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Michelle Law on writing for stage, print and screen
43 Plays11 days ago
We're joined on Breaking Screen by Michelle Law, a writer and actor who writes for print, theatre and screen. Throughout the episode, Michelle talks about the differences in writing for those three mediums, her writing process, managing her time as a freelancer to avoid burnout, juggling parenting and working in the industry, and much more.
Michelle has been published in numerous Australian books, literary journals, and magazines, and her travel book, Asian Girls are Going Places, was published by Hardie Grant in 2022.
As a playwright, she’s written Top Coat (Sydney Theatre Company 2022), Miss Peony (Belvoir St Theatre 2023), and the smash-hit play Single Asian Female (numerous, 2017 - 2022), which had sold out seasons across the east coast of Australia as well as in New Zealand.
In screen, Michelle was the co-creator, co-writer and co-lead of the AWGIE-award winning SBS series Homecoming Queens, as well as writing episodes of Bureau of Magical Things and Safe Home.
This episode marks Breaking Screen's final episode of 2025! The podcast will be back in early 2026.
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Transcript
Introduction & Acknowledgments
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to Breaking Screen, a podcast about the Australian screen industry and the creative people within it. I'm your host, Caris Bizzaca I'm recording this podcast from the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, where I'm very grateful to be a visitor and be able to work on these lands.
00:00:19
Speaker
Always was, always will be.
Year in Review & Future Plans
00:00:22
Speaker
Today's episode is our last episode for 2025. I firstly just wanted to say a huge thank you to all of the guests who joined us this year and who were so generous with both their time and insights. And I also want to thank all of you who have been listening and supporting the podcast. It's very much appreciated.
00:00:41
Speaker
It's been a whirlwind six months since this launched and I've already got a lot planned for next year. But first I will have a nap and then Breaking Screen will be back in 2026.
00:00:52
Speaker
So the final episode for this year will feature writer
Industry Updates
00:00:56
Speaker
Michelle Law. But before we get to that chat, here's some news from the Australian screen industry. Streaming services will be officially required by law to produce Australian content. The government's proposed legislation passed in the Senate on the last sitting day of the year, which means that streamers with more than 1 million subscribers will need to invest either 10% of their total program expenditure for Australia or 7.5% of their local revenue in new Australian drama, children's documentary, arts and educational programs.
00:01:28
Speaker
In other news, 47 projects will share in $1.1 million of funding from the NSW Government through Screen NSW Development Program. The projects supported this year include 22 feature films, 9 documentary features, 11 fiction series, 2 children's series and 3 documentary series.
00:01:49
Speaker
And when Tropfest returns next February for the first time since 2019, Margot Robbie will be leading the jury for the Short Film Festival. All films must be new, seven minutes or less, submitted through YouTube and feature the Tropfest signature item, Hourglass. Entries close January 8, 2026.
00:02:09
Speaker
And that's your news wrap up, but remember to head over to any of the Australian trade publications for more. Now to the chat with today's guest.
Guest Introduction: Michelle Law
00:02:18
Speaker
We're joined on breaking screen by Michelle Law, a writer and as she says, sometimes actor who writes for print, theatre and screen. Michelle has been published in numerous Australian books, literary journals and magazines, and her travel book, Asian Girls Are Going Places, was published by Hardy Grant in 2022.
00:02:37
Speaker
As a playwright, she's written Top Coat, Miss Peony, and the smash hit play Single Asian Female, which had sold out seasons across the east coast of Australia as well as in New Zealand.
00:02:48
Speaker
In Screen, Michelle was the co-creator, co-writer, and co-lead of the SBS series Homecoming Queens, as well as writing episodes of Bureau of Magical Things and Safe Home.
00:03:00
Speaker
Throughout the episode, Michelle talks about the differences in writing for print, theatre and screen, her writing process, managing her time as a freelancer to avoid burnout, juggling parenting and working in the industry and much more. Here's that chat.
Michelle's Career Beginnings
00:03:19
Speaker
Can you tell me your name and your role in the industry? My name is Michelle Law and ah role in the industry is writer predominantly and actor as well sometimes.
