WEBVTT - 41 - Mary Laws (Monsterland) 0:00:00.900 --> 0:00:03.630 From Kurt Coe media there's no place like. 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:18.729 Welcome to another special episode of Hollywood unscripted stuck at home. 0:00:18.940 --> 0:00:21.549 I'm Jenny Curtis and today I'm virtually sitting down with 0:00:21.550 --> 0:00:25.579 playwright screenwriter and showrunner Mary laws. She's written on AMC 0:00:25.579 --> 0:00:29.620 is Preacher. HBO succession and created a new anthology series 0:00:29.620 --> 0:00:31.690 on Hulu called Monster land. 0:00:31.690 --> 0:00:34.630 Mary thank you so much for joining me. Hi. I 0:00:34.630 --> 0:00:37.630 want to start at the beginning. So you grew up 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:41.320 in suburban Texas. Your parents were ministers. How did you 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:43.320 find your way to the arts. 0:00:43.330 --> 0:00:45.940 Doesn't that answer your question. I grew up in Texas 0:00:45.940 --> 0:00:49.140 and my parents are suburban Minister. 0:00:49.450 --> 0:00:51.460 I grew up in a household where my mother read 0:00:51.460 --> 0:00:52.960 to me all the time and there was a great 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:56.590 love of literature. And so from an early age she 0:00:56.590 --> 0:00:58.990 took me to a lot of dance tons of ballet 0:00:59.020 --> 0:01:01.300 when I was a kid. A lot of theater and 0:01:01.330 --> 0:01:04.030 I just fell in love. I didn't fall in love 0:01:04.030 --> 0:01:06.069 with movies. I fell in love with the theater I 0:01:06.069 --> 0:01:08.830 fell in love with the live performance aspect of things 0:01:08.830 --> 0:01:11.560 and so started doing theater as a kid. I just 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:14.950 watched 10 15 and there's a couple of episodes about 0:01:14.950 --> 0:01:18.940 middle school theater that just made me absolutely weep because 0:01:19.030 --> 0:01:22.390 those were my formative years. I couldn't make it in 0:01:22.390 --> 0:01:26.130 my hometown theater troupe. I never got cast in anything. 0:01:26.140 --> 0:01:28.810 I think partly because sometimes a lot of kids who 0:01:28.810 --> 0:01:30.910 got like the lead roles and stuff their parents were 0:01:30.910 --> 0:01:32.830 like doing a lot of stuff behind the scenes and 0:01:32.830 --> 0:01:35.110 giving money. My parents were like We're not doing that 0:01:35.110 --> 0:01:37.810 for you. You will work your way there which I 0:01:37.810 --> 0:01:40.630 have growing up with ministers for parents. We grew up 0:01:40.630 --> 0:01:43.240 without a lot. And so they really kind of taught 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:45.970 me work hard at an early age. And so because 0:01:45.970 --> 0:01:48.320 I couldn't work with the cool like community theater in 0:01:48.310 --> 0:01:51.490 my hometown I like went to the neighboring town where 0:01:51.610 --> 0:01:54.850 the community theater was full of all these old hippies 0:01:54.910 --> 0:01:58.540 who like worked at the Texas Renaissance Festival and they 0:01:58.540 --> 0:02:02.650 like Smoked blunts backstage on their break and they like 0:02:02.650 --> 0:02:05.529 wore face paint just to wear it. I was just 0:02:05.530 --> 0:02:07.730 like this is my family I'm home. 0:02:07.750 --> 0:02:11.019 The rest is history I guess. Then you went to 0:02:11.050 --> 0:02:14.320 school as an actor didn't you. I went to undergrad 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:16.139 and studied performance. 0:02:16.139 --> 0:02:19.210 Definitely there are some youtube videos of me like singing 0:02:19.210 --> 0:02:21.970 dancing that I'm not proud of. I just really was 0:02:21.970 --> 0:02:25.389 looking for my way and I think to storytelling and 0:02:25.570 --> 0:02:29.310 I thought to myself well I can probably do this 0:02:29.310 --> 0:02:31.330 that or the other I could be a dramaturg or 0:02:31.330 --> 0:02:33.399 I could make costumes or I could be an actor 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.740 or something. I never thought I could be a writer 0:02:35.740 --> 0:02:38.530 which I really wanted to do. I just admired them 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:40.870 so much and I thought they were so smart. It 0:02:40.870 --> 0:02:43.180 was hard to finally admit to myself well that's the 0:02:43.180 --> 0:02:45.220 thing that I've always wanted to do and all these 0:02:45.220 --> 0:02:47.980 other avenues have just been me getting to that place 0:02:47.980 --> 0:02:52.040 of telling stories my own stories in my own words. 