JESSICA BENDINGER Screenwriter Interview

JESSICA BENDINGER knows a lot about writing. You can't come away from an interview with her without being inspired. Her first credit as a screenwriter was the hit movie "Bring It On" starring Kirsten Dunst. Jessica's other screenwriting credits include "First Daughter" and "Aquamarine." 

 "Stick It," in 2006, was her first film as a writer/director. There'll be many more to follow. She was also brought in as a writer during the 4th Season of "Sex & The City." That's a lot of work for someone whose first screenplay credit was only ten years ago. But when you speak to Jessica, it's not hard to see why she's been a great success.

Let's begin with the most important question--- what is your favorite movie and why?

I think trying to identify your favorite movie is an impossible task for movie lovers because we are drawn to movies based on what mood we are in at any given moment in time. So my favorite movie changes, any minute of any day of the week, depending on what my mood is. However, some of my favorite moves are Diner, American Graffiti, Lawrence of Arabia, and Bad Santa!! It just depends on the day and my mood.

What do you love most about screenwriting?

I love the freedom of this career, and I use that freedom as a part of my process. I thrive on it, but have the ability to reign it in and generate concrete, timely results if I need to. Somebody once said to me, “Hard work is for people without talent,” but I think you need both. You need talent, but you still have to know what lights you up and what will get your butt in front of the computer whether there’s a paycheck involved or not. I do know the more I write, the easier it is to write. The less I write, the longer it can take to start the car. I mess up all the time, I fall into patterns and struggle to stay conscious, integrated and connected, but I’ve learned to relish the harder stuff for the clarity that follows.

The percentage of women screenwriters in Hollywood is still very low. What thoughts do you have on this, is it getting better?

I honestly don't know if it is getting better. Probably better in TV than in film. I believe that the hours and the solitude are too crazy-making for most people - men or women. I'd be curious to see the numbers of Hollywood versus the rest of the job population. How off are we? I need to see a power point.

I feel that when screenwriter's write about women, there is so much to explore, because we are still more likely to see the journey of a man when we go to the cinema. Would you encourage writers to be more diverse in regard to gender - or do you think people should stick to whatever comes naturally?

I think you should be true to who you are as a writer. I don’t think about diversifying at all. It never even occurred to me. In a weird way I know I'm branded that way, this female empowerment writer, but really, writing is writing to me, and I write what I am most interested in and am most enthusiastic about.

You are credited as one of four writers on "The Truth About Charlie." How was the experience for you; what was your involvement like?

I didn't think the movie should be adapted, to be honest. I was dubious, and I'm not sure I was totally wrong. I did the first pass when Will Smith was attached to star with Thandie. Will dropped out, and Jonathan wanted to have a whack at the script on his own. That's the extent of it.

Of the films that you've written - have you been mostly happy with how your work has been portrayed on screen?

Bring It On and Stick It because they are my original ideas from start to finish, are my babies. The other work - rewrites - is a more detached animal, because you are repairing someone else's work.

"Bring It On" was a very big success. Were you expecting this? What effect did it have on your career?

I was not expecting it, but it was delightful and very gratifying. I have been working steadily ever since, so that's been awesome. It’s great to have created the mother ship of such a huge franchise. That’s hugely flattering and very validating, certainly. When I created it, I suspected it would have an audience. In a full-circle moment, I actually went to a psychic who told me it was going to be a really big hit. It was called Cheer Fever, at the time. He also was very specific about how it was going to be successful, which was interesting. He said it was going to have a huge cult following after its initial release, which is what’s happened with the DVD sequels.

You did some work on "Sex & The City" as a creative consultant. Could you share a bit about what your job entailed?

All that means is I was a writer on the show. It was my credit for working 1 day a week vs. 5 days, as I was coming off Bring It On at #1 two weeks in a row, and very busy/in demand with movie stuff. But Sex & The City was a blast! Season Four was a good time to join the show, because they were coming off a ton of criticism from the end of Season Three (drag queens on a rooftop, anyone?), and they were ready to ventilate the world of the show with some fresh air. It was really fun to get into the skin of the characters, but we had to bring all our personal stories to the writers’ table. We were expected to be brutally honest about experiences we’d had or had heard about, so inevitably everyone’s voice got transfused into the mix. We were like a giant dialysis machine. No — wait! A giant blood bank? A bone marrow transplant? Oh, just pick your own transfusion-y analogy and run with it. I think the new blood challenged some of the old "rules" they had for the first 3 seasons, and it brought a new gravitas to the show that was amazing.

You made your directorial debut with "Stick It" - how was the experience for you?

