Interview (Part 2): Laura Stoltz

My interview with 2023 Black List writer for her script Last Resort.

This is a special interview for me: Laura Stoltz is one of my former students. She wrote a complex, compelling screenplay “Last Resort” which was named to the 2023 Black List. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Laura about her creative background, the craft of screenwriting, and the challenges of writing a script with such dark subject matter while infusing it with considerable humor.

Today in Part 2 of a 6-part series to run each day this week, Laura talks about how she quit a promising career as a creative producer to return to screenwriting and the inspiration for her Black List script “Last Resort.”

Scott: You were associate producer on one Ant-Man movie, and a co‑producer on others, so you were intimately involved in those projects.

Laura: Definitely. Yeah, from the get‑go.

Scott: We met up a few times over the years and emails. And every time, I’d hit you up with the inevitable, “I hope you’re still writing.” So, were you writing during those years or was it something you circled back to?

Laura: I was not writing. Just the way the cards started falling, I starting thinking, “You know what? Maybe I’m just a better creative producer.” I had found this interesting career where you’re a producer, but you’re intimately involved in story.

It was, “OK, I know story structure from all my screenwriting classes. I love character. If I get to sit here in the writer’s room and pitch and try to make this thing better, even though I don’t get to be the one that actually types the words on the page, it’s okay. If I can be an active participant in that part of it, I could see myself being creatively fulfilled enough to make that a solid career choice.” I also love the business side of things, so I had convinced myself, “This is a good intersection of my two skills,” I guess.

Scott: Creative producing?

Laura: Exactly. Maybe I was lying to myself a little bit. I didn’t write on my own things because on these big, gigantic movies, even when you go home at night, you’re still thinking about that movie. If I was writing on the side or something, it just felt like I wasn’t doing my day job correctly. Maybe that’s just me and my southern guilt.

So yeah, I was not writing other than just a couple little…I mean my notes app is full to the brim.

Scott: When did you start re‑engaging with your writing?

Laura: Yeah. I quit just over a year ago and to completely devote my time to writing. It came about, I had one kid in 2021, I was pregnant with a second at the time, and I was exhausted from making this big movie.

I thought, “I don’t love LA enough to keep kicking this pebble down the stairs. I would rather really try and do what I came out here to do, especially because I have kids now. If I don’t do it now, once their roots start growing here, we’re probably not going to go anywhere.

“Let me just try, if it doesn’t work out, maybe we’ll move further out into the suburbs or to wherever, back to the East Coast, who knows.” Luckily, I have an incredibly supportive husband who also took many of the same courses at UNC. He understood. I just had to try.

I had to take some time to get that creative juice flowing again. I read some books on writing, listened to a lot of podcasts. I started a writer’s group, kicked around some ideas, and then hit the ground running with “Last Resort”.

Scott: Do you remember the script you wrote at UNC for the Master Screenwriting class you took with me … called “Utopos”?

Laura: Oh, that is what it was called. Ah, I couldn’t remember what I ended up calling it!

Scott: Was that the last script you wrote before “Last Resort”?

Laura: Yes, the last feature. When I was living in London shooting “Quantumania,” I did write and direct a short film. I had written a couple of short films, but yes, as far as features go, that was the last one.

Scott: Life is so strange, isn’t it? The twists and turns, at the time when you experience them, it can be like, “What is going on?” But then when you look back at them later, they can start to make sense.

I could look at your creative journey … you’ve been an intern, an assistant, a producer, worked on the production side, worked with the creative producing side … that’s got to benefit you as a writer because you understand so much more of the business than if you hadn’t gone through those experiences.

Laura: 1,000 percent. A year ago, I went through a time where I thought, “Man, did I waste my last 12 years out here just being part of the machine, and not feeding my creative spirit or writing or whatever?” The answer is no, because every single experience you have is going to inform your writing.

If you sit in a dark room 24/7, even if you’re churning out 30, 40 pages a day, you have to live to be able to gather those experiences to put on the paper. So yes, you’re totally right.

Scott: That’s a great segue into the script, “Last Resort” which, as we’ve discussed, was named to the 2023 Black List. Here’s a logline:

“When a grieving woman takes a trip to a posh, Icelandic resort designed to assist its guests with ending their lives, she meets people who finally force her to accept the things she cannot explain.”

What was the inspiration for this story?

Laura: Obviously, trigger warning, this is going to talk about suicide and depression. When I was younger, I had several friends end their lives, and I was too young, middle school, high school, college.

I just didn’t understand. As I got older, life stuff happens. I’ve dealt with bouts of depression and a bit of suicidal ideation in high school. I remember going to my doctor and he put me on medicine. We would check in.

I was like, “OK, other than medicine, what can be done? Obviously, it could be a chemical imbalance, it could be circumstances. Do you have any tips on how to deal with depression, especially in high school students?” He said, adrenaline. I thought that was so interesting.

He said, if you ever think that you might not want to be here anymore, go take up hang gliding, go skydiving, try these things that you might otherwise find too dangerous. If you’re going to kick the bucket anyway, just go for it and see if it changes your perspective on things and on living a little bit.

That was probably 15 years ago. It has always stuck with me. I even thought about writing this at Carolina. This is a terrible title, but it was more of a “Suicide Camp” for young adults who might feel the need to leave the world.

Instead, their parents or whoever send them to this camp where they can do drugs, they can go skydiving. Basically, just trying to find a different way of looking at things at this specialized place.

Fast forward 10 or 15 years, and now I’m looking at this idea from the perspective of somebody in their mid‑30s. That’s where “Last Resort” came from. There’s still that initial kernel but with a little bit more of a mature look at it.

Scott: It sounds like you had a personal connection to this, but the seeds of that have been gestating for quite some time.

Laura: Exactly.

Scott: Are there places like this? I know that there are right‑to‑die countries and right‑to‑die states, but are there like these posh resorts?

Laura: No. The closest you would get is, I think it’s called Dignitas or something, in Switzerland. I think it’s more of a doctor’s office. You just walk in, you sign the papers, and then you inject yourself and you die. You don’t actually stay there. No, there’s not anywhere quite like this.

Tomorrow in Part 3, Laura discusses how in writing the script, she balanced drama associated with contemplating suicide and humor.

For Part 1 of the interview series, go here.

Laura is repped by Heroes and Villains Entertainment.

Instagram: @lestoltz

Twitter / X: @yostoltz

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