Art imitating life imitating art…

So I’m working on a feature script. It’s sort of a coming-of-age “The Devil Wears Prada” meets “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”…set in Cyprus, of course. I just got off the phone with my script editor after a surreal and infuriating conversation. If I didn’t know better, I would think he was channeling my mother.

Editor: For a romantic comedy, the love interest is introduced too late in the story. We need to flesh out his character more...
Me: It's not a romantic comedy.
Editor: Oh! Really?
Me: Yes. That's why the love interest comes in later. It's a comedy about family and making your dreams come true...the love interest is an interesting complication in the story and a nice bonus at the end, but it's not the focus of the film.
Editor: But no-one cares about her family relations or if she gets her dream job. We want to see her fall in love!

Me: But the whole story is about her choosing her career over her family…

Editor: No-one cares! People want romance, excitement…what kind of a leading lady can’t get a man?!

It starts to get personal for me.

Me: Well that’s not the point of the story.

Editor: Trust me, love stories sell.

Me: Yes, love stories are great, but I think audiences, women especially, are tired of white knights saving them, I want to show this character’s development and how she's accepted by her family and how she's trying to make her dream come true...that's what she wants...
Editor: It may be what she wants, but it's not what she needs. What she neeeeds… is love.

I blink several times. Did I mention that my editor is a man? I’d also like to take this moment to mention that had the protagonist been a man, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. Male movie heroes can focus on a career or saving the whole damn planet. Female movie heroes (or should I say, heroines) have to fall in love, otherwise (it would seem) they’re not worth watching.

Me: But it's not a romantic comedy.
Editor: Then maybe you should get rid of the love interest so you don't mislead people.
Me: No! I like the love interest! It's a nice part of the story, it's just not the focus...why can't she have both? A career and a man!
Editor: It's too confusing.

I mention that audiences have managed to keep up with movies where the women got to have both, like “Bridesmaids”, “Morning Glory”, “Miss Congeniality”, “Sex and the City”, to name but a few.

Editor: Look, people want to see a woman fall in love with a man. Think about it.

I did. I kept my heroine. I kept her job. I kept her love interest.

And I got rid of my editor.