What is director Valerie Weiss watching?
On the journey from a science PhD to directing television, working on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and an upcoming Scott Foley-led Prime Video series.
what are they watching? is an interview series for my newsletter in which I chat with a television creative about television itself. Previous interviews include Janicza Bravo, Chelsea Peretti, and Jeff Hiller.
I’m a dirty gin martini deep at a glamorous afterparty for Prime Video’s premiere of Hedda at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), dazed from having watched films all day, and, somehow, attending three parties in the span of a few hours. As I wrote in my TIFF diaries, I didn’t know anyone at these parties and mostly just went up to strangers.
At this particular event, I had the pleasure of someone coming up to me — and I was floored to find out this individual, Valerie Weiss, directed (in my professional opinion) the strongest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, “Ad Astra Per Aspera,” a courtroom episode in the second season. She has also directed episodes of Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder, and Suits, to name a few.
Most relevant to this newsletter and many of you reading, she holds a PhD in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology from Harvard Medical School. Over Zoom, she tells me about taking the leap from academia to Hollywood, advice for pursuing creative fields, her experience on Outer Banks, and more.
Can we start by talking about your journey from academia to television? That’s a question that feels very relevant to myself, my readers, and tvscholar.
I had breakfast today with the Netflix exec who’s supervising the show that I’m on up here in Toronto and she had studied biology, and we were talking about how helpful the science brain comes in when you’re in production. Like when you’re short on time; how you figure out very quickly what coverage you need and what shots you should do in which order; and just keeping track of everything so you can be super creative. When you’re doing science, you’re trying to discover something that’s never been discovered before. Otherwise you can’t publish. So you have to be creative to find the problem that’s big enough and important enough that anyone cares.
I grew up acting and wanted to be an actor. When I would read plays, I was always interested in the subtext and the beat change and the nuance. In college somebody asked me to direct a play, and I loved it. I was like, this is what I’m supposed to be doing. I always wanted to tell all the other actors what to do, and here I could without anyone getting mad at me. At the time, I also loved biology. I was majoring in molecular biology and minoring in theatre and dance at Princeton, directing my first play. I was like okay, I think I want to be a director, but how do you do that? No one in my family in Philadelphia had done anything like that and I didn’t have parents who would pay for film school.
When you do a PhD in science, they pay you. I was like, okay, I’ll do that, because I love science, and if I forget about film, then great, I’m already on a path to a career that I’d be very happy doing. So I used my time at Harvard Medical School, where I got my PhD, to write a screenplay, because I knew directors had to control material. It was the beginning of the digital video revolution, and Darren Aronofsky had just made Pi (1998) on a super low budget. I made my first film called Dance by Design while I was writing my dissertation. Two weeks after we wrapped, I had to defend my thesis, which somehow I was able to do and remember the big words that defined the enzyme that I was working on. So I got my PhD, and then was like, I’m gonna move to Hollywood.
That is such a fascinating story, and I think very relevant to many — the paths to creative fields aren’t as clear as they used to be and there’s so much risk with the precarity of it all. Did you have any hesitations about jumping into the deep end?
It’s something we don’t talk about enough with people who are pursuing the arts. I think my risk talent tolerance was fairly high, because what’s nice about a PhD is you make no money. So I was not used to a lifestyle that somehow was going to be hard to forego. You barely make enough to live, I knew that all I needed to do was to be able to just support myself. You know how long and arduous a PhD is. I could picture the rest of my life if I stay on this path but I knew it wasn’t enough for me. I knew the cost of what I was giving up, and I was willing to give it up.
It really feels to me like you were pulled to a higher calling, that you were pulled toward creativity. What was your relationship to television growing up and into adulthood?
I had a TV in my room growing up, which my husband thinks is crazy, because he wasn’t allowed to watch TV after four o’clock or something. We always had the TV on, I would do my homework in front of the TV. My relationship to TV is like having a best friend. That’s what I love about TV versus films, the relationship you have with these characters who are so well-developed over such a long period of time.
I feel lucky that a lot of the shows I’ve done are so character-driven and have beloved characters that the public has really attached to, whether it’s Olivia Pope on Scandal or the cast of Outer Banks. In terms of shows I watched, I loved Family Ties, Seinfeld, mostly comedies. I’m dating myself a little bit, but Moonlighting, I loved shows that mixed genre and tone, but always with a bit of grounded comedy.
What is it like to come into a show and direct an episode where the cast and crew know each other but you’re the outsider, but you’re kind of the boss?
I think about it every time I start a new show. You’re the boss, but you’re also not the boss because there’s a showrunner. When I teach the first-time director class at the Directors Guild, which I’ve taught like five times now, I came up with a good metaphor for how that feels. It’s like being in a yoga class where you’re doing mountain pose and they say dig your feet deep into the earth and also reach to the sky. And you’re like, how do I go in two directions at once? They’re so opposite, but that’s TV directing. You’re listening to a vision that’s above you, but you’re also leading and executing and have to be the leader.
