After
graduating from college, twenty nine year-old screenwriter Diablo Cody
tried her hand as a typist and a paralegal before moving to Minneapolis
to be with her new husband. During this time she worked as a stripper,
a phone sex operator and an insurance loss adjuster. Inspired by her
work in the sex industry, Cody started writing an online blog about
being a stripper, which developed phenomenal popularity and was spotted
by Hollywood producer Mason Novick.
After
much persuasion and encouragement, she authored the infamous and critically
acclaimed memoir Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper
and went on to write her debut screenplay Juno.
Cody
has been featured in Entertainment Weekly, Playboy,
Elle and Jane and has appeared on CNN, The
Fox Morning Show and Late Night With David Letterman.
Most
recently she wrote and co-created a half-hour series The United
States of Tara starring Toni Collette which will be executive produced
by Steven Spielberg for Showtime. She is also working on her second
book as well as several spec scripts.
Cody
relocated to Los Angeles in April 2007. She is married with an eight
year-old step-daughter.
Your name is very unusual.
It’s
fake! Originally I was writing about the sex industry so I wanted to
have a degree of anonymity because I didn’t want my friends and
family knowing what sort of activities I was up to! I also wanted to
protect myself from unsavoury characters. So, I came up with a name
that I thought sounded very intimidating – I didn’t expect
it to follow me through life, it was totally intended to be an online
alias.
What
can you tell us about your experiences working as a phone sex operator?!
After
I graduated from college I was completely aimless. I couldn’t
decide what to do, so I worked as a typist which is the most archaic
job ever. Then I was a paralegal – I was the world’s worst
paralegal, every single day I got threatened with getting canned. Then
I moved to Minneapolis because I met my husband on the internet and
I worked as a typist there too. Then I became a stripper and I worked
in a peep show for a while which was a really dark period in my life.
After that I was a phone sex operator and an insurance loss adjuster
– that was my last real job before becoming a writer and when
I went to quit the supervisor begged me to stay!
What
got you writing?
I’ve
always written for my own edification and for fun but I have this fear
of rejection so I spent my entire life being a writer who didn’t
get published. For that reason, I’ve never received a rejection
letter in my life because that terror would just grip me. I didn’t
even write for the school paper. So, when the internet publishing revolution
came about it was perfect for me, I could write every day, put it out
there and not have to worry about an editor telling me I wasn’t
good enough. It was very freeing. I started blogging every day and when
I started blogging about stripping and the sex industry, suddenly surprise
surprise I got a huge audience! For some reason people on the internet
are interested in sex – who knew that?!
My blog traffic went through the roof and one day I got an email from
this guy who said he was a big fan of my blog and he was also a producer
in Hollywood and he said I think you should try writing a movie. The
odds of writing a screenplay and having it produced are daunting as
it’s a very competitive field and as I’ve said, competition
doesn’t appeal to me, nor does rejection. I’m very unambitious
and I want to live in a bubble! So I said no but he hounded me for a
bit and I just said ‘whatever’, because I had free time
on my hands. I hit upon the idea for Juno. It didn’t
take me very long. I don’t think writing movies is hard –
when I hear people have spent years nursing a single script I can’t
imagine what their day looks like! I wrote it and Mason (Novick) the
producer said ‘Right - let’s take it out there and see what
people think’. It was received very warmly from the beginning
and we were very surprised and we continue to be surprised every day.
It’s been a very crazy situation.
Did
you set out to achieve anything in particular with the screenplay?
It
just kind of came along. I’m still actually proud of the fact
that I knew what was going to happen – I was working on an outline,
which is rare for me. I was so shockingly organized! I originally wanted
to write a dark comedy like Election which is one of my favourite
movies, but the surprising thing is the sweetness that emerged when
I started to write it, that wasn’t deliberate it just kind of
happened. Then, when Jason (Reitman) came on board, it got even sweeter
because he has a really big heart.
