|Lauren.Caltagirone|
I love finding diamonds in the rough. That’s my favorite thing to do. And not that when my path crossed with Lauren’s she was “rough,” but she was a new find to me. And when she first came into my office and shared with me her real life story, I knew instantly she had a distinct voice and a strong point of view. At the end of the day, isn’t that what it’s all about? Injecting your VOICE into any world, character, point of view?
We all know the famous line from Jerry Maguire… “You had me at hello.”
Well, Lauren had me at “snacks” and “cats.”
RS: I wanna start with your other persona: Mrs. Rupert Pupkin. I love this character (so much) that you created for the Twittersphere. My husband reminded me that the name comes from Robert DeNiro’s character in The King of Comedy. Why did you choose that name?
LC: “Persona,” yes, totally, that crazy, hopelessly single cat lady was just a persona. This is such a great question and I have such a dumb answer. I absolutely love The King of Comedy, and DeNiro’s character in that film. When I joined Twitter, I just thought I’d tweet some jokes and since I am TERRIBLE with names, I chose “MrsRupertPupkin,” i.e., the queen of comedy. See, I told you it was dumb.
When the character took off as a boy-crazy, desperate spinster in training, the name held up (even for those who didn’t get the reference) because “Rupert Pupkin” kind of sounded like an imaginary husband that my character was scribbling in her diary, “Mrs Rupert Pupkin.” Also I’m not great with passwords/technology and had no idea how to change the name.
RS: What was the goal for this character? Was it always specifically to do short quips on Twitter, or was this a character you had thought of initially for something else?
LC: I was an assistant at Family Guy, desperate to become a writer, with a couple features, a pilot, and a Modern Family spec under my belt. But it seemed impossible to break in past the assistant level. I was stuck. A few of the assistants at FG started Tweeting, and one of them told me I should do it. At this time, I really thought Twitter was just another Facebook, and didn’t understand why I would publicly post my thoughts or whereabouts (“heading to yoga with the girls!”).
On how to get seen: I created MrsRupertPupkin as a calling card for my writing.
She explained that she was tweeting jokes. I said I wasn’t that jokey. She said she got a meeting with an agent off it. I immediately signed up. I created MrsRupertPupkin as a calling card for my writing, as a direct means to an end, to get noticed and get the hell out of the assistant world. It’s probably the first (maybe last?) time I’ve ever intentionally manifested something like that. So yes, she was born for Twitter (and that is where she will die!)
RS: Ok… enough of Pupkin for the moment. Who gave you your first “break” into television?
LC: Chad Hamilton and Joy Gorman (managers at Anonymous at the time) found me on Twitter and signed me. They helped me meet an agent, Alec Botnick (WME). These were my first reps and I cannot express how much I love these three delightful people who were so patient and kind and truly believed in me. Once I had them on my team, and still had momentum from Twitter, the insanely talented and prolific Lauren Iungerich, plucked me from my assistant desk (where the floor was wet from my own tears) and hired me for my first staff job on MTV’s Awkward.
RS: Who are some of your favorite writers and why? What have you learned from them that you have applied to your own writing?
LC: It’s hard to say who my favorite TV writers are because TV is such a collaborative process, but back when I used to read books that didn’t involve potty training methods, I was always attracted to the dark humor and absurdity of George Saunders and David Sedaris. I don’t believe I’ve ever successfully applied anything from these masters to my own writing, although I was an elf at Santa’s Workshop at the Grove in 2003, which I did write about, so Sedaris and I are basically the same person.
RS: What were some of the biggest hurdles you had to overcome early on?
LC: Breaking in, staying in, not freaking out when there were bouts of unemployment between jobs (I still freak out about this).
RS: What is the best advice you’ve ever received? The worst?
LC: When I was waiting tables at the Hotel L’Ermitage in my early 20s, a woman told me to immediately start using eye cream every single night. I think this has really helped prevent crows-feet, although recently during a facial, the esthetician said to go easy on it because apparently my pores are clogged! Starting to think maybe you are referring to writing/industry advice…
RS: Do you have a memory of a great meeting you had with a Showrunner? With a TV Executive? If so, what made the meetings great?
