Q&A: Kelly Fremon Craig, Writer-Director of ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret?’, Discusses the Secret Lives of Screenwriters
The critically acclaimed filmmaker gets honest about the unique anxieties and fears that complicate the creative — and personal — lives of screenwriters.
In 2016, my friend Kelly Fremon Craig’s directorial debut THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN hit screens and immediately delighted critics and audiences alike. The film, which she also wrote, is a bitingly funny and bittersweet coming-of-age story about an abrasive teen learning to love herself. Here are a few of the reactions I shared with her at the time via email that will illuminate for you how I feel about her work and creative instincts:
This film should’ve been terrible, Kelly. You know what I mean, because you’ve seen two dozen of them that are and skipped seeing another five dozen that are even worse. Hollywood does not have a great track record at making films with teen protagonists.
But you wrote a thing of emotional beauty and truth that defies every expectation one could have of a “teenage angst” film. [Its] edge comes from how accurately drawn these characters are. They are just real, brutally so, and every line of dialogue…
