Judi Levine

Judi Levine began her film-producing career in Australia after graduating with a Bachelor's degree in film and drama, and then working her way up the production ladder. In addition to producing in Australia, Judi's work has led her to projects in England, France, the Czech Republic and United States.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Hello everyone, and welcome to theLadystale Podcast. I'm trying to keep the
camera real close to my face becauseit's in between getting my hair done day.
So just in case you wonder,what will Nona looks like without her
hair getting done, it's a littlefuzzy on the sides. And I don't
want y'all to see that, becauseyou know, I'm a narcissist, and
this is an LA interview and you'resupposed to always look your best when you're

(00:22):
doing an LA interview. I'm literallyright now searching for like I'm glancing to
the side, like do I havelipstick? Where's the list? But that's
okay, I'm gonna go with it. I'm gonna go with ugly will noona.
And so that means I'm not gonnatalk much. So we wrote books,
and I say we there's normally ajade and there's no je today.
But I thought divorce was bad andI thought I've been grown unble cez if

(00:43):
only are me, I'm me morein Verse, Foreign Coffree, Widdles,
Web and Widow's Debt. All ofthose books are audiobooks, and if you
were counting with me, that issix audiobooks, so you can get those
audiobooks wherever audiobooks are found. Nowyou know, we've written a few more
like twelve more so if you wantto see those, you go to www.
Dot And I thought ladies dot com. And since ugly Willna can't stand

(01:03):
looking at herself anymore, I'm notsure if I should even admit that.
I'm sorry. I'm taking that back. And I am beautiful in all shades
and forms of me. Oh thatfelt like a good light to tell myself
yet, But anyway, you're nothere to hear anymore about me. You're
here to hear about our wonderful gas. Wonderful guys. Would delight to introduce

(01:23):
yourself. Okay, I'm Judy Levine. I'm a producercer mosts and documentaries,
narrative and documentaries. And I willjust say that the minute you popped on
the screen, I thought, whata gorgeous looking woman. And we both
got the red We both got thered memo today, so we're both wearing
red. And yes, you aregorgeous, I'm sure inside and out even

(01:47):
though we've just met, but youseem absolutely gorgeous. Got a fantastic smile,
So all those people listening out there. Believe me, Wenona terrific,
gorgeous. If you saw her onthe street, you'd be all over it.
So let me tell you a littlebit about me. I guess,
and I'm a producer that is obviouslynot American, but I am. I'm
a dual citizen with Australia. I'vebeen in LA for thirty years, but

(02:09):
I've been straddling two continents and makingprojects, especially more recently in Australia.
So I'm doing a lot more stuffin Australia, but I have projects in
the States, and I have afamily in the States. I've got three
kids here sometimes three too many,but I have two in LA and one

(02:29):
in Michigan. So I'm very youknow, I'm very acclimated to America.
I still feel like an Aussie inside. I still sound like an Aussie,
even though my kids are all allsound American. And I love making movies.
It's what gets me up in themorning. I've been doing it since
I graduated from film school or onehundred million moons ago, and I do

(02:52):
if I can like to meet moviesthat actually leave people with something to think
about, even if it's a romanticcomedy made a romantic comedy. We started
at twenty nineteen. We finished itduring COVID in twenty twenty. We shot
it in Scotland and then we finishedthe post production in Australia. It's called
Falling for Figure Out. It's onHulu. You can watch it there.

(03:15):
It's very entertaining. It's set inthe brutal world of opera competitions. Even
a film like that that you mightfeel is just a romantic comedy, it's
really about a young woman working outhow to strive for what she really wants
in her life, and also learningthat it doesn't happen overnight, but it
takes a lot of work. Sothere's something to be said there. And

(03:35):
I've made a film that stought ofwas the film that put us on the
map in la I guess. Fora long time we were here. We
couldn't get arrested in this town.And it was a real struggle. You
know, people say, why didyou come to Hollywood. You know,
it's for the promise of fame andfortune and streets paid with gold. But
like, after about ten or elevenyears that wasn't happening. I was almost

(03:58):
ready to go back to US Astralia. I was like, I got the
house painted and the dogs in youreyes and I was ready to go.
But we made a film called TheSessions with Helen Hunt and John Hawks and
When You h Macy, and itwas about a guy and an iron lung
which was a breathing apparatus for peoplewho'd had polio, and his relationship with
a sex surrogate based on a truestory he was in Berkeley. Helen Hunt

