My team and I were so lucky to be obtain press passes for this past weekend’s aTVFest at SCAD in Atlanta. Perhaps the best part was interviewing cast members and the producers of ABC’s Once Upon a Time, a weekly drama reimagining Disney mythology into a modern-day context. It was such an honor and although quite star struck, I got some stellar advice that any creative would benefit from.
First, I spoke with the amazingly chill executive producing team, Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, who gave the best insight into how much friendship matters in a lasting team dynamic and the importance of telling your own story.
HCSCADATL: As a dynamic producing team, you guys have filmed everything from One Tree Hill to Lost to other amazing things – what do you think it takes to have a long-lasting dynamic that lasts that produces successful work?
Adam Horowitz: Ya know, I feel like we were friends first. We were friends in college. We had a similar sensibility; we liked the same kind of movies and tv; and that’s what did it. So, it was never like a business decision. It was always kinda like, we love this kind of stuff, let’s do it!
Edward Kitsis: We met at the University of Wisconson. So, we came out together; and we learned how to write together. So, that’s just how it was.
HCSCADATL: Have you noticed anything about the way your characters have developed; has it kind of taken on any route that you had not expected?
Edward Kitsis: Yeah, I think that’s exactly what you want. You have an idea of what the character does and then you work with the actor; then, with the whole team, it just kind of brings out a life of its own. You start the show, you start the season and it’s kind of like a little road trip. You may say, we’re going to go from New York and we’re gonna end up in LA, but along the way, say someone wants to see the world’s largest potato, you pull over. You just have to give yourself room to improvise.
HCSCADATL: How did you get your start in television writing? Was it meant to be like that from the start?
Adam Horowitz: We’d always loved film and television and we were writing stuff together; and ya know we were lucky enough that some of the scripts we wrote found their way to producers in television, who brought us onto our first television staff many years ago. We kind of worked through different shows like Lost.
Edward Kitsis: Yeah and we’ve been really blessed; we worked for Ryan Murphey on his first show for two years, worked for J.J. and Damon Lindelof. So, we’ve had great teachers along the way that have helped us
HCSCADATL: Do you have any special advice for any who would like to go into television producing; we actually have a Television Producing major, here at SCAD.
Edward Kitsis: Well, if you’re a writer, ya know, and you want to be a writer/producer, I guess keep writing. And, don’t worry about the business, write what you love because that’s all it takes, because you never know what’s going to-Ya know, we were hired on Lost from a High School show-so, you never know what’s gonna happen.
Adam Horowitz: I say, find something you’re passionate about; a story you really want to tell. Like, Once Upon a Time was an idea we had now almost 13 years ago and we really loved it and believed in it and stuck with it. Then, eventually, the timing worked out and we were able to do it, butI think finding something you’re passionate about and developing your own unique voice is the thing that I think will really help.
After a few minutes of anxious waiting, I fumbled my star-struck-self through an interview with the Hook & Swan dream team, Colin O’Donoghue (Captain Hook) and Jennifer Morrison (Emma Swan), who play Emma Swan, the main character of the story, who comes to Storybrook, a town full of fairy tale characters frozen in normal life by an evil queen and turns out to the be its savior and a suave reimagination of the tall, dark Captain Hook. Swan and Hook play love interests on the show. Very easy to talk to in person, the two actors shared some wisdom with me about being “poised and ready” for the call and never giving up on yourself. I started with a question to Jennifer Morrison, who’s been in everything from Dawson’s Creek to four years on House to Mr. & Mrs. Smith to now producing her own music videos and movies.
HCSCADATL: First of all, because we are a feminist magazine, I would like to ask Jennifer a quick question. What advice do have for rising female artists, especially considering multi-talented directions and pursuits, because I know you do film and producing and all kinds of things.
Jennifer Morrison: I mean, it’s a much better time now. You know, it’s the best it’s ever been in terms of the world being much more aware of trying to give equal opportunities to women in the business. There have been great strides in the last couple of years in terms of the studio’s expectations of people to hire female directors on television, which is a really big deal. The opportunities are really starting to present themselves. And, I think, ya know, whether you’re a man or a woman, you have to be prepared. You have to really dive into what you love and do everything you can to be as trained and prepared for opportunities as you can when they come. So, I don’t know that this is necessarily just female advice, but advice for the business. You don’t know when your break is going to happen and you don’t know when opportunities are gonna come; so, you need to always be ready. You need to always be working on projects. You need to be writing your own things, creating your own things. Find out what it is that you want to say, so that when that opportunity is presented to you, you’re not caught off guard and it passes you. You want to be ready. It’s the people are really are like poised and ready. It might not happen tomorrow, it might not happen in two years, but you have to be ready for when that happens. That would be the advice that I would give.
HCSCADATL: I feel like you (Colin) have something else to say about that, like even being ready as an actor, to be ready to take advantage of opportunities.
Colin O’Donoghue: Yeah, I think it’s important; it’s a difficult business overall to try and succeed in and you know you have to – for me, it’s mostly about self-belief and if you really feel like you have something that you can offer, that you can bring, that you feel passionate about, it’s important to focus on that. And, mostly when you’re at your lowest.
HCSCADATL: So, what are things you do when you’re at your lowest?
Colin O’Donoghue: Well, for me when I used to be out of work, there were points when you sort of go, maybe this is the wrong career for me? Maybe I need to stop, and you know, I’ve always been lucky, I’ve always have family that were very supportive, but you have to try and remember the reasons that you’re doing it in the first place and what it is that you love about your craft, whether it’s acting, writing or whatever, because it happens to everybody. Try and spur yourself on and remember that there is a reason and that you are doing it for the right reasons.
HCSCADATL: Right, fame, right? Hahaha…
Colin O’Donoghue: Right, fame.
*sarcasm, of course.
Jennifer Morrison: Gah, no, that’s no reason to do anything.
Catch up on ABC’s Once Upon a Time on older seasons on Netflix and more recent episodes on ABC, and watch it weekly on Sundays at 8/7 central on ABC returning March 5.