0:02:52.090 --> 0:02:55.030 I had a teacher when I was an undergrad who 0:02:55.060 --> 0:02:57.460 pulled me aside one day and was like you would 0:02:57.460 --> 0:03:02.440 be a half rate actor but you might be a 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:07.090 really good writer. But I needed to hear it and 0:03:07.150 --> 0:03:09.820 really truly from not weave forward. I was like This 0:03:09.820 --> 0:03:11.860 is it. This is what I want to do as 0:03:11.860 --> 0:03:12.820 an actor. 0:03:12.820 --> 0:03:15.520 Was it heartbreaking to hear. Or was it like oh 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:18.430 no way. You're right. I mean if I was that 0:03:18.430 --> 0:03:21.370 teacher I wouldn't maybe phrase it exactly like that but 0:03:21.669 --> 0:03:22.480 no it wasn't. 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:26.049 It was like someone giving me permission to stop trying 0:03:26.050 --> 0:03:28.540 to fit in with all of my other classmates who 0:03:28.540 --> 0:03:31.330 wanted to be actors because that's kind of your way 0:03:31.330 --> 0:03:32.310 into theater right. 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.050 You're either like an actor or you're a techie. Those 0:03:35.050 --> 0:03:38.140 are the two avenues. But being a writer it just 0:03:38.140 --> 0:03:40.690 felt like he was giving me permission to say yes 0:03:40.690 --> 0:03:44.830 to myself. And so I took a playwriting class and 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:47.650 the same teacher helped me get a playwriting Grant and 0:03:47.650 --> 0:03:49.570 I went to New York and I wrote some terrible 0:03:49.570 --> 0:03:52.600 plays and had some staged readings of them. I just 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:56.200 never stopped after that. So it was really more permission 0:03:56.260 --> 0:03:57.400 than anything else. 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:00.620 What was the first play you wrote on. 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:03.310 What was the first play I wrote. Oh God. It 0:04:03.310 --> 0:04:08.740 was called Singles cave which is like a cave off 0:04:08.740 --> 0:04:12.670 of the shores of Scotland. Great composers have written classical 0:04:12.670 --> 0:04:16.210 pieces about it. And I wrote a story about three 0:04:16.210 --> 0:04:21.599 people who I don't fucking remember kayakers and only three 0:04:21.610 --> 0:04:24.430 people ended up in this cave and they were all 0:04:24.460 --> 0:04:28.000 grappling with problems in their personal lives. One kid was 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:31.540 blind and I don't know it was very sappy and sappy. 0:04:31.540 --> 0:04:33.400 It was a short play I hadn't read in a 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:37.150 festival for the great playwright Tina Howe who is sort 0:04:37.150 --> 0:04:39.400 of like the moderate or the judge of a festival. 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:43.589 And it was the most nervous I've maybe ever been 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:46.600 to date even probably more than having a television show 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:50.890 released out into the world at large. I think I 0:04:50.890 --> 0:04:54.880 was just horrified and she was so warm and so 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:58.150 receptive and she told me I'll never forget. She said 0:04:58.420 --> 0:05:00.850 oh my aren't you a little girl with a great 0:05:00.850 --> 0:05:04.360 big cathedral inside of you. And I was just like 0:05:04.510 --> 0:05:09.219 Oh my God. Those formative years when you're just starting 0:05:09.220 --> 0:05:12.520 out it's so important. It's the most important thing to 