LC: I had a show meeting with Dan Fogleman, back in the day, before he was THE Dan Fogleman we know now, but I was so in awe of him and his writing. And HE was so complimentary of MY sample (a pilot), and I remember him saying, “you should make this,” and I said I was trying but the producers want to change a bunch of stuff… and he said that they were wrong, it was great the way it was.
On Validation: It’s even more meaningful when (showrunners and execs) read your sample and respond to your voice.
That was pretty awesome, as a baby writer, to get that kind of validation from someone like Dan. It really means a lot to know that showrunners and execs have AT LEAST read your sample, and even more meaningful when they respond to your voice. I didn’t get the job by the way.
RS: If you could have an off the record conversation with a TV executive, what questions would you be dying to ask?
LC: Why do you make so much bad TV? Why do you pass on so many good projects/ I know your company has lots and lots of money- why not take a chance on something different instead of hiring the same 6 white guys from the 1990s? Why do you take good stuff and overdevelop it until it’s least-common-denominator funny? Can you hire me?
RS: What is your writing process?
LC: Wake up, kids/babies/ walk the dog, coffee, breakfast, sit down in my office. Check emails. Go over To Do list. Find something on the list I can do right then (add Protein powder to Subscribe and Save!), check Anthropologie for sales, fill my cart with a bunch of stuff, give myself a lecture on wants vs needs and materialism, click out of the tab, open Final draft, go over yesterday’s work and tinker with it, then God willing I don’t get distracted (cats!), plow forward.
Once I have a suitable first draft, I give it to my husband to read while I watch over his shoulder and panic that he’s not laughing enough, he usually has great notes that I take offense to, then accept. That’s all if I have an active project that is broken and outlined and in process, i.e., that’s the easy part. Coming up with an idea, be it original, or based off of IP, is the hard part. That can take days/weeks/months/years- I have so many ideas that are half baked, so many scripts I dove into too fast and have 3/4 of an outline, or a solid first act, but nowhere to go from there.
RS: Which do you prefer, being staffed on a show or developing?
LC: For the past few years, I’ve been doing both simultaneously, so now to do just one or the other feels odd. I absolutely love being on staff and collaborating with a bunch of people who are usually funnier and smarter than I am. I also really enjoy side conversations, snacks, and free lunch. Plus I am a creature of habit and routine, so I do enjoy the motions of getting up and having an office to go into, and a structure that is imposed on me.
But my end goal is to have my own shows, so development is key. I have had a blast on every project I have developed, but it’s always so hard when that process comes to an end. There are so many pilots I’ve written that I would absolutely love to keep writing for. But they are dead!
RS: Do you like coming up with your own ideas or do you prefer being pitched an idea, a book, an adaptation?
LC: I tend to write from experience. MrsRupertPupkin was all about a sad single cat lady – that was me! And I loved working on The Steps with you and Patty, that was the graduated version of myself, the step mom. I’ve based a show on my mother-in-law, and one on my close group of friends. But it’s always great to have someone else pitch me an idea, and then for me to bring my own observations and personal relationships into that world.
RS: With development, if research is needed, how much do you do?
LC: One million years ago, I wrote a feature musical prequel to Annie, all about Miss Hannigan, called “Aggie.” It took place in 1910 in NYC. I did SO. MUCH. RESEARCH. Maybe 9 months of research. I loved it. But research can be a slippery slope to procrastination. It’s my favorite.
RS: Best moment in a writer’s room? Worst?
LC: So many great moments – inside bits with the writers, breaking a really fun story, nailing a great joke, snacks… So many terrible moments too – Having pitches overlooked but then praised when a male staff member pitches the same exact thing moments later, pitching your heart out and having a joke or story fall flat, feeling guilty for eating too many snacks…
RS: Best advice you’ve gotten to prepare you before entering a writer’s room?
LC: A very famous writer told me, before my first staff job, that I was quite gregarious and I should rein it in a bit because nobody wants an over talkative staff writer. This is actually not bad advice, but I think it contributed to my crippling silence on Awkward (see below).
RS: What’s your most embarrassing moment on the job?
LC: Oh, so many. I’d have to say that on my first staff gig- Awkward- I was SO nervous. Paralyzed with fear to open my mouth. And the more time that went by that I didn’t pitch, the more paralyzed I became. Minutes turned into hours, and hours into days. It was torture.
RS: What has been your proudest career moment?
