Jessica Knoll

Jessica Knoll Instagram – The first time I spoke to @brunapapandrea, it was 2014 and she had just sped-read an early copy of Luckiest Girl Alive. That was the year she produced Wild and Gone Girl and was in the process of casting a show no one watched called Big Little Lies. I was SO nervous to speak to her—I held the superwoman pose in my office at Self magazine for a full minute. The New York Times once appropriately described Bruna as having a “machine gun cadence” and I was grimacing and sweating trying to decipher every word she was battering me with about all the various paths we could take to develop Luckiest Girl into a movie. I was too intimidated and overwhelmed to say what was really on my mind, which was—I will follow you anywhere, just please, please, let me write it, even though I have zero screenwriting experience and you have an arsenal of talented and award winning writers you could call on to do this. It took a few weeks, with @michellerweiner working the sidelines and helping me rehearse the ask. Bruna was quiet at first—something I remember bc it almost never happens 😉, then she said, “I’m sending you a book.” (It was Minghella on Minghella—by her mentor). Seven years later we’ve got a movie on which I am the sole writer—which I’m told is a rarity for an author in this industry—bc Bruna took a chance on me when she did not have to. I know I went to Greece to celebrate YOUR birthday, Bruna, but that will always be your priceless gift to me. Thank you to the moon and back, and happy big fat Greek birthday to you🍀 💜 🇬🇷 | Posted on 22/Jul/2022 19:00:01