Interview with Valerie Weiss, scientist, filmmaker and director. Also known for the successful Netflix’s TV series Outer Banks
We had the pleasure of having a chat with Valerie Weiss, a notable former scientist and now filmmaker and director, who shares with us her major change from scientific research into the entertainment industry, embracing sustainability on- and off- screen, her latest projects and how she is using film to voice important issues such as equality and sustainability. Her story is related to Sustainable Development Goals #5 Gender Equality, #12 Responsible Consumption and Production and #13 Climate Action.
Conchita Fraguas (CF): Thinking about your trajectory from a scientist to a filmmaker, how did your passion for film arise?
Valerie Weiss (VW): Up until 10th grade, I was agnostic about any academic subject, they were all the same, I did well in school but I wanted to be an actor and that’s what I cared about. That year, I had an amazing Biology teacher, Mr. Charambura, who I am still in touch with, and it was like a revelation. He would teach science like it was an incredible story. He would walk around the room and share anecdotes from being in the Peace Corps, and surviving Malaria, and he would weave in scientific concepts and ideas through personal experiences as a gateway to discuss science and how we got to be the way we are. How humans evolved, the future of humanity and so, for me, it was like this connecting piece between what I was already interested in, which was human relationships and behaviour, from having a strong interest in drama, to understanding how you could go from the molecular level, to what we are, and to the big Universe- and Biology was the missing link for me.
So, from that moment on I made this silent promise to myself that I wanted to understand as much as I could of science, particularly through a Biological filter, because I would feel more armed to be in the world, and contribute positively to it, by understanding how it works, and for me that was the way in. And that was the beginning of the love story for me with science.
CF: Once you fell in love with science and the field of Biology, what were your next steps?
VW: I then went on to do my undergraduate at Princeton University, and majored in Molecular Biology, a path that was more sure in terms of job security. But my passion still was in the performance arts, so I minored in theatre and dance, and I got a chance to direct my first play, as I only had been acting up until that point. In my sophomore year, somebody asked me if I wanted to direct a play and I said “Sure.” I had always been interested, even when I was in a play I kind of wanted to tell everyone else what they should be doing, so it was exciting that I could now legitimately do that.
I directed a Christopher Durang play, a one-act play called ‘Dentity Crisis and I just loved it. It was a second epiphany of my life, in terms of my path, where I was like: “this is what I should be doing, not acting”. It’s intellectual, and it’s creative and it’s intuitive, but it’s also methodical. I didn’t feel that one path alone, a creative versus an intellectual path, would have satisfied me, and so, directing felt like it absolutely would be limitless in terms of what I can think about and do with my life. So I then again, made the silent promise that I would be a director.
Despite her clear passion for film, Valerie still felt that she had a journey to fulfill in science, and so she attended Harvard Medical School and completed her PhD in X-ray Crystallography, under the supervision of Professor James Hogle. Although the norm back then between advisors was to want students in the lab without them thinking about other careers outside the field, Valerie’s advisor supported her outside interests, instead of only seeing her as a scientist. I could hear the passion in her voice as her story slowly unravelled. She then shared with me how her relationship with film grew closer, as she got the chance to run a theatre program and change it to a film programme for grad students.
VW: I changed the existing theatre programme to the “Dudley Film Programme”, where I was the theatre fellow for graduate students. I asked them if they would support me in my journey as a director and they agreed to buy me a computer and a mini-DV camera, and I said I would do the rest. In this programme, I witnessed the idea of cross-pollinating different interests, having graduate students from many different fields, all making short films for the first time. We would have a film festival at the end of the year, and so I learned how to direct film, as I had only done theatre up to that point.
"I didn’t feel that one path alone, a creative versus an intellectual would have satisfied me... Directing felt like it would absolutely be limitless... It's intellectual, it’s creative and it’s intuitive, but it’s also methodical."
Right before I had to defend my PhD thesis I made my very first movie, called Dance by Design, and I literally wrapped production and had to defend my PhD thesis two weeks later. That was when I felt that to continue in science would be living a lie, because it wasn’t all that I felt destined for. I took a courageous leap that I previously hadn’t been willing and able to do, and I decided to move to Hollywood with my then fiancée, which turned-husband three months later. We both left very “secure” careers; he left the law to become an actor and I left science to become a director.
CF: It has a lot of merit not only to undergo a major career change, but doing so by shifting from a somewhat male-dominated industry, STEM, to the film industry, which is still predominantly male-dominated. How was that for you personally?
VW: At first I didn’t really know where to start. There were so few role models, women filmmakers or people where I lived in the East Coast of the United States, with no entertainment connections. How do you break in? It was not something that was clear to me back then. It’s already very scary for anyone to come out to Hollywood and begin their career, yet alone a female director. A big part of why I did a PhD, is that I knew that if I could complete one in science, I could [virtually] do anything.
"There was still so much discrimination and injustice that existed against women in this industry. And it took so long before me, and my cohort of female directors actually got hired, even though we were raised in the generation of “women are equal” and “women are the future."
I had no illusion of how difficult my career change would be, but what I didn’t expect is that there was still so much discrimination and injustice, that existed, in my case for a female director, and against women in this industry. And it took so long before me, and my cohort of female directors actually got hired, even though we were raised in the generation of “women are equal” and “women are the future” and it was [truly] shocking, that it still was not that way when it came time to try to get paid work in the industry.
CF: Tell me about your work in film and television. What are some of your highlights?