I loved it and learned so much from it. It is very challenging to shepherd a 28million dollar asset to the finish line successfully. You make huge sacrifices to usher an experience like that through your life when you don't know all the variables. It is an all-consuming, all-encompassing, exhausting trade-off you make. There are wonderful rewards, but also huge drawbacks personally, physically and emotionally. Although “Stick It” was my first stab at directing a feature, I'd directed music videos first. Having a background in Music videos was great because it taught me how to stay out of the way, for one. I think first-timers make the mistake of trying to exert too much authority on set, and that’s absurd. You are working with cast-members and crew members who have logged more hours on sets than you will ever log as a director in your lifetime. Therefore, hang back. Observe. Stay out of the way. If you’ve done your job, by the time you get on set everyone is doing theirs. Directing is an amazing opportunity to experience collaboration on a massive scale. You get to work with these very specific craftsmen who have vast reserves of experience. It's incredible.

Do you want to do more directing?

Yes, definitely. I have two projects in the works. The first is the adaptation of my novel, The Seven Rays. And the other is a music-driven movie.

I often share a view on this site that, sure, you can read screenwriting books- but more than anything, you need to find what works for YOU. Is this is a view you share?

Totally!! There are many ways to come up with ideas, write outlines and birth screenplays. The biggest journey we all have is finding out what works for us, and the beauty of that is that it will be so radically different for everyone. I believe in following my enthusiasm, my curiosity and my fear. Not necessarily in that order.

Finding the discipline to write features is tough. Even people who call themselves screenwriters and dedicate their lives to it find it hard to sit down and do the work. Why is this? And what advice can you give?

Writing features is tough! You have to involve so many other people to get it from being the written word to being a screenplay and most people don’t survive that process. It’s really kind of rigorous and it rewards people who aren’t necessarily the best writers but they are the best at the process of screenwriting, which is this really unruly social and political process. I think I have charted the waters of writing in Hollywood by trying to have a really unique point of view. I love what I love and I’m unapologetic about it. What works for me is to be true to myself, and trying to write the movies, books and TV shows that I want to see. Hollywood is very much a geo-political, commodity-driven economy, and that truth can really stop/impact people in lots of ways. Make sure qualified readers with genuine critical discernment are giving you notes. If you don't have access, then pay for it with a reading service if you can (Script Shark, ScriptXpert), etc. Just write for the joy of writing and the joy of expressing and cultivating your craft. Very few scripts get made. Make it your business to relish the process of writing so you got something out of it besides a movie. The world is a better place when people have something meaningful and happy-making in their lives, so do what you love and do it as much as you can.

We haven't seen any films that you've written for a few years now. I know that you were busy writing and releasing a novel, but now that's done- what can we expect to see from you in the coming years?

I’ve been busy writing my next original movie, which takes place at a Berklee School of Music type of place. My mother is a musician and my dad was in advertising and wrote jingles, and I grew up very much in the margins of the music business, so this movie is a love letter to the more working side of show business. It’s less the American Idol and Glee version of that and more what happens to people who really explore it as a career and how hard that is. It takes place at a music conservatory college and follows four different students with different majors in music. I’m really excited about that.

And, I’ve also co-written music for a long time, so I’m also co-writing a solo album for a new artist. That’s very gratifying. It’s so nice to work in three-minute chunks, after having worked on movies and novels. Songs are a really sweet vacation from such a long form. My dad was a jingle writer, so it’s really in my blood. I never did it seriously because my parents did it professionally, so I was always daunted by that. I’m having fun working on other people’s material, where I don’t have to be responsible for the whole thing. I just do my part of the song, and then I get to hear the finished product. It’s really nice.

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L. A. After Midnight - A Fantastic New Film Blog

Don't you love it when you find a new favorite writer? Or a new friend? Or a new place to go visit every single time you get a chance? That's what you hope for when you discover a new blog. Writing a blog is easy. Writing a good blog is fairly easy. But writing something that matters; something that's important; something that makes life better is a trickier thing, and I'm jealous of those who can achieve it.

L. A. After Midnight is written by Dennis Bartok. At the time of writing, it has only three blog posts and four followers. But that will change very soon. I love film, and I'm passionate in my own way. But I love it when I see somebody else who is passionate; but entirely in their own unique way. And passion for film jumps out at you the second you visit this blog. The things Dennis is writing about and covering are fascinating in themselves. But what makes it vibrant and important is the voice behind it.

In the post Ken's Tuesday Night Film Club - he allows the spirit of Ken (his subject) to be the voice, along with the amazing images. His article Future Of Film Projection In Jeopardy? simply and effectively makes you care about something that two minutes before you probably didn't, or at least didn't to quite the same extent. And the Lost Film Theater In L.A.'s Chinatown is exciting because; for us film lovers, old closed down, derelict cinemas represent something symbolic, something important and touching that we can't quite put our fingers on. But when Dennis writes about it and shows us, we get a bit nearer to it. We feel it.