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:15.990 have someone to say you can do it. I feel 0:05:15.990 --> 0:05:18.690 for my friends and fellow artists who didn't have that 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.690 because I think it makes it harder. I certainly didn't 0:05:21.690 --> 0:05:23.429 have a ton of people just telling me all the 0:05:23.430 --> 0:05:25.950 time how wonderful I was. But like those few that 0:05:25.950 --> 0:05:28.589 you really remember and you hold on to still I'm 0:05:28.589 --> 0:05:30.960 a 34 year old woman. This was more than 10 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:31.839 years ago. 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:35.030 And then you went to Yale School of Drama. 0:05:35.220 --> 0:05:36.870 I went to New York for a couple of years 0:05:36.870 --> 0:05:41.549 after undergrad and I was so starving so poor I 0:05:41.550 --> 0:05:43.910 worked as an intern at a theater called a battle 0:05:43.910 --> 0:05:46.320 stick Playwrights Theater which is in the village. It's an 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:49.200 amazing place. I went there because I was obsessed with 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:52.560 this one play called The Pavilion which Craig Wright who 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.740 is also a television showrunner. He had written and I 0:05:55.740 --> 0:05:57.570 was in New York and like the sea of like 0:05:57.680 --> 0:05:59.969 endless possibilities and I was like What do I do. 0:05:59.970 --> 0:06:03.300 And I looked up where that play was originally produced 0:06:03.330 --> 0:06:04.859 and it was at this bitter battle stick and I 0:06:04.860 --> 0:06:07.380 was like Hey are you guys hiring interns. And they 0:06:07.380 --> 0:06:10.110 were like not really. And I was like Well I'll 0:06:10.110 --> 0:06:12.659 work for free. So I did. I like work for 0:06:12.660 --> 0:06:15.089 free and I would like work a job at like 0:06:15.089 --> 0:06:17.070 hedge funds and I would save up a bunch of 0:06:17.070 --> 0:06:18.840 money and then quit and then go back to the 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:21.930 theater and I would like writing plays and trying to 0:06:21.990 --> 0:06:24.240 get into graduate school because it felt like the thing 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.030 that would open some doors for me helped me find 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:30.660 an agent or just get to practice meet other people 0:06:30.660 --> 0:06:34.010 who are impressive artists were young like me. So yeah 0:06:34.050 --> 0:06:36.480 that's what I did. How to apply three times before 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:38.640 I got in. Which I always love to tell people 0:06:38.670 --> 0:06:40.650 don't give up. They only take a couple of people 0:06:40.650 --> 0:06:42.900 a year so if you're looking for a graduate program 0:06:42.900 --> 0:06:45.090 just keep applying until they get so sick of you 0:06:45.089 --> 0:06:47.330 that they only let you in. 0:06:47.330 --> 0:06:49.799 What was that like the place it was Yale or 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:51.210 bust it was Yale or bust. 0:06:51.210 --> 0:06:54.060 Yeah I applied deal all three years and only applied 0:06:54.060 --> 0:06:56.640 to Yale the first two years. My third year I 0:06:56.750 --> 0:06:58.980 thought about the encouragement of my friends and parents who 0:06:58.980 --> 0:07:02.609 were like Maybe third time's not always a charm. So 0:07:02.610 --> 0:07:05.910 I applied a bunch of other places there incredible drama schools. 0:07:05.910 --> 0:07:09.029 I was really excited about UTI. Orson has an amazing 0:07:09.029 --> 0:07:12.180 program Mr. center and there are so many. But for 0:07:12.180 --> 0:07:14.400 me I like to think about the thing that I 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:16.860 feel like I could never actually do and then try 0:07:16.860 --> 0:07:18.660 to do it. I think that's how I just live 0:07:18.660 --> 0:07:21.480 my whole life. It's like what is something that seems 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:25.000 so impossibly out of reach and for me as like 0:07:25.050 --> 0:07:27.630 I said my poor kid who grew up in Texas 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:30.720 who was again like top of my parents go work 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:33.210 your way into whatever you want to have. I was 0:07:33.210 --> 0:07:36.810 like Well Yale seems like something that I'll never have. 