Table Read - When Wendy Grew Up - Writers Room

Episode Date: June 12, 2024

Jenna St. John is a screenwriter to watch, and her latest script, "When Wendy Grew Up," is a testament to her talent and unique perspective. Born in Seoul, South Korea, and raised in both Korea and the United States, Jenna brings a diverse background to her writing. She fearlessly pursued her passions, transitioning from computer science to English and creative writing, and even spent time as a ballet dancer before an injury led her to focus on screenwriting full-time. Jenna's journey is a reminder that following your heart and embracing change can lead to incredible opportunities. In "When Wendy Grew Up," she reimagines the classic Peter Pan story, delving into the complexities of growing up, family dynamics, and the search for meaning in an ever-changing world. With its blend of timeless themes and contemporary social commentary, the script promises to resonate with audiences of all ages. As a writer, Jenna has a knack for creating authentic, relatable characters and crafting stories that both entertain and inspire. Her goal is to write female-led YA features and TV shows, and if "When Wendy Grew Up" is any indication, she's well on her way to making a significant impact in the industry. Join us for an exclusive interview with Jenna St. John as we discuss her creative process, the inspiration behind "When Wendy Grew Up," and her journey as a screenwriter. Don't miss this opportunity to get to know a rising star in the world of storytelling.

Avrò un certo langorino Ovviamente no panino No no no Un boccone ricco di gusto Se conosco il posto giusto Siamo d'accordo su su via Tutti alla piadineria È tornata la solare con crudo e stracciatella

Aggiungi salsa mango, aglio nero o peperone Amerai ogni boccone La piadineria... La più buona che ci sia Let me record. Okay, we're now live. All right, this is Sean Sharma, one of the co-founders of Table Read Podcast, and I am here with Jenna St. John, who is the writer of When Wendy Grew Up, which is on the Table Read Podcast.

Wherever you get your podcasts, you can listen to all three acts right now. And it's such a lovely story. Jenna, welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me. So we like to do these interviews with the writers because we want to learn about these incredible stories that obviously a lot of people have put time and energy into helping bring it to life for Table Read podcast, but no one's put more time and energy into it than you have.

So obviously with something like this, that's a story we all grew up with. What drew you to wanting to make a story about the world of Peter Pan and Wendy Darling? So it's kind of a complicated answer. There wasn't like an aha moment for me. I was familiar with the story like everyone was. I was familiar with the story like everyone was. I was familiar with the novel. And with all these adaptations coming out of Peter Pan, which happens like every five years, they all kind of didn't see it in my POV,

which is through Wendy. You know, Wendy from the beginning always felt like the protagonist to me. She's the character that changes the most. And it's really about her. I wrote When Wendy Grew Up shortly into the pandemic. When the pandemic happened, everything shut down. I had a two-year-old suddenly at home with me, and I was still working. My husband was still working, so a lot of his entertainment was like Toy Story 1, 2, 3, 4, like whatever we can do to entertain this toddler

so we can get on with life. And after a bit, it was obvious that this was not good for him. And when you shut the screens off and you're stuck inside, you can't go anywhere, then suddenly your home becomes whatever you want it to be. It became Neverland. And it was this like aha moment for me that eventually led to writing When Wendy Grew Up. But this is our responsibility to give this to our kids, give childhood to our children.

And they say, you know, kids are so resilient. Kids are so resilient. And I didn't see that to be entirely true. You know, I could see that my kid wasn't doing great during the pandemic. But because kids are so adaptable, and they're so playful, I think we just see them as resilient. And you're like, okay, well, that's off my shoulders. Let's just turn on Toy Story 3 again. I think once you take on the responsibility and you realize they're resourceful and it's up to us to bring them to Neverland,

bring them to this imaginary world. And this amazing thing happened where I got to know my two-year-old. Because in all this play and building forts with couch cushions, we were talking about what he dreams about and, you know, what happens after you die and like this amazing conversations with a toddler. And I got to know him and he got to know me and it was just beautiful. Then I read Peter and Wendy

again. And it was this like, okay, I need to write this story from this perspective, because this is what I believe the story is about. That's incredible. I actually didn't really think about that, about how the pandemic for parents, because I'm not a parent yet, that the opportunity to actually help your children live in their imaginations more instead of just focusing on screens and stories that are outside of themselves, but to see what they would do with their own imaginations. Yeah. To nurture their imaginations during that time. Because I know when I was growing up, you know, we didn't have the kind of screens that we have today. So coming up with all kinds of ways to get creative in the house about how to play or outside, and we'd make forts and, oh, the floor is lava, all that stuff. Right, right. You'd create whole worlds out of nothing.

