SHOWING UP
Interview with e.E. Charlton-Trujillo
by Nova Brown
photo by: Ann Burrell
In her own words, e.E. is a “Filmmaker/ Novelist/ Playwright/ Poet/ Photographer/ Composer …Rock Star wannabe! That’s the little e. living in a big E. world.” With an intro like that, I’m not sure I need to add my own.
NOVA: You are a woman of many talents. What are you working on right now?
e.E.: September 6th I launched the first in a series of webisodes for a new pilot called Fallen [http://www.fallentheseries.com]. It’s a show that I will be pitching as a television series in January 2010. By launching on the web, I hope to build a large audience, so there is a strong fan base in place when I pitch. I think a large fan base positions Fallen in what is often a cut-throat market for developing a TV series.
I’ll be honest that beginning a concept via the web is a bit different for me. It’s definitely a new forum for me to realize filmmaking. But we (the Fallen production team) want the series experience be as real as anything on TV, so people are invested and want more of it. I’m working with positive, outside-the-box thinking peeps, so I’ve got zero qualms about exploring the opportunities of media grassroots.
NOVA: How would you describe Fallen?
e.E.: It’s like Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Joan of Arcadia. It’s got those kind of elements with its own stamp of uniqueness. The lead character, Jamie Watson, only real superpower is that she’s a normal girl. An ordinary girl with a less than ordinary history, but more on that as things unfold…Don’t want to give everything away.
NOVA: What’s the format for the release?
e.E.: So on September 6th we began releasing the first of seven total 3- to 5-minute episodes. A new episode releases every two weeks rounding off right before Thankgiving. We are approaching independent theaters to see if they would screen a trailer of Fallen before feature films. Fingers crossed!
NOVA: What are you hoping to get out of your audience?
e.E.: Their interest and feedback first and foremost! The audience can do a lot with a concept like this. After we run the final episode, and if they like the premise, they’ll have the opportunity to email the execs directly. It’s putting the power back in the hands of the viewer. It just makes sense to me somehow to let the peeps with money know what viewers want to see on TV.
NOVA: In Fallen, your protagonist, Jamie Watson, is the reincarnation of the heroic angelic warrior Aracheli…Whom do you think would relate to her the most?
e.E.: For me, Fallen’s strength is that it has solid cross-over potential—it’s not just geared for the CW crowd. In my writing—whether it be for film, novels, or TV—I try to focus on universal themes, like belonging, family, a sense of greater purpose, all the stuff you go through as a young person and in life. I think a lot of people can relate to those ideas. As for the character Jamie Watson, she’s essentially an ordinary sixteen-year-old girl in extraordinary circumstances. Seems pretty relatable to me, but I’m biased.
NOVA: You have won some prestigious awards for your novels Prizefighter en Mi Casa and Feels Like Home. What kind of feedback have you gotten from your readers?
e.E.: The feedback has been incredible, sincerely! Young women (and men) read these books and they’re moved. I mean, really truly moved. To be able to do that with words–to generate a space where someone feels seen and heard–that’s the good stuff. And I think the thing that moves readers is the raw honesty in the storytelling. Not to mention, these are themes that young people can connect with…that someone is listening and not just talking at them. A lot of the books I read growing up, I just couldn’t relate to. I grew up in a Mexican community as an adopted half-breed. There was nothing out there that talked about my life or my friends’ lives in a way that felt honest. Prizefighter En Mi Casa that was honest—at least for me. It hones in on what it means to be different—I mean everyone’s different, right—but in that way when you feel so brutally ostracized for something beyond your control. And so much of what is happening to Chula is out of her control.
The thing is I didn’t sit down to write a book about being a thirteen-year-old girl who’s Mexican, pudgy, with a scar on her head and suffering from epilepsy. That’s all a little too on the nose for me. But as I combed through the story, I began to unfold what it meant to be Chula and still be loveable and to still be loved? Great artists have a signature I think. Mine, I guess is to try and write with authenticity. I think that’s why young people connect with my books. I don’t take any emotional shortcuts, pull punches. I mean, young people sure don’t. The weirdest thing is that it was a total accident that I wrote the first two novels.
NOVA: What do you mean, "It was an accident"?
e.E.: I had just finished film school in 2003 and my best friend was killed in a car accident. I was in a bad place and homeless, living from couches to floors. My brother took me in—gave me a place to sort out all the junk in my head and my heart. It was there that I wrote my first book on a dare from another writer. I cracked out Prizefighter En Mi Casa in two months and a year later I won the prestigious Delacorte Dell Yearling Award.
Then the editor asked what else I had written. Two weeks later, I had a two-book deal. I had always written poetry, short stories and screenplays…but a novel? Yeah, not so much. I mean, I had no idea what I was doing. I was sort of writing because it was a way to use what I knew as an artist to move through the loss that I had experienced. I am really grateful for those books. I learned a lot about myself through the characters I created. The kind of person I could be. Although I feel like the characters in my stories tend to be smarter than me.
NOVA: I really wish that there had been writers like you when I was growing up.
e.E.: Thanks. That means the world to hear that, sincerely. It reminds me that the work I do lands all over the board—with young adults and adults. We all need that.
NOVA: Tell me a bit more about Fallen. What really drew you into the project?
e.E.: What was really attractive to me about this concept was the opportunity to represent a REAL teenage girl in the mass market. Jamie’s not super skinny, nor super heavy, but she’s REAL. Don’t get me wrong I love Buffy, but…this character is equally enticing minus the excess Maybelline and three-inch heels. And appearance aside, Jamie’s strength comes from her weakness. Not some super sci-fi power. We’re not orchestrating her. She’s a real girl with real problems and real struggles. And that’s drama.
