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21 February 2012
“The best way to keep children at home is to make the home a pleasant atmosphere and let the air out of the tires.” – Dorothy Parker
Neely: When you choose a career in the arts, you are also choosing a path with lots of rejection. Other than travel, how else do you handle that rejection?
Janet: (smiling) I also feel bad and I sit in that particular pain and say, “Okay, that doesn’t feel good.” And I wait for the initial sting to go through me, actually feeling what that pain feels like physically. I take mental notes on it, as it’s interesting, and usually ends up in a piece of writing I do. Then I get on with things. In the past, a lot of times I would get mad and say “I’ll show you.” There’s a great deal of fuel in the “I’ll show you” thing.
There were some times when people would misjudge who I was and it would make me very angry because you know how prejudiced people can be. They’ll look at you and they’ll think you’re one thing and you’re not.
Neely: Absolutely. Been fighting that forever.
Janet: When they’d completely miss it, that used to create an anger in me. I would use that as fuel. Now I can see people are so caught up in their own stuff, whether it’s ambition or fear (ambition being rooted in fear) that I step back and watch and wait and have a good laugh when they finally look up from what it is they are stuck in and actually see more of me.
Neely: I understand that you’re teaching at Loyola Marymount right now. What’s the name of the course?
Janet: “Creating a Television Pilot.” I’m working with eight unbelievably talented graduate students. It’s the first time I’ve taught an entire course.
Neely: Your son is majoring in film there. He could actually end up in your class.
Janet: Uh, no! We decided that wouldn’t happen. But it is what got me to LMU. My son had been accepted elsewhere, but when we visited LMU there was this fresh air in their program. They have a really strong group, with some extraordinary professors, and now under Steve Ujlaki, the new dean, they are building an entire new facility, and injecting some extraordinary talent.
But what really attracted my son, and me as well, was their ethics. Imagine that, ethics in this century and in this business! Their perspective is that film and television are collaborative arts and LMU not only emphasizes this, but fosters it. Other film schools over the years have encouraged competition amongst the students, which again, can be used as fuel. But there is a darker side to that. It has the potential to create ill-will and early feelings of rejection. I’m not sure one needs that in a place where you’re paying money to learn! I’m also told that some film schools have the legal rights to the work you do there. I don’t know if that’s true, but if it is, I find that curious and frankly unethical.
The other extraordinary thing they’re doing over there is they’re dealing with the realities of the television and film industry as it changes, which as we well know it’s doing daily. They have a symposium every year (last year I was the keynote speaker) bringing together their law students and business school students with their film and television majors, so that they can all meet and create early relationships to carry them through after graduation.
And at the risk of sounding like a pamphlet, Steve Ujlaki has set up this small business incubation program, which is astounding. It gives graduating seniors and grad students their own office and support for a year after they graduate in order to start their own independent production companies. They have their eye on the realities of this business and are very forward thinking. This attracted my son, and it attracted me to want to help in this process.
Neely: Are you enjoying teaching screenwriting?
Janet: (laughs) I’m not sure yet! I’ve always been nervous about reading peoples’ scripts. I’m a very slow reader and I get depressed when I read bad work. But so far I have been enormously impressed by these students.
What I do find funny and interesting is the reaction from some of my colleagues, particularly other writers when I tell them I’m teaching a class. They become sad and think I’ve “left the business.” I find this strange and frankly appalling.
Neely: I actually think that it’s coming from envy. I know that when I was teaching, one of the reactions I got was “How did you get that job?!”
Janet: I feel like the best time to help new people is when your career is robust. You have some power and clout and can help them along the way. But it makes me wonder how many talented people are not giving back at a time when it’s needed most.
Neely: Yes, but time is a factor in this business.
Janet: Yes, you’re absolutely right. It is a tricky juggling act. That’s why when my kids were young and I was working, that was a full enough plate for me.