00:03:32
Speaker
And so we always start off these podcasts with talking about um inciting incidents. um Can you tell me the inciting incident for your career?
00:03:45
Speaker
I love this question the way that it's full i love the way that it's phrased. It made me reflect on, i think there were a couple of inciting incidents for me, but I think the first and most important one was probably when I was finishing high school and that pressure of having to choose something to do at university or take a gap year or whatever have you, and that'll decide like the course of the rest of your life. No pressure. No pressure. It's such an unreasonable demand of, you know, a teenager. But I remember leaving school and tossing up between...
00:04:20
Speaker
you know, writing and acting and maybe visual arts as well. And then i entered this, well, I entered a personal essay writing for an anthology that Black Ink were putting out and it was edited by Alice Pung and it was called Growing Up Asian in Australia.
00:04:39
Speaker
and I really loved English at school, but I never saw it as really a career or something. I didn't grow up thinking I want to be a writer like a lot of people do.
00:04:49
Speaker
I think it was something that I had a knack for and that's probably just because I loved reading so much. And this was the first time that I was asked to write something to a prompt. You know, what was it like growing up Asian in Australia? And I'd never really reflected on my cultural background in that way before. But then I was surprised to learn that once I started writing, it actually started flowing really quickly. and I realized that I had a lot to say about the subject.
00:05:17
Speaker
And I got stuck into doing my QTS because it was my final year of school. And I kind of forgot about the submission that I made. And then I think it was summer holidays. And I heard back from Alice, the editor, and she was saying, oh, you know, we'd love to publish it. And I think that was the first moment that i realized that other people would other people enjoyed my writing but would take it seriously enough that it would be published and potentially lead to something and I think that was a large reason why I decided to study creative writing over the other over drama or visual arts
00:05:54
Speaker
And just on the back of that, so am i right, um did i read that you are also, you optioned Alice's book and are writing that into a feature film? That feels very full circle.
Creative Journey and Collaborations
00:06:08
Speaker
Beautifully full circle and the sense that she knew me when I was 17. That was when we first met and we worked together professionally, but we've since remained friends. And we've been friends since then. We're actually pen pals now, like old school pen pals where we write each other letters.
00:06:25
Speaker
And so I worked on, there was another producer I worked with who optioned one of her earlier novels, Lorinda, and I was writing the adaptation, the feature adaptation of that.
00:06:36
Speaker
And then when Alice wrote 100 Days, which is her most recent novel, she was keen to see if I wanted to option it. and i was like, yeah, of course, I can't option anything you write. And so we have a really lovely sort of collaborative relationship and she's quite I think I'm quite lucky in the sense that she's really hands-off with the original material and understands that screen and literature, a book, they're really different mediums. And so there are certain changes that you do need to make in order for a narrative to work on screen. So it's been a really lovely process working with her again.
00:07:14
Speaker
Yeah. oh my gosh. That's so cool. and um, something that i thought interesting was how you said you were a contributor to this anthology. Did you kind of continue, you know, writing kind of personal essays and things like that before you went into more fiction screen stage work?
00:07:34
Speaker
Yeah, I guess throughout my creative writing degree, there were a lot of forms that we were experimenting with, but I think something that stuck with me and came most naturally to me was probably personal essays. And when I graduated, I was contributing to a lot of journals and magazines and broadsheet newspapers, and they were primarily personal essays as well as a little bit of, you know, like feature writing or and some nonfiction there so as well.
00:08:03
Speaker
But That was where it all kind of started for me. And then I kind of fell into screenwriting and playwriting later down the
Incorporating Personal Experience in Writing
00:08:10
Speaker
track. m It's interesting because like that thematically you're exploring similar terrain. It's still you're exploring things that are like personally relevant to you, but it's just more in a um fictionalized medium than personal essay. i say Yeah, that's right. I mean, I'm interested in so many different different types of subject matter, but I guess it is so much of leaning into what you know and your your own lived experience in a way and letting letting that inform the kinds of worlds and characters you're constructing.
