino.” And my idea was about two old guys doing the Camino with a kid who falls in love and they don’t have a clue. And Emilio said, “That’s a one-line kind of joke, let’s expand it.”

EE: It really was a collaboration from the beginning, and I live down the street from him so it’s like (knocks on table), “I’ve got an idea! I got another idea!”

MS: “I know you are in there!”

EE: “You can’t hide from me. Did you write the scene yet? Can I see some pages?” (both laugh)

MS: No one else can get me to work for nothing (laughs).

The Way walks its way into select AMC Theatres October 7th, expanding October 14th, before going wide on October 21st. Go to theway-themovie.com to see which date the film opens near you.

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