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.900 So I just was determined and I was so privileged 0:07:39.900 --> 0:07:41.730 to go there and I got to study with some 0:07:41.730 --> 0:07:42.750 amazing people. 0:07:42.750 --> 0:07:45.690 Paul a vocal was one of my primary mentors while 0:07:45.690 --> 0:07:49.160 I was there. He was unbelievable playwright and person who 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:52.860 really truly has taught me some stuff about being in 0:07:52.860 --> 0:07:55.200 an artistic community and being in a rehearsal room that 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:58.290 I've gotten to take with me into television about what 0:07:58.290 --> 0:08:00.810 it means to be an artist. I was telling someone 0:08:00.810 --> 0:08:03.360 the other day how we ran out on monster land 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:04.800 because I think by and large we had a pretty 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:08.550 happy sight set where everyone had a voice which was 0:08:08.550 --> 0:08:10.950 really important to me was really important to the whole team. 0:08:10.950 --> 0:08:14.240 And Paula at Yale I remember seeing the biggest deal 0:08:14.250 --> 0:08:16.230 in the room should always be the play and I 0:08:16.230 --> 0:08:18.570 thought that that was really an amazing way to think 0:08:18.570 --> 0:08:20.970 about like how to bring people together who all have 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:22.980 big egos because you kind of have to have an 0:08:22.980 --> 0:08:25.980 ego if you're like look at me listen to my story. 0:08:25.980 --> 0:08:27.510 You have to have a little bit of that if 0:08:27.510 --> 0:08:29.940 you're going to survive but thinking about that in terms 0:08:29.940 --> 0:08:32.290 of the play but also in terms of television the 0:08:32.309 --> 0:08:34.860 episode and the story that we were telling always got 0:08:34.860 --> 0:08:38.160 to be the loudest and the most needy and the 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:41.760 most vocal thing rather than any of us who were 0:08:41.790 --> 0:08:44.939 creating it. She was just a wonderful wonderful teacher at 0:08:44.940 --> 0:08:47.810 Yale and so many gems of wisdom I hold on to. 0:08:47.940 --> 0:08:50.130 What brought you to L.A. and how did you end 0:08:50.130 --> 0:08:51.340 up on preacher. 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:55.290 So when I was at Yale I had a playwriting 0:08:55.350 --> 0:08:59.850 agent who was like hey have you ever heard of 0:08:59.850 --> 0:09:03.120 this guy Nick Ruffin. He is a film director and 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:07.090 he's looking for someone to write a horror movie with him. 0:09:07.110 --> 0:09:10.859 And I threw your name in the pot and he 0:09:10.860 --> 0:09:13.020 liked your play and he wants to meet with you. 0:09:13.020 --> 0:09:15.160 And I was just like what is a film. 0:09:15.290 --> 0:09:17.970 You know I like I'd never ever thought about it. 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:20.610 I don't even have final draft which is the program 0:09:20.670 --> 0:09:21.599 you write a film. 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:23.670 I was like I don't know my ass from my 0:09:23.670 --> 0:09:26.640 elbow but I met with Nick. I'm not a cinephile 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:29.010 at all but he directed this movie that I really 0:09:29.010 --> 0:09:33.900 loved called Bronson which is so innovative in terms of 0:09:33.900 --> 0:09:36.300 its production design the whole thing is shot in one 0:09:36.300 --> 0:09:38.580 house and it looks like you're going all over the 0:09:38.580 --> 0:09:41.230 country all over the world. It's really fantastic. But it 0:09:41.230 --> 0:09:44.460 is also so visceral. It felt like it was jumping 0:09:44.460 --> 0:09:46.890 out of the screen at me in this way that 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:50.580 I had only ever experienced that kind of feeling in theater. 