Written Interview: Maggie Carey

An interview with the writer-director of the comedy The To Do List which debuts nationally this weekend:

Sara Fetters: Where did the [The To Do List] script come from. What was the genesis behind it?

Maggie Carey: I wanted to deal with losing your virginity from an authentic teenage girl’s point of view. That was important to me. Some of my college girlfriends were at the screening last night and we were talking afterwards about it being refreshing that a lot of humor came from a specific female point of view, but it’s funny for both men and women. The moderator last night compared it to a female American Pie and I was totally fine with that. I would call it a dirty Sixteen Candles. I’m fine with the female American Pie because it’s talking in a framed way about sex the way teenagers do. All you do is talk about sex when you’re not having sex. As soon as you’re having sex, you don’t really talk about it as much…or maybe you do.

Tim Hall: [laughs] There’s a different tone to the conversation.

MC: Yes. There’s one moment, that’s in the trailer, where Brandy is making out with Cameron on the couch and she’s trying check “finger bang” off her list so she’s trying to encourage him in a very forward/ Type A girl personality kind of way. He’s fumbling with her clothes, unzips something and finds out it’s not a skirt, its skorts. That’s a moment where I don’t think a male would write that joke, but he definitely could appreciate that joke. My guy friend said he loved that cause he’s had to fumble with bras and with stuff. The film was more about having specific things form my life experiences as a teenager.

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SF: The Cannes Film Festival just happened and there were no major submissions from female directors that were accepted. Was that a barrier to getting this film made? The fact that you were attached not just as a writer, but as a director as well.

MC: I think that’s a great question. I don’t know that I know the answer. I know there’s a barrier for a first time director whether it’s male or female. I absolutely understand that. Making a movie is a lot of money and there are a lot of things that can go wrong. You learn a lot your first time out. It’s like when you lose your virginity. Girls don’t have an orgasm the first time out, it takes a couple years, or a couple boyfriends. There was difficulty in getting the movie made. I think there were people who passed because it was a female driven comedy. I think we already had our financing when Bridesmaids came out. I think the success of it has opened doors. I think the success of HBO’s Girls has been fantastic and has opened more doors. Film and television are also a business so you have to prove things with numbers. That’s the difficulty in working in the industry is always having a balance between art and commerce. I don’t know why there a so few female directors. UCB Theater was founded by Amy Poehler, this woman who is an exceptional role model. It wasn’t like she was the funny girl in a group of guys, she was just funny. Same with other people that I admire like Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig, and they generate their own material. There are so many funny people coming out of that theater and so many of the funny people on stage at night our women. I started not singling the funny girls out, they’re just funny because they’re funny.

It does blow my mind. I don’t know why there are so few female directors. I do know the more women that do it; the more girls grow up not even questioning it.

The only thing I know is that you just keep doing it. When I was on set, the two boom operators were these two awesome tattooed girls. I had a female costume designer, I had a strong female producer Jennifer Todd. I look around and see quite a few women, but someone asked me who my favorite female directors were, and I had to look it up.

For the rest of the interview, go here.