If you get in on the act now; L.A. After Midnight will be like that band who you saw in the basement of some dive when only six people knew about them. But that opportunity won't be there for long, because if this guy keeps blogging; he's gonna be a writer that everyone who cares about film is going to know about.

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Jingle Blogs

This guy in Dear Old Hollywood goes around LA looking at old film locations and buildings and offices and his blog is really quite fascinating. Salty Salutes has a way of talking about your favorite bands and singers, yet somehow knows all their songs that you never knew existed, despite spending your whole life collecting all their obscure tracks.

Scarlett Cinema: Women In Film Criticism is a blog I'm still figuring out. I must like it, I keep visiting. And although the "Dude who is the Godfather of film blogging Award" normally goes to John August, Ken Levine should also be considered. He's written for pretty much every TV show you've ever loved, and is not afraid to tell it how it is.

Sex In A Submarine is not something I've ever tried, but it is a blog I read. The guy who runs it has written a heap of films you've never heard of, but after ten minutes on his blog you'll do your best to change that. Simon & Jo at Screen Insight love movies, and do a great podcast, which regrettably I get around to listening to enough. But they're awesome, and they watch a lot of movies; and deserve a bigger audience than they're getting. So go be a part of it and you can be the cool ones who were there before they went mainstream.

I normally dislike blogs where the author has a giant image of themselves in the header. But Chris Edwards makes up for it by the incredible service he is doing to silent film at Silent Volume. And not only that, but there's a woman who writes poetry about silent movies, how cool is that? Have a look at Silent Stanzas.

After all that you'll be fed up with movies, so go take a look at Hyperbole And A Half. She's the most hilarious, creative and original blogger I know. Incredible. And let's end by being happier. Gretchen at The Happiness Project has been road testing every myth, method and idea about happiness for over a year; the results are inspiring and helpful. 

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48 Year Old Divorcee Blogging About Plants

I struggle with those blogs where people just ramble about whatever comes to their minds, do you know the type I mean? They post pictures of their cats and they give out "Most Fluffy Blog" Awards to their friends who have names like Deirdre and Marlene. But, as a change of pace; I figured I'd just write a blog without knowing what I'm going to say, and see where it ends up. I won't be blogging about my cats, because I killed them.

I've never owned cats, don't worry. I never even saw the show. I watched 'THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3' last night, that's the remake, not the original. I know we're meant to claim that remakes are the devil; but I'd never seen the original and this film I enjoyed. I'm not an action film guy. A few cars blow up and buildings explode. Great. But why should I care? But '..Pelham' was good. It had characters I cared about. This is what I need from an action flick.

1. A deadline. 

i.e. Get me the money, otherwise your family dies.

2. Someone who wants to get it all over so they can see their kid again. 

i.e. I need this to be over, so that I can finally be a good Dad to Little Billy.

3. Plausibility.

i.e. Don't have two guys running around shooting each other for two hours and end it with one of them suddenly inventing a phone that doubles as a ham sandwich, which poisons the bad guy, who suddenly announces that his ham allergy is deadly. 

Now, PELHAM, as I'll call it now, did have a few plausibility issues, but I enjoyed it! It was in New York, it was gritty, it was fast. It had the dancing guy from the 70's shouting "Motherfucker!" a lot. Great stuff. 

"JULIE & JULIA" is a good movie. It captures a different New York. It's the Nora Ephron New York. It's funny; on the making of thing on the DVD one of the producers says "This is a different New York to what Nora's shot before, it's gritty." Gritty? really? Just because there was a Pizzeria in it? It's hardly "DO THE RIGHT THING." Now that's a good movie. In fact; now I think about it -- Spike Lee and Nora Ephron are both very similar in that they draw you into their worlds. They make you care. They can have a fuckawful story but they get away with it; because they've wrapped you up and welcomed you into their worlds. They've put the heating on, they've made you coffee, and you don't want to leave. 

Julie Powell; as a real person, and as a film character; is really a great role model for success. She had a target which would test her. She had passion for something. She had a role model. And she worked her ass off. Her character spoke a lot, of feeling like Julie Child was in the room, and of having conversations with her as she cooked. To many, that sounds insane; but to anybody who wants to do anything extraordinary, it's the most normal thing in the world. Napoleon Hill was preaching that back in the day in his success books. It works. Unfortunately, I thought I was visualizing Billy Wilder in my imagination, but it was actually Bill Wiseman, from Barnsley, UK; who is currently unemployed and suffering from gout. Make sure you visualize properly.

With all this talk of movies set in New York, I should mention Woody Allen. I watched "ANYTHING ELSE" the other day. I love it! I hated it for a while, but on watching it a few days back I remembered that I actually love it, I just convinced myself I hated it after everyone said it was terrible. But I dig it. Sure, it sucks in so many ways and is a rehash of many past works. Woody was also clearly struggling with big changes in crew; this was the time when he was having to come to the realization that even though he'd had people willing to fund his New York movies all through his career, that was no longer going to be the case. 