0:09:50.610 --> 0:09:52.530 I was like Sure I'll talk to him and I 0:09:52.530 --> 0:09:54.750 talked to him I had a conversation with him for 0:09:54.750 --> 0:09:56.670 an hour and a half one day and he was 0:09:56.670 --> 0:09:58.500 like Hey do you want to write this movie with me. 0:09:58.500 --> 0:10:01.190 And I was like yeah sure you seem really cool. 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:04.920 It was such an unusual Hollywood experience. It feels almost 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:07.530 unfair because it doesn't happen that easily for a lot 0:10:07.530 --> 0:10:09.510 of people. But you know I wanted to be a 0:10:09.550 --> 0:10:12.420 playwright like it wasn't what I wanted at all. It 0:10:12.420 --> 0:10:15.410 just felt like a really interesting upper. And so I 0:10:15.410 --> 0:10:17.510 said yes and came out to L.A. and I worked 0:10:17.510 --> 0:10:19.819 for like a year with him. It was like one 0:10:19.820 --> 0:10:23.599 year and we wrote a script together. And then the 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:26.270 movie went into production and was released like a year 0:10:26.270 --> 0:10:29.660 later was very fast and it was really exciting because 0:10:29.750 --> 0:10:32.030 he was just like I want to make a movie 0:10:32.059 --> 0:10:34.100 that's not like any other movie and I was like 0:10:34.100 --> 0:10:37.790 well that's great. I don't know how to write. I 0:10:37.790 --> 0:10:39.870 was like aren't movies supposed to have like three acts. 0:10:39.890 --> 0:10:42.240 I think I heard that one that seems boring hours 0:10:42.290 --> 0:10:44.840 should have four you know. And he was so game 0:10:44.870 --> 0:10:48.260 and I think really wanted someone to partner with him 0:10:48.260 --> 0:10:51.260 on the film that didn't know how to do things right. 0:10:51.260 --> 0:10:53.600 Our movie was called the neon demon and it was 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:57.829 a wonderful opportunity to like explore the horror genre for 0:10:57.830 --> 0:11:00.230 the first time. And I just sort of fell in 0:11:00.230 --> 0:11:04.130 love because the movie is about femininity and the male 0:11:04.130 --> 0:11:06.980 gaze and about what women then do to each other 0:11:06.980 --> 0:11:09.980 as a result of being subjected to the male gaze 0:11:09.980 --> 0:11:13.280 for so long. It's about models in L.A. who eat 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:16.580 themselves alive literally but like I just thought wow what 0:11:16.580 --> 0:11:19.099 a great opportunity for me who is not a model 0:11:19.130 --> 0:11:20.930 but who is a woman to talk about what it 0:11:20.929 --> 0:11:25.250 feels like to be objectified and hurt by men in 0:11:25.250 --> 0:11:28.160 the world and by the patriarchy and by the way 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:30.470 that people talk and look at my body and I 0:11:30.470 --> 0:11:32.420 sort of just fell in love with the horror genre. 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:35.089 But that's why I came to L.A. and I have 0:11:35.090 --> 0:11:37.010 such a good experience working on that that I was 0:11:37.010 --> 0:11:39.560 like Maybe I'll just stay here. I watched it last 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:43.820 night actually it's a very upsetting movie. It's not nice. 0:11:43.910 --> 0:11:46.490 I think it's a really great marriage of Nick and 0:11:46.580 --> 0:11:49.610 me like my outlook as a woman and then Nick 0:11:49.700 --> 0:11:52.250 as a man. It's a movie where two contradictions sort 0:11:52.250 --> 0:11:53.840 of bump up against each other a lot. 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:55.520 Had you co-written before. 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:58.360 No I never had. I never even thought about it 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:01.050 but I love it. I love writing with other people. 