|Auriel.Rudnick|
The best part of my job is constantly meeting new people. You get to learn about various backgrounds, cultures, and what everyone’s origin story is — their way into the business. Why did I call her The Sheep Queen? Because it’s alluring and mysterious and well… I’ll let her explain!
Hard work, perseverance, determination. We all know these are three important ingredients to a successful career. It’s what you need in order to stay in the game.
Meeting the right person at the right time doesn’t hurt either. Auriel walked into an interview to be a writer’s assistant and met the woman that would eventually give her a golden opportunity. Lauren Iungerich, showrunner of Netflix’s, On My Block is one of the “helpers” we all hope to meet along our path. Auriel worked hard and when the time came, Lauren promoted her to staff writer.
CUT TO: An overall deal at Paramount Television Studios. Hard work, perseverance, determination… with a splash of luck thrown in for good measure.
RS: Where did you grow up?
AR: I grew up in Mar Vista on the west side of LA. Cul de sacs, ocean air. It’s changed a lot since I was a kid, but I’ll always love it there.
RS: What was your favorite fast food place?
AR: I’m not sure if this counts as fast food, but Tito’s Tacos in Culver City was – and still is – my favorite quick bite to eat.
RS: You started as a writer’s assistant on the Netflix show, On My Block before graduating to staff writer. What do you think you did right in order to make that leap? (besides the obvious of a strong writing sample).
AR: So much of being in a room is about the people. I was lucky because I really got along with the writers in that room. It was an incredible group, and we all just enjoyed being together. I worked hard as a writers’ assistant in that room.
On making the leap from Writer’s Asst. to Staff Writer:
I stayed late nights making sure those notes were the best they could be. I proved to my bosses that I was an important member of the team. I was passionate.
There were high expectations for that job, and I stayed late nights making sure those notes were the best they could be. As the writers’ assistant, I proved to my bosses that I was an important member of the team and not only did I understand the show, but I was passionate about it.
RS: Describe the ideal showrunner.
AR: I know this is going to sound strange but after years of being in rooms, I believe the best showrunners are like kindergarten teachers. Kind, gentle, fair, but always in charge. They keep any personal drama at home unless a story serves a purpose in the room. If there’s some sort of emergency or stress among the faculty, the teacher doesn’t tell the kindergarten students about it unless it involves them. That said, I’ve worked with incredible showrunners who don’t fit this mold at all. But if you ask me, this kind of showrunning keeps a room friendly, professional, and efficient.
What showrunners get right:
The best are like kindergarten teachers: Kind, gentle, fair, but always in charge.
RS: What do you think some showrunners get wrong?
AR: Two things come to mind. First, I think sometimes showrunners can lose sight of the destination. And that’s tough. Feeling like you’re a member of a ship’s crew, working your butt off for a captain who’s either lost or changing their mind about where to go. I’d much rather be in a room for a show that isn’t totally my taste as long as the showrunner knows what they want. Writing can be a maddening process – I mean always, but especially when it starts to feel like a guessing game for what your boss may want when they themselves don’t even know.
What showrunners get wrong:
I’ve seen showrunners get a bit too personal, overshare in a room. The best kind of showrunner enforces boundaries.
Second, I’ve seen showrunners get a bit too personal, overshare in a room… and encourage writers to do the same. It’s tricky because obviously writing is personal, it is spilling your guts, but I think lines should always be drawn. People should only share if and what they want. It’s healthy to remember that these jobs are… jobs. And writers’ rooms are places of work. This is so tough to remember because creating with other writers is such an intimate, exciting journey but I think for that very reason, the best kind of showrunner enforces boundaries.
RS: Favorite board game?
AR: Settlers of Catan! I call myself The Sheep Queen. It’s an unconventional strategy, but it’s worked out for me.
(Side Note: I read this: “During almost every game, there will be an excess of sheep at some point. Everyone will have sheep, and everyone will be trying to unload them. A person with a well situated sheep port can turn this into an advantage, but this route is only worth pursuing if it’s convenient within a player’s larger strategy. Above all, don’t focus too heavily on acquiring sheep early in the game. They will come. They always come.”)
RS: Are you a competitive person? What are you most competitive about?
AR: I am very competitive when it comes to games… Sheep Queen here. But outside of games and in life, I shy away from competition. I don’t know why, but I really don’t like competing for things. I like to sit back, stay out of all that, and just try to do my own thing. I admire my friends who can just jump right in and face off with people, but I am not that way.
RS: If you could shadow one writer, one director, and one actor on a show, who would they be and why?