(04:20):
played the sex surrogate. John Hawksplayed the guy and the iron lung.
When You mah Macy was a priest, and the film just really exploded at
Sundance and then throughout the following year, and Helen was nominated when Oscar and
John and Helen were both nominated forGolden Globes and they both won the Independent

(04:41):
Spirit Awards and we won a bunchmore a bunch more Awards for that film.
So it really was the film thatnot only put us on the map,
but I guess is the dearest tomy heart because it really actually moved
the needle. It changed people's lives, It continues to people's lives. It
opened up a conversation about people withdisabilities and their sex lives, their sexual

(05:08):
identity. They're yearning to have intimacyin a world that generally sees people with
disabilities and you know, they runin the other direction. They don't know
how to handle things, They feelawkward and uncomfortable. They don't see people
with disabilities as sensual sexual beings.So that was very exciting. It did

(05:29):
sort of throw me and my husbandwho had polio so is a person of
disability into you know, a lotof other movies. You know, when
you make a movie, doesn't matterwhether you're making it about the mafia or
you're making it about disability, everybodywill come to you with more stories about
disability, and you don't always wantto do it again, but you know,

(05:49):
we have done it again in acouple of other ways. And I
do see that all of us arevulnerable people. You know, we will
have some sort of internalized you know, baggage that we're carrying, and and
so it's relevant in so many ways, and you know, to so many
different things. And I think withthe Sessions, one of the reasons people

(06:11):
really responded was because it was alot of it was about just learning about
sex for the first time, andpretty much we've all been there and anybody
over the age of whatever it mightbe, wherever you might live, right,
it could be, could be twelvefor all you know, but hopefully
not so. So that's that's whatrocks my boat. I'm still doing it.

(06:32):
It's never easy. Making movies isan incredibly hard hard thing to do,
and it's got harder, I thinksince since the pandemic and since people
stopped going to cinemas as much exceptfor tent pole movies. In my world
of art house, I think youreally which sort of in other countries people
are going back a lot to seemovies, international movies, local movies,

(06:56):
whatever. In America it's still they'restill coming slowly to see films other than
you know, Barbie. So that'skind of you know, where I'm at.
It's what it's what I love doing, and I've got lots of stuff
in development, and I'm doing documentariesas well as narrative. As I said,

(07:18):
so, how do you produce thedirecting, producing a documentary and producing
a narrative? You know, Ihave a documentary that I started over twenty
years ago with a group of youngteams from far North Queensland. They're indigenous
teams, Aboriginal community, very remotewho saved up to come to Hollywood.

(07:40):
That's where they wanted to go.They've never been on a plane. This
was a huge adventure. It waslike going to the moon for them.
And I started that. Then Ihappened to meet somebody who was involved with
the project and I just thought,well, we've got to shoot this,
and I shot fifty hours of filmand life just got in the way,
and I'm now back there interviewing themas adults with kids of their own about

(08:00):
how that experience changed their lives andchange the community. That's documentary. You
can it can drag out for areally long time, even without my other
documentary. I just setting aside thetime to really dive deep and work out
how you tell that narrative I findmore challenging. And you are dealing with

(08:22):
real people a lot of the time, unless it's historical, and then you've
got a lot of a lot ofsort of you know, things to juggle,
particularly with people's lives and trying toget people together at the same time,
and trying to raise the funding forit, and it's not a documentaries
is not a great way to makea living. So that's tough narrative.
Film can also take a very longtime to develop. But once you actually

(08:45):
start, once you get the financing, you've got your casting, then every
step generally follows within a certain limitedtimeframe. So you you know, if
you're adapting a book, it cantake longer because it's quite a while to
get a script that really works.If you have a screenplay that might have
taken a couple of years to write, but it's kind of ready to cast,

(09:07):
then you go through your casting processtakes a while. Then you go
through you know, raising the moneywhen you've got the cast, then you
go through your pre production, yourproduction. You're filming, that little period
is usually about twelve months, andthen you're into releasing it. But there's
a sort of for me, there'sa more condensed timeframe that I'm finding when
I'm working on documentaries. I think, unless you're a full time documentary filmmaker,

