In this screenwriter interview, we talk to Jane Matsuda who just got an agent and is in negotiations to sell her Drama/Romance screenplay A LIFE APART after using our service.
SCRIPT MAILER: So Jane, please tell us a little bit about yourself.
JANE: I was born in LA to Japanese immigrant parents. I grew up in Torrance and then went to Art College where I trained to be a graphic designer. I then worked in marketing for different companies throughout Southern California, before I got fed-up with the corporate world and decided to move to Tokyo to teach English.
SCRIPT MAILER: Tell us about that. Why did you move to Tokyo, Japan?
JANE: Both my parents are Japanese, so I always had a connection to Japan growing up. I can understand and speak Japanese too, but I can’t write or read Kanji. And amazingly I’d never been to Japan before so I had a longing deep within my heart to see the country that was such a part of me and my history.
SCRIPT MAILER: What was your experience like in Japan?
JANE: Japan has an amazing culture with a wonderful history, but it was a culture shock! Although I look Japanese, I think and act like an American girl. So trying to communicate with the Japanese people was sometimes really difficult, especially because I always spoke my mind which is a big “no no” in Japanese culture. On the positive side, the people are very friendly and patient and welcoming to foreigners and it was amazing to see all the places that my parents had told me so much about when I was growing up. The food is also incredible. Oishi!
SCRIPT MAILER: Tell us about your screenplay, A LIFE APART, where did it all begin?
JANE: A LIFE APART was inspired by my relationship with my mom and our connection to Japan. My mum is real Japanese, She was born and raised in Japan and came to America in her late 20s. As for myself, I was born in America and raised here, my upbringing compared to my mom’s upbringing was very different. Ever since I was little kid I noticed that my mom wasn’t like all the other American moms. She was different, She thought differently and she raised me in a different way to all my friends. As I got a older I started to think about my mom’s upbringing in Japan, and how it was so different to mine.
My relationship with my mom was always really tense and difficult. We could never understand one another. She thought I was this wild, rebellious kid. And I thought that she was this strict parent with a lot of crazy ideas. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized how similar we actually were, and despite the culture difference, she was still my mum. I grew to understand her and she grew to understand me–I also came to realize that we shared a lot of the same dreams and insecurities growing up, we just expressed ourselves in a different way.
SCRIPT MAILER: It sounds really interesting. So what is your screenplay A LIFE APART all about?
JANE: A LIFE APART tells two stories at the same time. On one hand, it tells the story of a young Japanese girl growing up in Japan in the 1950s, in a world run by men. This girl is searching for her freedom and her passion in life. She’s also searching for love. The other story, tells the story of a young Japanese American girl growing up in the states who was also searching for her freedom and passion in life. And, at the same time, she is also searching for true love. The story is told along two parallel time lines. So we cut between the two women as they grow up, fall in love, encounter family problems, betrayal, heartbreak, and rebirth. Towards the end of the story we come to realize that the two women are actually mother and daughter.
SCRIPT MAILER: That’s a nice bookend to your story. Was this your first screenplay?
JANE: Yes, this is my first screenplay. Although I tried writing this story as a novel before, and I’d also written a lot of short stories but nothing that was good enough to be published.
SCRIPT MAILER: Why did you decide to turn this story into a script?
JANE: I love movies, I’ve always loved movies. And movies are such an American thing that it just seemed appropriate turn the story into a screenplay. The fact that this screenplay was picked up by an agent was more amazing to me than anyone else. I really just wrote this screenplay for myself and didn’t expect anyone else to be that interested in it. I mean it’s not exactly a commercial idea, right? But my friend read the script and she told me that I should get an agent and try to get my work out there. If it wasn’t for her and her encouraging words then I wouldn’t have had the courage to send this script out.
This really is the American dream, and the real ending to my story. That a little girl from Torrance who was born to immigrant parents, can write a little story and overnight she can get an agent as well as interest from studios and produces. America really is the land of opportunity, and after living in Japan, I’m so thankful to my parents that they had the courage to move across the Pacific and start a new life here in the States, affording me many great opportunities that they themselves never had growing up.
SCRIPT MAILER: It’s so encouraging to hear about your success. Do you have any advice for all the other screenwriters out there?
JANE: honestly, I don’t feel qualified to give anyone advice. I mean, I just wrote a story that I was passionate about. Maybe that’s the only advice I can give. Find a story that you really connect with and write that.