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"Believe In Yourself" An interview with screenwriter/actor Yvette Freeman
Thanks to AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women, The Blessing Way is Yvette Freeman’s first film project which recently was selected for Showtime’s Blackfilmmakers Showcase and will air on Showtime in Feburary 2001. She is in post production on her second film - a documentary about the positive influence of African Dance in a Los Angeles community. Her screenplay The Dream recently won the Hollywood Black Film Festival - Screenwriter Award. Has writing become a natural extension of your creative expression as an artist? Years of working as a character actress on some of the top television shows and as a singer /actress in musical theatre, on Broadway and off Broadway -- I realized no one knows my stories. The only way for my stories to be told -- is for me to tell them. So I stopped my defeating attitude of blaming ‘them’ for not writing about me and began to write. What freedom and joy writing has brought into my life. From what sources do you draw your creative inspirations? My inspiration for my stories come from my environment and history. I take stories from my world as an African American woman, my view of how things work, my reactions, my dreams, then I fictionalize them into stories that entertain.
What type of characters and stories interest you? I’m interested in the untold stories and off beat characters. I watch television and I see the same characters and stories repeated again and again. I’m hungry for stories that reflect life as it is not sugar coated or contrived. How has Movie Magic Screenwriter and/or Damatica Pro been helpful to you as a writer, as far as enabling you to create your vision on paper? Dramatica Pro guides you through the nitty grittty of creating your story. It’s a focusing tool. I’ve taken my story ideas with character sketches plug them into Dramatica Pro program. By the time I finished answering all of the questions my story is fully realized and I’m ready to write. Movie Magic Screenwriter is a God send! I can think it and write it. This software program is so well thought out and easy to operate. Using MMS frees me creatively so I don’t have to worry about formatting - - just writing. Where do you see yourself as a filmmaker & screenwriter in the distant future? In the distant future I seen myself creating and producing films. The internet and the digital camera has open up a new world for filmmakers -- a world where you can create and produce your own films. You don’t have to wait for a major studio to green light your project -- with some creative maneuvering you can do it yourself. We are living in exciting times! How important are film and script competitions to filmmakers as yourself. It gives me validation that my stories are of interest. Are there workshops and training courses particularly for women who aspire to be a screenwriter/filmmaker? If so, how did they assist you or why do you feel they are valuable? I was one of the lucky women who got into AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women. This program takes eight women with five years in the ‘business’ and guides them through the process of making a short film. - from script to finished project. My short film The Blessing Way is now on the festival circuit and screened on the Showtime Channel’s Black Filmmakers Showcase (Feb. 21 at 9:30pm and Feb. 25 at 11:15 am). These types of programs are great for connections, training and focusing a novice filmmaker. Any words of encouragement you would like to offer the budding screenwriter? Believe in yourself, study, observe and keep creating. If you sit at the table long enough eventually you’ll get served. YVETTE
FREEMAN As an actress, for the past seven television seasons, Yvette has played the role of Nurse Haleh Adams on the acclaimed dramatic series ER. She also played the funny but slightly evil character of Evelyn Smalley on the NBC sitcom series Working. Yvette has starred in the Broadway, First National, Paris and International companies of "Ain’t Misbehavin’." Other stage credits include leading roles in productions of "Elegies for Angels Punks and Raging Queens"; "Nunsense"; "The Wiz;" and "Show Boat" to name a few. Freeman’s feature film credits include roles in "Switch," "Dead Again," "Children of the Corn III," and "Angus Bethune." On television, she has starred in commercials and guest-starred in numerous series such as "Judging Amy", "Boston Public", "NYPD Blue," "The John Larroquette Show," "Living Single" and others. __________________________________________________________ |
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