(09:31):
and even then, I think documentariesyou can be in the cutting room
for way longer than you are witha feature film. I've done a horrible
documentary, and I've sold a horribledocumentary. It's still a horrible documentary.
I was just looking at a Yes, I love the story and then I
looked at it and I was like, still bad. Definitely my first attempt,

(09:54):
but you got it made. Youknow, that's the thing about movie
making, and I don't think peopleacknowledge it enough. Every single step of
getting a movie made is hard.You know. The most fun for me
is when we're shooting. Every otherstage is you know, so hard and
stressful. I mean, I'm inpost production on a film we shot in
Melbourne last year and you know,we just looked at a rough cut and

(10:16):
it's like, you know, insome ways, the assembly, which is
when you just piece together all thescenes in order, felt like it worked
better than when you've got a roughcut. You've cut it down to you
know, one hundred minutes and it'sjust not working and you've got to really
deconstructed, go back in and workout what's missing and try everything all over
again. And you're sort of feelinga bit like, oh, I've got

(10:37):
to go back into the trenches again. And then of course trying to get
people to sell it and then seeit and you know all of that it's
like and raising the money. Idon't even go there, but you know,
it's just it's it's you know,it's very tough. And there's a
handful of people right at the topof the pyramid who you know, managed
to do well. And I knowa lot of people who have made really

(10:58):
terrific, very successful independent movies overthe years. It's still struggle to put
the money together for the projects theywant to do. All right, have
one with one minute before she hasto go. So I got to ask
you a two part question, threepart question, maybe four. I'm going
for four. O right, makethem quick. You have How to Please

(11:20):
a Woman? Out? Do youhave the Castle Writer's Retreat coming up?
Can you tell us a bit aboutthose two? And then number three?
Can you give us a little bitof advice if you are out here and
you're like, I want to shoota movie from a book? What are
the three top things they need toknow? And then where can we find
out more information about you and watchyour movies? Okay? So How to
Please a Woman's a maybe we shotin Australia. It's on Hula. It's

(11:43):
a terrific movie about women's empowerment andlearning to ask for what you want at
home, at school and in thebedroom. And I'm working in the bedroom
and it came out at the sametime as Leo Grand you know, but
it's actually more fun than Leo Grantin a lot of ways. And if
we'd had Emma Thompson we would havegot more attention. But Tom Huler,

(12:03):
it's a lot of funds, wona bunch of awards. So I highly
recommend that the other film you mentionedis not mine. So I think that's
the other Judy Levine whoever. Well, no, you're going to rock Abertie
Castle Writers Retreat. Ah, Sothe Writer's Retreat, Yes, yes,
sorry, I thought that was amovie you were trying to So I did
this once before last year. Iwas in Italy with them. Rockaberti is

(12:26):
an organization that puts together a groupof actually I was surprised, really quite
experienced writers, although they're not usuallyanybody who's had anything made. Bring together
a bunch of mentors who are experiencedfilmmakers, either producers, writers, directors,
and they pair up a group likethree or four people with a mentor.

(12:46):
They come with a project that's alreadysort of been submitted for evaluation,
and then you spend a week ofintensely kind of going over those projects together.
All of you talk picked together andthe my mentor giving it advice,
and then you know, you basicallyhope that people will go away feeling like

(13:07):
they've moved forward with their projects andyou could talk them about where they might
take those projects, et cetera,et cetera. So a bit of a
novice because I've only done it once. Some of the other people have done
it a few times. Italy wasterrific on the island of Iskia. This
coming year it's going to be inFrance and south of France, and I
just I'm a huge frank of File. I thought I was. I thought

(13:28):
I was French in some other life. I lived there for a while.
I just love being there, soit's like in my heart, it's like
another home for me. So I'mreally looking forward to that. Go for
a third citizenship, go for it? Yeah, well I could. Actually
I'm going to say, dog goingcrazy. Go for a third citizenship.
Well, you know, my parentsare European, were European, my husband

(13:52):
was born in Poland. We couldeasily have that EU passport if we really
wanted it. But you know,I'm okay with two passports and I've got
British resident status, so I'm verymuch a sitis in the world. I
do love that, and I soyes, I come jealous. I know,
I know it's just just the waymy life's worked out. But I'm