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And did you, um you said you kind of fell into it with screen and stage. So that wasn't something that you kind of envisioned from early on, similar to, you know, being a writer, you didn't kind of go like, oh, I i really want to write for screen or I want to be a playwright or it just evolved. Yeah.
00:09:03
Speaker
i think i graduated from uni thinking I'd very much be a novelist and I think that was informed a lot i the kinds of writers I was being taught so you know i I think I was very good at but didn't particularly love you know replicating the kind of tone and style of like a Helen Garner or a Tim Winton but then that didn't really feel right or authentic to me and then screenwriting kind of, I mean, it but came up as an opportunity just through a friend who needed someone to work as a youth consultant on a show that someone else had asked him to do, but he wasn't available for. And I mean, cause I was such a voracious consumer of TV and theater growing up. It was like, there were two mediums that I loved and enjoyed and would have loved to work in, in the future. But
00:09:59
Speaker
I guess it always kind of felt like a pipe dream because I didn't know anyone who did those things. And I wasn't, i guess, I didn't think that you could make a career out of it, which is funny because no one makes a career out of being a novelist. yeah but I guess because I had an older sibling who was working as a writer and freelancing and contributing to journals and magazines, I was like, okay, that feels like something that's feasible. But I didn't know anyone who worked in the screen or the theatre sector. And the avenues to get onto that kind of path seemed really...
00:10:37
Speaker
unreachable for me because they looked so expensive and it also required me to kind of move my life to an entirely different city which I wasn't quite ready to do because yeah like you said I wasn't I didn't grow up having this dream in my head of you know I'm going to be a screenwriter I'm going to be a playwright yeah and like in terms of those different mediums how do you feel like they differ uh from you know you as a writer Oh,
Writing Across Mediums
00:11:05
Speaker
gosh. I mean, these days I mostly write performance writing, so theatre and screen. i think when it comes to prose, it's a very internalised, I think quite reflective and intimate process.
00:11:21
Speaker
relationship that you have with a reader, but it's also not a form in which you ever get audience engagement in the sense that it's, you know, you're not getting that immediate feedback from say a live audience. And it's not immersive in the sense that as a performer or as a writer even in the audience, even you're getting that sense of being in a shared space with other people who are all experiencing the the same thing at the same time. So for me, theater is really special.
00:11:52
Speaker
in that sense because you can't get that from any other form. ah As for screen, in a way I i kind of, thrive within how structured screenwriting is, but also i love in a way how liberating it is in the sense that unlike with theatre, you can't suddenly change locations or you can't really be working with a massive extensive cast or ah cast of characters, for example, because you simply don't have, there are budget constraints to consider or theatre magic that you need to consider cast members doubling. So in a weird sense, screenwriting in a way, it's it's structured and it's inhibited in a sense that it's also liberating. and And I suppose in that sense, it enables my creativity to kind of expand and flourish because it feels like there are less limitations. Whereas in theatre, there are limitations, but they force you to skew your thinking and your creation in a really certain way.
00:12:56
Speaker
m And I also wonder like of those different mediums, which do you feel like is the most collaborative? Like, because I, you know, being an author probably is most isolating. Yeah. But then again, you know, writing in itself can be isolating, but yeah. Is there one of those forms that you find like is the most collaborative?
00:13:22
Speaker
I think, They're collaborative at different stages. I think all of them are isolating in their own right. But, I mean, I really love being in a writer's room because it just means that you can bounce off other people and whenever you're stuck, it's just incredible to hear other people's brains work.
