SAUCY ROMANTIC COMEDIES ABOUT AMBITION, ANXIETY, AND FOLLOWING YOUR PASSION

The QUEUE

About my Films.

Here’s the deal: I love romance. I would have enjoyed Star Wars about 12 times more if the entire thing was about Han and Leia’s relationship. And you know what’s weird? I used to be ashamed of it. It wasn’t because of religion – in fact, in Sunday School, I learned early on that it was considered a mitzvah (a good deed/commandment) to have sex on Shabbat. So sex positivity was baked into my culture. All that shame about loving love was simply because I’m smart. I graduated Cum Laude from the best cinema program in the world and have a J.D. from one of the best law schools in the country. I shouldn’t like that silly stuff. I ESPECIALLY shouldn’t like that silly stuff as a feminist. I mean, there are way more IMPORTANT things to think about than romance. But still, even as I was writing “serious” films, whenever I was sad or bored or stressed, I would turn to these stories of love to make me feel better. A few years ago, I was taking a break from writing yet another “important” script to jot down a scene about two friends who were trying online dating for the first time. It was about 7 pages of them bantering as they swiped through one of the apps. It seemed silly. Romantic. A little raunchy. And like everything I loved about the novels I refused to admit I read. I submitted it to my writing group because it was my turn to go and I HAD to. I was expecting a lot of harsh criticism, but you know what they said? “This is the first thing I’ve read of yours that sounds like YOU.” And it’s because it WAS me. And it still is. I haven’t looked back since.