Interview (Part 1): Cameron Fay

My interview with the 2024 Black List writer for his script Until You.

Cameron Fay wrote the screenplay Until You which landed on the 2024 Black List. Recently, I had the opportunity to do a deep dive with Cameron into his filmmaking background, writing his Black List script, and his approach to the craft of screenwriting.

Today in Part 1 of a 6-part series to run each day this week, Cameron talks about his film school experience and how he made the transition into Hollywood.

Scott Myers: Let’s start in your background here. I believe you were born in Virginia.

Cameron Fay: Yeah. I was born in Alexandria, Virginia. Then at 10, my mom moved to Fairfax, Virginia. My mom came here from Iran in 1978 and was a grad student at GW University in DC where she met my dad. They got married. Years later, you know how it goes, I was their only child. They got divorced when I was little.

I mainly lived with my mom. Her two brothers and sister moved here from Iran as well, so I had lots of cousins in the area.

Scott: Iran’s got a long history of cinema.

Cameron: Oh, yeah. Farhadi. Kiarostami. So many wonderful storytellers have come out of Iran. That said, I was a bit of the black sheep of the family as the only one wanting to get into the film and TV business. My grandfather worked for the government in Kerman, Iran, where my mom grew up, in a department similar to welfare here to help poor people. And my grandmother was a school teacher. My mom has a PhD in biochemistry. In general, they’re more science‑brained and lots of my cousins are doctors.

But growing up, I was like, “I’m writing stories!” My mom was ultimately supportive of it. She worked hard so I could follow my dreams. And I think my mom loves movies. Whenever there’s an Iranian filmmaker that has an interesting film out, she’ll definitely make sure I know about it.

Scott: Where did this “black sheep” interest in writing and particularly film and TV come from?

Cameron: When I was a freshman in high school, I thought I wanted to be an electrical engineer. They had a course, an elective course, that was basically an electrical engineering class. I realized what I actually liked doing was taking apart TVs and stuff and putting them back together, like a TV repairman, but electrical engineering is much more complicated than that.

So I ended up dropping the class, and my tennis coach at the school taught a class called “Film Study.” I was telling him about dropping this engineering class and he’s like, “You should come take film study with me. We watch great old movies,” and I just thought like, “Watch movies? In school? For real? That sounds amazing.”

Mr. Byrd was his name. He showed us “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “Crooklyn,” “Sleepless In Seattle” “Seven Samurai,” so many great filmmakers’ films, and we got to make a short film in the class. Everyone was given a role, and I got to be the writer‑director, I think mainly because no one else wanted to do it. Most kids had taken the class to just take a nap, and I was one of the only awake people, mesmerized by these films. I caught the bug. I actually kept taking the class every semester, because he would show new films each semester, and we got to make a short film each time.

It really made me fall in love with filmmakers and writing and directing, and then I applied to NYU film school.

Scott: Was it film and TV, or did you have a specific concentration?

Cameron: Yeah, it was Tisch, film and TV. I actually thought when I entered, I wanted to be a cinematographer. I took a lot of cinematography classes. I was a DP for a lot of short films. I was just trying to shoot anything. I would get these scripts, and I’d be like, “Oh, man. The script is so horrible, but I have to build a reel.”

I would shoot these scripts. And eventually, I was like, “I think I could write a better script than this.” So I started writing scripts and taking writing classes at NYU, and the professors were really encouraging and saying, “You should make some of these. These are good scripts.”

I thought, “OK. Well, who should direct it?” I already had a cinematography background, and so I thought maybe I’ll just direct them too. That’s how I got into writing and directing more and switched my focus.

Scott: You did take some screenwriting classes at NYU?

Cameron: Yeah. Many. I ended up switching junior year, I switched and solely focused on writing and directing.

Scott: How did you make that jump from NYU to the LA scene?

Cameron: I was interning for a director in New York named Brett Morgen who made “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” the Robert Evans documentary. I loved that documentary so much, and I applied to be his intern. Then he got a show in LA, and he said, “Hey, when you graduate, move out to LA, and I’ll give you a job on the show as an assistant.”

So I did. The show had already started. It was already going when I moved out. I got to tour the offices. I got an apartment in Sherman Oaks with two roommates. Eight days after I moved to LA, the show was canceled.

So I started temping to make money. I started working very random jobs. I worked as an assistant to a songwriter named Marty Panzer. I worked for a director, an older director, as an assistant. His name was Robert Ellis Miller. He directed “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter,” starring Alan Arkin in 1969.

Scott: That’s a heartbreaking film. I remember that movie. Wow.

Cameron: I mean, he was a brilliant director. I’ll tell you, he had the coolest picture on his wall in his office. It was him directing a TV episode in the mid ’50s. And the picture was signed, “To Bob, from Bob.” It was a shot of him directing the youngest version of Robert Redford you’ve ever seen. What a cool gift Redford gave him.

It was one of Redford’s first roles. Miller would say, “You know, I discovered Redford.” I don’t know if that’s true but… that’s what he would say. He was a great guy. I just took these random jobs to be able to pay the rent while I was writing. Eventually, I worked as a nanny for an A-list actress as well.

Meanwhile, I had met enough managers, about four managers in the business who would read something of mine and say, “Yeah. It’s pretty good. Send me the next one.” They weren’t going to sign me yet, but thought I had something.

Eventually, I sent them what was my seventh feature that I had written, it was a script called “Unnatural Selection,” which I got signed off of by a manager at Mosaic at the time, and I signed with UTA as well. They sold it to Universal. That was my big entry into the world of being a professional writer.

Scott: Well, I guess we’re soulmates because that’s how I broke in. I sold something to Universal.

Cameron: Oh, yeah? Great. Hey. Universal’s starting careers, man.

Scott: Spielberg, you, and me.

Cameron: Yeah! Three peas in a pod.

Tomorrow in Part 2, Cameron discusses some of his directing projects and the inspiration for his screenplay Until You.

Cameron is repped by Paradigm and Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment.

For my interviews with dozens of other Black List writers, go here.