Reasons to Keep Your High School Diary with Karen McCullah
Rom-com-versations is an interview series with people from the entertainment industry discussing all things rom-coms
Hi Meet Cuties,
This week I sat down with Karen McCullah, who has written some of your favorite jokes without you knowing it– does “Bend, and snap!” mean anything to you? Karen is a Hollywood writer and producer who has worked on rom-coms such as 10 Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde, She’s the Man, and The House Bunny just to name a few. She is the writing mastermind behind all the genre-defining rom-coms we love and binge time and time again. I am beyond excited to chat with her because personally, these movies defined my love for the genre - needless to say I’m fangirling hard right now.
💓 Naomi: I'm going to start easy: what is your favorite rom-com and why?
💜 Karen: It's the old classic When Harry Met Sally– I mean, not old, in the 80s. It felt very real at the time. It was just so funny and simple, but it was just about people and how they relate. It didn't need any big, giant gimmick or anything.
💓 Naomi: I totally agree. That's the one that pops into mind when I think about just the word "rom-com," it's synonymous with When Harry Met Sally. Some of the movies you've written, like Legally Blonde and 10 Things I Hate About You, are also, I would argue, quintessential examples of rom-coms. Those are the rom-coms that I grew up with and watched at almost every birthday party of mine. Are there certain elements that you focused on in your writing that you think made these movies big hits?
💜 Karen: I think rom-coms in general have to lead you to want two individuals to get together, but you have to buy that they're not together for the length of the movie. Otherwise you would say, "Why don't these two just kiss and get it over with?" There has to be a viable reason. So I think that's important when writing a rom-com. Taming of the Shrew made that easy, because that was kind of built into our plot. Legally Blonde, I don't consider a rom-com, just because it was more about her proving herself. There've been articles written about how it's a love story between Elle and herself and it's not really about the guy, which I love.
💓 Naomi: I completely agree with that and think it's such a fun element of a rom-com. It's more about the character progression and that is the defining theme of a lot of these movies, especially coming of age stories. You're finding your identity, you're finding your confidence, and Elle obviously becomes so much more confident in herself as the movie progresses. I think we're using rom-com really generally here, but it's totally a love story with herself.
💜 Karen: Exactly. In one of our other rom-coms, The Ugly Truth, Abby thought she wanted someone that was perfect on paper, but then there was no chemistry, and she wasn't being herself because she was trying to be perfect on paper for him. A lot of rom-coms are about figuring out yourself and who you are and what you really want. Once she let her guard down and realized she doesn't want the thing that she thought she wanted, she found love.
💓 Naomi: I think that's a really good conflict in a lot of these stories; the biggest hurdle to falling in love with someone is that you first need to love yourself, or you get to a place of comfort with who you are. In one of our last interviews that we did on rom-com-versations, Matty Finochio from Love Hard talked about how a lot of the scenes that they filmed had a lot of improv'd moments. There was one scene he mentioned that the actors riffed on what was written and they got to this really fun outcome. I assume to a certain extent that happens in many movies where once the actors are actually playing with the script and onset, they pick up on something and take it a different way. Are there actors or actresses that you've worked with where you feel like they really get your writing style, pick up on that humor, and expand on it?
💜 Karen: Oh yeah I know Love Hard, my friend Nina is in it! But to your question, Gerard Butler riffed a bit on The Ugly Truth, but for the earlier ones, no, they were pretty much shot as written. Alanna Ubach improvised the whole speaking Vietnamese thing in Legally Blonde. She just came up with that in rehearsal. I worked on Girls Trip where Tiffany Haddish improvised a lot. She just kept throwing in new, extra jokes during every take. She is a genius at it. I've never seen anyone like that, she was amazing.
💓 Naomi: Wow, that's incredible. Those are the details that we, as the audience, would never know. But it’s this synergy between written script and actor, where they get to play and interpret the writing live in front of the camera. I feel like those are the moments that are probably the most memorable. I love the Tiffany example. Taking a little bit of a different direction: When I was reading about 10 Things I Hate About You, I realized that it was inspired by your own list of 10 things that you hated about your boyfriend at the time. Do you find that your greatest inspiration in writing comes from real life interactions or experiences that you've had?