00:13:39
Speaker
And it feels as if there's less responsibility and ownership, which is liberating in a way because you're in it together and you're working together holistically to create this vision So I think that's really special. But then, of course, when it comes to actually writing your episode, that's very siloed off. Whereas with theatre, mean, it's kind of flipped because you're writing the entire play in isolation. or i mean, that's how I work at least. I'm kind of a bear in that I like to hibernate and kind of the full product at the end, whereas I know a lot of people, a lot of playwrights like to check in quite regularly, but I tend to go away. And then the collaborative aspect only comes during, say, a table read where you're working with a dramaturg and actors and then you're able to hear the piece and hear what works and what doesn't and what in terms of story,
00:14:35
Speaker
needs recalibrating and you have that close relationship with a dramaturg, which is really lovely and quite magic when you have someone who gets what you're trying to do, but then you go ah away again and you're siloed off until you start rehearsals.
00:14:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So like you said, different different points in the process. Different stages, yeah. And so you mentioned then, ah you know, being a bear and hibernating um and to produce the the work. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more to what your writing process is and if that has changed over the years, you know, morning writer, evening writer. Yeah, ah I think I started off as an evening writer.
00:15:17
Speaker
And that was definitely me, I guess, in the emerging stages of my career, because I'm just naturally a night person. And I find working at night quite peaceful. And I guess I'm experiencing less FOMO, because everyone's asleep, and i can kind of just focus on doing my own thing. But I think as over time, as I started working more in the industry, i had to become ah kind of nine to five worker, because that's when everyone else was working, you know, people expected me to be on call or I'll get back to them quite promptly via email. so I had to force myself to kind of become a more daylight morning person, which was tricky in terms of process.
00:15:57
Speaker
I'm pretty efficient at getting things done. But it kind of, yeah, again, it depends on what I'm working on. and I work in a really staged manner.
00:16:08
Speaker
So I break things up into micro tasks. So I don't feel overwhelmed by the overarching task. I know a friend of mine, she was writing a book and her calendar reminders were just, each day was just write book. It's very overwhelming. Just terrifying. If you've 80,000 words to write. Yeah, that's it. So, you know,
00:16:29
Speaker
For instance, if I'm working on a first draft for a play or if I'm working on a scene breakdown or a treatment or something, i might say i want to have broken down the first 10 scenes by lunchtime or i want to have written the first 10 pages of this play by the end of the day. And I try to break it up like it's a full working day. So I'll start at maybe 9pm.
00:16:53
Speaker
ideally, but more realistically, like around 10. And then, you know, you work until lunchtime and you have an hour break and then you keep working until the day's done. Yeah. And that's ideally how i tend to work. I have a standing, um one of those insufferable people that has like a treadmill desk. but It's like it's all great. You get your steps in. You got to get you steps in because otherwise the back pain is real.
00:17:18
Speaker
Um, so, but I find it's only helpful when I'm either in a meeting or I'm reading when I'm actually writing, I need to sit down. Otherwise I'll just fly off because I'm just stuck in a thought.
00:17:31
Speaker
So I try to walk while I'm in the research stages. And then when I'm writing, I'm sitting down, but yeah, my process has kind of changed a lot now that I have a child and I'm kind of trying to reconfigure what my working life looks like now.
00:17:49
Speaker
He's almost nine months and then next year we'll start daycare. Yeah, so it's, ah I feel like constantly evolving, you know, as yes as you evolve. Yes, that's true in life. Yeah.
00:18:06
Speaker
And so, you know, in addition to these different forms of writing, you also teach, you speak on panels.
Avoiding Burnout in Freelance Life
00:18:16
Speaker
Last year you were a co-curator for All About Women at the Opera House. Yeah.
00:18:21
Speaker
How do you manage your time as a freelancer so you don't get burnout? Yeah, it's really tricky. I used to work just every day and then it got to a point where I was burning out every six months to the point where I would just be out for weeks and it just felt really unsustainable and just really unhealthy. and I think a lot of sectors are ah like that, but I think particularly in hours where there are rarely set hours,
00:18:49
Speaker
and everyone around you is hustling, that you feel the pressure to maintain a certain work life. I mean, i was going to say work-life balance, but there's really none.
00:19:02
Speaker
Work life. Yeah, that's it. I think it got to a point where the therapist that I was seeing at the time said, I'm making you take a weekend and it doesn't have to be Saturday and Sunday, but you have to take two days off during the week. I remember just being baffled and furious. Yeah.
