Hollywood’s Hottest Ticket: Meet Netflix’s “Go-To” Writer, Lindsey Ferrentino
You might have to wait a while to get an appointment with Lindsey Ferrentino — her diary is looking pretty packed.
The playwright and screenwriter has become one of Hollywood’s most in-demand creatives and is, at this very moment, writing a staggering five films for Netflix, including an adaptation of a book by celebrated fantasy author Rebecca Yarros.
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The Florida-born Ferrentino, 36, sat down for coffee with THR in sunny central London to discuss her extensive slate of projects on the horizon. On Thursday, her newest production, The Fear of 13, opens on the city’s West End with Adrien Brody in the lead. It tells the true story of Nick Yarris, who spent 22 years on death row before his exoneration.
The show is based on a 2015 documentary by filmmaker David Sington. Adapted for the stage by Ferrentino, tickets at the 251-seat Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden sold out in two hours. For Oscar winner Brody, who is currently enjoying awards buzz for his performance in Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, The Fear of 13 marks his first appearance on a London stage.
“I just love Lindsey‘s taste and collaborative spirit,” Brody tells THR. “She has an eloquence and wonderful understanding of nuanced storytelling. She has a great sense of humor, and shares an earnest desire to be protective of Nick, the man-slash-character I portray, and honor his experience. She has been a remarkable collaborator. And has already given me greater insight into many aspects of the work we do and love.”
That’s not all Ferrentino has been cooking up. She’s writing a Sony project based on Hugh Hefner‘s Playboy Empire, directing a film adaptation of her celebrated play Amy and the Orphans for Netflix, and is in development with production companies such as Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground, John Krazinski’s Sunday Night and Jason Bateman’s Aggregate Films. Everybody wants a piece of Lindsey Ferrentino.
The playwright talked to THR about being described as Netflix’s “go-to” writer, her relationship with Brody, the specifics of her Yarros and Playboy projects — exclusively given to THR — and, well, how she finds the time to sleep. “I grew up in the back of comedy clubs,” she says of her talent. “I’m just as much that person as I am someone who’s political and social issues. So I feel like writing has been about bridging those two worlds.”
Lindsey, you are a woman in demand. How did you get into writing?
I went to NYU for acting, but the summer before I went to NYU, there was a high school prewriting competition that I didn’t enter. And my high school teacher sort of yelled at me and was like, “You write.” I was writing movies at the time, very pretentiously thinking, “I just write screenplays. I don’t write theater.” And my high school english teacher pulled me out of class and said, “I’ll extend the deadline a day. You have to enter this playwriting competition.” And so I wrote a play in an evening about a playwright who couldn’t think of anything to write. It went on to win the state and national competition. Then it was produced through a high school playwriting program at the Kennedy Center before I went to college.
So I went in thinking I wanted to be an actor, and left really thinking I wanted to be a writer. I went to Hunter College, then Yale School of Drama, all for playwriting. And in my third year at Yale, I had my first play professionally produced at Roundabout Underground [in New York], and that’s the play that went to London’s National Theatre in 2017.
Uglie Lies The Bone?
Yeah. It’s getting turned into a movie that Marielle Heller [The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Nightbitch] is producing and Heidi Ewing [Jesus Camp] is directing. It’s about a female soldier coming back from Afghanistan, a burn survivor, and she’s coming back to her Florida hometown and trying to figure out where she fits back into civilian life and starts virtual reality pain management therapy. It’s about that and her personal relationships as she reintegrates into life in Florida.
Are these the kinds of stories that you find yourself inspired by?
I’m always interested in writing about social or political issues, but from a very grounded, character-side point of view. Trying to find the most personal story within a bigger, national one. And right now, I’m particularly interested in writing about true stories of people. Someone said to me recently that I’m writing a lot of people with extraordinary lives, and I hadn’t really clocked that before, but I think that’s true. I just did The Queen of Versailles musical [starring Kristin Chenoweth in Boston, coming to Broadway in 2025] which is based on a documentary about these Florida billionaires seeking to build the biggest home in America, and they’re bankrupting themselves in the process of building the Palace of Versailles in Orlando. The Fear of 13 is about a man who was wrongfully imprisoned on death row for 22 years — also a true story. So I’m writing a lot of true stories. In another life, I probably would have been a journalist.
