Westworld showrunner Lisa Joy says that the prospect of a writer’s strike in the US is very “stressful” but that she stands by whatever decision the Writers Guild of America comes to after negotiations with studios.
Speaking at Series Mania, Joy acknowledged that she had reached a position where could manage without working for a while.
But she added: “I always stand by the decision of the Writers Guild. They are acting for the collective good. In America, unlike a lot of countries in Europe, we don’t have universal healthcare or a social safety net.”
Joy continued: “The Writers Guild is working to make it possible for writers at all levels to have an easier time supporting themselves. That is incredibly important, but very scary for writers and for everyone because it does mean a work stoppage for a while which influences a lot of jobs down the line. My hope always in these circumstances is that there is a result that we will eventually get to – let’s get to it quick.”
The Writers Guild of America has begun negotiations with studios over a contract set to expire on May 1 — which could lead to the first strike in nearly 15 years, a prospect that would cause significant disruption to television and film projects across the industry.
Joy is presiding over Series Mania’s international competition and was speaking during a keynote interview at the festival.
She is best known as the co-creator, writer, director, and executive producer of HBO sci-fi drama series Westworld, which was cancelled last year after four seasons. She recently produced The Peripheral, a series adaptation of a William Gibson novel for Amazon. Coming up is Fallout, a series based on the video game franchise, also for Amazon. Joy’s feature film debut, Reminiscence, was released by Warner Bros. Pictures in 2021.
Joy and her husband Jonathan Nolan and their Kilter Films label have a deal with Amazon, worth a reported $150m over five years.
AI advances
Elsewhere in her keynote, Joy said the issues explored in Westworld were “even more relevant today” thanks to the invention of ChatGPT and advances in AI. ”Westworld was science fiction when we started, and now it’s much more like a documentary film.”
She also said her interest in sci-fi and genre projects like Westworld stems from her background of being raised in New Jersey by parents who were immigrants to the US – her father is British and her mother is Chinese.
“If you are first generation person in any country, you have a somewhat estranged viewpoint from the world around you. You live within it, but are not exactly of it. When you are writing genre, you are able to write about human experience devoid of specifics like gender, race and nationality - not that those topics don’t come up in genre, because they absolutely do. …but you smuggle it in through a lens of allegory and metaphor.”
Joy graduated from Stanford University and worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company before going to Harvard Law School. She practiced as a lawyer in California ahead of starting a career as a writer. “For a writer, I started late – at 30 years old,” Joy said. “I was poor and had lot of debt, and could not afford to be writer till 30.”
She said her past experience as a lawyer and consultant had proved helpful in her career as a showrunner. “The job of showrunner is not simply a writer. There is a huge practical and business component to it. You are trying to take words on the page and make sure they have maximum impact on screen. I am very engaged in looking at the financing of shows, and how boards are looking and how we can maximise value and put it on screen.”
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