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SAVE FOR FILM.

it’s being released on DVD November 9th, so be sure to pick up a copy (it’s available on Amazon).

SheWired

Film Fest Darling Marja Lewis Ryan Talks 'Four-Faced Liar': Interview

How did the Four-Faced Liar come to be?

The three other leads and myself moved out to LA together right after we graduated in 2006, I wrote a play, and we produced that play together in the spring of 2007. Then we took that play and I rewrote the script again and made it into a screenplay, and the four of us produced the film together.

Was it difficult to convert the play into a screenplay?

It was hard. I’d never written anything before ever, so I took three months off from my life and tried to construct something that resembled film instead of theater. Then I sat down with a professor of mine at NYU, and he taught me all about structure and piecing- basic things I knew absolutely nothing about- and that’s how I was able to piece it together. I workshopped the script for nine months with the other three actors both privately and publicly. It was a long process, but I actually call it my master thesis.

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So you’d never written before. What inspired you to write a play?

What is the basic plot rundown of the Four-Faced Liar?

You are the writer, co-producer, and co-star of the film. What was it like to balance all of those?

It is really hard to balance all of them because you can’t stop thinking about the money that gets spent in a day, you can’t stop thinking what it means to do an extra take every time you need one. You can’t stop thinking about the words that are coming out of your screen partner’s mouth and you’re just like, “Aw that’s not quite right!” So it’s hard to balance the three, but it got easier as it went along.

Did you have a favorite aspect of making the film?

I think that writing it was more fulfilling in a lot of ways because I got to really see what I could do. But as an actor it’s the perfect part for me; I can’t imagine any one else creating it. My least favorite job, though, was producing.

How huge of a jump was this from your theater career? Do you plan to stay in film now?

I’m still doing film, but I’m also a member of a theater company out in LA- Theater of N.O.T.E.- so I get to stretch my theater/acting muscles there, and I produce theater for them as well. I also wrote a new play that is being produced later this fall, and I have two other film projects in the works as well.

You’ve been to many film festivals now with Four-Faced Liar. What’s it like to see your project being brought to such large audiences?

We’ve been to about 40, I think, and it never gets old. It’s pretty remarkable actually, every time I still feel the same feeling, and that is that I can’t believe someone actually paid money to come and see this film. It’s really humbling and grounding and I really feel grateful to the people who walk through those doors.

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From what I’ve encountered, The Four-Faced Liar seems to have a pretty intense fan base. Have you countered any of that? 

I’ve had some great feedback. When we were down in Newport Beach- it was one of the first few film festivals that we attended at the beginning of this year- and this young woman came up to me afterwards. She was like, “My friend and I drove here from St. Louis just to see this movie,” and I was like, “What?! What are you doing? Why would you do that?” and she was like, “Well, we didn’t know if it was going to be near us, so we took a road trip for our spring break!” and I thought, ‘Oh my good God!’. If you don’t have the materials that you want to see, you need to find them, so I guess that’s where that spirit comes from.

Can you go into any more depth about your plans for the future?

I have a new short that will be out on the circuit this year, it’s called Daydreamer. It will also be a teaser for the next feature I’m writing for the LGBT community. I have another mainstream feature that I’m working on right now, and the play that I’m doing is going to be independently produced in LA. I’m also working on an LGBT dark comedy about a woman...who has been sheltered and comes out of the closet. I also just finished a queer lit novel about a girl who comes out in high school, so those are the main projects that I have going right now. The other three producers have broken off to do their own things as well. Jacob Chase, our director, has a couple of shorts that are coming out this year and a feature that he’s trying to get out there. We’re all busy making ourselves more projects right now.

Any parting comments?

