(dramatic music)
- I think you called
your last three projects
the - what is it? -
the self-harm trilogy?
(laughter)
Is that how you describe it?
What are the pieces that you
identify with,
what's the, sort of, scab that you're picking,
and is it, in fact, cathartic
to put these projects out there?
- So much of what motivates me
as a writer is to
sort of connect with people who feel unseen,
in a way.
And for me, issues of
addiction or feeling othered
because you don't have the right body type
or in the case of Camille,
like this sort of grab bag of disorders,
you know, she's an alcoholic, she self-harms, and.
But all of these things, to me,
feel like parts of myself
that I always thought were super shameful.
And the more I contribute to
putting those things on screen
and sort of, not, they're not normalizing them,
because nobody wants these things to be emulated,
but I think that you feel less alone.
And certainly makes me feel less alone
to write them and then have people say,
Oh, me too.
And there's so much of that
with those last three projects.
I do feel like I've, sort of, excised it
and now, it's all like comedies and musicals.
(laughter)
- Unicorns, rainbows, and flowers are in your future.
- Yeah, it's hard to make serious drama face.
I'll be the comedy roundtable next time.
- I love it!
(upbeat music)
- In Sharp Objects, one of the things about the story
is the people who seem the most like the killers
are the killers.
(laughter)
And we try, you know, when we took the book
one of the things I said to Gillian was
You know, I think we need to build the world out
and offer some other viable suspects
because the minute you meet these people
in this creepy house,
you're like, They seem like really creepy people
in a creepy house.
And I think that we benefited from the fact that
people just went, Well, that seems kinda obvious.
And of course we tried to make them
look in other directions,
but, yeah, the audience is so ready
not to look at the thing that's right in front of them,
even when you're saying,
No, this is gonna be a story about this, you know.
It's, it is exhausting.
(upbeat music)
I used to think that my reputation was
like, being really nice.
And now I'm like,
Ooh, I think my reputation may be
that every other show I do
I either quit or get fired.
(laughter)
So, and then the other show
is like a nice show.
So I'm like, I probably have
multiple, like I don't have just one reputation
and that, actually, 'cause a lot of
what you guys were just talking about,
I was like, the biggest journey
is learning how to
stay true to the show that you're making.
And that's the only thing that I've learned,
which is that the number one showrunner job is,
I know what the show is
and no matter what happens,
that's my job.
To get up every day and remind everybody
what we're doing
and why we were doing it in the first place.
And so, where I used to think
I had a reputation of being a really, like,
pleasant person to work with,
now, I hope it's like,
Well, she makes the show.
(laughter)
She fucking makes the show
and sometimes it's not pleasant
and sometimes she's super good to be around,
but she does make the show.
If she doesn't think the show's gonna stay
like, in certain shows, I've quit.
'Cause I'm like, that's not the show
we were making.
And I'm willing to do that
and as long as I stay true to that,
you know, there always seems to be another job.
It's when I start worrying about,
I was told on one of the first shows out of Buffy
and it was kind of a hot mess
'cause I was trying to make everybody happy
and I was trying to be successful
and I wanted to show everybody
that I had a show in me after Buffy.
And when it crashed and burned
rather spectacularly,
one of the executives said to me,
Wow, you know, you were so great to work with,
you took every note, like, maybe too great
to work with.
(laughter)
And I was like,
Oh god, they don't pay me to be nice.
They pay me to tell them what the show is.
Uh oh.
(dramatic music)