Susannah Grant An impressively versatile screenwriter, perhaps best known for Erin Brockovich (2000), Susannah Grant is equally comfortable in delivering quality films for adults or for young audiences. She demonstrates a great skill in tackling serious issues with a winning combination of humour and a real understanding of people. Early work includes a feature debut with Disney’s Pocahontas (1995) and much-loved hit ’90s TV show, Party Of Five. Grant followed this with a clever re-imagining of the Cinderella story in Ever After (1998), starring Drew Barrymore. Her big screen work has created some highly memorable roles for women: 28 Days (2000) shows Sandra Bullock’s range as an actor; In Her Shoes (2005) is a funny, warm tale of two sisters’ troubled relationship, starring Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette; and Erin Brockovich, starring Julia Roberts, is the inspiring true-life story of a single mother who rallies a community to take on a multi-billion dollar corporation. Erin Brockovich earned Grant both BAFTA and Oscar nominations. Other credits include 6
Saturday 28 September, BFI Southbank Charlotte’s Web (2006) and The Soloist (2009). Grant has more recently returned to television as creator of A Gifted Man, with executive producer Jonathan Demme. Of her writing process, Grant says: “I always have a road map. It is an outline that gets revised as I move along. I start with, ‘How does this movie start? What’s the first scene? What’s the scene after that?’ And I bite off a little piece at a time. It’s like climbing a mountain. You can’t look at the mountain top, you just have to look at the ridge you’re on.” [www.storylink.com] JONATHAN DEMME Susannah Grant is a lot like Ms Brockovich in her fierce determination to do battle with bullshit and wrongheadedness. She proves quite quickly to be an exquisitely open and flexible collaborator, a merciful queen of the medium and an auteur who knows where to draw the line between open, free collaboration and adherence to themes and narratives too personal to even think about diverting from. Working with her was a phenomenal experience. She brings out the best in you, and helps you find the deepest riches contained in her beautiful work. The BAFTA and BFI Screenwriters’ Lecture Series