I want to acknowledge the three other actor/producers of the film- Emily Peck, Daniel Carlisle, and Todd Kubrak. They also helped workshop the script and have been a part of this process for four and a half years now. Samantha Housman is our fifth producing partner- she’s not in the film, but she deserves just as much credit. Jacob Chase is our director, Danny Grunes is our cinematographer and Liz Osborn is our fifth leading actress. The eight of us are really appreciative of the attention that this film has gotten. And I’m always really grateful to do interviews, especially because the film is being released on Tuesday. So anyone who can go buy and order the film- that would be amazing!

Marja would like to invite everyone to a get-together with the cast on November 18th, 9 pm, at the Crown Bar on Santa Monica Boulevard in California.

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The 23rd annual Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival opened March 24

Writer/producer/director/actress Marja-Lewis Ryan, who called herself “a queer girl from Brooklyn” during her impassioned acceptance speech, won the Maverick Award. (Although, it seems to this critic that accepting ovations for being unconventional kinda defeats the purpose of following the beat of a different drummer. When I was voted “Most Avant-Garde” by my Richmond Hill High School graduating class I refused to have my yearbook photograph taken for the accolade.)

March 2016

http://hollywoodprogressive.com/lawtf/

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Marja-Lewis Ryan (The Four-Faced Liar, 6 Balloons) has been tasked to spearhead the sequel to The L Word, currently in development at Showtime, as executive producer and showrunner. Mothership series creator Ilene Chaiken also is executive producing, along with Jennifer Beals, Katherine Moennig and Leisha Hailey, who all starred in the premium network’s original series.http://deadline.com/2017/11/the-l-word-sequel-marja-lewis-ryan-showrunner-1202211918/

Related

'The L Word' Creator Ilene Chaiken Talks Potential Sequel Series At Showtime

“Ilene and the original L Word made me believe that my voice mattered,” said Ryan. “I am beyond excited for the opportunity to usher in the next generation of diverse queer people. I couldn’t imagine a better time to make this show.”

In its search for a showrunner, Showtime met with a number of writers with ties to the lesbian community, and I hear the network was impressed by the takes it heard. The follow-up series is aimed at reflecting how members of that community’s relationships, their lives, and experiences have evolved and what has changed (and what hasn’t) since the show’s inception.

Showtime announced in July that it was in development on a sequel to The L Word, which revolved around a group of lesbians in West Hollywood and their friends, family and lovers. Hailed as the first drama series to focus on lesbian characters who are complex and open about their sexuality, it ran on the network from 2004-09 and spawned a reality spinoff, The Real L Word. Beals, Moennig and Hailey will appear on the new series as their original characters as a point of connection from the prior series to the new one.

Ryan wrote and directed the upcoming film 6 Balloons, starring Abbi Jacobson and Dave Franco, and is penning the reboot of Splash starring Channing Tatum and Jillian Bell, as well as Buried Bodies for Noah Hawley and Fox Searchlight. Ryan’s adapted play The Four-Faced Liar won multiple awards including Outstanding First Narrative Feature at L.A. Outfest. She also co-starred in and co-produced the 2010 film version.

She is repped by UTA, Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment and attorney Tara Kole.

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== Marja-Lewis Ryan - Drama == -

Marja-Lewis Ryan interview, with Joshua Fardon

How did you start writing and how did this play come into being?

I went to the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School at NYU. David Mamet, who started that company, came and taught a master class. In it they picked six people – three scenes went up in front of him. And mine was one of them. And then he gave us notes. So I was shitting in my pants.

What was the scene?

Well, one of my favorite things about writing plays is trying to figure out how it all happens in the kitchen. I know not all playwrights abide by that. But one of my favorite plays is Brighton Beach Memoirs. The fact that all of this drama happens inside a house is an unbelievable accomplishment to me. But when you're a kid like the lead character, that's all you have; that's your whole world. So I wanted to make this play about this woman's whole world being in the kitchen and having that symbolize something. And the one scene that she has outside of the kitchen is the scene she has with the already-out gay character. I was playing with the symbolism of the whole world existing in the kitchen except for this one person who can take you out. In a movie, it doesn't work like that. I had to struggle to get the Four Faced Liar characters out of their apartment and out of the classroom and out of their jobs because you need the movement, you need the imagery.