We'd pull out sheets of paper and draw, you know, castles. I remember my elementary school, we took, like, we drew the, we were, like, in fifth or sixth grade, and we drew the whole grounds of, like, the elementary school, and we had a playground on both sides of it. And we, like, named them as different kingdoms, and we'd have, like, there's the playground over there is, like, this kingdom, and over here is, like, the wild lands, and we'd have like there's the the playground over there is like this kingdom and over here is like the wild lands and over here is the barbarians and

you know so yeah it's the pandemic really created an opportunity to to nurture your children's imagination yeah and to be a part of it you know and if it doesn't always happen naturally if there wasn't anyone there for like for my two-year-old there wasn't anyone there for it, like for my two-year-old, there wasn't anyone there for him to play with. So it had to be me. Well, so for those who don't know Jenna St. John, tell us kind of your quick bio here. How did you get into writing? Because didn't you also do ballet? I did.

I was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, part of a military family. But my mom was Korean, so we just kind of stayed there. Most military families move every two years. Always really shy, big introvert. The exceptions were I was a theater geek. That was only real time that I would open up to a big group of people. So you are an actor as well? Yes, or was an actor. And then just wrote constantly. Those were my other worlds. That was my therapy.

Were you discriminated against at all for having a white parent and a Korean parent? It wasn't uncommon with the military families in Seoul. So you kind of were around others who were in a similar situation. Right. We lived in the community, too. We didn't live on the military base. So it was this weird in-between phase that I was in. Living in Korea, I consider myself an American.

And then I moved to America here, home, and then also found out I didn't really quite fit in. Yeah, with a name like Jenna St. John, it's not like we read from your name the ethnicity. Right. But I feel like everyone kind of feels that way. Everyone feels misunderstood. And so I turned to writing to understand things better. Do you identify as a Korean writer? I identify as half Korean. So I feel like any labels of I'm fully this or fully that, I'm like, that's not all of me. That's not my whole story here. I don't identify as a white writer either. It doesn't seem to encompass enough of me. But yeah, so I guess I... And you lived in Korea until how, what age? Until I was 16.

Oh, okay. Yeah. And then moved... To the United States. Where? To the D.C. area. It was Virginia, but D.C. area. And then I went to college in Colorado.

Not a very diverse place. So that was... Where in Colorado? Fort Collins. Which university is that? Colorado State. Okay, cool. And not a very diverse place.

It was kind of the first time that I was the most diverse person. Half Korean is the most diverse person. Within my group of friends. And because I'm half Korean, I'm kind of ethnically ambiguous. So a lot of people mistaken me for being other races. Yeah, now that you mentioned it i'm trying to think like what else could i imagine you as like maybe like russian or like siberian or mongolian or something i don't know italian i've gotten um native american i got a

lot there um i think it's still you know the long dark hair but well i represented mexico in a fashion show in minnesota at the age of 18 nobody knows what they were talking about with that yeah yeah yeah I would accept it you know I feel like yeah you know the late 90s in Minnesota what are you gonna do I've played a Mexican in a commercial so there we go right yeah yeah so after graduated, I graduated college in 2008, and it was the recession. There was no jobs anywhere. And your degree was in? It was in English.

Okay, yeah. So, you know, English literature. Were you still dancing at that time? I was always dancing. So I was dancing all through my childhood, all through college I was dancing. I treated it as a gym or as a hobby. In my search for a job, looking everywhere, I was looking at Panera Bread, Starbucks. Nobody wanted me. I auditioned for a small company in Washington, D.C. You couldn't get a job at Panera or Starbucks? No, I couldn't

get a job anywhere. Why? Because they were all taken. Okay. They were, I think, that's what I tell myself. Not because you weren't qualified. I also was not. College grad. Yeah. They were all taken by, I think, more qualified people that had lost their jobs in the recession. It was a dire time. To work at Starbucks, you need a master's.

And I got lucky and I got a spot on the company. And I got lucky and I got a spot on the company and I had one foot out the door because I knew it was only until it was only a matter of time before I was out of there. The career of a dancer is very short, especially if you get injured, which I was prone to injuries. And so I started dabbling in film, acting mostly. And I wasn't really thrilled about a lot of the roles I was auditioning for. Also producing, because just acting was, not just acting, it's a very difficult job. But I wanted my hands in more, more aspects of filmmaking. And you're still in Colorado at this point? I'm in Washington, D.C. at this point.