During prep for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds — the couple weeks to a month before you shoot — they set up 20-minute meetings for me with every single cast member, no matter how big their role was in the episode. So I got to meet with Anson Mount and do a page turn with him, which turned into rehearsals, or talked to Christina Chong about her character for that episode. So by the time I got on set, I would have a relationship with all these actors. When you’re shooting a television show, it’s so fast, and the rehearsal time on the day is so abbreviated compared to what you know you might do on a movie or in theatre. To have that relationship ahead of time, and to be able to even just talk about tricky scenes in advance, has just made all the difference. So I bring that to every show that I do.
That’s incredible! It makes sense why your episode of Strange New Worlds, “Ad Astra Per Aspera,” was my favourite of that season. Not to force you to compare all your babies, but I’m wondering if there are any of your projects that stand out in your mind as your favourites to work on?
They’re definitely all my babies. I do love them all. I mean, both episodes of Strange New Worlds that I got to do. I really loved them. The first one was really special with Rebecca Romijn, who I was reuniting with after doing The Librarians at the beginning of my career, and working with Yetide Badaki, who was the amazing guest star. I loved collaborating with my DP Benji Bakshi, we came up with a very specific visual language for that episode even though it was a courtroom episode. Every shot was so intentional, I’m particularly proud of that.
I loved doing NCIS: Tony & Ziva last summer in Budapest. That was great because it does what I love to do, which is a mixed tone of comedy, action, romance. That’s really what I love to do as a director, is make something very commercial, very watchable by as many people as possible, but elevated that mixes genres. Outer Banks is another favourite, mixing adventure and teen angst is really fun.
Can you tell me a bit more about It’s Not Like That, the upcoming Prime Video series you worked on recently?
I loved the showrunners and the cast. I got very, very close with everybody on that show, and could have stayed forever. It stars Scott Foley and Erinn Hayes. The way we described it is Nobody Wants This but about a minister. Not exactly that, but the tone is. It’s from showrunners who worked in the Parenthood, Jason Katims camp, so it’s got that authenticity, drama, humor and heart.
I can’t wait to watch. Not to get gossipy but when we met at TIFF you told me about a backdoor pilot to Strange New Worlds with Paul Wesley as Captain Kirk based on the third season episode you directed (“The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail”), anything you can share about that?
The press is saying it too! I think everyone views it as a prototype or backdoor pilot for Star Trek: Year One, the series that Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers have been pitching about Captain Kirk. So yeah a lot of the press who saw it, that’s what they’ve said. I hope we get that made! It was really fun to work with Paul Wesley on that with such beloved characters.
Can you share about an obstacle you’ve once had on set and how you overcame it? I know time is always a precious resource when making television and the unexpected can pop up.
I don’t want to be specific, but timeline, for sure, it happens all the time. No matter how well prepped you are, there’s always something that might happen, whether you know it’s a wardrobe change or you’re losing light, or a truck that didn’t make the company move like whatever it is. It’s nobody’s fault, these things just happen, and then you’re down to shooting maybe the most important scene of an episode in 20 minutes.
That happened recently to me actually. The solution was just to decide to go handheld. We were going to shoot it on dollies and had a whole plan, but we had to make our day, that’s just non-negotiable, and we have to make it awesome. I actually love shooting handheld, because we do that on Outer Banks. And the scene turned out beautifully. It was a romantic scene, actually. In some ways, it probably was the best thing that could have happened, because people always get so nervous around scenes like that, understandably. And so to be able to have it happen very fast and make it very technical, I think actually was a blessing in disguise.
Your science brain activated! Do you have any advice or guidance for first time directors or anyone who’s trying to make the jump to a creative field but isn’t sure where to start?
I’m so grateful and so happy to be working so much on things that I love. Looking back at the beginning I was like, Will it ever work out? Is this a smart idea? I realized how much mental energy I lost worrying about the result. My advice is the same I gave my ballerina daughter, which is find something you’re really passionate about, work hard enough to be the best at it, and have some way to support yourself, whether it’s through that or something else.
Within that, work on your craft, whether it’s writing a better script or going out and shooting something and editing it. If you are talented and you work consistently every day on the craft, it’s going to happen if you really want it. Cream rises to the top. A lot of people worry about the networking or getting out there, but you need a product that makes people think: I have to hire that person. That’s something you can actually control. You can’t control the other things quite so much. Especially today, you can make something on your iPhone, so there’s really no excuse not to just constantly be developing yourself as an artist.
This is speaking to me deeply. Before I let you go: What is your favourite TV-watching snack?
Himalayan salt popcorn and it’s got to go with some kind of chocolate. Alternating between those while I’m watching is just the best.
Great one, and Valerie Weiss is very generous in her answers. Very cool!