Interview: Julia Hart (2012 Black List)

One of the best ways to learn the craft is read what professional screenwriters have to say about it. To that end for the next few weeks, I will be featuring interviews I have conducted with Black List screenwriters.

Today: Julia Hart’s original screenplay The Keeping Room put her on the Black List in 2012. The movie was released in 2015 and stars Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld, and Sam Worthington. Julia went on to direct Miss Stevens from a screenplay she co-wrote and the movie debuted to wide acclaim at this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival.

Here are links to the six installments of my February 2013 interview with Julia:

Part 1: “If you really believe in it despite what conventional wisdom says, just write it.”

Part 2: “I deeply love women and in this type of movie, in an active thriller, the intimate complexity of female relationships is rarely explored.”

Part 3: “The first draft was 65 pages. I was like, ‘I think I’m done, but this is really [laughs] short.’”

Part 4: “I think the one thread thus far is that they all have complex female protagonists. I love writing about them. I love figuring out what they do and what they say.”

Part 5: “Character development for me is all through dialogue. I think about the idea of who this person is, what their job is, where they live, what they look like… figuring out what they say and how they say it.”

Part 6: “Story is ultimately innate. And being aware of what’s innate, I think it’s so important when it comes to writing.”

Julia is repped by WME and Anonymous Content.

[Originally posted February 24, 2013]