We Asked ... Shauna Cross, "Whip It"

Whip It screenwriter Shauna Cross has a soft spot for rebels and misfits who triumph using their wit and resilience.

Directed by and featuring Drew Barrymore, Whip It, released October 2, is an adaptation of Cross' novel Derby Girl. The film stars Ellen Page as Bliss, a teen who trades in small-town beauty pageants for roller derby. The film also features Marcia Gay Harden and Kristen Wiig.

Cross plays roller derby for the Los Angeles Derby Dolls under the moniker "Maggie Mayhem," and Whip It is based on her own experiences.

Currently, she is developing an HBO comedy pilot for Ellen Barkin and adapting Gayle Forman's novel If I Stay. She also wrote the screenplay Live Girls Unite!, the true story of a group of badass exotic dancers in San Francisco who formed their own labor union.

The editors of Variety chose Cross as one of the "Ten Screenwriters to Watch" in 2008. Shauna Cross speaks with StoryLink about writing from personal experience, "movies starring girls that aren't chick flicks," and her journey from Derby Doll to Hot New Screenwriter.

How did you go from Derby Girl to one of Variety’s top ten screenwriters to watch?
I was a screenwriter before I was a Derby Girl. I was here, it just took a while for people to notice.

I was a writer and was optioning my scripts here and there, and making a living doing that. I stumbled into doing Derby for fun. It was just an insane experience [worth telling], and I thought, “I’m going to write something I want to write about, just for fun.” And that’s why I did it as a book. I thought, “This is so small, nobody will want to see it; it’s so special, I just have to get it off my chest.” So that’s how I started it as a book. And it sold really fast. I quickly realized there would have to be a movie version, and that got set up really fast. I backed into the break I was trying to create for myself.

I believed in how special this little story I wanted to tell was, so I thought, “If I do this as a book the risk was really low and if it goes okay, then maybe [something bigger would come of it].” Because Hollywood loves an idea that somebody already bought. I don’t know that I would have sold the movie the way I did if it weren’t already a book.

Are you going to go back to writing novels or will you stick with screenplays?
Now that I am adapting other novels, I am dying to finish a couple more novels. It’s a time balance. The big difference between the two is in the book world, editors are so sweet - “Just let us know when you have it done.” The minute you sell a screenplay or a pitch or get hired for a job, four weeks later, the producer’s like: “How’s it going? Where’s it at?” I guess it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.

I love doing both for different reasons. The book is your own. With a screenplay, someone goes to direct it - and they adopt your kid and they raise it.

Whose story does Whip It tell?
It’s definitely a collage of personal things versus being my literal story. … I’m from Austin, Texas, and I always wanted to write a funny, girl, coming-of-age movie set in Texas. … When I started playing Derby, I knew the whole revival started in Austin, … so I had to write it from that place.

Kristin Wiig’s character uses my name Maggie Mayham in the movie. I always say Bliss (Ellen Page’s character) was me when I was that age and Maggie has the same sensibilities … as me now.

How did you get involved in Roller Derby?
I was looking for a tennis partner on craigslist, and I stumbled across an ad by some girls who wanted to start a league in LA. Having heard about Derby, I was pretty intrigued, so when I saw the ad, I was totally game. The inaugural 20 of us met at a bar - at Canter’s Deli. Nobody knew how to play the sport, but everybody already had a name. I just thought, “These were the coolest girls I had ever met.” So, we hung in there and started skating and found practice places, and it slowly built.

Initially it took me a while to actually write about it, because I was very protective of it - I didn’t want to exploit it. It could have been a really bad, inaccurate, opportunistic, cynical version of this movie. And I always wanted to preserve what it really is. And Drew [Barrymore] was a really great partner and she got that right away. She came really fully stocked with ideas of what she wanted the movie to look like. She was just so on it. And as someone who ultimately wants to direct, it’s important to look for cool, female role models.

Do you think you are going to get pigeon-holed as a writer of female movies?
It’s funny, because I think of Whip It and I think of some of the other things I am writing as movies starring girls that aren’t chick flicks, because I am not a chick-flick person.

I have several projects with all cool, interesting women. I also grew up with five brothers, and I really love boy stuff. And I am very conscious of working on another project that are boys, because I want to be able to do both.

There are a lot of interesting female writers right now, and it’s really fun to see. I think we’re potentially at a moment when some of the girl movies are getting a little more interesting. It’s not one movie, it’s several, and I hope it does well enough at the box office that it encourages Hollywood to make more. I do think the audience is there.

What is your writing process?
For screenplays, I do the basic brainstorming of a hundred million completely random thoughts, dialogue pieces, set pieces, images, and themes - what I want to say and what it’s all about. And then I go and do a pretty intense outline and treatment. All the prep work is very important, because once you start writing, that’s when it’s really fun. And you’re always rewriting.

For the novel, I outline a little bit. But mostly I start writing. You can spend three pages talking about what the interior of the house is like. You can fall really in love with the words and spend some time creating images with words. With screenplays, the story’s more on the move.

I always had more respect for novelists - I thought it was more intimidating. Now that I’ve done them both, I realize that screenwriting is much harder, because you have to nail every beat. I feel like I am on writer-vacation when I write a book, because I can do all the things I can’t when I’m writing a screenplay. But I get inspired doing both.

What was the process for pitching the novel into a film?
Basically the pitch was down to a 25, 30 minute verbal presentation of what the movie is. You’re like a carny, going from studio to studio and putting on a show. It’s kind of a brutal reality, because writers have a hermit side, but [to pitch], you have to be kind of a performer. And every time I pitch, when I am driving to a studio, I think, “How fast can I drive to Mexico and start a new life and create a new identity and be somewhere else so I don‘t have to do this?”

The key is you have to love the story you’re telling in a pitch.

Was anything lost or gained in adapting Derby Girl into a screenplay?
I think the screenplay and the movie really captured what was in the book.

The book is definitely more interior. The story with the boy is bigger and more emotionally raw and kind frayed and a mess - so that got dialed down in the movie. How the skating championship played out got dialed in a different way. So, they kind of flipped, but they ultimately served the same lesson and vibe. You’re just tweaking the dials and the emotions.

I feel like they’re really great companion pieces. I also was able to write more of the team in the movie, because I knew which actors were going to play them. In the book it was really in her head and her point of view. I was able to build those characters up, and that was really fun.

I got to tell the story from so many different angles, between the combination of the two. … It was very rewarding.

What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started out?
This whole experience gave me a lesson about writing what I am really passionate about and saying “no” to things I am not. The way I fell in love with this project and got to really write my point of view and how I see the world and how I think girls can be raunchy and funny and vulnerable.

I was doing all these projects I love and that I feel so strongly about and I stumbled into my voice. I didn’t understand that your voice … when you are writing nuance character pieces, that’s your gold.