One
thing that came out of the movie was how impossible it is to rebel against
your parents in this day and age because you have these older people
who grew up with The Stooges and The Sex Pistols and
Sonic Youth which kind of makes them part of the rebellion.
Yeah
it’s upsetting isn’t it? Although my parents were teenagers
in the 50s and 60s so I can still horrify them easily! But yes, it is
interesting to think about how youth culture is going to develop in
the future.
Being
into music gives guys well into their 40s this supposedly cool thing,
when actually it’s quite creepy. Like the character Mark they
appear to be younger than they really are.
Mark
comes across as creepy and stunted but I do actually have a lot of affection
for his character and I see a lot of men that age who are kind of reluctant
grown ups and there’s something kind of tragic about it but I
like those kind of guys!
You
got the teen language spot on. You say you have a step-daughter, did
she help with that?
I
do have a step-daughter but she’s only eight and she was only
five when I wrote the script. I didn’t really look at it as teen-speak
but more like weirdo language! Ellen Page just presents it in such a
saucy way too and I’m kind of immature myself and although this
sounds kind of cheesy, being on the internet a lot, as I am, I’m
actually obsessed with it to the point I’m undergoing hypnosis
to cure my internet addiction – I’ll spend 19 hours a day
on the internet if you let me. Because of that, you get immersed in
the youth vernacular. Every week I learn some new word the kids are
saying and I try to integrate it into my vocabulary like some pathetic
old person!
What
role should this movie play?
Any
time you have the opportunity to impress your world on somebody in a
major way like with a feature film, I’m like ‘go for it’.
It’s mastabatory to talk about your own script saying ‘I
like this bit, I like that bit’ but I like the way sex is treated
in a matter of fact way, I like the scene where Juno’s stepmother
Bren says ‘kids get bored and they have intercourse’, which
is really the truth, it doesn’t have to be this big politicized
moral argument. The fact of the matter is kids have hormones, you leave
them alone and they’re not exactly known for their self-discipline
as teenagers so what d’you think is going to happen? That’s
why abstinence education is so absurd to me.
What
was it like working with Jason Reitman? Quite often when a studio’s
involved your script gets changed.
That
happens on most films and that happens to a lot of screenwriters and
writers, who are traditionally marginalized in Hollywood but I’m
ruined now because this experience was so good. I don’t feel that
the script was undermined, I was never bullied into changing anything
and Jason is one of those people who is incredibly kind but he has a
really strong personality so I felt he was protecting the script the
entire time. From now on it will probably be development hell and I
willingly accept that – I realize how lucky I’ve been. I
was on a panel recently with a bunch of other writers and someone stood
up and asked what it was like to write a script and have someone else
direct it and my hand shot into the air and I said ‘It’s
wonderful!’ and all the other writers turned to me with these
red tired eyes and they did not look happy! I had a very unusual experience.
Did
you spend a lot of time on set? Quite often the writer is barred from
set.
I
did spend a lot of time on set. In most cases even in the most charitable
situations, you get invited up for the weekend just to see how things
are going. With this, not only was I invited to set I was encouraged
to be there and was used during filming a couple of times, even though
Jason exaggerates how much he used me! I was there the very first day
and was completely blown away.
Was
Ellen Page everything you imagined Juno to be?
Yeah!
I’m embarrassed because she’s a lot younger than me and
I’m totally in awe of her. We went to the Rome Film Festival last
week together and I knew I was going to be sitting on the plane next
to her for eleven hours and I’m thinking what do I wear, what
music should I bring to impress her and I took a DVD collection for
her approval. It was almost like when you’re trying to impress
a boy you like!
Were
you involved in selecting the soundtrack? It’s excellent.
It
wasn’t my choice but I love the music. Kimya Dawson is this amazing
woman. We think of her as this unofficial cast member. She’s really
cool and Ellen was actually the one who told Jason Reitman about her.
When she was asked what kind of music she thought Juno would listen
to she said Kimya Dawson and Jason downloaded some of her stuff and
was like OK!
