00:04I didn't get a chance to meet the real women ahead of time, which was really hard for me
00:09because creatively I would have loved to have heard every detail. I think the truth is stranger
00:15than fiction, but I had the article to work from and so I felt a responsibility to what really
00:21happened and the crimes themselves. I didn't want to water them down, but I felt a little bit of
00:27freedom when it came to the characters because we're trying to just tell a story, tell the movie
00:33version of it. So the two characters, they form a friendship and it's kind of a love story between
00:39the two of them and in reality they were more like business partners. So I had to add a lot
00:44to the characters and the relationship, but as far as the crime itself, the punishment and kind of
00:51what went down, I felt that. Did you go into strip clubs and do research? Sure, yeah. What surprised
00:55you about that world? Oh, just the, you know, there's no job security for these women. They're
01:00not employees of these clubs. They pay house fees, they tip everybody out. So the difference between
01:06a good night and a bad night is a lot. It's how much you go home with. It's not necessarily
01:10did you
01:11have a great interaction with someone or a bad interaction. I mean, certainly there's a lot to
01:16deal with in that way, but the structure of it, the camaraderie between the women, you know, there's
01:23obviously some competition, but they really are also, you know, they work in pairs and teams. It's
01:29much more lucrative. Do you like them? I like them a lot. I feel a real kinship to them. I've
01:35danced
01:35for the money. I'm dancing right now. So yeah, I did like them and I heard so many different
01:44experiences. I think that's the beautiful part of it is that you can talk to so many different women
01:50who are having the time of their lives. This job provides incredible freedom. They work for a
01:55month. They go take their band on the road and other girls who, you know, escaped a bad relationship.
02:02And, you know, for some people it's transitional, you know, and for other people it's where they are.
02:08And so it was incredibly enlightening to speak to them.
02:17I love the class elements and your ability to capture so many of those things. Was that a matter
02:23of hanging out with them or did, had you had some interaction with people from, from that part of
02:30the boroughs in Long Island before?
02:32Yeah. I mean, I grew up in New Jersey, so, um, I felt like I grew up with these guys.
02:36I grew up with
02:36these girls. I worked in a boiler room when I was like 18, just like doing secretarial work. But, um,
02:44it was really just a off, off Wall Street, Northern New Jersey, a room full of phones that guys are
02:50selling bad stocks to old people. And my mom worked there for a time. A guy said he was going
02:55to hit her
02:55in the head with a baseball bat. And the bosses said, bottom line, can you keep working with him?
03:00Because he's bringing in the money and you're just typing stuff into a computer. So yeah, it was
03:05remarkable. But there was another guy who was on a headset for six months talking to nobody. He was
03:10losing his mind. Oh, wow. So it was really like, I want to see that. I can identify it.
03:16Exactly.
03:22For Hustlers, I wrote the scene where the two of them meet first. I wrote the scene where
03:27Jennifer Lopez's character wraps Constance Wu's character in a fur coat. And, uh, that was the
03:33first scene that I wrote and, uh, the last thing we shot, of course. And, um, but, um,
03:38That's a great scene. It's pretty much their relationship, too.
03:41Yeah. I thought that immediate intimacy, especially because you've seen this character,
03:45uh, Destiny, um, she's grappling with loneliness and isolation and at this new place and doesn't
03:52have physical contact with any of these girls and, um, has physical contact with men, obviously,
03:58and strangers. And I think that kind of intimacy that women have immediately was very exciting
04:03to me to, to, to show that, um, that mother-daughter relationship.
04:08When you write, what's the toughest part of writing for you? What do you struggle with?
04:12Writing is an exercise in empathy. So for me, I, that's, that's always my approach. So I,
04:18I tend to prefer characters that I don't necessarily agree with. And I like making them convince me
04:24a little bit. Um, so, um, I don't know what I find the toughest part. Probably just, uh,
04:30what act two. Right.
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