And there is a budding filmmaking scene in Washington, D.C. There's also a lot of industrials and commercials that are filmed there. A lot of like docu-series. It's one of the biggest SAG-AFTRA locals, mainly because of broadcasters. We have so many broadcasters in D.C. It's pretty incredible. But I remember I was auditioning for, I think it was a Carmex commercial or something. And I just didn't care. It broke you. Any of the jobs I was auditioning for, it wasn't exciting. I'd rather do theater for free. So there was a hole there. And I decided to write the rest is history. What was your first script that you wrote? Oh, who knows at this point, something, something awful and embarrassing.

Not the understudy? It wasn't the understudy. Yeah. Cause that's how we found out Jenna's a dancer is because we did a table read of another one of her spec scripts three years ago, something like that. Yeah. Maybe three years. That was before when Wendy grew up.

Yeah, it was. We first did that one. So maybe four. ago. That was before when Wendy grew up. Yeah, it was. We first did that one. So maybe four. Yeah. There was a dark period of discovering how to write. Why do you call it a dark period? Because these are scripts that will never see the light of day. They will live in my hard drive, maybe.

Maybe I've deleted all of them. Because you don't want them to see the light of day? They were more of your developmental stuff? It was developmental. It was learning how to be a screenwriter. I think so many people watch movies and they're like, this is easy. I can do this. And then you start writing and you're either on one side where you're like, this is brilliant,

isn't it? And nobody else sees it that way. Or you're like, this is terrible. isn't it and nobody else sees it that way or you're like this is terrible and I think I went from this is really good to handing it to somebody probably my husband who is my harshest critic and he read and he's like this is not a movie and then I started reading the Oscar scripts and reading Hollywood scripts and you see how high the bar is and it's so high and you're like oh so this is how you write a movie um I never took a screenwriting class I learned everything from the masters from reading great scripts yeah did you read the

traditional books like screenplay or save the cat or story or anything? I'm familiar with Save the Cat. I'm familiar with Dan Harmon's Story Circle. And I use both of those to outline. And they're hugely helpful. And my outlining process is extensive. It's really, it's my longest period of writing, is outlining, really cracking the story. Is that outlining? Is that like, by page blah, blah, we need to have this. And by page this, we need to have this. And by page

this, we need to have that. Or is it more like the plot points, like laying out the plot points of the different acts? It's both. So it'll be the major beats. Like this is the inciting incident. This is the second, this is a break into two. This is the climax. And then this is how it ends. This is the climax, and then this is how it ends. Then I'll break it down, every single scene, in prose. So I write out the entire script, interior, you know, Darling House, Wendy Room, night. And I write the prose version of the scene. Next scene.

And I do that for the entire script. By prose, you mean kind of like writing a novel or something? Yeah, like writing a short story. And this is a step that you have to do when you're being hired to write a screenplay. And it's a really intimidating step because you have to lay out your entire movie. So it has to be good. But it's a great step because this is your pitch. Every single step in being hired to write a screenplay by a studio or production company is your opportunity to be like,

let me hold your hand and let me show you how great this movie will be. And I'm the person to write it. Because at any point, they can take your outline or take your script and be like, great. Thank you so much for this. We're going to have Nancy take over here. And you don't want Nancy to take over.

And you have no claim to any of the intellectual property or anything because it's their thing. No, it is because once somebody buys something or once you're hired, if you've pitched an idea and they're hiring you to write an outline for it. Yeah, it's work for hire. It's now all of our movies, you know? So, it is no longer mine. So, they have every right to go hire Nancy. But I'm going to do everything in my power to not let them. And one of the ways is to really make my outline sing.

And so, once I have an outline done, then I know my story. I don't look at it again. I go to script. And I'm usually able to go from beginning to end, write my first draft without ever looking at my beat sheet or my outline. Because you've already kind of laid out all the ingredients and now you just need to cook. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's so fascinating. Thank you for sharing that with us. So then, you know, let's talk about when Wendy grew up for a second.

Do you have particular scenes that really, for you, excite you? Obviously, you have the entire screenplay, but are there moments, are there lines, are there particular scenes that you just love? I love everything on Hook's ship after Wendy is on it and everyone is just throwing down. I love everything also in London before they go to Neverland because it's the building blocks for the rest of the world. And just really creating this family and that family dynamic, I wanted it to echo the books. And in the books, Mr. Darling has a pretty vicious temper. And to showcase that, but not him as a villain, but as him as someone who hasn't,

who's not in touch with his emotional maturity, maybe. Well, and actually that, for me, ties into one of my favorite moments in the script, which is when Mrs. Darling says, is it to Michael? Yeah. Where she tells him that he put his dreams away. Yes. And sometimes he'll take a look at them, but then he always puts them back in the drawer.