AR: I’d shadow David Simon. I’d just kill to be a fly on the wall in one of his rooms. I love his storytelling, the humanity in his shows, the complexity of the subject matter he takes on. For directors, I’d have to say Andrea Arnold. She’s one of the reasons I wanted to work in all this. She’s a real artist. Her work hits to the core. I dream about getting to see her work with her actors. And that leads me to actors… Dang. I’d say Dominique Fishback. She is supremely talented… I bet she can do anything. I’m so curious what her process is like.
RS: If you were given the freedom to reboot a show, what series would it be and why?
AR: Carnivàle! I loved that show. Vibrant and bleak at the same time. And so many fascinating characters to explore. The series was set against the backdrop of the Great Depression so for a reboot, it’d be interesting to consider other backdrops/time periods for a different traveling carnival.
RS: Do you have a company name/logo to go with your Paramount Television Studios overall deal?
AR: I don’t have a logo yet, but my company is called Rora Pictures. I named it after my grandmother Aurora, my mom’s mom. She was an impressive woman. The second Mexican American female graduate of Southern Methodist University and the first Mexican American personality on PBS’s Dallas Channel – she was a high school Spanish teacher and taught Spanish on the network. She faced a ton of adversity growing up in Dallas and teaching at predominantly white schools there.
A sign that reads “Rora Pictures” hangs beside my office door on the Paramount lot and I have a photo of her sitting on my desk. I think she’d get a kick out of that if she were with us today.
RS: Taking from your various staffing jobs, is there an area that you are drawn to, beyond the walls of the writer’s room? I.E., on set, in editing, in a mix, casting, etc.
AR: I love being on set. In fact, I intended to be a director. That’s why I went to film school and how I got caught up in this writing business in the first place. In college, I worked on set every weekend trying my hand at different roles in different departments. When I wasn’t directing, I worked mostly in the art department and loved it.
Beyond writing, other areas drawn to:
I love being on set. I also love the editing process. The edit feels like part two of the writing process.
When it comes to my own projects, I enjoy watching actors work. I also love the editing process. You think you’ve written something when you’ve put it down on the page, but that’s only the beginning. The edit feels like part two of the writing process.
RS: What’s the last thing that made you cry (and don’t say this q&a!)
AR: Ha! I’ve recently been watching Reservation Dogs (FX on Hulu). It’s a beautiful show, and there is one episode in particular that just made me weep. Episode 6 called “Hunting.” I won’t give anything away, but I highly recommend the watch.
RS: Any pet peeves?
AR: Entitlement. I see it a lot in this industry and it drives me crazy.
RS: What is a rich part of your family tapestry that has defined you as a writer?
AR: My ancestral history! Family is so important to my parents and they’re both storytellers, so growing up I’d hear these mythic stories about my grandparents and great grandparents and great great grandparents and so on… From Mexico to Jewish shtetls in Europe, my ancestry contains wild stories with so much beauty and heartbreak. These stories have most definitely shaped me as a writer.
RS: I always talk to my writers about skeletons in their closet… that it’s important to lure them out and use them in their writing. Any skeletons you plan on writing about?
AR: As a kid, I was the nerdiest, most dedicated fan of a certain famous musician. I mean… I was obsessed. Head over heels in love. Then in my adulthood, I had the most disappointing run in with this musician, and I absolutely plan on writing about that fantasy-turned-sad-reality love story someday. But until then, I’d like that skeleton to remain in that closet.
RS: We all need down time to refresh. What does that time look like for you?
AR: Cooking, being with family and going on long walks with my husband and our dog. Time to refresh is so important, especially for the creative process. I try to find ways of working these activities into my routine. I have learned I am most productive with a healthy work/life balance.
RS: Have you ever been given dialogue notes? How were they given?
AR: Yes! One that haunts me is “be more specific.” And honestly, it’s a great note. I mean, specificity is key.
On best dialogue note given:
“Be more specific.” It’s a great note. Specificity is key.
I sometimes get lost in the fun of writing a scene and let my characters speak poetically or with big, obvious statements. It’s good “first draft” writing, but the truth is… people don’t speak like that! I was given that note a few times on a period piece I worked on, and it made the next draft that much better.
RS: What’s important to you as far as character descriptions in a script?
AR: First, I think character descriptions should be as concise as possible because your introduction to that person – their first actions, first lines – will also describe that person. That initial “character description” should just leave an impression. For this reason, I am turned off by physical descriptions because I don’t see a point to them unless they have to do with the story and/or arc of that character. For example, it’s way more important for me to know a character is “rebellious” than it is for me to know they are “blonde.”
RS: What gets you out of a writing funk?
AR: Oof. This one’s tough. Sometimes there isn’t an answer. Sometimes you just must wait for the clouds to part. But in that waiting period, I do find it helpful to establish a routine. I make myself get up, drink coffee, go for a walk, sit down in front of a notebook and wait for the writing fairies to come. When I’m on a deadline, it’s different. I don’t have the freedom to “wait” so instead, I write what I can. I force it out. Because at least then I have something to work with. Sometimes, it’s not great. But it’s a start.
