Interview: Liz W. Garcia — Part 1

Liz W. Garcia is an American television producer and writer. As a writer, her credits include “Dawson’s Creek,” “Wonderfalls” and “Cold Case”. With her husband, actor Josh Harto, she created and produced the TNT series “Memphis Beat”. Most recently Liz wrote and directed the independent feature film The Lifeguard starring Kristen Bell which will be released in 2013.

I was delighted to have the opportunity to speak at length with Liz.

Today in Part 1, Liz talks about how she became a writer:

Scott: Where did you grow up and how did you find your way into writing?

Liz: I was born in Canada. I grew up to American parents. I grew up in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Ridgefield, Connecticut, a small town about 50 miles outside of New York. I always loved to write growing up. My parents and my teachers, I went to public school, had a few teachers that recognized that I loved to write, and were very encouraging. So I would write poems and short stories. It became part of my identity as a kid, then as a teenager, I went to a literary magazine, and I went to a creative arts camp called CCY, Center for Creative Youth, at Wesleyan, where I eventually went to college, one summer, and that was a great experience. When I went to college, I never thought that I would become a writer, necessarily. I knew that I loved it and that I would continue to write for my sanity and my sense of self, but I didn’t really understand how you could translate being a writer into a profession.

I thought about, maybe I would write for magazines or something, but nothing seemed quite right. I didn’t find the right fit until I was in college. I was a film major and I decided that I would write a screenplay for my senior thesis. The minute that I sat down to write in that medium, it was really just love, immediately. I realized this was the medium I’d been looking for all along, and of course I’d heard a rumor that you could actually have a job as a screenwriter [laughs] and make a living. By the time I graduated I decided that was what I wanted to do.

Scott: In terms of the writing, you cut your teeth at Wesleyan University?

Liz: I wrote my first script at Wesleyan my last semester of my senior year. It was really when I got to LA that I had to learn how to write screenplays. I’d taken a class and I’d written one, but you don’t really know what you’re doing until you’ve put in your 10,000 hours of writing. It wasn’t until I’d moved to LA and I was working as an assistant and as a temp and trying to break in as a writer that I started to write all my samples and my scripts and tried to figure out how to be good at this. I’m still trying to figure it out. It’s still so unbelievably challenging.

Scott: Let’s step back a bit here. I know you’ve been writing TV. What were some of the influential movies and TV series when you were growing up that stuck with you and inspired you?

Liz: Sure. Let’s see. Well, I used to go to the Bethel Cinema, which was the closest art house theater, and I would see everything that they played. Some of the movies that made a big difference for me and made me fall in love with film were shown there. One in particular was Spanking the Monkey, which was David O. Russell’s first film. I saw that in high school, and around the same time, I saw Sex, Lies, and Videotape, which my parents had rented and I watched twice in a row. I was so enthralled by it.

Bertolucci’s Stealing Beauty with Liv Tyler. It’s not the greatest film in the world, but it really spoke to me. That was something I watched in high school, and it was a new experience to see a film that took seriously the emotional journey of a young woman. That really spoke to me. The Piano, and…This is interesting, because this was after I was already in love with film.

The summer, I had to decided I was moving to LA, but I was working as a waitress at home to make money to move to LA. I saw Boys Don’t Cry. That was a huge, huge film for me. The aesthetic, the performance, the fact that it felt so female, that it was about women, but it wasn’t. It was sort of an alternative female perspective. It was aggressive and it was carnal. I felt so immediate and brave, and I knew that a woman had directed it. I was really inspired when I saw that in ‘99.

In terms of TV, “My So‑Called Life,” “NYPD Blue,” and “Buffy.” Buffy was a huge inspiration to me, not just because I loved the show, and I thought it was so smart, but because I was a film major at Wesleyan when Buffy was on, at the peak of its popularity.

Joss Whedon, of course, went through the same film program. We all looked to him like, “There is living proof that you can translate this education we’re getting at this tiny little school across the country into a viable and respectable career in Hollywood.”

That honestly made me feel like it was possible, like I could move out to LA, and I could actually have a really interesting career, and you didn’t have to know people. Other jobs…he comes from a family who’d worked in LA, but he was a flesh and blood human being, whom I met on campus and who also had a TV show.

Scott: Because of Netflix, “Buffy: The Vampire Slayer” seems to have developed a real following. I have a son in college and a 12‑year‑old. They both have seen the entire series. My 12‑year‑old has seen it two or three times.

Liz: I’m so glad to hear that, because I think that it is deserving of respect. “Buffy” was so smart, and he used genre in such a clever way. Also, it really was a sincerely feminist show. Buffy was a well‑rounded woman, and she was very powerful and emotional. It’s wasn’t just a gimmick to have a pretty young thing being physical and being an action hero. His attempts were sincere in showing what that would look like.

Tomorrow in Part 2, Liz discusses her career as a TV writer and producer.

Please stop by comments to thank Liz and ask any questions you may have.

Liz is repped by CAA and Madhouse Entertainment.

Twitter: @lizwgarcia.

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