0:12:01.070 --> 0:12:03.260 If it's a really good fit I think it's maybe 0:12:03.260 --> 0:12:06.260 even more magical than writing by yourself sometimes. It was 0:12:06.260 --> 0:12:09.530 so wonderful working on Preacher and then I worked on 0:12:09.530 --> 0:12:12.890 succession for a season and now this show my show. 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.069 You know I love getting to hear other voices sort 0:12:16.070 --> 0:12:17.540 of bounce up against mine. 0:12:17.540 --> 0:12:20.780 It's like laughing What's the thing about marriage where it's 0:12:20.780 --> 0:12:23.360 like marriage should be like two rocks in a tumbler 0:12:23.390 --> 0:12:25.910 like shaking around making each other smooth. Which I think 0:12:25.910 --> 0:12:27.559 is so wonderful and I think it's the same thing 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:29.540 about co writing it's just like you put like two 0:12:29.540 --> 0:12:31.400 people in a jar and shake them around you end 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:33.710 up working out the kinks and the bumps in each other. 0:12:33.750 --> 0:12:35.540 And I don't know you make a baby together. 0:12:35.540 --> 0:12:37.830 I don't there's a lot of mixed metaphors. 0:12:38.750 --> 0:12:41.569 So when the baby was a TV show for preacher 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:45.250 and succession which swept the Emmys. So congratulations on that. 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:48.170 Moving from theater to film to TV. What was the 0:12:48.170 --> 0:12:50.690 experience like. How did it change the way you approach 0:12:50.690 --> 0:12:51.500 your writing. 0:12:51.500 --> 0:12:55.490 Well I think that there was something inside of me 0:12:55.580 --> 0:12:59.809 that I was more able to tap into in television 0:12:59.809 --> 0:13:03.380 writing and in cinematic writing which is like a visual 0:13:03.380 --> 0:13:06.890 kind of storytelling that you can get in the theater 0:13:06.890 --> 0:13:10.099 world but not with such frequency. Television is a visual 0:13:10.100 --> 0:13:14.090 medium period film is a visual medium period. The best 0:13:14.090 --> 0:13:16.400 films you can watch them with the sound off and 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.610 you still know what's happening. And that allowed me to 0:13:19.610 --> 0:13:23.000 flex a different kind of muscle. I'm certainly not by 0:13:23.090 --> 0:13:26.059 any stretch a visual artist. I can't draw a doodle 0:13:26.059 --> 0:13:28.760 to save my life but I have something in my 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:31.400 head and I think being able to put that down 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:34.670 on paper and then have collaborators bring that to life 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:36.100 is so exciting to me. 0:13:36.110 --> 0:13:39.710 And so I think the switch from playwriting to television 0:13:39.710 --> 0:13:42.050 because I really rarely write plays anymore and for a 0:13:42.050 --> 0:13:44.540 while guilt in myself about that and don't anymore I 0:13:44.540 --> 0:13:46.850 think this is a medium that is much more suited 0:13:46.850 --> 0:13:48.859 for me. And I think a lot of it was 0:13:48.860 --> 0:13:51.800 about being able to hone and use the skills of 0:13:51.860 --> 0:13:56.480 structure and character development and dialogue that I really got 0:13:56.480 --> 0:14:01.339 from my theater background. In addition to this visual language 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.760 that is just so thrilling for Monster land I was 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:08.990 really obsessed with the photography of Gregory Crewson and Todd 0:14:09.030 --> 0:14:13.100 Ito and so a lot of the images that are 0:14:13.100 --> 0:14:16.819 in the series were inspired by that kind of visual 0:14:16.820 --> 0:14:20.300 art and that just feels like something that again you 0:14:20.300 --> 0:14:23.810 can certainly have an interesting visual landscape in theater because 0:14:23.810 --> 0:14:26.480 you're dealing with real time space. But I find that 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:30.260 it's such an exciting space to play with visual language 0:14:30.270 --> 0:14:31.400 and in film and television. 