Navigating Hollywood

It's Hollywood's Biggest Night! Filmmaker Allen Wolf shares surprising facts and trivia about the Academy Awards®, and his own experience being an Oscar® best man. We're also giving away prizes to listeners of the show.

Oscar® night is Hollywood’s biggest night of the year, if you work in movies, and that’s because of what the Oscars® represent - the highest achievement for a motion picture voted on by your peers. The Academy Awards® started in 1929 when they handed out their first awards at a dinner party for about 250 people at the blossom room of the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, but what's happened since?

Who paid 1.54 million to own an Oscar® ? which actor got jilted and then got revenge on the Oscar® stage?  Which film cost $280 million and didn't win Best Picture?

You'll find out all of that and more during this special episode about Hollywood's Biggest Night.

Links:

• Academy Awards Official Site

• Navigating Hollywood's Marriage Course, Pre-Marriage Course, Alpha Course

• Allen Wolf on IMDb, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

• Allen Wolf's website

• Allen Wolf's You're Pulling My Leg! book on Amazon

• Navigating Hollywood's Podcast Site

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Sheryl J. Anderson, the Creator and Executive Producer of the hit Netflix show Sweet Magnolias, discusses how she started as a storyteller, the way her life experience made her uniquely qualified to create this hit show, and how faith has played a crucial role for her as an artist. She also talks about her life priorities and how she has been able to get where she is today.

On writing Sweet Magnolias, Sheryl explains, "We had a running joke in the writer's room that we wanted to make the audience laugh out loud once an episode, cry once an episode, and then whatever they wanted to do in between was fine. But the running joke became that we wanted to do that to each other every day in the room and we laughed a lot together and we cried a lot together."

Allen ends the interview by asking about the cliffhanger in Sweet Magnolias. "Who was in the car?" See more at NavigatingHollywood.org.

Links:

• Sweet Magnolias Official Site

• Sweet Magnolias on Facebook

• Navigating Hollywood’s Marriage Course, Pre-Marriage Course, Alpha Course

• Sheryl J. Anderson on IMDb, Twitter

• Allen Wolf on IMDb, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

• Allen Wolf’s website

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Video for this episode can be found here.

Editor Harry Yoon discusses his work on the Oscar-nominated Minari, his editing of the upcoming Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, as well as how he survives and thrives in Hollywood.

Harry reveals how Minari was created and some of the challenges they experienced in the making of this award-winning movie. He talks about how he started as an editor, what it's like working on an independent film versus a major studio film, and how he keeps himself inspired as an artist and sharpened as an editor.  Surviving in Hollywood means that Harry has to find importance outside of his achievements and he shares how that has been possible.

Links:

• Marvel

• Minari

• Navigating Hollywood’s Marriage Course, Pre-Marriage Course, Alpha Course

• Harry Yoon on IMDb

• Allen Wolf on IMDb, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

• Allen Wolf’s website

Video for this episode can be found here.

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Daniel K. Hoh, a writer from ABC’s Grey's Anatomy spinoff, Station 19, and his wife Deborah King discuss his writing career, what inspires him, and the joys and challenges of being married in Hollywood.

Dan and Deb first met at a rooftop restaurant in Santa Monica on a cool fall evening in 2010. She was a lawyer and he was an ER doctor. After getting married in 2013, Deb switched her career to corporate healthcare and made a job of telling doctors what to do-both at work and at home! Dan eventually made a switch too, from practicing medicine to TV writing. He now spends most of his days being a storyteller and writes for Station 19 on ABC, a spinoff of Grey's Anatomy.

When Dan decided to pursue a career in writing, his wife didn't run away. He says, "I commend her for believing in me and for not running away and saying, I married you as this one person with a certain promise of stability and security and now you want to go do the most unstable job. We’re in the most unstable industry ever."

Dan is thankful for his life experience and says it's essential for being a good writer. "Being creative means nothing if you don't actually have the life experience to draw from. A writer who hasn't gone through a lot of interesting or difficult situations is less likely to have good stories than somebody who's been through a lot."

Links:

• Station 19

• Navigating Hollywood’s Marriage Course, Pre-Marriage Course, Alpha Course

• Daniel K. Hoh on IMDb

• Allen Wolf on IMDb, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

• Allen Wolf’s website

Video for this episode can be found here.

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Sarah Drew from Grey’s Anatomy talks about her career, the definition of success in Hollywood, her roles on Madmen, Everwood, and Glee, the advice Ed Harris gave to her when she was filming her first movie, what grounds her in the ups and downs of Hollywood, and more in this candid and inspiring conversation.

Sarah Drew’s first job was providing the voice role of “Stacy Rowe” on the animated series, Daria, when Drew was still in high school. Beginning in 2004, she was a featured cast member on the western series, Everwood. After having minor roles in the series, Private Practice and as “Kitty Romano” on Mad Men, Drew was cast in a recurring role as “Dr. April Kepner” on the acclaimed medical drama, Grey’s Anatomy. Sarah has also had supporting roles in the films, Radio, and American Pastime, as well as a starring role in the comedy, Moms’ Night Out. A resident of Los Angeles, Sarah has two children and her husband is a professor.

Sarah comments about the pitfalls of social media. "We are not meant to have the kind of feedback that we get on social media. We're meant to get feedback from a small community of humans that we’re in a relationship with. We are not meant to hear four hundred thousand people's opinions of what you look like or how angry they are at you or whether they hate you or love you."

In talking about being successful, Sarah says, "I don't want to get swept away by trying to impress people or by getting the next gig so that I can be successful. I want to stay focused on loving people and being loved and that needs to be the core always. That needs to be the driving force any time I do a project. How do I love these characters? How do I love the audience through the telling of this story? So my letter to my 20-year-old self would be, keep that fire alive, return to that truth and that ultimate vision and drive even if it has to become a practice but you must return to it. Otherwise, this industry will eat you alive and you will never feel like you're enough."

"What is success? Is success winning an Emmy? No. Is Success being a star of a television show? No. Actually, success is being seen, known, and loved and getting to offer that to other humans."

Links:

• Grey’s Anatomy

• Navigating Hollywood’s Marriage Course, Pre-Marriage Course, Alpha Course

• Sarah Drew on IMDb, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

• Allen Wolf on IMDb, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

• Allen Wolf’s website

Video for this episode can be found here.

The transcript for this episode can be found here.