Katie Silberman has an affinity for romantic comedies. She penned 2018’s Netflix hit “Set It Up,” a story about two assistants falling in love while plotting to get their terrible bosses together, and co-wrote this year’s meta rom-com “Isn’t It Romantic.” The latter sees Rebel Wilson’s cynical protagonist waking up in a romantic comedy, i.e. her own personal nightmare.
Silberman is particularly fond of classic screwball comedies such as “The Philadelphia Story” and “His Girl Friday” — they even served as her inspiration for “Set It Up,” which made the 2015 Black List — but she considers herself a fan of all eras of the rom-com. While the genre has a reputation of shortchanging women characters, Silberman believes it has produced many layered women’s stories.
“I just loved watching old romantic comedies because it felt like all the women in them really had things they wanted. The characters were grounded and the women really had lives outside of whatever romance they were developing,” she told Vulture. “[‘You’ve Got Mail’s’] Kathleen Kelly really wants to run her bookshop and keep her business afloat. In ‘Woman of the Year,’ one of my favorite rom-coms, Katharine Hepburn is a really successful journalist who’s trying to manage a relationship with a man who isn’t as comfortable with her professional success,” Silberman explained. “Even one of my favorites when I was little, ‘One Fine Day’ — which I feel like no one talks about! — Melanie [Michelle Pfeiffer] in that movie is a single, struggling working mother, but she had such a tangible life.”
Silberman aims to emulate those characters — women whose lives include love and a whole lot more — in her own work. “I wanted to watch movies where people were doing other things besides just falling in love,” she said. “That’s a great bar to try to reach for in all movies, but especially this genre. I wanted to try to make a movie starring the kinds of female characters that I loved so much.”
Silberman does, however, acknowledge that rom-coms are very limited in terms of on-screen representation. Most of the protagonists are white, conventionally attractive, straight, cis, and able-bodied. “Anyone who doesn’t look or behave like a traditional lead is relegated to a side character who only comments on the lead,” she observed in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
Luckily for us, her latest project centers on two female characters who, in most other movies, would be one-dimensional background players. “Booksmart,” which Silberman wrote with Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, and Sarah Haskins, is about two brainy high school seniors who decide to finally let loose on the night before graduation. Molly and Amy are funny, weird, and awkward, simultaneously naive and worldly. Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) is gay, and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) is plus-sized. In other words, they are the type of characters other movies tend to ignore or marginalize.
Next, Silberman will return to rom-coms with “Most Dangerous Game,” which will reunite her with Netflix and “Set It Up” stars Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell. Given her affection for the genre and her understanding of its shortcomings, it seems likely she’ll continue to push rom-coms and their depictions of women forward. And, yes, that includes creating female characters with jobs other than editor, baker, or architect. “My best friends are pediatric neurosurgeons and lawyers. They work at a news channel, they’re scientists who do weird blood research,” Silberman emphasized. “I’m ready to see a lady doing weird petri dish science experiments. That shows you how much I know about it — I don’t even know how to describe what she’d be doing — but smart ladies. Maybe a Supreme Court clerk in a rom-com.”
“Booksmart” opens May 24. You can still catch “Isn’t It Romantic” in theaters and “Set It Up” is streaming on Netflix.
Previously on Writer to Watch….
“Insecure” Scribe Amy Aniobi
Marquita Robinson of “GLOW” and “You’re the Worst”
“The Little Drummer Girl’s” Claire Wilson
“Speechless” and “Friends from College” Scribe Broti Gupta
Sierra Teller Ornelas of “Superstore”
“Sierra Burgess Is a Loser” Scribe Lindsey Beer
“Atlanta” Emmy Nominee Stefani Robinson