Let’s talk about The Fear of 13. It opens this week with Adrien Brody as its star. How did this come to fruition?
I watched a documentary, also titled The Fear of 13, which is just a man, Nick Yarris, sitting on a stool and telling his life story. He has the most wildlife story I’ve ever come into contact with in its twists and turns and in Nick himself. He spent 22 years in solitary confinement in one of the harshest prisons in the United States, where his company was books, mostly. So he is a deep reader, and in reading learned how to articulate himself in a new way. He speaks almost like a novel. I’ve just never heard anyone communicate in the way that he communicates. And in the process of reading and in the process of learning storytelling, he was able to tell his own story and get himself freed.
I watched this documentary during [the COVID] lockdown, when we were all watching endless TV, and I just randomly watched it. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I also think living in America — and I’m in a slightly privileged position in that I don’t know anyone on death row and I don’t have the criminal legal system in my life on a daily basis — it’s very easy to not think about it. The Nick story, I felt, awakened me to this big blind spot in my own life. It was just was one of those things that I couldn’t get out of my head. So I got the rights to the documentary. I felt like it could make a brilliant play, because Nick himself was such a theatrical storyteller.
You managed to get Adrien Brody signed on — someone who has never made an appearance on the West End…
I had sent him a movie that I am directing and he really loved the writing, and had asked for a meeting the same week that I found out about [The Fear of 13‘s] production offer at the Donmar [Theatre]. I gave him about 10 days to make a decision and we sent him the play immediately. I had thought of him for the play from the beginning, but it felt like a pipe dream because he hasn’t done theater in about 30 years. So I always dreamt that he could do this play, but didn’t think it was reality.
It’s really rare for an actor to put any time pressure on an offer like that, we didn’t have time to do a reading or a workshop with him. So it was just an offer. And he said in those 10 days, he read the play nine times and he wept every time. And he said he didn’t really want to do it, because he knew what a huge role this is and a huge time commitment, but he felt like he had to do it.
What is it that makes Adrien so right for the part?
Oh my God, so many things. I’ll try to articulate this well, but Adrien, I think, almost unlike anyone I’ve ever known, has so many sides of himself. He’s a writer, he’s directed and he produces, and he writes music and he paints. He’s this working class boy from Queens, but people think of him from The Pianist as this European intellectual. I think that is what Nick is — he’s a car thief and then fell in love with reading and has this huge vocabulary, but didn’t have a formal education. All of these unexpected sides of himself and his story.
It’s great timing. You probably know that he is getting a bit of award buzz for his performance in Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist.
I haven’t actually got to see it yet! I think the whole thing perfectly came together. But it’s interesting because that wasn’t the case when we offered it to him. It’s such a risk because you’re going to be working with that actor so closely in the workshopping and rehearsal process. I think I’ve worked more closely with him in tailoring the role to him than I have with other actors in the past. And he just has such a deep reverence for the text and word, I can trust his taste as deeply as I feel I can trust my own. I’ve never had that kind of close trust with an actor on a play before.
Have you met Nick Yarris?
Yeah, I have met Nick. Nick has become a huge part of my life, and mostly in the last year. I’ve spent not that much time with him in person. I have met him in person, but we have a daily text relationship.
So how long is the show? What’s the run?
It’s only about two months. We close the end of November. It sold out in about two hours! So it’s really exciting. It’s a lot of pressure for both Adrien and I, but feels just really thrilling that Nick’s story can be brought to a wider audience, and can put the audience in the position of empathizing and thinking about death row in the American legal system.
Now, I have been told you are Netflix’s “go-to” writer... Is there anything you’re working on that you can disclose to The Hollywood Reporter?
[Laughs.] I have not been saying that! I have five projects at Netflix, so they’ve been a really wonderful home for me, for many different projects, both in film and TV. I’m adapting a best-selling Rebecca Yarros novel for Dylan Clark Productions. That’s all I can say about that.
