Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Fields.
Hi Lauren, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
After graduating from USC nearly a decade ago, I started out making shorts and web series with friends. On one of those shoots, I met a woman who was working as a 2nd AD trainee on the Netflix movie Bright and needed extra on-set PAs for a day. That one day led to nearly two years of on-set PA gigs. I always knew writing and directing was where I wanted to end up, so I put out to my PA network that I wanted to be a showrunner’s assistant. Eventually, one of my PA friends put me up for a job, and I got it, working for Nicolas Winding Refn on Amazon’s Too Old To Die Young.
From there, I’ve been fortunate to slowly climb the support staff ladder, working as a director’s assistant in pre-production on WandaVision and Loki, writers’ assistant and script coordinator on Starz’s Blindspotting, script coordinator on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, where I got the opportunity to write a comic book for DC (Earth-Prime #3), and script coordinator on The Flash, where I got my first TV writing credit (The Flash #911).
While working on those series, I’ve also been building my personal creative portfolio. My original scripts have advanced for consideration in the Sundance Episodic Lab, Black List / WIF, and in the Top 100 of Launch Pad’s Feature Competition. I’ve also had a short film screen at HollyShorts and WME as part of an up-and-coming directors’ showcase.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Nope, definitely not. In the TV industry, you’re at the mercy of the cancellation/renewal powers that be. If you’re working on a show that gets canceled, then the opportunity to get promoted vanishes, and you’re looking for a new gig.
As support staff hoping to become a staff writer, all you can do is put your best foot forward, be helpful, be the most prepared person in the room, and keep writing your own material to build a killer portfolio for when that golden opportunity presents itself. The rest is luck.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do? What’re you most proud of?
My writing is filled with fast-talking, witty, seemingly pessimistic but secretly optimistic characters. I love telling stories of women who overcome impossible circumstances across the genre spectrum from dramedy to period to sci-fi.
I’m most proud of how I thrived in 2023 despite the strike. In late January 2023, I was on set in Vancouver, producing my episode of The Flash. After the series wrapped and the strike started, I got to work writing, churning out two new original hour-long pilots and a re-write of a feature between long hours on the picket line. Faced with adversity, I focus on what I can control: my writing output.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Favorite is probably not the right word for it, but one of my funniest childhood memories happened when I was 13 and visiting LA for the first time. My parents and I made the trek from my hometown in South Florida during my spring break to visit my 23-year-old brother, who had recently made LA his home.
My brother took us to the now-shuttered Ammo on Melrose, a regular celebrity haunt. Sitting in a corner booth, my little 13-year-old self had an absolute nervous breakdown when I saw my celebrity crush, Orlando Bloom, having brunch across the room.
My parents encouraged me to go introduce myself. Embarrassed, I asked my brother to accompany me. As I approached Orlando’s table with my brother a few steps behind, I lost all sense of reality and put my hand out to shake Orlando’s at the exact moment he’d taken a bite of his food. Never before at a loss for words, in that moment, I froze, eventually stutter-mumbling something about being a big fan. Thankfully for my fragile teenage ego, Orlando couldn’t have been more gracious. After swallowing down his gulp, he smiled, took my hand, shook it, and thanked me. He even threw my brother (who he probably assumed was my bodyguard at 6’3) a nod. I left Ammo floating and determined to never wash my right hand again.
Decades later, hand washed many thousands of times and having worked with many celebrities since I am thankful to say I’ve realized they are human beings just like us.
Contact Info:
- Website: laurenefields.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/
thelaurenfields