Which medium do you prefer?

I think I prefer writing for theater because I'm much more interested in character development than I am in plot development.

What appealed to you about the idea of a married forty year old suburban mother coming of the closet?

I had just written a movie about my peers – four twenty-somethings in New York City, in college, gay. So I wanted to write something that wasn't me. But I also wanted to stay somewhere within my comfort zone so that I didn't fall flat on my face. So Mary's struggle is a struggle I can relate to in some ways, though not on the same scale.

''The thing that Sam says about the knot in the throat – how it feels to hold onto a painful secret - it seems like everyone has experienced that, whether it's about sexuality, or ambition or unrequited love. Which gives the play crossover appeal.''

Just after The Four Faced Liar got released, I had the opportunity to go into meetings with crazy big people. The one question that came up repeatedly was “what kind of work do you want to do for the rest of your life?” The first time someone asked me that, I answered it so truthfully that I shocked myself. I said, “I just want to write dark comedies for women that don't ostracize a male audience.” And then I kept saying it and I kept getting this positive response from all these guys. And I think that's what I'm trying to do. I think that being who I am in the world, for whatever reason, call it God or Mother Earth or fate, I think my personality sort of straddles the fence of man/woman – and I feel like I should use that to the best of my abilities.

Someone in Mary's position would have a huge amount of anger, but it seems like you've steered us more towards her sadness.

She does have some moments of anger. But in real life, when you're alone, it's very rare to be screaming in the house by yourself. But it's not so rare to be mopey or sitting in bed and crying. And when you're in front of people, the natural thing to do when you're not feeling quite right is to calm down. People are full of censors. I wanted to keep it as real as possible. In the same vein, this is a work in progress. There's one scene in which Mary's by herself onstage and I would like to look at that – even though I love how it is was played at a reading.

I really like that scene.

It's one of my least favorite reading moments and one my favorite watching moments.

There's often a huge difference between theater that reads well and theater that plays well.

One thing I learned from doing that film, though, is you never want to leave it up to someone else to fix something if you can fix it yourself. You don't want to leave a mediocre scene in your play and be like, “Oh, but a good actor could pull that off or a good director will fix that.” You don't know who your actors will be and who your director is going to be. So, fix as much as you can fix. That scene was starred, as in “fix this,” for me since before the first reading of the play.

In that scene she’s alone, but even when she's talking to other people, she seems alone.

I did a staged reading over the summer – and the big note that I got was that nobody liked her. And I was like “fuck. I really fucked this up.” Everyone felt really bad for her husband and was not on her side at all. But ultimately, it was a really minor adjustment. I think in the earlier draft, it wasn't clear that she had been thinking about this, or that something had been very wrong before this day began. I made minor changes – like, when anyone leaves the room, the stage directions now say “she breathes” or “she slumps over the sink” or “she collects herself.” Without those beats, those moments, if she's just moving from one person to the next, it’s easy for us to lose her. So those little moments really help.

''She also comes across as being very brave. Henry says at one point, "Of course we’re unhappy. We have kids and money and food on the table." They've accepted unhappiness and made it part of their lives. The big question is why and how long can you stay miserable and fight who you are in order to be of society's idea of who you should be?''

It's sort of a shame that I live in Los Angeles and I'm going to do the play here, because I wonder how different the reaction would be if I put it up somewhere where it isn't the norm to chase your dreams.

You might have a very mixed reaction.

But I think passionately mixed.

Right, because it's a really good play.

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Horoscope and birth day

https://famouspeople.astro-seek.com/birth-chart/marja-lewis-ryan-horoscope

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One in the chamber

Parents grappling with the aftermath of a gunshot fired by their 10-year-old son that kills their other son; six years after the traumatic event, a caseworker reopens family wounds by visiting the family to determine whether the surviving son should remain on probation.

Video Q&A

http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4fc75e468e368