Oh wow. Her fanbase is huge. Is it Fourth Wing?
It’s a huge responsibility to live up to the ferocity of Rebecca Yarros’ fandom and a challenge I’m excited for. All I can say about the book is that it’s not Fourth Wing, but like all of Rebecca’s books it is an epic, sweeping story and what Rebecca does so well is build these incredibly complicated worlds.
With each project I’ve written for Netflix, they’ve allowed me to write on a bigger canvas. The Rebecca Yarros book is definitely the biggest scale story I’ve adapted and am deeply grateful for the opportunity.
What else are you working on?
Amy and the Orphans, the movie that I’m writing and directing — that’s at Netflix and Jason Bateman is producing that with his company Aggregate [Films].
I’m in early development with Sony on a project around Playboy. I was inspired by a story that stood out from the book Mr Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream by Steve Watts.
What can you tell us about that — and who would be your dream casting for Hugh Heffner?
I’ll tell you that it follows a particular woman’s journey through the Playboy Empire in the late ‘80s when Playboy is on the decline.
From working so closely with Adrien Brody the last few months, he’s top of my mind for this and so many of my projects, but someone I could see for Hugh Hefner who could brilliantly balance the tone that I’m trying to achieve and play both hero and villain. For the female lead, I think someone like Sabrina Carpenter would be unexpected and thrilling.
What is it that Sony and Netflix see in you that they like so much?
Okay, I want to think about this. I think I write character first. And tone. My dad’s a comedian, all my uncles are comedians. I grew up in the back of comedy clubs. I think I am as much that person as I am someone who’s political and interested in social issues. And I feel like writing has been about bridging those two worlds. So I think the tone of the things I write tend to be very serious subjects, but told in really humorous ways. That’s just my voice, and I would guess that that’s why — the unexpected approach to certain subject matters.
And finally, you had a stage adaptation of The Artist running earlier this year in England?
Yes. It’s an adaptation of the [2012] best picture winner, the black and white silent film. It’s directed and choreographed by Drew McOnie, [who] I’ve co-adapted this with. It’s part silent, part play, part musical dance show starring the incredible American dancer Robbie Fairchild, who is an American in Paris and has had an incredible career with New York City Ballet.
We opened here [in Plymouth, England] in the spring, and that will have a future life — which is yet to be announced.
To say you are busy is an understatement! How do you find the time to sleep? Do you feel like you’re at the peak of your career, like things are really flying for you right now?
I feel really grateful and lucky to be in this moment in my career. For many, many years, you write stories and can’t get people to read them. Or you write stories and no one produces them, but you just read them in your living room with friends. And I feel like, step by step, I’ve been able to find audiences, and in the finding of the audiences you get a bigger platform for these stories I feel are really important.
The thing that I’m most excited about in this year is just these deep collaborations with actors like Kristin Chenoweth, Adrien Brody. I’ve just gotten really excited about writing for specific actors. And I feel like that’s changed my writing.
Lastly, with the U.S. election only a few weeks away, and as someone who writes extensively on social and political issues, I do want to ask about your current take on where things are headed in your native America.
I am choosing to feel optimistic and choosing to picture a world where a fascist is not our leader. This election is so clear where the divide in the country [is]. One [candidate], I feel like, represents regression, and one represents progress. I’m very clear on who I’ll be voting for. I think it’s a really scary time where America is trying to figure out who we are as a nation, and something that we’ve been trying to figure out for a long time, but it feels like it’s really bubbling to the surface in this election.
I had a play that opened in California called The Year to Come, which was about one family over 20 years, on the same night, moving backwards in time from the first Trump election to 2016, and tracking that 20 years. Tracking how the politics of so many people has shifted. I have so many aunts and uncles and cousins who used to be liberal, and then over time, became more and more right wing. Why that has happened, and where that shift occurred, is something that I am still trying to figure out. I think the changing idea of who America thinks itself to be is on the on the ballot right now.
My theory is, [Trump] lost in a landslide last time, actually, and I can’t imagine he has more followers. I think he has only lost followers. That’s what I’m hoping. I have to believe in people. Or else, it’s just… how do you even exist?
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