💜 Karen: There were more than 10 (*laughs*), but yeah, that existed in my high school diary. Once we decided to write a teen movie, I went back and read through all my high school diaries to get back in that mindset. But I wouldn't say greatest inspiration, but it's definitely one of the many places that I get ideas, or just even snippets of conversation. There was something in 10 things when they drew the penis on David Krumholtz's face, that came from something that happened in college. When a guy was asleep, his roommates drew on his face with a marker, and he went to the 7-11 with that on his face without knowing. Just little moments like that I store in my head and figure out places to put them. Sometimes you don't even remember them until you're writing a scene where it fits perfectly and you're like, "Oh my God, that thing that happened 20 years ago just popped into my head and that it was totally what should happen right now."
💓 Naomi: I'm curious, when you're writing, do you have a certain setup, location, or routine that gets you into the flow, or is it more whenever and wherever you are you've been able to sit down and write?
💜 Karen: I have different spots in my house that I work out of. I worked by the pool a lot in the summer, or really in the pool. I use my raft as a desk and then I have a floating chair. Other than that, there are certain chairs in my house, or my bed, but it's not like a set ritual. Sometimes I work at my desk, but it's weird. It's hard to sit and write at the same desk where you pay your bills and do your online shopping. I just get distracted, so it's easier to move around the house.
💓 Naomi: Most of, if not all, your movies have really strong leads. They're "bad-ass and full of mirth" to use your own words. We've discussed a lot at Meet Cute the changing landscape of rom-coms and how a lot of people push rom-coms into this category of just being chick flicks. Now, the genre is expanding to capture people of all genders and expanding to be a lot more diverse and inclusive. Do you think that there has been, or can be a rom-com that has a male as the protagonist, or do you think they do rely on these female leads?
💜 Karen: Notting Hill and About a Boy: Hugh Grant was a protagonist in both of those movies. More recently, Set It Up was equally from both Glen Powell’s and Zoey Deutch’s perspectives, I thought.
💓 Naomi: I loved that move. I also think To All the Boys I've Loved Before, even though it was from the female lens, there was still a strong male lead in it. I think I love female and males focused rom-coms equally. You have Bend it Like Beckham and Legally Blonde that have these characters that are inspiring and we look up to as woman, but then you also have movies that are a bit more equal, if not tilted more towards males. I'm hoping that with Meet Cute and more male focused rom-coms, we can capture more of that audience and push on what the demographic of people who listen to and watch rom-coms looks like.
💜 Karen: Yeah, I think it's definitely becoming a bigger audience just because people want something happy now, too. We've been sitting through two years of a pandemic and people want something light. They don't want to turn on something super depressing, like the news.
💓 Naomi: In the movies that you've worked on that have been massive, there are so many moments where I laughed out loud while watching them and I can only imagine that writing and working on them has been so much fun. Are there any memorable stories or days you had while being on set?
💜 Karen: There's lots of fun memories I have of being on set and just hanging out with the actors and talking in between scenes. Selma Blair honestly made me laugh so hard I almost peed myself on the set of Legally Blonde. It wasn't even on set, it was in between scenes and she was just being funny and entertaining us in between setups. She's one of the funniest people in the world.
💓 Naomi: This is kind of a side note, but we've been posting a lot of Legally Blonde content and memes because we are launching a new talk show podcast, The Rom-Com Room, and the first movie that the hosts are talking about is Legally Blonde. It's definitely a fan favorite at Meet Cute. Okay, last question to wrap up: are there any projects that you're currently working on or excited about that you'd feel comfortable giving us a sneak peek into or sharing?
💜 Karen: My writing partner, Kirsten, and I just sold a rom-com to Amazon. We don't have a title for it yet, but it involves time travel. It's very exciting because that's one of my favorite sci-fi angles.
I hope you enjoyed this rom-com-versation! If you haven’t seen some of the classic rom-coms mentioned during this convo– Legally Blonde, 10 Things I Hate About You– drop everything you’re doing and go watch them. Seriously!
Stay tuned for my next Rom-com-versation.
xx,
Naomi