Liz Hannah (screenwriter: The Post / Lee / The Girl from Plainville)

Welcome to 5AM StoryTalk! I'm joined by screenwriter LIZ HANNAH whose script for The Post was so phenomenal it was sold and released in just 15 months - with Steven Spielberg as the director. Her credits also include the films Long Shot and Lee, TV series like "Mindhunter", and co-creating “The Girl from Plainville”.

A bonus episode, exclusive to 5AM StoryTalk’s amazing paid subscribers, is also available here. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, you’ll get more of Liz and I discussing a seminal piece of art from her life – David Bowie’s 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

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5AM StoryTalk would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which this podcast is recorded, the Djarra people of the Kulin Nation and pay respects to Elders past and present.

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Show notes. Liz and I discuss the following (amongst many other things):

• Craft, craft, and more craft

• Her current struggle over how best to use her own creative voice to confront what’s happening in the U.S. and world, which is complicating her new spec script
• Why she couldn’t have written The Post at this point in her career (or: the advantage of being young, dumb, and fearless as an artist)
• What went into writing two pivotal scenes in her career, a monologue performed by Sarah Paulson in The Post and the interrogation of Charles Manson in Season 2 of “Mindhunter”
• The unintended resonance of The Post in Trump’s America, which provokes a heartbreaking observation about how her success was achieved
• Why she can’t rewatch films or TV she’s written
• The pivotal role of journalism in democracy, highlighted in her script for The Post and work on Lee
• Whether Hollywood is up to the challenge of confronting the major challenges of our day, from fascism to climate change (or: her thoughts on Ryan Coogler’s Sinners)

Links:

• ⁠5AM StoryTalk newsletter⁠ (become a paid subscriber here to gain access to both the 5AM StoryTalk newsletter and podcast
• Listen to my bonus episode with Liz here
• Watch The Post trailer
• Read Liz’s script for The Post here
• Watch the Lee trailer
• Watch “The Girl from Plainville” trailer
• In my introduction, I reference John August’s observations about a unifying theatrical experience. You can listen to my conversation with him here
• Liz and I discuss my traumatic experience creating “Dracula” (2013), which you can read about here