Yes. And focus. I I mean that is so sad and that is so real that like there's a because I can only speak about in my home my dad had all kinds of dreams of things he wanted to accomplish but then he had to marry my mom it was an arranged marriage and it just took him off the trajectory

that he had always seen for his life and he never got over that at least as far as I know, never got over that anger and that loss of his dream and had to be a provider and switch gears. So that really spoke to me. And so if he's at the table and he's like, all I do is provide for you kids and you can't even listen to your mother and do what's right, that's how I took it.

Yeah, no, that's how I took it. Yeah. No, it's super painful. And I think as kids, you don't see your parents as human beings, as full human beings anyway. And so I think we all have these core memories from our youth of these like aha moments. Like our parents are people and they're imperfect people or they're people in pain. And yeah, I was trying to capture that moment. And obviously the ending, everything builds up to the ending there. And the whole story has to work in order for the ending to hit.

And it does. Is there a particular, but I mean, everybody can listen to it and decide for themselves. But is there a particular line of dialogue that you wrote that you're like really proud of? Oh, my goodness. Oh, I don't know. That puts me on the spot. Yeah, it's fine if you can't like immediately think of something. No, I cannot.

You had to write all of it. But if something comes to mind mind I'd love to know because as a performer as a as an actor when I watch this incredible cast bring this to life of course I love language like I like as an actor I think that's been a challenge for me when I try to put the the writing hat on is the fact that I'm used to justifying what's there not trying to change it so like I find like editing really hard because as an actor, I would never try to go tell the writer how they should write their thing. You know, sometimes on set, of course we can go to the writer and be like, Hey, I really feel like I would want to say this, or is it okay if I

change this little thing there or whatever. So we've done that on the show a few times where I had to go to Dallas or somebody be like, Hey, what if I did this or said that? What do you think? But obviously always deferring to them. So my first instinct is not to be like, Oh, this should be different. It's like, let me justify what's there so when i see that text i'm just like fully justifying and inhaling and processing all of that that text whereas like you're probably more thinking about like overall story construction and all of that whereas like for me i'm like these individual moments of human behavior like are so meaningful so yeah that that thing of mrs darling with michael is really rough uh you know there's the like poor gary never gets a chance you know like i'm team

gary you know because you know didn't did like her pinky and his pinky are like overlapping at some point which is like such a tender thing you know for like 100 years ago because it was set like the early 20th century right yeah yeah so that's like the closest they could do to like well i mean they just met but um uh i love the thing you know what a beautiful moment in that too is when the young gentleman thinks she's older than she is from behind and goes up to talk to her like ask her out and then when she turns around, he's like, oh, nevermind. You know, like, cause like she's resisting growing up, you know, the idea that she's growing up and then there you have like real evidence that, you know, the world is seeing her differently. Right. That happened to me when I was.

I can imagine for a lot of women that happens. Oh, yeah, I'm sure. But I remember not even registering what was happening until I revisited that memory when I was older. Uh-huh. You know, where I was like, oh, that's what happened. Imagine, and I'm thinking from the guy's perspective, like, you know, it took the courage to actually go up and approach, and then you realize you made an error in judgment.

I mean, it's not like you tried. No, no. He excused himself immediately. But like, oh, I'm going to go talk to this girl. Like, yikes. Like, nope. Right. Reverse course.

Well, so what do you hope people take away from the story? I hope, it's a little ironic because I want people to watch this eventually or to listen to it. So being tuned into media and then turn it off and go find Neverland for themselves or create it with their children. Whatever that version of it is, you know, the multiple kingdoms or castle forts or hiding from dinosaurs, you know, anything it is, and try to connect with the children in your life or adults in your life on a deeper level. That's what I want. That would be the best thing is if people listen to this and felt inspired. Hopefully, if somebody listening to this and has gone through loss, it might give them some sense of camaraderie or peace as well. It is heavy.

It is deep. You know, it's not the light, Peter Pan. It's pretty dark. But I think it answers. It addresses things that we all deal with as people. Is there a particular director or studio? Because, you know, part of what Table Read Podcast exists to do is to give great stories another way to be experienced by people. Because ultimately, we hope that somebody wants to make this into a movie and wants to contact you about how do we make this movie together and buy it or produce it with you or whatever.

So do you have any kind of dream directors or dream studios that you think would be the best home? I'm not sure about dream studios. Dream director Greta Gerwig, for sure. She's obviously able to handle budgets of varying sizes. And I just consider her so smart and thoughtful. And I feel like a story like this, she could just connect with on a deep level. I know that the stories that she's directed have been things that she has written. But yeah, someone like that, I think. A woman that could really honor Wendy's perspective, I think would be great. Do you have any idea what you think the budget for a movie like this might be? No idea.