LC: It always feels good to sell a show. It also feels good to see your name on screen. Those tangible moments when you can say, “Look mom, that’s my name, I told you I wouldn’t be an elf at the Grove forever!” – those are pretty fun.
RS: When do your best ideas come to you? Middle of the night? Playing with your cats or kids? Alone time?
LC: With the cats. Always with the cats.
RS: What’s a show you wished you’d been staffed on? Name a current show on the air and one in the past? Why?
LC: I love “Dave,” and would be thrilled to be on that staff, although sometimes I wonder if being on a show I love would ruin it for me. I would have been honored to write on “Transparent.” I very much relate to the dysfunctional family dynamics that were explored so brilliantly on that show.
RS: While staffed on American Housewife, what would you say your strengths were? I.E., writing for a particular character? Coming up with story ideas? Being on set?
LC: Does eating seaweed snacks count? Because I ate a lot of those, and I was very good at it.
I think my strengths were pretty well-rounded insofar as joke pitches, story ideas, writing the scenes themselves. Set is always fun, too. Great snacks on set.
RS: Is there something that you still struggle with as a writer (beyond writer’s block)? How do you continue to grow as a writer?
LC: I think the biggest struggle is becoming too singularly focused, i.e., sometimes I just don’t know what to write beyond my own personal experience. I think it’s important to read- books, articles, other people’s scripts, and to watch all kinds of shows and try to consume as much as possible so that I’m not just treading the same territory over and over.
RS: Formatting pet peeves?
LC: All of them. I am terrible with everything. Sometimes the screen shrinks down and everything is tiny and the day is ruined.
RS: What would you say is the one thing that emerging writers could benefit from, just starting out?
LC: Be cool in the room/ don’t be a dick. Don’t be in a rush to leave. Listen to other people. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Adopt two cats at a time. (Sorry, that was a few things, but all important).
RS: When writing a pilot, do you do a joke pass? Is there a secret to it? When stuck, do you have a village of writers you reach out to in order to help punch up your scripts?
LC: Jokes often come naturally within the scene, especially if I’ve done my job right and the characters have a clear POV.
On the funny: Make sure they are within the character’s voices (vs) just an arbitrary slam on another character or pop culture reference.
But then I do an additional joke pass to make sure the jokes are funny/funnier, and to make sure they are within the characters’ voices, and ideally, say something about the character/ her POV/ or they move the story forward, and are not just an arbitrary slam on another character or pop culture reference. After that, I am insanely lucky to have an arsenal of funny people to help me punch jokes (including my husband, who is the funniest guy I know).
RS: If you could only write in one genre the rest of your life, what would you choose?
LC: For money, I’m in TV comedy, but if I could run away and live on an island somewhere, I might want to try my hand at fables, specifically cat fables.
RS: I think it’s only fitting to end with Mrs. Pupkin. She was single and loved cats. At the time it was you in a nutshell. Now that you’re married and with kids, do you ever think about creating another kind of persona on Twitter? That reflects your new standing in the world? If so, what would her name be? Or would you keep loyal to Pupkin?
LC: I think MrsRupertPupkin needs to remain a spinster fossil. Not sure I’d ever return to Twitter because I hear there’s a lot of bad news on there.
Lauren Caltagirone everyone. It seems Mrs. Rupert Pupkin will live on only in Twitter legend.
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Bio:
Lauren first broke out with her Twitter account @MrsRupertPupkin, a “character” who loves tequila and cats and hates being single. In a classic “be careful what you wish for” scenario, Lauren is now married with four (FOUR) kids and lives in the LA burbs with her human family, two beautiful cats and a giant, needy Shepard-Rottweiler mix. She just wrapped as a Supervising Producer on ABC’s AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE and previously staffed on MTV’s AWKWARD, TV Land’s IMPASTOR, Netflix’s WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER and ABC’s SUPER FUN NIGHT. Lauren has developed consistently over the last several years including TEXT ME WHEN YOU GET HOME with Julie Bowen producing for ABC, STEP STRANGERS which sold in a competitive situation to WBTV/FBC with Elizabeth Banks’ Brownstone Productions, THE STEPS with Patricia Heaton’s company to WBTV/FBC and PASTA with Fake Empire for ABC Studios/ABC Network. She still drinks a lot of tequila but for very different reasons. https://twitter.com/#!/MrsRupertPupkin