(14:13):
very proud of being austraight In too, I have to say, I mean,
we have some things that we canbe ashamed of, but we've also
you know, it is a goodcountry with mostly good people. And then
your third question was about advice topeople who are looking to adapt a book.
It's tricky. I think that oneof the hardest things is that often
a novelist will want to be ascreenwriter, and it's very rare. I

(14:35):
mean, Mario Puzzo could do itright. He wrote screenplays and he wrote
and he wrote novels. But alot of the time, what I've come
up against is writers who simply can't. They don't understand really the nature of
storytelling in film. You know thatthere's the old adage, don't ruin a
good story with the facts knowing whatto weed out. Very often a novelist

(14:56):
is very attached to everything in it, or they will write the story in
exactly the same sort of you know, generally linears, you know, sort
of nature of a novel and afilm can be all sorts of other things.
It doesn't have to be linear atall, So you know, if
you can persuade, you know,sometimes I'll let a writer do the first
draft, but it's it's never worked. I've never found one who's actually been

(15:20):
able to come up with a firstdraft that matched you know whatever. You
know, you're telling a story inan hour and a half or some people
take three hours these days, butgenerally speaking, ninety minutes one hundred minutes,
which I think is a more watchablething, especially with everybody. So
you know, everything's so fast withsocial media today that it's nice to get

(15:41):
people to sit down and just focuson one thing for three hours. But
it's hard. So, you know, you get you then have to have
a find somebody who can write areally good adaptation. And I find that
a big stumbling block because if youwant a really experienced writer, they need
good money. Finding that money isnot that easy. So that's that's a

(16:03):
tough part to really focus on.If you get a great writer who is
able to do a really good adaptation, it's always a few drafts. But
you know, the other difficulty,and I've been through this is that you
get a writer to do it.Adaptation doesn't work, and then you've got
to find another writer, and youhave to know when to stop with one
particular writer, and you have tobe able to say to them, I'm
sorry, it's not working. Someoneelse needs to do this. And then

(16:29):
you know, it's great if youcan get onto a book before it's you
know, I mean, if it'sif it's got two minion followers already fantastic,
but you'll probably find it's not availableif you find a book that hasn't
had a lot you know, hasn'tactually been published, or isn't getting a
lot of traction, say, youknow, on the various book apps like
where Yours Are, and you youknow, you get in early, but

(16:52):
you know it's it's it's attracting someattention, or it has a substantial following,
or it's going to say something fora new and different and it's a
new voice. Then I then youknow it's it sort of adds to the
It adds just adds to the lengthof everything because you end up spending a
fair bit of time, like youmight be out on another two years to

(17:15):
get the script that you actually want. And then you start with all the
rest of it. You've got ascript, you've got to cast, you've
got to raise the money, you'vegot to you know, go on from
there. So I think if youhave a book that you really think could
attract attentional would make a great movie, you have to try and track down

(17:36):
the producers who are doing that.I think, who have a kind of
a who have a whole sort ofmechanism in place. You know, they
have maybe a company and a bunchof readers and whatever else who will have
the time and if it's something youthink will interest them, that will have
the time to read the book andthen go through that process and maybe have
the deep pockets or know where theycan find that funding. So look at

(18:00):
films that have been adapted from novels, see who's behind those films, target
trying to talk to those people orwhatever. You know, it's all easier
said than done. I realized thatespecially you find something and Netflix has released
it and you can't get in partyou know, you can't get past the
gatekeepers or whatever. And I think, you know, going to events where

(18:25):
you get to network with people andtalk to other people writers events or in
a writing group or just you know, I don't know, talking to people
like me or whatever, and justget out there and do it. You
know, you've got to get upand do it every day, even it
doesn't have to be all day.And if you get slapped in the fat,
you've got to really embrace rejection likeyou've got to love it when people

(18:48):
say, oh no, this isnot for us, like you go,
oh good, great, another rejection. But it just you know, if
you can if somebody, if youtalk to somebody, then always ask them
if there's someone else that they canput you onto. So you've got so
the meeting hasn't been a waste.You've gone off and gone to the next
person and just you know, andwhen you when they do knock you down,

