Kirsten Smith wrote Legally Blonde and last summer's House Bunny starring Anna Faris. Last year, she teamed up with Glamour magazine to direct her first film, "The Spleenectomy" as part of Reel Moments, a series of shorts directed by Hollywood's leading women, from A-list actresses to those who, like Smith, work behind the scenes. Hulu recently spoke to Smith by phone, where we asked her about Reel Moments and what it was like to direct Faris, her longtime friend and collaborator, in "The Spleenectomy." You can also learn more about Glamour's Reel Moments in the Hulu Blog. — Rebecca Harper, Hulu.comHulu: Can you tell us a little about "The Spleenectomy" and how you got involved with Glamour's Reel Moments?
Smith: First, I'm really excited you guys are going to air it — is that right, to say "air," even if it's going to be on the web? Is it "airing?" What's the appropriate verb?"Air" works. I think we also refer to it as "streaming." Or "playing on Hulu."
Playing, yes, that's it. I'm really excited you guys are going to play it. It happened through Glamour magazine, who has a program called Glamour Reel Moments. Normally they have actresses who make their directing debuts. This past year, they decided to use two actors and then have the third film be a grant, a contest open to women who were in the movie business but hadn't really had a chance to get behind the camera yet. So I applied for that grant and wrote a statement about why I really wanted to direct, and included some of my clips from films and things. I got that grant and I got to go on the great, crazy, wonderful ride of making a short film in three days. Well, the shooting took three days, but the prepping took much longer. I loved it because, as a writer — which is my day job — there's kind of a mystery to how you make the transition from writer to director, and I loved the opportunity to do it on a somewhat smaller scale and sort of figure out if the shoe would fit. So what did you think?
I think the shoe totally fits! I loved doing it. I just did another shoot film for Glamour that we shot on Tuesday. It was a great experience. Part of it, too, is that I was working with an elite actress who is a great friend, Anna Faris. I've known her and worked with her as a writer, and so we have a shorthand way of communicating. We just have a great time together, so that really made it lovely and easy. She was kind of teaching me a little bit as we went along because she's got so much experience. It was great to be in collaboration with someone you respect so much and who you genuinely love as a person. Did you have any strange moments working with Anna, someone who's been partner and collaborator with you, when you were telling her what to do? Any awkward moments?
Oh no, I loved telling her what to do. [Laughs.] No, I'm just an open type of person, and if she has a suggestion, I want to hear it. She has so many great ideas. That was what I realized was a major part of directing — creating a place where I wanted to hear not only her ideas, but everyone's ideas. If you are open that way, then you inspire people to give you their best creative notions. And what's more fun than being creative? If people know they can do that, whether it's Anna or craft services guy, let's do it, you know?Could you tell us a little about the story behind The Spleenectomy?
All of the Glamour shorts are inspired by real-life inspirational stories that readers write in to the magazine. Because they do receive a lot of submissions, the producers figured out what the top 50 of those would be, which stories might be most appropriate. [Fellow 2008 directors Demi Moore and Courteney Cox] and I got those top 50 choices. Personally, I think we all connected with different stories. But the moment I got those 50 stories, I just went over to Anna's house and was like "Let's look at these together and try to figure out what makes us laugh the most." We came across the story about a woman who works in the community theater — I don't believe she's actress in the original piece. She has kind of a bad day, and she spilled a bottle of wine on herself. And I guess we just saw the words "community theater" and started thinking about an actress, an overzealous aspiring community theater actress. That just made us laugh. Then basically, I was talking to another friend of mine, Marc Klein — he's a writer that I actually met on the picket line during the writer's strike; we met on the first day of picketing — [and] I was telling him about this short. As we were having dinner, we kind of figured out the plot right then and there. We invented quite a lot of detail, quite a lot. I don't know if you've seen… Yes, I have. It really evolved from the "wine on the shirt" story.
[Laughs.] Yeah, but the character was what Anna and I sort of gravitated towards, and then Marc and I came up with the story. What opportunities do you think these films provide to women, now that they're getting a chance to be behind the camera, directing?
Well, it's invaluable because nobody else other than Glamour has been doing this year in and year out. I do feel like it is a great opportunity to demystify the directing experience. Until you are actually doing it, you kind of know what the job is, but you don't know exactly. The shorts are really well produced by Francesca Silvestri and Kevin Chinoy [as well as Glamour's Bill Wackerman and Leslie Russo]. They have produced all the shorts since the inception of the program, so they really know what they’re doing. They're able to guide us really well. They are also nicely funded, so you're getting a chance to create a real movie. I don't think there's anything else out there like it. It's certainly a gift. I hope they are able to continue doing it because it's so much fun, and I think a lot of great work has come out of it. I know Kate [Hudson] has her film [Cutlass, also available on Hulu] in the Tribeca Film Festival this year, so the films have really had a lot of success.There aren't a whole lot of films written by women and for women. You and Anna have certainly done that with some of your projects, but what do you think about these films and the messages they deliver for women out there?
The stories are all very different, but I think they're offering a message of empowerment and inspiration and, you know, seizing that moment at that crossroads in your life and doing something great with it. Daring to be yourself and follow your bliss, I suppose.What projects are you working on now?
Currently I have a few things in the works. I work with a writing partner, and she and I have a movie coming out July 24, The Ugly Truth. It stars Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler, so we're really excited about that. It's good. I'm really, really excited. It's kind of our first adult romantic comedy. It's R-rated, and it's racy and funny. We're writing another movie for Anna [Faris] and Paramount, and I also have a project that I executive produced called Whip It! It's directed by Drew Barrymore and stars Ellen Page and it's going to be released in October through Fox Searchlight, so you'll probably start hearing about that really soon; it's a good movie. I'm compulsive. I work on, I don't know, 20 projects at once, so I'm doing a lot more, but I think those are the ones you're going to end up hearing about in the immediate future.How do you do that? How do you juggle so much stuff at once?
I'm kind of a compulsive collaborator. I really love to work with other writers. That project that I produced, "Whip It!," I developed with the screenwriter, and so I love working with writers, I love collaborating with actors... I just met Zooey Deschanel, and she has a lot of great ideas and wants to figure out how to craft a vehicle for herself. I have an open-door policy about working with people and developing ideas. I'm developing a couple things to direct, so I have three hats to wear: writer, producer and director, and I like it. It makes me feel like I can do anything, that I don't have to be pigeonholed, you know? And the people you just named off are the who's who in young Hollywood right now. It must be pretty exciting.
Yeah, I know. I feel lucky. It's such a great time. I feel really blessed all the time. I feel like this is a little moment in my life when I get to be able to work with all these ladies that I admire so much. It's pretty crazy and I just want to do everything, you know? Well, with that in mind, it makes sense that you're doing so much right now.
You know, life ends and I think in Hollywood, your career has a certain cap on it in terms of how long you can really work and be effective in the movie business and keep selling things. So I just want to make the most of my time, my fruitful and creative time.