Jason Fuchs is widely regarded as one of the most sought after screenwriters of his generation, an impressive feat in an industry where breaking through as a writer is notoriously difficult. But he never set out to become a screenwriter. His writing career began almost accidentally, born from a lull in acting work and the impulse to write himself a role. The script was well received, and even though the film was never made, it set him on the path that would define his career. We sat down after our photoshoot to talk about his path into screenwriting, the realities of working in Hollywood, the story of how he met his wife, and advice for the next generation.

Jason Fuchs:
I wrote a script called The Last First Time, which was a romantic comedy about a guy trying to lose his virginity in the 48 hours before a meteor hits the world. The script bounced around the industry, and that's really where my screenwriting career began. It ended up being the sample that got me Ice Age Continental Drift. Ice Age really was a turning point, a great choice that changed my life.

Sophie Elgort:
How did you know how to write a screenplay when you started your first one?

Jason:
I had the benefit of reading screenplays since I was essentially able to read. I started acting when I was seven and a half, so screenplays were sort of just in my blood and in my brain. If you're a movie fan, even without realizing it you're digesting film structure and learning to tell stories in movie language. And the last piece of the puzzle was when you bought Final Draft back in the day, you got a CD-ROM, which included Sid Field's three-act structure guide. It put a name to certain things that instinctively I already knew. I suddenly was able to understand it in a structural sense and just went from there.

Sophie:
You’ve said being an actor helps with your writing because you know what it’s like to get a scene that’s unactable.

Jason:
Yeah, being an actor helped in every respect. I have a sense of what is dramatically satisfying, what is problematic. And I think the other advantage of being an actor is pitching, which is an enormous part of the writing process and not necessarily natural for many writers, who are used to being behind the camera, whereas a pitch is inherently this performance oriented thing.

Sophie:
Did you feel like acting auditions are similar to pitches?

Jason:
Auditions and pitches are very similar. But when you're pitching, you're one of maybe only four or five people. You're really putting yourself out there. So if they hate it, it's more personal.

Sophie:
For Derry, how much work did you do before getting the project?

Jason:
Derry was unique. I had written on It Chapter Two. Andy said, “Hey, I think we're going to do an IT prequel TV series. Is that something you want to do?” And I went, “Yeah, absolutely.” Pitching then came in handy for sure when it came to getting our first season greenlit.

Sophie:
How did Ice Age work?

Jason:
Ice Age was an extensive pitch. They said they wanted pirates. I was sitting in the Fox dining room with the producers and I'd never pitched on anything like that in my career. And I just sort of imagined that I was giving them a guided tour of the movie from the inside out. I remember distinctly having that mental picture of, you're sitting at the front of the Jungle Cruise and you're the tour guide and you're make them laugh and you're gonna show them the exciting things as you pass and yeah I just I didn't know how to do it and so I just found my own way of approaching it and happily they said yes. 

Sophie:
You’ve said the path to something great occasionally goes through something good. So not to get caught up in total perfection and not to let perfection slow you down.

Jason:
Yeah, I said that? That's really wise. I’m a creature of habit. I don’t have writer’s block. I have moments where I have a thousand ideas and none feel good enough. Oftentimes you need to write the C plus version to get it on the page. A blank page can't teach you anything. A bad line can. If you have that in front of you, you now have something to work off of, and it can be instructive. You can go, wait, why doesn't it work? And then maybe by the end of that writing session, you've gotten to the B plus version. That's OK, too, because you can come back and do the A plus version the next day. As a writer, you can keep that less perfect version to yourself and iterate and iterate and perfect and share it when it's something you can be really proud of within reason. And so I love that aspect of the writing process.

Sophie:
Tell me about being in the Derry writer’s room.

Jason:
It’s incredibly different from film. TV is a writer’s medium. You get to play a much more hands-on role. I'd never been in a writer's room before, and I found the process inspiring and fun.

Sophie:
Tell me about the production company you and Alix are starting.

Jason:
Alix has been producing longer than I have. In many ways she has been my collaborator secretly on everything since the day we met. We felt like, isn’t there a way to formalize this? For me, producing is great because there’s so much I want to be doing and not enough time to write it all.

Sophie:
How did you and Alix meet?

Jason:
We met like two normal people on Raya. I was in Toronto working on It Chapter Two. The only mutual friend we had was Andy Muschiett [IT Chapter Two director]. IT in some ways brought us together from the beginning. Stephen King has brought a lot of good into my life and in some ways my wife was one element of that. 

Sophie:
Do you have a dream project?

Jason:
There is a project I’m writing: My Hero Academia. I absolutely love it. Hopefully we get to make it next year.

Sophie:
Best advice you've received?

Jason:
My mom taught me it’s not about the event, it's about how you react to the event. I think what she was trying to teach was that you can only control your reaction to something, not the thing itself. It allowed me to have a good relationship with uncertainty. I credit her for that.

Sophie:
Advice for the next generation?

Jason:
I think that the business is changing extremely rapidly and it's hard to imagine where things will be in five years, much less 10, but the basic lessons still apply. You gotta work really hard. I can't control my talent level. I'm sure there are many equally, and more talented writers and producers out there, but I can't control that. I can control how hard I work and try to outwork everyone to the best of my ability. But also I think you have to be delusional. If you're too realistic, you’ll never try. The chances of success to be a working feature screenwriter, television writer, actor, a working actor, much less a movie star, those odds are so slim that if you are too realistic about it, you will never try. I was watching the Eddie Murphy documentary on Netflix just the other day, and Eddie Murphy talks about being 12 years old, telling everyone, I'm going to be famous at 19. And by 19, he's on Saturday Night Live. He was a brilliantly talented young comic, but there's no reason to think he was going to be famous by 19. Yet, the ability to trick yourself into believing that stuff I think is essential. Work hard and be delusional. And good things will probably happen.