Interview conducted by conference call Nov. 15, 2007.
So before we patched you in, Sarah told me you’re working the early shift (6 a.m. to 10 a.m.). How many Teamsters trucks have you turned back?
Liz Craft: Well, I wouldn’t say we’ve turned any back, but we got a lot of Teamsters honking and wearing T shirts. I couldn’t believe how many were wearing them. Also, it’s a lot cooler at 6 a.m. because it’s been hot out here lately.
Sarah Fain: I did the late morning shift and it was so unbelievably hot.
Are you both putting in 20-hour weeks on the line?
SF: Usually we’re picketing at Twentieth for a four hour a day shift. Now that we have a show we do some special pickets, like “Picketing with the Stars” (solidarity march with SAG members).
Do you see the non-writing members of your show much?
LC: Very little. We check in with them to say, hey, we wish we were there. A couple of our actresses came out for “Picketing with the Stars.” The show itself, we’re not participating.
How many more scripts do they have to produce?
LC: They started shooting Tuesday with the last script. It’s an eight day shoot, then they’ll be done.
SF: Liz and I wrote the script for episode 10 and it’s a script we really, really like and we’ve completely stepped away from it.
How’s the mood this week on the picket lines compared to last week?
SF: I think it’s the same. I think everyone feels we have to be doing this. We’re optimistic we can get the AMPTP back to the table and hopefully get a fair deal.
LC: And this strike, TV writers and screenwriters are totally united over the issues. That’s totally I think kept the cohesion and the spirit and the unity intact. It’s the second week, but the resolve is so high.
Do you think you will be striking into the new year?
LC: Who knows. That does seem to be prevailing theory. At any day we could find out that they’re talking. But I think everyone’s mentally prepared for the idea it could extend to the new year. I think it’s just one of those unknowable things. The TV writers really want to get this thing done so we could have new episodes for the television season. After a certain date that will no longer be possible. I don’t know exactly when that date would be.
SF: Not too far into the new year.
LC: Shows typically shoot through April. And when people go back to work, there’s going to be a delay in production, so with each passing week it becomes more and more of a crunch.
A female journalist I know told me a couple of weeks ago that “if there were women running WGA and the studio side, there wouldn’t be a strike!” As women writers, do you buy that?
SF: That’s a loaded question!
LC: It depends on which women I suppose. Who knows.
SF: I certainly would like to think that.
LC: I don’t think we can know that. I mean, this strike has been talked about for a long, long time. And I think that it is a really divisive issue, that both sides feel incredibly strongly about. A strike isn’t good for anyone. Even the flower shop owners and all sorts of people get hurt from the strike. But this issue is so important and we’re at such a, a …
SF: Watershed moment.
LC: Yes, in terms of changing media, that we just couldn’t back down.
SF: For me it feels like this shouldn’t be a divisive issue. We’re not asking for anything crazy. I know ABC.com had 100 million internet downloads last year. There is enough information to know how that new media revolution is going to play out
LC: You know, and if they don’t make money, WE don’t make money. We’re not asking for something that puts them in the hole if it doesn’t pan out. We’re saying pay us a very small percentage of what you do make. Many writers are middle class and the residuals they get are very important, because months can pass between jobs and these residuals pay for their kids’ college tuition, mortgage, papments, medical bills. They keep them afloat in the tough times. And our worry is down the line TV won’t be TV as we know it. And we’re afraid we won’t make anything for it.
SF: If they continue to make money off our work, we should continue to make money.
Do you think about what this could mean for the future of your show? I mean, it’s in such a tenuous position, having just signed on the air a few weeks ago.
LC: Of course. I think anyone now — with a new show in particular — is on pins and needles during the strike. What gives us hope is the show has been doing well, ABC and Twentieth have been happy with the episodes, we all feel it’s getting better and better. It makes us feel that when the strike is over they will come back to us and say ‘let’s keep it going.’ However well it’s doing, though, it’s not a staple. So of course we’re nervous.
SF: At the same time there is the argument to be made that maybe they’ll rerun the show, maybe even on a different night, and we’ll actually GAIN audience over the next several months. (Note: After our interview, “Women’s Murder Club” aired following “Grey’s Anatomy” and got a worse number than it did airing on Friday nights.--AB)
I wanted to ask you about Cindy’s character and the decision, after you made the pilot, to remake her character into the one who is the outsider on the show. (In the pilot it’s Yuki, Jill’s assistant in the DA’s office, who plays the outsider.)
LC: We did that for several reasons. The great thing about seeing a pilot is we see all the things we wished we’d done differently — and then do it. Because the Cindy character was at a different point in her career, we thought it would be more fun to have her have to earn her way into the circle. And once we did that the character of Yuki, who was in the books, became redundant. We were happy with how the Cindy relationship plays out in the first few episodes.
So you’ll have 10 episodes before the show goes on hiatus. How many total episodes is ABC committed to?
LC: We would’ve done 13.
SF: And then we have a three more script order.
LC: So 16 episodes, 13 of which they are committed to making.
Liz, you’re married to a writer on “The Shield.” Do you picket with him or with Sarah?
LC: I’ve been with Sarah at the 20th lot. Today I went to the Prospect Lot, where the Shield is taped, to get some husband and wife time.
Are you more nervous because you’re both on strike?
LC: You mean, going from a two income household to a zero income household? Well, we’ve been saving because we knew this might be coming.
SF: It definitely makes me feel I should marry a lawyer. One not in the entertainment field.
LC: But it is also a moving thing to go through together. I think this is a historic time. It’s a courageous thing the guild is doing. I don’t like to have to go through it, but if I have to, I’m glad to be going through it with him. We felt very close to one another in dealing with him. Although there are moments when I think, well gee, if he were something else, I wouldn’t have to worry about it — but when you’re a television writer, there are lots of reasons you won’t work for months at a time.
Below: Sarah and Liz (front row, left side) with their fellow writers on "Angel," 2003.
Comments