Interviews

The Spec Script Library
Screenwriter : Leslie Odell

From deep in the heart of the L.A. burbs
(off the 16th hole of the Knollwood Golf Course) you'll find Leslie Odell
driving one of those little golf carts
around the neighborhood.

You might catch her some sunset
cruising the course in her pink cart getting cheap thrills
dodging golf balls.

. . .

What is your passion?

Living inside the world I create in a screenplay.

What is your greatest fear?

That I might get lost inside a story and never return.

What is your pride?

My three little angels, Michelangelo (6), Julie (7) and Lindsey (9). My
brothers and sisters. My screenplays.

What does adversity do to you?

Brings out the lawyer in me.

What is your best quality?

Juggling a million things with a smile.
Being a single-head-of-household mom these days -
it is of critcal importance.

What is your worst quality?

Losing my patience in certain settings.
For example, I don't do well standing in long lines at the DMV.

What irksome habits do you have?

I cry like a blubbering fool in front of the officer when I get a ticket.

If you could have your time again, what would you do that is different?

Re-write that last story over another hundred times.

What would you like to change about yourself? About others?

I'd like to be a person who wears lots of jewelry (I don't wear any at all).
About others? I like people who are sincerely friendly so I guess I wish
people would jump on that wagon more often.

How important is goal setting to you?

Major. That's how I get along.

What goals do you have?

Number one: to make my children's dreams come true.
Number two: to make my dreams come true.

What is your ultimate goal?

Ultimate? Jeez, can't even fathom that one. A biggie for me is making the
transition from lawyer by day to writer by day.

What heroes do you have?

Tina Turner and Martha Stewart, half and half.

What inspires you in others?

Perserverance in achieving what seems like insurmountable obstacles with good
humor. Also, people who win the lottery because I don't believe in luck so I
think they had their vibes in fine tune.

What inspires you in yourself?

My ability to keep ahold of what I think are the best aspects of feminity
(which I think are grace and compassion) in my decidedly vicious lawyer world.

What will be written on your headstone?

Up from shit. (sorry, Mom)

What does success mean to you?

Never having to say your sorry? No, that's love.
Uh, never having to say how much?
Living in Aspen in the winter, Bali in the winter? That won't work.
Okay, being surrounded by great friends that love you so much
they would die for you.

How do you measure success?

Real success means never having to measure it.

What are your pet hates?

Telephone operators who deliver the wrong recorded number and then hang up.

What are your pet loves?

My pets: Charlotte, the pot-bellied pig, who loves everyone, Henry the desert
tortoise, who loves Charlotte, Lucky the mutt dog who knows she's lucky to not
have been gassed at the pound and Chrissy the Siamese who is a reincarnated
Egyptian queen.

What do you think of pets?

I wish I had a more. I could use a pack of llamas, some chickens, a couple
cows, a pygmie goat and some game hens.

When are you happiest?

When I am twirling my baton to really loud rock and roll music on the patio
for my friends after a summer barbeque.

When are you hardest to please?

When I am battling it out with vicious lawyers in the courtroom
when nothing but a win will do.

What has been your most embarrassing moment?

There are too, too many to recite. Okay, one. Forgetting myself and instead
of shaking hands with an important banker, kissing him on the neck under his
ear instead. Okay, one more. Forgetting myself and introducing myself to a
room full of people as my brother's fiancee instead of as his sister. I could
go on forever.

What's the most exhilarating thing you have done?

Jumping off a tall stone bridge into a freezing mad-rushing river and feeling
the shock of the icy water on every inch of my body, feeling my lungs nearly
explode trying to hold my breath and then swimming as hard as I could possibly
manage to the side of the torrent before I was swept into oblivion. Course,
I'd never do that again - but it was exhilarating.

What is it about screen writing that gets your fired?

Writing a perfect line, a perfect word, re-reading it a hundred times.

What screenplays have you written?

"The Manny", a charming comedy that zooms to the spot where "Mrs. Doubtfire"
only dabbled. He's the man ...but he's the nanny - He's "The Manny". A
romantic-adventure, "Coyote & Crusoe", a hip alternative to
the "Swiss Family Robinson" classic.

What is your favorite pastime?

The lost art of majoretting. Once I wrote a punk rock song for my friend's
band and twirled my baton in a majorette costume on the stage of the Whiskey.
I also like fishing for big fish in Cabo San Lucas and cooking with
a hundred kitchen machines.

What is your favorite motto?

"Context is everything." (Refer back to my most embarassing moments and
you'll see why I need to make this ring true for me at all times.)

. .

If you would like to contact Leslie
please mail her or visit Leslie's
webpage

. . .

Anytime you have questions about the Library
please mail us