When
you were writing the script were there any subjects you weren’t
allowed to touch?
If
I’d been commissioned to write it that might have been the case
but the fact I was writing it on spec and I didn’t think any human
would ever read it or see it in cinematic form, I wasn’t worried
about anything. It was actually a lot more offensive to begin with but
we decided collectively that we wanted it to be a PG13 certificate so
teenagers could see it.
Are
there elements of Juno in you?
Yeah.
Of all the characters Juno was the easiest for me to write, I could
write dialogue for her all the time and I never really had to think
about it. The ease with which that character emerged points to some
connection.
How
about the male characters, who are they based on?
Bleeker’s
probably based on a guy I used to date in high school and apparently
he saw the trailer recently and dropped me an email!
I can’t tell a story that isn’t personal and that’s
one of the reasons why I’ve been approached to adapt a few books
and even though I’ve loved the books I can’t do it because
I don’t have a personal connection. I wish I could. I’m
a total emotional scavenger and everything I’ve written I’ve
scavenged from my own personal experience.
What
can you tell us about the TV show you’re writing?
We
haven’t shot the pilot yet but Toni Collette is playing the lead,
Steven Spielberg is executive producing so maybe this isn’t one
that will get shelved! It’s about a mother with two teenage kids
who has multiple personalities and she is coping with her condition
and it’s intended as a statement about the different hats women
have to wear in society and how it’s all gradually driving us
all crazy.
Do
you think other writing talent will get spotted blogging on the internet?
I
think they should be. It surprises me how many bloggers are out there
blogging in obscurity. Unfortunately the internet is a great resource
but also people are wary of it and because anyone can have a blog there’s
no exclusivity
The
movie is about tough choices, what’s the toughest choice you’ve
ever made?
It
was hard moving to LA. For me a big part of my identity was in being
an outsider artist and people would say ‘oh that’s that
weird girl who lives in Minnesota who was a stripper and made this movie’.
I kind of clung to that identity for a couple of years and eventually
I had to step and and say, I want to be a filmmaker, I want to move
to LA and go at this the best way I can, so I did, but it’s still
weird and I forget I have to go back there and I’ve been there
since April this year.
You’re
an attractive girl – if you were asked to act in someone else’s
movie would you?
I’m
a terrible, terrible actor. I had a friend who made a short film earlier
this year who asked me to be in it and people who genuinely care about
me and love me took me aside and said ‘do not ever do that again!’
It’s sub-soap opera – it was the worse acting you’ve
ever seen. I love to entertain people but I’m not good at reading
other people’s dialogue. I can’t even read my own dialogue,
sometimes I try to read it out loud and it’s just horrendous.
I know how it should sound in my head but I just can’t do it.
I love horror movies – they’re my passion and I have friends
who are horror movie directors and I’m constantly asking them
if I can come down and play a corpse or a zombie!
Are
there any taboo subjects you’d still like to write about?
I
wish there were. I miss going to the seedy underbelly of society and
writing about it. The next step would probably be violent crime but
I’m scared of that. I’ve done stripping so what’s
next? Mafia? When I got the book deal I had to call my Mum and tell
her I’d been stripping because she didn’t know. I called
and said I have to tell you something major. I told her I’d written
a book and it was getting published and she was like ‘oh that’s
wonderful’. Then I said I have to tell you about something I did
for an entire year and you’re not going to be pleased… her
guesses were outrageous – she thought I was a drug dealer. When
I told her I’d been stripping she was like ‘NO!’ Drug
dealing would have made her happier!
Are
you close to your family?
I
am, but I don’t get to see them enough because they live in Chicago.
What’s
the reaction to the film been so far?
Awesome.
We didn’t realize what we’d made. We all love the movie,
it’s like loving your own kids, but when the audience loves it
too that’s amazing.
Juno
Ellen Page interview - Juno
Alison Janney interview - Juno's stepmother
Bren
Juno
Review