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.060 Hi I'm Robert Raz host of cars that matter you 0:14:46.060 --> 0:14:47.860 might be wondering what makes a car matter and I 0:14:47.860 --> 0:14:50.960 have a feeling you already know the answer. Some cars 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:53.470 have changed history some you can hear a mile away 0:14:53.620 --> 0:14:56.340 some have lines that make your heart skip a beat. 0:14:56.710 --> 0:14:58.650 If a car is ever made you look twice then 0:14:58.660 --> 0:15:01.500 I think you know the ones that matter. 0:15:01.510 --> 0:15:03.940 Joining me as I speak with designers collectors and market 0:15:03.940 --> 0:15:06.430 experts about the passions of drivers and the passions we 0:15:06.430 --> 0:15:09.710 drive cars that matter wherever you get your podcasts. 0:15:17.270 --> 0:15:20.610 So monster land your first time as a show runner. 0:15:20.630 --> 0:15:23.060 It's interesting that you say like this is a better 0:15:23.180 --> 0:15:26.000 landscape for you because it feels to me like an 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:29.180 anthology series like this is just a series of one 0:15:29.180 --> 0:15:33.350 act plays. Kind of yeah. What was the experience creating 0:15:33.350 --> 0:15:34.220 your first show. 0:15:34.490 --> 0:15:39.500 Oh it was stressful. I came to L.A. and sort 0:15:39.500 --> 0:15:42.320 of fell in love with the film and television industry 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:44.150 and it was again that thing like I'm going to 0:15:44.150 --> 0:15:46.250 get into Yale no matter what. I was just sort 0:15:46.250 --> 0:15:48.020 of like I want to run a show that seems 0:15:48.020 --> 0:15:50.630 really hard and like something that they wouldn't let a 0:15:50.630 --> 0:15:55.040 young female 30 year old lesbian do. So I was 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:58.140 like I want to do this and it's been possibly 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:01.820 the biggest experience of my life. It has stretched me 0:16:01.970 --> 0:16:05.690 in ways that are unimaginable because as a showrunner you're 0:16:05.690 --> 0:16:09.290 not just a creative voice You're not just a writer 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:13.190 but you're a producer and you're a champion of others 0:16:13.190 --> 0:16:16.940 you paved roads for other people. You have to be 0:16:16.940 --> 0:16:21.050 a maternal figure paternal figure at different points you wearing 0:16:21.050 --> 0:16:24.190 so many different hats. And I think navigating that and 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:29.030 having to make excruciatingly hard decisions that affected other people's 0:16:29.030 --> 0:16:34.880 performance and experience on the show and income livelihoods especially 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:37.370 during a pandemic I never thought I'd run my first 0:16:37.370 --> 0:16:39.040 show during a pandemic. 0:16:39.050 --> 0:16:41.390 It's been the hardest and the most rewarding thing I've 0:16:41.390 --> 0:16:43.280 possibly ever done. 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:45.290 The series is based off of Nathan Ballon Grubbs North 0:16:45.290 --> 0:16:48.290 American Lake Monsters which is a series of short stories. 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:51.110 It seems that you really were influenced by it but 0:16:51.110 --> 0:16:53.920 a lot of the stories were very much your own. 0:16:53.930 --> 0:16:56.060 What was the creative process there. 0:16:56.060 --> 0:16:59.780 Nathan's book North American Lake Monsters is absolutely beautiful and 0:16:59.780 --> 0:17:02.480 apart from this series which I hope everyone will watch 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:05.090 I hope they'll read his book too because there are 0:17:05.210 --> 0:17:08.780 several stories from which episodes are directly adopted and then 0:17:08.780 --> 0:17:11.240 there are many that we did not adopt that are 0:17:11.270 --> 0:17:14.060 well worth a read. They're absolutely beautiful. I read the 0:17:14.060 --> 0:17:16.760 first story in Nathan's book and thought This is what 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:19.340 I have to do. It was a really interesting and 0:17:19.340 --> 0:17:22.540 different kind of horror that I had seen in a while. 