Lindsey Anderson Beer wrote and executive produced the hit Netflix original dramedy Sierra Burgess is a Loser before making the jump to direct the horror genre with Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, starring Jackson White and Natalie Alyn Lind. The story is based on an untold chapter of Stephen King's self-proclaimed, scariest property of all time. Up next, she will helm Paramount’s Sleepy Hollow reboot as the writer, director, and producer. She also has several projects in various phases of development and production, including Disney's live action remake of Bambi, New Line's Hello Kitty, and Universal's Fast and Furious spinoff, which she wrote with Geneva Robertson-Dworet. Under her production banner Lab Brew, Lord of the Flies will be directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Patrick Ness for Warner Bros.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

What is your approach to characters when you’re writing sci-fi and horror?

LINDSEY ANDERSON BEER

For me, I don't start a project unless I have a really clear understanding of who the main characters are and why this is a journey that's necessary for them to take. And why are these both the best and the worst people to be in this series? That's the question I ask myself all the time because you need to know: What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? What are the dramatic tension points going to be where these specific people can really succeed or really fail in this scenario?

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

And you also worked for Quentin Tarantino when he was planning to direct a Star Trek movie. You described that as the most fun experience you’ve had in a writers’ room?

ANDERSON BEER

I love people who are passionate, and Quentin Tarantino is just so passionate. And I've never been in a writer's room or even really in any kind of development experience where a director was just so passionate and so full of kind of energetic ideas. And that was really inspiring. Somebody who just completely knows their own point of view and gets excited by their own ideas is just fun to watch.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

When you made that step from writer to becoming a director with  Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, you received some practical advice from J. J. Abrams. What did he tell you in terms of team building, relationships, and getting people on board with a united vision?

ANDERSON BEER

I was about to shoot Pet Sematary. I was finishing up my work on Star Trek 4, which I had to leave to do Pet Sematary, so I had been working with J. J. Abrams closely for a while on the script, and so I just asked if he had any advice, in terms of just practical stuff on set. And I mean, I've been on so many sets, but still, he's a director who's done so many projects. So he did give me some great advice just about, you know, making it through such long days and taking time for yourself and just kind of keeping your sanity that was kind of the focus of the advice. And he was just very generous and sweet about that.

I think that people underestimate. They think of directing mostly as a creative job, right? Like, because even if you don't directly conceive of every detail, you instruct and sign off on every little detail of a film, every sound, everything that's on screen, the final color, the final mix, just every little detail. And you make a bazillion decisions a day but what I think a lot of people don't understand is that you're also just managing so many personalities and emotions through the whole thing and you work with hundreds of people on a daily basis who are doing their jobs in their various departments. And trying to get them on the same page as your vision and coordinate them with each other and also keep them happy during long days and make sure that they feel heard.

And there's so many things that happen when you're not even in the room that they get mad about because somebody else did something and then you have to go in and fix it. And there's a whole kind of personality management aspect to the job that I think a lot of people don't understand.

But for me, I would say the rule of thumb that I followed was just making sure that I treated everybody as a human being and not just somebody working underneath me. I think about, okay, if this person's in a bad mood or frustrated, where is that coming from? Because maybe they just worked too long last night. Just kind of keeping that human element in mind and also saying thank you. I can't tell you how many times on this project I heard the words "I've never heard a director say thank you." So I think it's just incredibly important to keep kindness and respect at the forefront.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Sci-fi and horror are good genres to explore darker themes. How do you use that to your advantage?

ANDERSON BEER

I think science fiction is its own animal. This is why it has always been my first love. And it really allows you to think about our connection to the universe, to kind of be a futurist and think about what society could look like or has looked like. And I think there's no other genre for me, at least, where I feel like action and consequence and forecasting and imagination, all of those things can kind of come together in one story. Stories are inherently subjective. There's only one way to tell a great story and that is for the subject and the storyteller to have an authentic and strong point of view.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

You studied robotics and AI at Stanford. And so, well before you became a screenwriter and director, you have really been examining what the future would look like. I don't know if you went into it with the utopian ideas. I hear perspectives from both sides. AI and new technologies will solve everything and we just have to sit back and let it do its thing. And then there's that other side: What governance do we need to have in place? Will automation take over our jobs? You've just come out of the writer's strike, and what that means for scanning all writers' works and this frightening idea that we can do away with screenwriters. Or maybe we can do away with directors. Maybe one day we won't need actors! What are your thoughts on this complex issue and how can we retain our humanity and make human-centered stories part of our art while still embracing the possibilities for research and other new technologies 

ANDERSON BEER

It's such a difficult and huge, huge, huge issue. And for me, it's absolutely not one-sided. And it's not a simple answer. Anybody who thinks that AI is going to completely save us is fooling themselves. And anybody who thinks that AI is just evil or harmful is also overlooking the very obvious benefits from drug and cancer research and other illnesses. And there are so many things that AI can help us solve very quickly that we don't yet have solutions to. That said, AI is made by us and it is filled with our own biases. And when you enable an incredibly smart, but biased and flawed thing to rule your life, that's never going to end up with a good outcome.

