Written Interview: Zoe Kazan (“Ruby Sparks”)

An IndieWire interview with actress-screenwriter Zoe Kazan about the movie which she wrote and in which she co-stars Ruby Sparks:

How long had you been cooking up this screenplay?

I had the original idea in the summer of 2009, and wrote about 20 pages and then put it away because I could see what the broad comedy of the story was. But I knew that’s not what I wanted to write. I wanted to let it sit around with me for a little longer before I really started to do it in earnest. Then I did “The Behanding of Spokane” on Broadway in the Spring of 2010 and I had time during the day, so I just tackled it. I wrote it in like three weeks and sent it off to producers.

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What happened in that in-between stage during the writing process that gave you the confidence to delve into the more dramatic aspect of the work?

I think that this movie is not autobiographical at all, but it’s very personal. It draws on a lot of things that I’ve experienced in relationships where there’s been a power in balance, and where I’ve felt that the person I was with loved some idea of me, and not the actual person. That’s a hard thing to write about. The movie goes to a pretty dark emotional place. I just really wanted to be careful before I started writing that I knew exactly what I was trying to write, and that I was in control of the story. I didn’t make an outline for this movie. I really felt like they were speaking to me, so I wanted to be in the right shape to receive them. Sometimes when you clamp down, the muse doesn’t speak to you.

For more of the interview, go here.

For a nice background piece in TheWrap on the movie, go here.