0:17:22.540 --> 0:17:24.350 And it was again doing some of those things that 0:17:24.350 --> 0:17:27.830 we talked about like really able to tap into character 0:17:27.830 --> 0:17:31.889 and real issues while also holding space within the genre. 0:17:31.910 --> 0:17:36.950 I was really excited about telling stories about complicated people 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:43.030 who make terrible or difficult decisions but aren't necessarily monsters. 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.560 They're just human. I think that's the way that I 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:48.710 have experienced my own choices in my own world and 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:52.130 also different traumas in my life. So it was just 0:17:52.130 --> 0:17:55.250 very inspirational. And there were some of his stories that 0:17:55.250 --> 0:17:58.369 we felt as a writers room were more relevant and 0:17:58.369 --> 0:18:00.190 more timely than others. 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.199 And so those were the stories that we really felt 0:18:03.230 --> 0:18:06.889 as a community of five. We had four writers working 0:18:06.890 --> 0:18:09.530 on the show with me. We felt these feel like 0:18:09.540 --> 0:18:11.300 stories we really need to put out in the world 0:18:11.300 --> 0:18:14.360 right now because they're saying something about her current moment 0:18:14.390 --> 0:18:18.320 or current climate. And so we ended up adopting three 0:18:18.350 --> 0:18:20.810 from the book and then the rest are as you 0:18:20.810 --> 0:18:23.150 say inspired by. But we had these and come into 0:18:23.150 --> 0:18:26.300 the room with us for the first two weeks the 0:18:26.300 --> 0:18:29.300 first two weeks were sort of dedicated to deciding what 0:18:29.300 --> 0:18:32.510 stories we wanted to tell and coming up with new 0:18:32.510 --> 0:18:36.290 stories or jumping off of stories from Nathan's book to 0:18:36.290 --> 0:18:38.870 then create as sort of the genesis of an idea 0:18:38.869 --> 0:18:42.290 for a new story. And Nathan was really instrumental in 0:18:42.290 --> 0:18:47.240 those two weeks. I remember him bringing forward ideas for 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:49.260 some of the stories that did end up in the 0:18:49.369 --> 0:18:52.520 season of 8. So it was really about having a 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:56.660 diverse array of characters and also finding stories that felt 0:18:56.660 --> 0:18:59.300 like they were tapping into. I don't want to say 0:18:59.330 --> 0:19:02.060 issues because I'm not very interested in writing about issues 0:19:02.090 --> 0:19:05.810 but they were tapping into the current worlds and what 0:19:05.810 --> 0:19:09.409 people in our lives and in the world were grappling 0:19:09.410 --> 0:19:11.540 with in the moment that we were writing. We really 0:19:11.540 --> 0:19:15.770 wanted the series to be reflective of the United States 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:18.710 and the turmoil that the US was going through and 0:19:18.710 --> 0:19:22.250 the different people that it affected. And as a result 0:19:22.340 --> 0:19:24.800 how these people were grappling with their own day to 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:25.720 day lives. 0:19:25.730 --> 0:19:28.340 I mean it is reflective of the United States especially 0:19:28.369 --> 0:19:33.020 because you have named each episode after the location. What 0:19:33.020 --> 0:19:34.670 was the thought process behind that. 0:19:34.670 --> 0:19:38.780 Well what I loved about Ethan's book also many things 0:19:38.780 --> 0:19:40.609 I love about his book but what I also loved 0:19:40.609 --> 0:19:43.970 about his book was that his protagonists were not your 0:19:43.970 --> 0:19:49.250