NOVA: Tell me about the current book you’re working on. When will it be released?
e.E.: The new book, Fat Angie, is the one that Sara St. Martin Lynn [link to interview] optioned through Last Look Films. The book needs one more pass through and then I figure it will publish around 2011. But the film has the potential to green light much sooner, so I may be co-writing and directing the movie before I sign copies in the bookstore. And this book is a clear departure from the other two novels. It’s so different. There’s definitely no way I can be pigeon-holed now! Some of the topics are dicey.
It’s the first time I’ve dealt with sexuality and lesbianism among a myriad of other topics. Also it’s dark humor told in third person which is a first time effort but I feel solid about it. Actually, I feel electric. It was so fun to write, full of strangeness and oddity—like a female Napolean Dynomite. There’s this awkwardness and sexiness between the lead characters that kind of still blows my mind. Like, how did that actually happen?
NOVA: Why was it important for you to deal with sexuality and lesbianism?
e.E.: It’s not like I didn’t want to write about it before, but it wasn’t part of any of my stories yet. And the focus of Fat Angie at its core isn’t about coming out. It’s about finding your voice and your strength—about seeing what you can be through the eyes of those who can truly see you. But yeah, concepts of sexuality/lesbianism are key components. I had a feeling early on that those issues would come up. I was a little stuck until I borrowed a character from a story she so clearly didn’t fit in.
And then I was thinking that Fat Angie NEEDS KC Romance to begin her journey. They are so odd in their own way. One is beautiful and dysfunctional…and there’s the fat one, and she’s beautiful, too. They’re fun, interesting, dramatic characters…they’re just really beautiful. They’re really off-the-handle fifteen-year-olds. I’d totally hang with them (if they weren’t all fictional).
I had always wanted to write a story like Fat Angie but I hadn’t found the right vehicle. And this time it felt the most authentic. There’s a lot going on...family in fragments, the Iraq war…like everything but the kitchen sink. But when you get the end, you go, “OH that actually made sense.” At least that’s the hope anyway!
NOVA: What are you most excited about?
e.E.: That’s a hard one. I’m definitely excited to have Fat Angie become a film. It’s the first time for me to co-write and direct a feature. And to work with Sarah [link] again—I edited Night Fliers [link to nightfliers.com]with her—that’s a dream in and of itself. And there are a few other incredibly talented women who I hope will come aboard. It’s not that I need to be on a set surrounded by women, but it’s nice to work with women. The bottom line is that there aren’t enough women in top positions in filmmaking. Whenever possible, I want to a part of that kind of forward momentum.
And I’m definitely super elated with release on Fallen. It’s amazing when you have no money and you can still inspire enough talented people to follow you into battle. And filmmaking at this level is a battle. But with the Jodie-Foster-in-training-newcomer Michele A. Fink as Jamie Watson and seasoned young actor Tyler Middendorf as her brother Gabriel, I truly think we are onto something. And the supporting cast – wow! They raise the bar of what young hungry talent can generate. And trust me, they’ve all got game!
NOVA: Are you living your dream?
e.E.: For the most part, yes. When I left film school I had an opportunity to move to LA and go the Producer track. But when I lost best friend, the most important things to me was to be honest in this world through my art and how I interact with people. And if I had gone to LA then, I wouldn’t have been ready to do that. And the fact is that I can write anywhere. I am in charge of my destiny, and wherever it takes me. I can make my opportunity wherever I am because I’m doing it truthfully. At least, that’s how it works for me. Yeah, that’s how it works.
NOVA: That makes you a very powerful role model. How much work do you do with adolescents?
e.E.: Sometimes I perform with young people. I have worked with kids in a Readers Theater Hybrid to promote my novels and other media programs in Ohio. I definitely want to do more to inspire young people to generate creative energy in whatever form speaks to them. Working with young people on set, I create an environment where they feel empowered and respected. They’re not props. They’re artists. So that whatever comes their way in the future, they can decide how they want to set the bar. Being a “role model” my thought is, you need me to show up, cool. I’m going to show up, and I need you to show up to. That’s how we create change.
NOVA: Do you have specific people in your life that you would point to and say, “They are my inspirations”?
e.E.: I wish I could say it was my family, but it wasn’t. I had a history teacher in seventh grade. She was the first person to give me a copy of The Outsiders. She taught me how to do dramatic reading as a young person. And I carried that throughout my life and those were the early steps. And my brother Kurt has been instrumental in countless ways. He lives in Belgium and is an incredible spirit. And my friend, Amanda Cunningham, who I lost in May of 2003. She had this way of changing people. And she changed me. See, as directors, we mirror what the actor does to help them reach truth in their performance. Amanda was my first mirror. She gave me focus and helped me recognize my strengths.
Sharing this with you now, isn’t about reliving a loss but maintaining a light…a beauty that keeps going in my stories and how I move through the world. Her life enabled me to begin to hone my own power as a woman. She accomplished that by doing one incredibly important thing.
She taught me what it meant to show up.
So here I am. Right here. Showing up!
http://www.bigdreamswrite.com
http://www.vanessarising.com
http://www.fallentheseries.com
GOGETYOURGIRLON .......................... an online lesbian magazine
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