RS: If you could drop yourself into the middle of the following genres, which films would they be?: Sci-fi, Romantic comedy, Drama, Musical, and Documentary.
AR: If I had to drop into a sci-fi it would hands down be the original Jurassic Park. I practically did live on Isla Nublar in my pretend world as a child, and honestly, I do a great velociraptor impression to this day, so I feel like I’d blend right in and survive.
Romantic comedy? Drop me right into Colin Firth’s storyline in Love Actually. I’ll take that writing retreat in that gorgeous house and that sweet, sweet love story any day. Drama? Any drama is going to be painful, but I think the pain would be worth it if I were dropped into a film like Portrait of a Lady on Fire. That epic affair in the most gorgeous of places… alright! Musical? Moana please.
Documentary? Do I dare say Grey Gardens?
RS: Proudest career moment thus far?
AR: The first office I ever had as my own (as a writer on staff) was in the same building where I worked my first assistant job. The window in my new office was a window I passed every day as an assistant going on coffee runs, lunch runs… having that office felt surreal. I remember sitting at my empty desk on the first day of that job feeling so proud and so grateful.
RS: Best advice you received that you think is worthy of passing down?
AR: My dear friend, the incredible writer Beth Henley, told me to look for windows in my writing. She was referring to a draft of something I wrote before I was to write the next draft. She explained that sometimes in our writing our subconscious leaves us hints – little windows – to the next draft of the story we’re trying to tell. She told me to open those windows.
Advice worthy of handing down:
Look for windows in your writing.
And so sometimes I’ll spit out a first draft, read through it and realize “Fire! I keep alluding to fire!” And then I investigate that and turns out fire might be more important to my story than I originally thought. Fire might work its way into the next draft in a surprising way.
So now when I write, I’m on the lookout for those windows. (By the way, I’m positive I’m butchering Beth’s advice and am certain she said this all way more eloquently. I’m also now questioning if these were windows or doors… but we’re going to say windows.)
RS: What’s advice you wish you would have received early on?
AR: Don’t search for an agent or manager too soon. Everyone thinks they need someone representing them at the very start because representation means work. But that’s not the case. So much of this industry is about personal connections. A showrunner would way rather hire a hardworking assistant they know than the client of a manager or agent they’ve never met.
On Agents and Managers:
Don’t search too soon. Work on your craft, take jobs, and make your own connections. When you get to a certain place, the right people will start noticing you.
I wish someone had told me this sooner: Work on your craft, take jobs and make your own connections. When you get to a certain place, the right people will start noticing you.
RS: What’s the best part about writing for you? Are you a character writer or do you love getting lost in a great plot?
AR: Trick question, right? It’s all miserable? Ha! No, I’m only half kidding. I think one of my favorite parts of writing is when I’m starting a project… when I’m figuring out what the story is about.
I start making playlists, listening to music, going on long walks, imagining… then certain ideas float by and I grab them and toss them into a notebook. Soon character and plot swirl together, and eventually something starts to take shape. That part of the process I love.
RS: In what ways have you evolved as a writer?
AR: I value my curiosity a lot more. When I started out, I thought I needed to write stories other people would find interesting or entertaining. And that’s the about the worst thing I could do. That kind of thinking leads to shallow, lifeless writing. Now I only let myself gravitate towards subjects I find interesting even if I don’t yet know why. Eventually, the why will reveal itself… and then a story follows.
There you have it. The Alluring Auriel Rudnick.
Curious about more writers from Netflix’s ON MY BLOCK, go to: https://rebecca-stay.com/qa-with-netflixs-on-my-block-writer-adam-starks
Bio:
Born and raised in LA, Auriel grew up writing, performing, and forcing friends to act in homemade music videos she would shoot on her dad’s RCA camcorder. Eventually, she headed east to New York City where she received a BFA in Film and TV from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. While in school, Auriel worked for Michel Gondry’s Partizan Entertainment and spent her days assisting on music videos and commercials. After returning to LA, Auriel assisted on several shows including “The Path” (Hulu) and “Star Trek: Discovery” (CBS All Access), before landing her first staffing gig on Netflix’s hit coming-of-age series, “On My Block.”
Since then, her credits include Chernin Entertainment’s “Circe,” Paramount Television Studios and Hulu’s upcoming “The Devil in the White City,” and a to-be-announced FX show. Most recently, Auriel was a consulting producer on Paramount Television Studios’ “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies.” She is currently developing projects with Paramount Television under a three-year overall deal with the studio.