All right, all you line producers out there. Right. I don't know. You know, I look at the similar budgets, like what Hollywood does, and it's like $100 million. Insane budgets. My husband does visual effects, and he does really high quality, high end visual effects. And he does it from our living room, you know, working from home. Yeah. And so for me, I feel like I'm a little out of touch because I'm like, well, he just created an entire planet on our home computer. So obviously, I mean, I don't know what he's worth. That's funny.

Okay. So a couple more questions here for you one is what was the experience like for you in the studio because you were actually with us in the studio when we recorded this and so what was it like for you to actually be there and experience the actors reading it and just being part of that whole recording process um initially i was very nervous because it's my writing i was nervous about like is this readable are people's tongues gonna get twisted left and right did i do a terrible job i made it all about me initially with dennis's voice narrating it oh yeah it's like um his voice is butter and it was perfect um but as the actors were also good and it was perfect. But as the actors were all so good

and it was so easy just to get lost in it and to not stop thinking about myself through the whole story. And it's amazing because I've read the story, I've heard it out loud before over and over and over again. I still get choked up at the end. I still do.

And I'm sitting there, I'm holding on to my chest, it's like my anxiety pose. And then I'm looking around and everyone has the same face. Like, they're just trying to hold it together. And that's really incredible that just some words on a page and actors sitting around in a circle in contemporary clothes, they're all transported. That's just cool. That's just cool. That's just awesome. Was there anything that you heard that you thought, oh, that's interesting that they did it that way or that with the sound design or something like that? Is there anything that leaps out to you that you... The sound design was, it just elevates everything

so much. I don't know if there's any one particular point where I was like, oh, that's interesting. I think certain line readings I didn't quite catch on the day. The actress playing Tiger Lily read it very differently from the character in my head. And that was very interesting. It was, I think, a very authentic take on the character and how she would sound. I think in the version in my head, she was much harder and much angrier. And the way Logan, the way Logan played her, it was softer, but the lines were already so hardened that she really didn't need to push it. It was already there.

So I really liked her read of it. And that was something that I only caught in the reading when I was listening to it rather than on the day. And that was great. Yeah, because we're so lucky because we've got such an incredibly accomplished partner in Jack doing that sound design and all that. Okay, so what other screenplays do you have? You said you have other spec scripts. What are some of the stories that you've created in those other scripts that the world could hear? I have this script called The Understudy, and it's a teen ballet supernatural intervention script. It's a body swap script.

That one I'm very proud of. It's about reinventing yourself. I have a script called Lessons in Kissing Brazilian Boys, and it's a college travel rom-com. Also, I always try to have a twist at the end of my stories, that the journey that you think you're on is not the one that you're actually on. So that one also has a twist, a soapbox that I'm standing on that I think

is important for young people, which is to enjoy the people in front of you instead of chasing the shiny thing. Oh, I have a spec script called Upstaged, which is about a young Hollywood, a child actress that has a fall from grace. She gets into some legal trouble. And so she's trying to find her footing again. So she ends up joining a regional theater who's putting on a production of the Greek tragedy, Helen. So it's kind of a fish out of water and a different kind of theater world. Again, it's about reinvention.

So I think so many young people's stories are about chasing your dreams and going for it, like going for the gold, never give up. And an important message that I think is missing from this lot of wonderful movies that are out there is how to pivot. When something doesn't work out, when a dream can't come true for whatever reason is to reinvent yourself and resilience. Is there a theme other than the twists? Is there a theme of the kind of stories you like to tell? Reinvention is a big theme. Ultimately, it's you're worth it. The way that you are is just worth it. You don't have to be sensational. You don't have to be a straight A student. You don't have to be accomplished. You don't need to be sensational. You don't have to be a straight A student. You don't have to be accomplished. You don't need to be extraordinary. You are extraordinary is a big theme in my work. And I think it's aimed for a younger audience, but I think it's relevant

across ages. We're all constantly coming of age. I'm still coming of age. I still don't feel like a grownup. And I have a hard time seeing myself feeling like a grown-up when I'm 60. So I think this idea that you still have time. As long as you have time, you know, you can still do it. You can still feel worthy or you can still go to Rio. You can still chase your dreams and your dreams can change. I think that's a lovely place to leave it. Thank you so much for your time today and great work on When Wendy Grew Up and thanks for letting us tell that story with you. Thank you. you you