A billboard, in fact.
And not just any billboard, but the one for theAre You There God?
Its Me, Margaret, thehighly-anticipated theatrical releaseadapted fromJudy Blumes acclaimed bookof the same name.
Dana Hawley/Lionsgate
Fremon Craigs name is not on the billboard, but the billboardand the movieexist because of her.
It was too personal, too important to risk not getting it absolutely right.
Blume eventually said yes, and as of Friday, April 28,Are You There God?
Fremon Craig in front of that very special billboard.
Its Me, Margaretis in theaters.
Its different for everyone, Fremon Craig says over Zoom.
But I had always been like, Maybe one day Ill make a movie that has a billboard.
Fremon Craig reading Judy Blume’sJust as Long as We’re Togetheras a kid.
That was a very specific dream in my heart for 20 years.
I looked like a lunatic, taking some 300 selfies in front of it.
But that was a dream.
Fremon Craig in her late teens.
That was a very specific dream.
Fremon Craig in front of that very special billboard.
Shes been incredibly lucky, yes, but shes also put in the work and then some.
“Jim and I on the very first day of shootingThe Edge of Seventeen,” Fremon Craig says.
But for now, theres a billboard to relish in, new dreams to uncover.
So how did she do it?
And what does she wish she could go back and tell young Kelly just beginning in the industry?
“The day we flew out to Key West to meet Judy Blume. She calls it ‘the persuasion lunch.’ This photo was taken at the airport right before we got back on the plane to LA,” Fremon Craig says.
Here, the writer-director-producer opens up about it all.
Fremon Craig reading Judy BlumesJust as Long as Were Togetheras a kid.
Fremon Craig in her late teens.
Kathy Bates (as Sylvia Simon), Judy Blume, Kelly Fremon Craig, Abby Ryder Fortson (as Margaret Simon), and Rachel McAdams (as Barbara Simon).
Kelly Fremon Craig:I sold my first script when I was 25.
Just write what you care about.
Dont think about what anybody else wants.
Just write for you.
And that wasEdge of Seventeen.
It was like, Lets just play the lottery [by sending it to someone like him].
Then he responded to it, and then the next thing I knew, I had a meeting.
I was like, What?
I was like, Did he just really just say that?
Did you guys hear that?
I could not believe it.
So that was it.
Jim and I on the very first day of shootingThe Edge of Seventeen, Fremon Craig says.
The first [movie] that made me really feel something wasDirty Dancing.
I just wanted to be [Baby].
I think I was six or seven.
My dad would pick me up and put me in the swan lift or whatever.
I probably watched it a hundred times.
I was enamored with writers.
Some people write stuff thats really rhythmic, and it has a sort of beat or musicality to it.
I started to do that, but I started to write monologues.
For whatever reason, I would feel these different characters come through.
I would hear their voice and start to write from their voice, and do these different characters.
But I thought, How am I going to make a career out of that?
What was the turning point then?
I thought, I dont want to do that.
No part of me wants to do that.
But then something was like, No, just do it.
And I got it.
It was at this place called Immortal Entertainment.
I read my first-ever screenplay while I was there, and I was so struck by it.
It felt like it was reflecting the world I was currently living in.
I was like,Oh, this can be a movie?
But I loved the process of writing.
How did you navigate the next step in an industry that has no roadmap afterEdge of Seventeen?
Thats such a good question, and one that Ive spent a lot of time thinking about.
I like being a person that comes up from behind that no one sees.
But all the things that were coming my way, I just couldnt feel them deeply.
I didnt feel like I needed to make this or that.
When youre offered like superhero movies, Im like, You don’t want me to do this.
I don’t know this world.
I can only screw it up.
And that did not happen to me until I rereadAre You There God?
Its Me, Margaret, in 2018.
And so I started to reread all of her books.
So I couldnt believe it.
It was like, Oh, my gosh, this is exactly what I was hoping for.
However, I had heard that the only book she wasnt going to adapt wasMargaret.
That was the one that was off the table.
She would never do it.
It meant too much to her.
I think she was really worried somebody would screw it up, and she didnt want to do it.
But when I reread the book, I was knocked flat by it.
I mean, there was something particularly about the ending.
There was something about the last page that just made me sob.
Everything Im writing is trying to get at that and get what it is to be a human being.
And thenyou wrote Judya letter.
I told her that she was a North Star for me when I was writingEdge of Seventeenand directing it.
I wanted to make a film that felt like her books.
I told her how much I wanted to adaptMargaret.
And then she wrote back.
I didnt know if she would write back.
I didnt think she would write back.
So not through her rep, but from her?
Yes, from her.
My eyes just bugged out of my head when I saw Judy Blume in my inbox.
I was like,What?!
Thats insane.I called Jim Brooks and sent himMargaret.
The day we flew out to Key West to meet Judy Blume.
She calls it the persuasion lunch.
You and Jim got on a plane to meet Judy.
I know how this story ends, but Im still riveted.
And we got off the plane and Judy picked us up from the airport.
Oh, my God.
I rode in the back of her Mini Cooper.
Her husband, George, drove, and Jim was in the passenger seat.
Judy and I were sandwiched in the back seat, and I was like, So I just readWifey.
She was like, Oh,Wifeyis naughty.
I was like, How is this my life?
We went back to her house.
And her husband, George, said, So were doing this, right?
And we were like, Okay, all right.
We all hugged, and it was like, Thank God that George sort of made it official.
We were doing it.
Which is just the highest compliment I think I will ever receive.
I still cant quite process it.
It makes me so happy because shes the person that I most wanted to be happy.
So Im so happy shes happy.
What piece of advice would you give your younger self just starting out in this business?
To follow her own instincts and her own intuition, and dont abandon that so quickly.
And whats on the horizon?
Thats one of the things that Im thinking about.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
