Creative Principles

Dennis Lehane grew up in a storytelling, bar culture. For him, storytelling was in his blood. Family would gather every week, telling stories of the Old Country. “I think I just grew up in the thrall of that,” he told me. “I wrote my first novel when I was 15.” As an author, Dennis is known for Mystic River, Shutter Island, and The Drop, all novels that have been turned into films. In addition to...

“I was a comedy nerd kid,” said screenwriter John Hamburg. “Then I got a video camera for my 15th birthday, and I started making short films. In college, I started writing plays and monologues. Then I got serious about writing.” As a playwright, Hamburg said he learned the importance of writing and re-writing to the process. Eventually this led him to Film School and then a string of iconic comedi...

“I can’t recall what got me into screenwriting, other than just loving movies at a very young age,” said screenwriter Matt Wolpert, who recalls watching Singing in the Rain and Funny Girl with his mom. “I don’t remember wanting to do anything else.” This led Matt to NYU Film School, where he met Ben Nedivi in a Film Production Class. “I grew up in LA,” added Ben. “My father was a set decorator and...

“I was a queer kid and I didn’t really have a vocabulary for that — I don’t know what was ‘wrong’ with me — but I had this sense I wasn’t right for the world exactly as it was around me,” said screenwriter Will Graham. “So I think stories, movies, TV, comic books, novels…they were a place I could escape and process what was happening to me.” Graham continued, “I think that’s the impulse that broug...

“My dad used to take me to the movies every weekend,” said James Morosini, who is also the nephew of actor Christopher Reeve. You may have seen James as an actor in The Sex Lives of College Girls or American Horror Story, but he’s also known for writing and directing in films like Threesomething and I Love My Dad. About fifteen years ago, James and his dad were not really talking and when he got h...

“There were always supposed to be four seasons,” said showrunner Chris Mundy. The final season of Ozark was originally going to be ten episodes, but when Netflix up’d the ante to fourteen episodes, there were several changes in the series. Normally, this interview series goes more into the habits of writers, but in this special episode, we really go into the weeds about Ozark Season 4, making heav...

When asked why she got into writing, screenwriter Bisha K. Ali joked it all started with a “teacher who gave [her] too much validation.” She said, “I wrote a short story when I was 8 and the teacher made me read it to the class. They were wondering who this kid was who had been sitting in the corner for the past six years.” This early validation, along with a family and cultural love for storytell...

“I needed to make a change in my life,” said Andy Siara about the origin of his screenwriting career. “I was in a band with my brother for a while and we decided to call it a day in 2012. He was making responsible adult decisions, so I thought I had to do that too, so I applied to the only school that didn’t require the GRE.” Two weeks later, Siara was enrolled at AFI. “To hedge my bets, I applied...

Joshua Sprague is an avid reader obsessed with mindset and productivity. In his first book, SMASH!, the author talked about breaking through productivity barriers thanks to advice he learned from six and seven-figure infopreneurs. We also discuss Joshua’s battle-tested 30 Day Book Writing Challenge, and a little about his upcoming book Create First, Consume Second, which is about a 25-minute daily...

“My dream was to become a film director,” said Hwang Dong-Hyuk, writer/director of Netflix’s Squid Game. “It’s a long story, but at first I wanted to write books or become a poet. I knew I wasn’t good enough for that, but in 1992, my mom bought a video camera so I could use it. I think that was the most fun thing I’ve done in my life, so I knew I wanted to become a film director.” Hwang Dong-Hyuk...

Rick Dugdale was a child actor in Canada who later found a path as a Producer, thanks to his work on The X-Files. Now, he’s a Producer and Director for the upcoming Zero Contact trilogy. The first film, shot in the pandemic, stars Anthony Hopkins, Sam Hart, and Trevor Williams. The thriller was produced in 17 different countries entirely virtually during 2020. Zero Contact will be followed up with...

“I never saw myself as a writer per se,” said author Karla Fuller, “but I loved film and discovered film while I was an undergraduate. I was looking for books that were interesting to me and I couldn’t find them. I thought I was going to have to write it myself. I found that I had a lot of say about it.” And that’s exactly what she did. Karla R. Fuller is known for two books: Hollywood Goes Orient...

“It kind of grew out of Normal People,” said Lenny Abrahamson about his new series Conversations with Friends. Both stories come from Irish author Sally Rooney. “It seemed very obvious having gone through the adaptation in episodic form. We learned how best to work with Sally’s material and we all felt like Conversations should be a series.” The series are listed as Normal People premiering in 202...

