Another Earth

I recently watched a movie called “Another Earth”. The interesting thing about it, to me, was how it came to be made.

Brit Marling, who played the movie’s starring role, graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in economics. She was offered a job with Goldman Sachs but decided, instead, to move to Los Angeles and pursue a job in the film industry. After a couple of years, during which she was offered roles such as “the cute blonde in horror movies”, she decided the best way to get a decent role in a movie was to write the movie herself. So she learned how to write movie scripts. Then she wrote two movie scripts simultaneously, one in the mornings and one in the afternoons. And that is how Another Earth and Sound of My Voice came to be written and ultimately made. (Brit co-wrote each film with the film’s director.) Both movies premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. Both movies were generally liked by the critics.

Here’s how Brit puts it: “How terrifying to surrender your life to being chosen all the time. Having to be chosen and re-chosen. Writing so that I can act became a way of having not more control over my future but not having to wait for permission. You can choose yourself. Hmm, who should play this part? I nominate me!”

There’s something to admire in being able to “find a way” to get it done.