Test audiences are notorious for getting kind of itchy when people talk too much, and you have to trust your instincts that they don't necessarily understand that you're not digesting the movie on a scene-by-scene basis.
The bane of every TV writer's existence is the likability note.
When you work in television, it's an isolating experience. You rarely ever get to watch it with an audience.
If you made a movie of 'Sharp Objects,' chances are that it would be a smaller film, but as a TV show, it can reach a lot of people.
Like everbody, I'm addicted to 'The Handmaid's Tale.'
It all starts with a very solid, well-executed script, where the story is very clear and everybody is rowing in the same direction. That's always good; that's a constant.
I've never had as much success as when I say to myself, 'I get that. I know what the feelings that that character would be going through would be like. I can feel a through line from beginning to end.'
The status quo is never happy when things become a meritocracy.
It's funny: I've joked that 'Sharp Objects,' 'To the Bone,' and 'Dietland' are my self-harm trilogy, and each one is a different side of that triangle, with 'Dietland' really about fighting back.
The thing that can happen in a TV room is you can get 'teamthink': you can all go down a crazy path together.
There're been sort of a sea change in my work in general, in that the more personal, the universal it's become.
In 'UnREAL', for me, just being so openly feminist, just being so overtly, like, 'This show is about women who are not necessarily likable, doing a job that is despicable, and we are not going to be afraid of that.'
If there's a theme to where I'm at in my life, it's that 'warts and all' is actually my superpower. Just like you, I'm messed up and I'm capable. I'm this and that.
A show can be completely dead before you even get on the air. I've been privy to a couple of those.
The great thing about the story of 'Twilight', or the story of 'I Am Number Four' is that you get to deal with real issues of identity and what people are going through and the choice of who you're going to be, but it's all large.
There's this idea that Hollywood sells over and over again: 'If I just looked more like this, I'd be accepted.'
I've been looking for a versatile and writer-driven home that could help me bring more complex, exciting, and potentially murderous characters to television - and the team at Skydance is the ideal partner for that.
I'm so excited to be part of the environment that David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Marcy Ross have built at Skydance.
I think the science around mental illness is always evolving. There's always new kinds of thinking.
When I was going to get ready to take 'Dietland' up, I have to say I was surprised to find that I felt like maybe we wouldn't find a home for it because it's unlike anything else that I've done.