Molly Smith Metzler spent 15 years writing plays before stepping into television work. Around 2015, she got a job on an HBO limited series from Director Steve McQueen, which unfortunately wasn’t picked up. As a writer, Metzler is known for working on Orange is the New Black, Casual, Shameless, and Maid, where she’s also the creator. In Maid, the story follows Alex Russell (Margaret Qualley) as she...

“The answer always goes back to Jaws,” said Jeremy Slater, when asked about why he got into the business in the first place. A movie he saw too young, it changed the way he saw movies and he knew he wanted to grow up to play with “giant, rubber sharks.” Slater’s rubber sharks came in the form of The Exorcist, The Umbrella Academy, Fantastic Four, and most recently, Marvel’s Moon Knight for Disney...

Both Vanessa Bayer and Jeremy Beiler were involved with sketch groups at an early age. Working together at Saturday Night Live, Jeremy as a writer and Vanessa as a cast member, the two eventually found their way into their own lanes of comedy. In their latest collaboration, I Love That for You, the story follows Vanessa’s character, Joanna Gold, who overcomes childhood leukemia to achieve her drea...

Judd Apatow is perhaps best known for work in the film world, writing movies and television like The Ben Stiller Show, The Larry Sanders Show, Freaks and Geeks, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, Funny People, and This is 40, among others. But he’s also known for mentoring rising stars, such as with Lena Dunham for Girls, Pete Holmes  for Crashing, Amy Schumer for Trainwreck, a...

As a kid in England, Joby Harold was obsessed with movies like The Magnificent Seven. The Great Escape. Star Wars. Jaws. These movies inspired him to find his way into Hollywood and “go for it” as a screenwriter. Today, he’s known for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Army of the Dead, and he’s got credits on upcoming films The Flash and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. For this interview, we dis...

Originally, Riley Stearns wanted to be a musician, but as he started to visit sets, he knew screenwriting could be his “in” to filmmaking. Today, he’s best known for being the writer-director of ‘The Art of Self-Defense’ and ‘Dual.’ In ‘The Art of Self-Defense,’ Jesse Eisenberg stars as Casey, a young man who gets attacked on the streets and decides to join a local dojo. In ‘Dual,’ Karen Gillan st...

“As a kid, I escaped into movies. Some movies inspired me to do something great. Some movies made me re-look at my life. Some movies made me long for love,” said Gigi Gaston. As a director, Gigi Gaston is known for her work on Rip It Off, The Nanny Murders, Fatal Memory, and most recently 9 Bullets, which stars Lena Headey and Sam Worthington. In this interview, Gigi talks about her mentorship wit...

Mike Roe always wanted to be a storyteller. Currently, he’s a writer for LAist, where he covers arts and entertainment. In one viral article, “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah from 30 Rock: an Oral History” Mike was approached to write a book on 30 Rock. In The 30 Rock Book, Mike interviews over 50 of the original cast members, crew, and critics. He discusses how the goofy show became an all-time classic, inc...

The son of Indian immigrants, Jimmy Soni grew up with his nose in a book. In high school, he was writing for the school paper. Today, he’s known as the former managing editor of The Huffington Post and is currently an author. Jimmy first published A Mind at Play about Claude Shannon, a mathematician and “the father of information theory.” His latest book, The Founders, uncovers the story of Paypal...

“When you see things that young, they tend to be tattooed on the brain,” said author Ric Prado. “The first firefight I saw, I was seven years old.” Black Ops is a memoir by “the highest ranking covert warrior to lift the veil of secrecy and offer a glimpse into the shadow wars America fought since Vietnam.” In this interview, Prado talks about his life as a legendary CIA officer, the responsibilit...

“I found that I really liked writing about human beings. I found I could apply my approach to anything,” said author Ian O’Connor. “I don’t feel like I write about quarterbacks and center-fielders and shooting guards as much as I write about human beings.” Ian’s most recent focus is Coach K. Mike Krzyzewski is a five-time national champion at Duke, the NCAA's all-time leader in victories with near...

“It wasn’t until acting and improvising that I really started writing,” said Brian Petsos. As a performer, he transitioned into writing and directing. Brian met Oscar Isaac early in his career and Isaac has been in all three of his films, including Ticky Tacky, Lightningface, and most recently, Big Gold Brick. His first feature, Big Gold Brick, is a story about Samuel Liston and his experiences wi...