Soap Opera Digest – September 02, 2019

69

explains Cook. “And her
agent, who’s played by
Fran Drescher, is asking for
something fast: ‘Just give
me something ’cause I can
sell it. It doesn’t have to be
wonderful, just get it done.’
And so she’s kind of strug-
gling with the, ‘How do I
follow up this huge success
with something worthwhile
to say?’ And the movie is
about going on that journey
with her. A lot of people
always ask, ‘What does it
feel like to write a book?
Where do your ideas come
from?’ I wanted to try and
speak to that curiosity, and
I thought it would be fun to
show and not tell.”
Cook admits he had
Lifetime on the brain when
he came up with the con-
cept. “My mom was a really
big Lifetime fan, as are a
lot of women who are in
her group,” says the actor.
“So I would catch it when I
would go over to the house
and they were completely

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preposterous reproductions

of one another, of just for-

mulaic tropes. And thinking

about that as a writer, it’s

really interesting how this

can be interesting over and

over and over again. The

more I started to think about

it, wouldn’t it be interesting

to pick a writer that’s trying

to write romance, write a

Lifetime-type story, but is

really like a Donna Tartt?

How would that person

try and tackle it? There’s

a quote in the movie that

Peter Bogdanovich’s

character has: ‘Movies are

different than books, and

both are different than real

life.’ So I started to

look at that.”

Cook also did

his research in the

bestseller/romance

category. “I wasn’t

totally well-versed

in this genre,” he

admits. “Truly, can I

just say, I was really

impressed with these

books. Honest to God, I

was reading Hollywood

Wives by Jackie Collins

and had to look up words!

I’m like, ‘I thought these

books were supposed to be

stupid!’ And then here I am

and I’m learning things. I

really enjoyed that research

process. I can only imagine

what it looked like when

people would see me with

Danielle Steel’s latest novel

in my hand. But I love read-

ing everything. I enjoyed

this, too. It was a lot of stuff

that I hadn’t been exposed

to before.”

Everything came to-

gether after Cook finished

Man On The Move:

Cook directing Lindy

Booth and Drescher

in a scene from The

Creatress.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JASON COOK

Living Legends: “We

got a lot of response

from actors amaz-

ingly quickly,”

says Cook of Fran

Drescher and Peter

Bogdanovich.

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