00:19:21
Speaker
just What do you mean? just operated this way even since high school because I was such a nerd where I'd be, you know, studying and doing assignments on the weekend where it just it took a lot of years to unlearn that.
00:19:38
Speaker
I think it took me like five or so years to actively work at my own workaholic tendencies. And so for me, I guess because I'm often juggling different projects but also different projects from – different sectors and so I just try to prioritize i mean all of them are at different stages and I just try to prioritize what stage for which project is coming next in a way it can be helpful in terms of things like writer's block which I don't think necessarily exists
00:20:13
Speaker
Because once you're getting tired or bored of one project, you can just move on to the next one. And they're all at different stages. So it can be kind of refreshing in that sense.
00:20:24
Speaker
But I think for me, a big thing was just sticking to the nine to five and not working in the evenings anymore. m Yeah, because you do need the rest in order to let your brain reset and come to the project fresh again in the morning.
00:20:41
Speaker
Yeah, there's sort of no use in pushing yourself to the point where you're just racking your brain and you've got nothing left in the tank. Yeah. um And what my therapist at the time said, which is that rest is part of the work, which infuriated me.
00:20:57
Speaker
How dare you say something so accurate? yeah you And I remember actually there was a point where was in rehearsals of one of my plays that I was also acting in and I was also writing an episode of TV and I asked her, what do you think I should do Which one do you think I should do? and she caught quite flippantly said, oh, why don't you just do both?
00:21:19
Speaker
And i would remember being really stunned and then I attempted to do both and then, of course, I completely crashed. Yeah. I went back to her at our next session and i was like, hey, what were you thinking?
00:21:31
Speaker
And she was like, well, I knew you were going to do it anyway and so I needed you to just learn that. Yeah, to make the mistake rather than being like, don't do both and you being like, nah, I'll do both. Yeah, and she's like, I've known, she's like, I know you well enough to know that you wouldn't have listened to me anyway.
00:21:50
Speaker
And I just had to learn the hard way and i was like, wow, you're an evil genius. Yeah. Well, I also feel like though the way that you said with those goals, like the way that you structure your day so that you have very achievable micro goals is really great because instead of just being this wash of nine till five, you actually get to like I do a lot of, um you know, lists and like i love a list dopamine of like taking off a box on the list. wolf But if you can't tick them off because it's just like right book,
00:22:30
Speaker
um there then it's depressing. So, yeah That's totally it. And it's just getting to the end of the day and feeling that dopamine hit because you have achieved what you set out to do.
00:22:42
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. And you can see it right right there in front of you. Yeah. And so in Screen, you've written across, um you know, short films, short form series, like Homecoming Queens, Children's TV, Bureau of Magical Things, um one hour drama, like Safe Home. You've contributed to Half Hour Comedies, Get Crackin', Rose Haven. Is there a format and genre that you feel most comfortable in?
00:23:11
Speaker
uh double question and one that you would like to work more in uh feel quite happy in the kind 30 to one hour 30 minute to an hour space. I really enjoy working in one hour eps just because it gives you, it it feels a bit more expansive in the sense that you get that time to unpick your characters and what needs to happen in that episode. I mean, it is a nice challenge to work in a shorter form, but I do prefer writing the hour long eps.
00:23:43
Speaker
In terms of genre, I mean, I think when you're starting out, it's very easy for people to pigeonhole you into a certain genre. And I know people who kind of got stuck in, you know, the crime procedural pigeonhole or the the heavy kind of lofty drama pigeonhole. And I think for me it was very much the dramedy comedy pigeonhole. And that's what people kind of knew me as being. i think as I progressed in my career,
00:24:13
Speaker
I mean, I think a lot of people who write comedy can be extremely dark. Yeah. ah I mean, you see that in, you know, people's careers like Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey, you know, they're they're really beautiful in these dramatic roles, whereas I think it is a lot harder for someone who writes drama to write comedy. Because as someone who writes both, it's a lot more difficult to make someone laugh as opposed to making them cry or freak out.