(19:10):
take two. I always say,take two or three days to kind
of take care of yourself. Dosome do some self care, do whatever
it is that rocks you both.Spend time with people who make you feel
good about yourself, Go for walks, get stoned whatever it is that you
know you do. And just butbut not for too long, right,
just not for too long. Youcan't, you know, don't let that

(19:30):
kind of take over. Just setyourself a I need a couple of days
to step away from this, andthen I'm going to step back in again
and start all over again. Isthat answer your question? I say,
I love that A A. Ilove that abase And as writer as we
already know this because what less thanone percent of the books that are going

(19:52):
to go out are going to getpublished. So I mean, all we
ever do is get rejection. Yeah, and we're kind of it. So
I mean, and there's films.You get films that get made and no
one ever gets to see them.You get films that get buried before they
even get out or you know,I mean you just have to crawl through
all the streaming platforms. There's aZenian films out there. And then when

(20:14):
I go to Australia, there's awhole lot of European films that are terrific
that never get seen in America.You know, there's some and Scandinavian and
whatever else. In Asian. There'sjust you know, some other really great
storytelling out there that just never makesit to our platforms unless you're looking for
it. You know, go toCanopy. Ka n a ka n op
ye. Go to Canopy. It'sa free platform. You just need a

(20:37):
library card great movies and you mightget some inspiration for your next normal ool.
I am loving that. Now wherecan people find out more information about
you? And where can they seeyour movies? So the Sessions they're all

(20:57):
online pretty much. The Sessions youhave to pay for it. I think
it's streaming on all the basic Amazonsand youtubes and those places, but you
still have to pay, which isI mean, we made that film in
two thousand and eleven, released itin twenty twelve. The fact that people
still can't just watch it on aregular streaming platform. Maybe on Amazon Prime

(21:18):
you can watch it without having topay, I'm not sure. So the
Sessions is everywhere. I highly recommendpeople watch it. It's very entertaining and
it's it's you know, you needtissues for the end of the movie,
probably, but it's you know,it's an uplifting end of the movie.
And let me see. How toPlease a Woman is on Hulu. Falling

(21:41):
for Figure I was on Hulu.My Eyes, which is the one I've
been working on, is not outyet. My husband I made a very
fun film which is perfect for now, called Hollywood Gold, which you just
have to type in Hollywood Gold benLewin, because there's about four of them,
but if you put in ben Lewin, you'll see it. It's it's
a short documentary about the oscars andjewelry, and it's sort of intertwined with

(22:07):
the way the jewelry and the watchbusiness works, because that's a sort of
a crazy sideline of ours. Butthat's a fun documentary to watch it.
I mean, my husband get annoyed, but it's only fifty minutes, so
it's an easy watch. You don'tneed to set aside hours. So that
Hollywood Gold, I think is onYouTube. What else is out there?

(22:27):
My husband did a film called Pleasestand By with Dakota Fanning and Tony Collette
and she and Dakota Fanning plays ayoung woman on the spectrum and that's a
terrific, wonderfully entertaining film. Andwe did a historical film called The Catcher
Was a Spy with Paul Rudd andPaul Jim Marti and catch Was a Spy
I think is actually I think it'son Netflix now, so that's another to

(22:52):
see. That's a full weekends watching. Yes, I was like, there's
some that I've heard and I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna watch
those now. I've got it.I've got it like at least three now
that I'm watching like this week thatthat's happening. Thank you so much.
Oh, you're welcome. This hasbeen really terrific. I'm glad we connect

(23:14):
it. Got your hair done.But even if you don't need to enjoy
that, I enjoy that time justpampering yourself. We all need to pamper.
And you look fine without the lipstick. And I've only got it on
because I'm going out, So soI'm gonna go ahead and wrap us up
so you can find everything that yourladies are doing at www. Dot and
I thought ladies dot com. Andwhile you're there, go down to the

(23:36):
middle of the page. Actually it'sthe bottom of the page I lied,
and you can see the charities thatwe probably support. We asked that you
give them support too. That doesnot mean that you have to send them
a check. You could just likecall them up and give them a face
or volunteer, you know, thesesorts of things. But we thank you
in advance for helping them. Andwe remember that, y'all, that wisdom
is all around you if you're opento finding it and accepting it so peace

(23:56):
in love you guys from will Noonaand the Miss Jade. Oh yeah,
thanks for listening.