I had the chance to do a programme called the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women, where I directed a short film called Transgressions, written by Isabelle Marinov and starring my husband, Rob Johnson. It did really well, and won a lot of awards at festivals, which then allowed me to raise money to direct my first feature film called Losing Control, which is about a female scientist who wants proof that her boyfriend is “the one”. That was a super fun movie to make, and I then went on to direct a movie called A Light Beneath Their Feet, a mother-daughter story about bipolar disorder, a project of which I’m very proud.
I then directed The Archer, a feminist action movie about how badly we need reform of the private prison system, and how private prisons should not exist. It’s based on the Kids-for-Cash real-life scandal, where two judges took millions of dollars in kickbacks and sent thousands of kids to jail that didn’t deserve it.
About three years ago, I got into television directing and I’m very lucky in that I have directed every genre, except for horror at this point. I’ve gotten to tell all kinds of stories, from something as sweet as An American Girl movie that my kids can watch, to things that are more intense like Prodigal Son and How to Get Away with Murder.
CF: Congratulations on your latest project, Netflix’s Outer Banks, a thrilling and fun show which I’ve already binge-watched from start to finish! In the show, we see characters representing strong values which are part of their personality and not necessarily the theme of the show. Both Kiara and Sarah Cameron are two teenage characters which are relatable and show passion for sustainability. We see Sarah and a group of "kooks" attending a litter pickup event at the beach. Kiara passionately talks about the problems with microplastics in one scene, and confronts her mother regarding the inequalities between the rich attending a “Midsummers party” while nearby locals lack access to water and electricity. What are your thoughts on promoting sustainability and other important values through on-screen storytelling?
VW: We can reach people through storytelling in a manner that we can’t reach them in any other way. There’s an emotional connection to people, and that connection opens up intellectual channels in our brains. If you can open people’s minds and hearts, they are ready to receive information. Because it’s attached to something they care about. A character they care about, a situation they care about, so I very much want to tell stories that are getting people to be more conscientious about science and the world without even realizing that that’s what is happening.
"I very much want to tell stories that are getting people to be more conscientious about science and the world without even realizing that that’s what is happening."
In Outer Banks, sustainability isn’t at the forefront of the show, it just happens to be part of it. And that is very much my philosophy as a filmmaker; the Mary Poppins theory that “a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down”. That’s what I want to do with science and the values that I subscribe to in my storytelling.
CF: How do you manage to implement sustainability into the production pipeline as a director?
VW: I’m very passionate about sustainability as a filmmaker, on- and off-set. When directing, I don’t use any paper, I use a program called Scriptation. I’m going to be doing a seminar soon with directors Michael Spiller and Pete Chatmon, to teach people how to use this software, because actors can use it, directors can use it, all the departments can use it. And we can totally eradicate the use of wasteful paper on set, which we will need to do after coronavirus, as we won’t be able to be handing documents back and forth. Production makes sides, and we throw it out five minutes later, or at the end of the day, and this can add to up like 300 pages of sides a day on one production that get thrown out. It’s so wasteful.
CF: How did you first get involved with Scriptation?
VW: When I was directing Scandal, one of the actors, Darby Stanchfield, she was going to direct one of her first episodes after mine, and so she wanted to talk to me about directing, and she told me about Scriptation and how powerful it is for actors and asked if I used it as a director. When I saw it, I immediately wanted to start using it. From that moment on, I’ve never used a paper script, so I have to credit her and the entire cast of Scandal, they all used it. They were very forward-thinking on that show.
Whenever I had a question or a problem, I would call the creator, Steven Vitolo, and he would answer every time despite the time difference even if it was 4AM, as he is so passionate about this product. I have been spending the last month designing an online course alongside Steve and director Michael Spiller that we are going to offer for free for people to learn and adopt it. And you can probably even adopt it to other industries, as it has really powerful ways of annotating and sharing, and we can all pledge paperless with something like this.
CF: That’s amazing. Any advice to change-makers all around the world who believe in the values behind the Sustainable Development Goals?
VW: Sometimes it’s going to be hard, and there are going to be political issues, not only government/political, but in your career- it might be an unpopular idea that you have, or you might worry about how someone who has the power to hire you might feel about your passion for a subject. But honestly, it’s so important that you still take the risk because your values are forever and there lies the insurance for us having the kind of world we want to
live in.
"All things that we value in society absolutely need to not just be protected but constantly endorsed... it has really opened my eyes to the work we have to do as storytellers. We have to constantly put forth an image of equality and all the values we have, because they’re fragile."
Putting things into context with what’s going on at the moment, in relation to the murder of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, I kind of had a light bulb moment about a week ago, and I realized that you can’t take anything for granted. You can’t take justice for granted, you can’t take fairness for granted, you can’t take opportunity for granted, and you certainly cannot take that fact that science exists on its own and does not need to be defended, for granted. All things that we value in society absolutely need to not just be protected but constantly endorsed and put forward as something that are untouchable in terms of rights, and lately I’ve been seeing the parallel between all of those things and it’s really opened my eyes to the work we have to do as storytellers. We have to constantly put forth an image of equality and all the values we have, because they’re fragile.
Alongside other exciting new projects, Valerie mentioned one she is currently developing related to Climate Change and Global Responsibility, which sounded fascinating. She has also recently been involved in a Princeton panel on"The Defense of Science". You can watch the full event here.
Be sure to check out Outer Banks, season 1 is now streaming on Netflix and get to know the amazing characters portrayed on the show and the adventures they embark on!
Interview by Conchita Fraguas
The Earth Youth Project
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Join award-winning directors Pete Chatmon (Grey’s Anatomy, Mythic Quest), Valerie Weiss (Outer Banks, The Rookie), and Michael Spiller (Modern Family, Black-ish) as they discuss how Scriptation can empower you to navigate the new world of digital scripts, shorter work days, remote collaboration, and social distancing without compromising your production workflow.
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