00:24:39
Speaker
But for me, I think what people don't know is that I'm a massive genre fan. ah and that Yeah, and so I really, and this is, I've always really loved fantasy and kind of the YA fantasy space especially, and think in the last maybe five to eight years I've been really enjoying horror.
00:25:00
Speaker
And, yeah, i I was working on a friend's show that was kind of, action horror YA I kind of felt like oh I've I'm really thriving like creatively in this space and this is what I've wanted to do for a really long time but she knew that because she knows what my reading appetites are like and shows that we talk about and so when she had that project she knew that she wanted to come to me because we'd both read the book that it was based on
00:25:32
Speaker
And I think from there, people kind of started to get a sense of, oh, okay, she is interested and capable of writing, you know, darker themes or darker characters tonally.
00:25:45
Speaker
She's quite adaptive. So i'm liking that people are picking up on that a bit more. And I think also working on Safe Home was a really nice change of pace for me because i am someone who quite enjoys the research process and that project required a lot of research. And someone who's quite comfortable, you know, for good old good or bad, occupying that quite dark, heavy space. Mm-hmm.
00:26:13
Speaker
yeah Yeah. And I think people who have like natural comedic tendencies, like people who write some of those darker stories or dramas or or things like that, they still need levity in them. um For me anyway, as a viewer, like ah I like the moments where there's a little bit of levity within something. um Yeah, definitely. im on So many of Stephen King's books are just also super funny. Yeah. ah You know, even like Mike Flanagan's work, there's a lot of lightness in those as well. yeah
00:26:48
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, horror as a vehicle for something that's quite meaningful and sweet. h Yeah, yeah, definitely. yeah Okay, watch this space, some more horror fantasy. Yeah, well, I'm actually working in the thriller psychological thriller space at the moment for 100 days.
00:27:07
Speaker
so Oh, yeah, of course. Great. Yeah. Which is a feature as well, a different um format. Yeah, yeah. then yeah yeah And so ah just a general advice question, um you know, you do you do a lot of teaching as well and things like that. I was wondering if you had any advice for emerging screenwriters who are listening.
00:27:27
Speaker
I think it's just watching and reading as much as you can, regardless of genre. And as we were talking about, regardless of format. And just... noticing what you enjoy and why you enjoy it and who's making it and the trajectory of their careers.
00:27:45
Speaker
I remember really admiring people like Amy Poehler back when she was doing SNL and just kind of looking back at how she got to where she is or where she was at the time. And I even like i even went so far as going to Second City in Chicago and just doing a short course.
00:28:02
Speaker
Because I just wanted yeah to feel what she and other, I guess, her peers had experienced and learnt. And I think that was really helpful. m And, um, you also, ah you know, when I was saying teaching, you posted recently about a day of teaching where you brought your son
Work-Life Balance Challenges
00:28:24
Speaker
to work with you. Um, you mentioned before he's nine months old.
00:28:27
Speaker
I wondered if you could speak a little bit to the juggle of parenting and working, uh, in this industry and, you know, maybe cases where companies or organizations have, have done it right.
00:28:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's a really good question because I don't think many people talk about it. And I know a lot of mates who are screenwriters and parents who just kind of make it a rule to not speak about their children, ah which is like which is totally valid because they see work as the space where, you know, they are themselves and they're able to occupy that part of their identity that isn't just mum or dad.
00:29:04
Speaker
And I get that. But part of the pressure as well, especially for female screenwriters that I've noticed, is that you do tend to get overlooked or because you are short on time, people just assume that you're too busy and they'll approach someone else.
00:29:21
Speaker
So I think in the teaching aspect, I was really lucky in the sense that I had, well, I have an amazing boss and he was like, just bring your son in and I'll just brief the students. And they were totally happy and excited to have a baby in the room. but that was a really difficult juggle because I was literally just carrying and feeding and holding him and changing pooey nappies as I was teaching.