But I love this film because; Woody knows comedy. More than that, Woody Allen knows Woody Allen's style of comedy. And if you are a big Woody fan, you'll find lots to love in this movie. There's nothing better than a scene with Woody going over the top and panicking. There's nothing better than a straight line, followed by a cut to a scene which results in huge laughs. There's nothing better than Woody making a joke about being Jewish. There's nothing better than seeing Woody Allen convince another character to buy a survival kit (which includes not only a gun, but water purifying tablets.) Watching Woody Allen is just a pure joy, if you're into that kind of thing. If you're not, you'll suffer. But don't worry, pretty soon after this movie, we all started suffering, again and again.

I am rambling. This isn't good is it? I will now write a paragraph in the style of a 48 Year Old Divorcee.

MJ emailed me. He wanted sex again. I just realized MJ has the same initials as Michael Jackson and some people think he isn't dead. What if it's him? What if he gets me pregnant? Would it really be his or would it be Macaulay Culkin's? F called. GH-N-Q didn't call. I was sad. I bought a Dicksonia Antarctica for the garden. It's so beautiful. N got the garden in the divorce, so I don't know where I'll put it. I'm so lonely sometimes. It reminds me of the time FB told me he wanted some. I thought he wanted a threesome with me and I. That was my fantasy, me and FBI. But it wasn't the case. He did want some, but not sex. He was after my Sasa Palmata. I told him the soil in his garden wouldn't be right, plus it didn't have adequate shade.

Anyways. I watched "SLUMDOG MILLIONNAIRE," too. I like Freida Pinto. I like the movie. I liked it more this time on DVD than I did in the cinema. The hype was so big then because I could hardly see the film on the screen; it was like there was some big giant sign in front of it say "OMG, THIS IS THE BEST FILM EVER!". That's why I didn't see "THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT" for ten years.

I'm going to stop typing now.

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Cinema In SAUDI ARABIA

In November 2010, I wrote an article called Cinema In Your Country, where I asked everyone to share a bit about how movies are seen and perceived in their own countries. The post got some wonderful replies in the comments, and many  of you also contacted me by email. I was particularly intrigued by some emails I was getting from Saudi Arabia, where cinema's don't exist. I had no idea this was true; and invited Fatma M-Z, who lives in Saudi Arabia, to tell us more about it from their own perspective. 

Written By Guest Author Fatma M - Z

In Saudi Arabia, people don't need cinemas to follow and know about the international film industries like Hollywood, Bollywood and other foreign movies because they already know a lot about them.

Although there is no such thing as movie theaters all around the big kingdom, still, most people love movies and watch them the whole time. And to tell you the truth, young Saudis are big fans of Hollywood productions and they are following the movies box office regularly. And some are serious movie addicts.

If you are wondering how we get access to movies, DVDs and video tapes, then I'll tell you that our resources for movies are either movie stores, which are available everywhere, or through internet websites.

I think the reason why there are no movies shown publicly here might be because most of these movies seem to carry concepts and ideas that don’t suit our cultural traditions and Islamic beliefs. Generally speaking, the Saudi society is conservative and believe in preserving its Islamic traditions and life-style from vanishing by external factors and I believe that there is nothing more important than keeping one's identity and true belonging as long as it doesn't harm anyone else.

Some people think that the government is the one who is responsible for the absence of cinema in Saudi Arabia out of its strict intolerance but this is not true. Actually, the government has nothing to interfere with citizens's own affairs and they hold a neutral side; but they prevent this thing out of fear of opposition from people and once the majority of people accepts the establishing of cinema houses, nobody will mind as long as the movies shown are modified to suit the different variety of ages.

In the meantime, the actual change has started taking place in the big cities as mini cinemas for children as well as big 3D documentary films that are presented every weekend to entertain and educate both children and adults, and consequently, I think that big cinema houses will exist in Saudi Arabia very soon.

To be accurate and even in my presentation, I run small interviews in my college where I asked many girls about their opinions of the absence of cinema here. Most of them said that although they don't see why it is not here, they don't feel that it's necessary anymore because they have other alternatives and they get used to seeing movies at home.

However, some girls insisted that it's totally unfair and there should be cinema's for them to meet with their friends and watch movies together while others said that although young people demand its existence, we must respect the ones who don't as it's not a life or death issue and they mentioned that they don't see what difference will it make whether they watch movies inside their houses or out of it. 

Lastly, I believe that such changes are going to happen as the world is now getting more and more similar every day.


Big thanks to Guest Author Fatma M - Z, for speaking up and sharing some views from Saudi Arabia!

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