So I think we need a lot of regulations and that we should be very scared of what happens when we allow AI to become too smart because at that point regulations aren't going to help. I honestly don't know if we've crossed that threshold. If we haven't, we're very close to crossing the threshold, in my opinion, of not being able to control what we've created, and that does scare me.

For the creative process in particular, beyond the fact that it wouldn't make any sense for people to use AI because you can't copyright it, so studios and networks wouldn't own their own material, I can't even begin to tell you how many problems I see with using AI in the writing or directing process.

First of all, if a writer or director is just using it to help them, I think it's cheating. I wouldn't ask AI to help me write an episode any more than I would ask a writer's assistant to write an episode for me and then claim it was me. I find it very exploitative and lazy to think that anybody would actually do that.

And then in terms of just the humanity of it all, do I think that AI could write very serviceable screenplays? I do. I think that right now we're close to having that. If you feed AI 20 episodes of a long-running show, it can absolutely spit out a mostly serviceable episode that sure you'd have to clean up in terms of some weird stuff in there, but we're probably a year or two away from having AI that can create okay enough scripts, but why would we ever want okay enough scripts? I think we've already seen with humans behind it when you just have okay enough scripts and scripts that aren't written from authentic human experience, you get something that's fine, but it doesn't move you. And it doesn't become a phenomenon. And it doesn't grab audiences enough to inspire you to go to a theater or to spawn seasons of television watching.

I think a lot about Barbie and Greta Gerwig. And could a man write and direct like a really funny Barbie movie? Of course. But do I think that a man could have ever created the phenomenon that is Barbie? I don't. Because it was so infused with her authentic female experience in the patriarchy. And she put so much of that into it. And that's really what shines in that movie. And I think that movies like that where you kind of trust in one human creative and let their artistry and humanity shine is when you create these standout pieces of art that really capture imagination and attention.

I just don't know why humans always seem intent on replacing themselves. You know, whether it's the industrial revolution or now, the AI revolution, we just can't help ourselves. But I think we need, we need to have we need to have strong regulations in place because there are certainly lots of professions where we certainly will be able to replace people with AI, but why? Why would we want to do that? Having a sense of purpose and the pride we all get from working, regardless of what that job is, is obviously so important. In addition to the money, I don't understand sometimes where people's motivations come from. 

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

I was wondering how you handle writer's block or if you have any advice for young writers?

ANDERSON BEER

I don't believe in writer's block. I don't think it's a thing. I think that if you have "writer's block" there are usually two causes, and one is just anxiety that has gotten in your own head and has nothing to do with the creative process, and you're just afraid to fail. I don't think that writer's block really happens. Or it's the wrong story for you. And I've seen that with a lot of people who have worked on a screenplay for like two years and not finished it.

And I'm like, try another story. Or, if it's taking that long, it's not the story for you. But I think that scientifically, if you don't have a story breakthrough, taking a shower, doing exercise, eating something rote, like popcorn or chips, basically anything that's kind of a rote activity that allows your mind to kind of tune out a little bit is something that can help activate the creative process. And that's neuroscientifically proven. 

I think that the confidence that I'm talking about, in terms of allowing yourself to turn out something that isn't perfect and to still believe in yourself, I think that comes from my love of science and my understanding of the scientific process. So many experiments fail the first time or the second time or the third time. Also, so many startup companies in Silicon Valley fail and then they innovate and they innovate and they innovate and they become big hits. And I think it's the difference between what's called a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset where people think that they either have a fixed amount of talent or they believe that they have a growing amount of talent where more practice and more input can affect the outcome. And I don't believe that human beings have fixed talent. I believe that human beings have growing talent and that they shouldn't be so fearful of just trying and learning and growing.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Your personal journey is fascinating because it traverses science and the humanities. And a lot of people have been taught that they are separate or they don't feel they have a scientific mind or, as we think about the environmental crisis, don't feel they can understand climate science. In this decade of transition, we all have to be on board, so how important for you are the environmental humanities and telling those stories about the environment that help us change our behaviors and save the planet?

ANDERSON BEER

I don't think that there are any more important stories to tell right now than ones with environmental messages. You know, we obviously are beyond this tipping point. We're at a crisis point and allowing people to understand that, not just understand the ramifications, but understand what they can actually do and what life could look like if we did change our behavior and what those steps could be, I think is our greatest imperative as storytellers right now.

This interview was conducted by Mia Funk and Tara Swan with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producers on this episode were Sam Myers and Tara Swan. The Creative Process is produced by Mia Funk. Additional production support by Sophie Garnier.

Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast (Conversations about Climate Change & Environmental Solutions).