00:29:45
Speaker
m But I think it's about having institutions and companies, organizations that are quite front footed when it comes to those discussions. I remember even just being in theater rehearsal spaces where my mate who just had a baby and had the baby in the rehearsal room, like there was nowhere for her to breastfeed. There was nowhere for her change nappies or anything like that.
00:30:08
Speaker
But the fact that she was turning up and still occupying the space meant that it was visible and that people were noticing that things needed to change. So I think some institutions can be really positive in that light, especially when people who are I guess in higher positions have kids themselves and get it.
00:30:28
Speaker
i think it's really great that Screen Australia now has that portion of funding, like that carer's allowance. That's really helpful. But I found that some, well, ah I think most companies aren't front footed in the sense that they don't think to apply for that.
00:30:44
Speaker
when they're putting in an application for development funding or putting in money, putting in an application for a room. And then it's something that you kind of have to ask for retroactively at which point it's too late. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, even just wrangling rooms because I don't have a huge amount of family support in Sydney. and so i know a lot of people do and that's really lucky for them, but it just means that I need to find a way that's financially viable for me to work, but then also, you know, pay for someone to look after my child or then unfortunately have my partner then take time off work and then,
00:31:25
Speaker
He's not getting compensated for certain things. So kind of lose out either way just because we don't yet have that culture where you can kind of assume that someone might need that help.
00:31:37
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And yeah, also the point that you made where people also aren't then asking the the question of like, are you free? Because they're like, oh, no, they won't be free. or Yeah. But like to just ask the question and give someone the chance to be like, I'll make a choice whether or not I can it. Yeah, totally. I mean, even socially as well. It's just friends still still asking, you and do you want to come see this movie? Even though they know you're probably not able to, but it's still...
00:32:05
Speaker
great to be asked. And I mean, when it comes to work, people will make time to make the project happen. You know, you just have to give them the opportunity.
00:32:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Well, this now brings us to our ah final segment, which is the pay it forward segment. um And the way I just said that made it sound like a game show or something, but it was very Hey, Hey, it's Saturday.
00:32:33
Speaker
great Great. Pluck a duck. um No, the ah it's pay it forward. So um I've got a question for you from a previous guest. And then after we've chatted about that, if you could tell me a question for our next guest. So yes the question is from Gretel Vela. She's a creative screenwriter of He Had It Coming, which is on Stan.
00:32:54
Speaker
So Gretel asked.
Inspirations and Admirations
00:32:56
Speaker
I mean, this is such a basic one, but I'm always really interested in what is a show that right now that you wish you had made? Oh, that's such a great question.
00:33:10
Speaker
This is such a, oh, man, this is like asking what's your favourite movie. Yeah, yeah. um and I mean, it doesn't have to be a new release. It could just be like, you know, the show that you wish you had made.
00:33:23
Speaker
I mean, I really loved the adaptation of Pachinko. You know, I wouldn't have wanted to make that because it's such a Korean story that's so steeped in Korean history, but, you know, maybe the Chinese version of that. I also loved Haunting of Hill House.
00:33:43
Speaker
I remember what getting to the end of that series and just like bursting into tears because I kind of understood at that point, okay, horror as a vehicle. yeah,
00:33:54
Speaker
Yeah, it stuck with me for a really long time, that show, like years after i watched it So maybe those two. I'm sure there's a million that I've forgotten or missed, but yeah. I i think I cried every episode of Pachinko.
00:34:11
Speaker
it was just so visually stunning, but also the storytelling I thought was really cleverly done, and there's a lot of time jumps in it because it's such a saga. I think they handled those really smoothly. Yeah.
00:34:23
Speaker
Fantastic. Well, we'll leave it there, but thank you so much for your time today and for joining me on the podcast. Thanks so much for having me. It was a lot of fun chatting. That was Michelle Law. A huge thanks to Michelle for joining me on the podcast for our final episode of the year. This ep was produced and edited by myself with logo design by Shara Parsons and music by Seb Sabotaj-Gavrilovic.
00:34:49
Speaker
I hope you all have a fantastic end of year break and see you in 2026.