Interview [Written]: Melissa Stack

Studio System News with this interview with Melissa Stack, screenwriter of the movie The Other Woman.

Fox’s new comedy, The Other Woman, stars Cameron Diaz as a high-powered lawyer who finds out that her Prince Charming (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is a married serial cheater, so she teams up with the guy’s wife (Leslie Mann) to exact revenge. Kate Upton plays yet another mistress, and the story becomes a female buddy comedy about getting back at the jerk who wronged you.

Nick Cassavetes directed and Melissa Stack, who caught Hollywood’s attention with her 2007 Black List script I Want To F**k Your Sister, penned the screenplay. Stack is also working on an untitled female revenge comedy at Fox with Paul Feig, and she wrote a draft of the King of Kong feature, which is based on Seth Gordon’s 2007 documentary of the same name.

SSN: What was your life like before the Black List?
Stack: Prior to that I was a lawyer and doing that whole thing, going off to court and writing at night and on weekends and trying to make something happen. There were nights I would drive home from the law firm and think, ‘Is anything ever going to come together?’ I went to USC to get an MFA in screenwriting and promptly realized that I needed to make money, so I was practicing law part-time and writing, and then I ended up with the script on the Black List and was able to write full-time.

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SSN: How did the idea for The Other Woman evolve?
Stack: Daria Cercek (VP of production at Fox) and I discussed the idea of seeing a wife and a husband’s mistresses come together, and I thought it would be fun to write. It wasn’t so much about revenge — whether you’re single or married, everybody has a moment or a relationship where things just don’t go well. For me it was about how you have a happy second act when your life blows up on you. I know so many people who had to face that, so that was where it became more about the women supporting each other.

For the rest of the interview, go here.

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