On co-creating Home Before Dark on Apple TV+, she said, “It was incredibly important to me to do justice to the brave and generous spirits of Hilde, Matt and the Lysiaks. They inspired me to put something into the world that would nudge the feminist needle in the right direction.”
Her favorite part of this experience was getting to know the Lysiaks. “They changed how I parent, and how I view the media. And how much faith I have in my own kid to handle any situation,” she said.
On being a filmmaker in the digital age, she said, “With all these streaming outlets, there has never been a better time to be a storyteller who is a woman or a POC.”
Regarding the impact of streaming services (such as Apple TV+) on the entertainment business, she said, “You see so much on television that never would have been possible under the old model. Can you imagine pitching The End of the F***ing World to the CW?”
On his use of technology in his daily routine as a filmmaker, he said, “I read all the time for ideas and for pleasure. I love that my phone contains dozens of books, magazines, and newspapers at any one time. I have a daily order for reading news sources, chapters of books I read at lunch, and an after-dinner list to check.”
She defined the word success as “self-worth.” “Love for family and friends. Raising a content and engaged kid,” she said.
For young and aspiring filmmakers, she said, “It’s a scary time to graduate, but remember we are still in peak TV. There are still hundreds, even thousands, of shows in development. When I was coming up, there was basically only network TV and HBO. Write and create. The rest will fall into place.”
She concluded about Home Before Dark, “Our goal was to make an Amblin-inspired tale that revolves around a young girl and takes her as seriously as those films took young boys. And like those movies, we wanted it to be for everyone. I hope we succeeded.”
