Sometimes, it feels like Marissa Read and Selyna Warren share the same brain.
When I interviewed the writing partners, whose project “Step-Friend” will be playing in the Episodic section of this year’s Atlanta Film Festival, that fact became more apparent than ever. They often finish each other’s sentences, or say the same thing at the same time. It’s the kind of chemistry that only years of working closely together can bring.
“Step-Friend,” which was written and directed by both Read and Warren, is the pilot of what the duo hopes will become a series. It features a nostalgic multicam sitcom format (think “Full House”) and follows the strained relationship between Scout (Read) and her best friend Darby (Warren) after Darby marries Scout’s dad, Vince (Jim O’Heir). Things come to a head when Vince’s boss (Jillian Bell) comes over for dinner.
Ahead of the screening, which takes place on April 24 at the Tara Theatre, I spoke with Warren and Read about their working relationship, how COVID and the industry strikes over the last few years impacted their careers, and a surprise Atlanta connection. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Just to get started, I’d love to hear a little bit about you two and your relationship. I read that you met at a musical theater conservatory, which I’m a theater kid myself, so I would love to hear more about that.
Marissa Read: So we met at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Hollywood. We both moved out here at 18 to go to musical theater school, and Selyna was my RA, which is how we met. We got in trouble for partying. It was a dry campus. Selyna was the RA, so she got fired. [Laughs] I got kicked out of student housing, and we became best friends!
Wow, that’s an amazing story – partying with your RA!
Selyna Warren: Yeah, I was not a very good RA [laughs].
It’s okay. I feel like that’s such a tough job to give a student anyway.
Warren: Right? I’m like, 18 – so much responsibility.
So how did you guys sort of start working together? Did you go separately first and then come back together?
Warren: We moved in together right out of school. Marissa was really focused on indie film. We both started acting – we weren’t writing yet, we weren’t making our own stuff – so Marissa was doing a lot of indie film, I was doing Groundlings, pretty heavily in the improv community. And then, I had accidentally submitted to a literary [manager] out of school, not realizing that there was a difference between traditional acting [managers] and lit [managers]. And he was like, what have you written?
So I quickly banged out a script by myself, and Marissa read for the best friend opposite me during a little reading. [The manager] was like, “You two have really good chemistry. I feel like I can sell the two of you together.” He started sending us on generals, and we very quickly were like, oh, we have the exact same brain. We’re stronger together. We work really quickly together, and it kind of started our partnership creatively.
Read: Shortly after that, we sold our first show, which was “Foursome” to Awesomeness TV. That got picked up by YouTube Originals, and it ran for four seasons. We showran the entire series. We directed a few episodes and acted in a few episodes. That kind of launched our writing career.
And that happened fairly quickly, right? You started showrunning kind of right out of the gate?
Read: We skipped a few steps, and that was kind of like our film school, was immediately becoming showrunners in our first professional writing job.
Warren: We came here during the streaming boom, so it was kind of like we were launched right during that time where they were giving a lot of newcomers a lot of responsibility, which is amazing. We kind of learned on the job. But it also broke our brains in the sense that after that show wrapped – you know, we had billboards in Times Square and in Hollywood. We kind of thought that that’s how it went, that when you sold a show, they make every episode, and you get to just be the showrunner! [Laughs] But after COVID and the strikes, we very quickly were like – alright, we’re gonna have a different path then we did when we first started.
Right. The next show will be very different.
Read: Well that’s kind of – transitioning into “Step-Friend” – that’s why we decided we should just do something independently, and write something for ourselves to act in and to direct. We crowdsourced in order to shoot that in two days. We rented out a soundstage. Did that without asking permission.
I was reading about “Step-Friend,” and I read that it was something you guys had done earlier, and then it came back around. I’m curious, where did the idea originally come from and what has changed now to make it ready?
Warren: You know, we like to joke that “Step-Friend” is the show that never dies. Because the ideas and the shows stay the same, but the execs are the ones that changed. So nothing’s ever truly dead is a little comforting to us.
We were in about the third season of “Foursome,” and we had just signed with kind of really big reps across the board for the first time, and we pitched this idea that came about because Marissa and I were just joking with each other about how I have a crush on her dad – because he looks like her and I’m obsessed with her.
Read: We were kind of like, what if – my dad’s, you know, happily married and not interested – but if she actually married him, we are so close – would our friendship survive that?
Warren: We really wanted to focus on a story that was about the friendship and not the marriage. What if your life was even better with your friend being your stepmom? What if she fulfilled all the things that you didn’t have growing up? What if it was a really positive, beautiful experience as opposed to more of the tawdry, daddy issues – or he’s wealthy, and very attractive. Whatever the Heather Locklear version is.
Read: We grew up watching “Full House,” and “Step by Step,” and “Married With Children,” and all those classic 90s and 80s sitcoms that were, when you rewatch them, a little problematic in their own right. So we were like, What is the modern take on that? And this was kind of our twisted version.
Warren: We took that version out, and our agents at the time were like, this is a true blue multicam – not at all weird or subversive, just kind of like a normal multicam. It didn’t sell. Then we took it out. They go, we were wrong. It’s a single cam. Pitch it as just a single cam. No multicam elements, a totally different show. And that didn’t really work.
So after all the strikes and the business really became what it is now, which is tough – I mean, it’s always been tough, but it’s really tough now – we were like, let’s do something for us. Let’s make the version of the show that we always wanted to pitch but never did. That’s something we really crave and want to see. And I think watching a show like “Pen15” kind of gave us the stamp of go be weird and go make the thing that you love.
Read: Yeah, we kind of feel like the tone of the show is so specific that it needs to be seen in order to be believed. We wanted to make the pilot so that instead of just talking about it and people being like, well, it doesn’t really fit perfectly into either of these boxes, they could see it, and they could see the tone and see how it works.
It’s interesting you bring up everything going on with the strikes and COVID, and I’m sure it’s been just as bad there as it’s been here for any kind of creative. But it’s interesting to hear you talk about taking that as a step forward, to be like – okay, well, we have nothing to lose. Is that something that you’ve seen other creatives around you do? Or how did that manifest within all of that hardship?
Warren: Really what happened is, we participated in 2023’s Tribeca AT&T Untold Stories program with a movie called “Bat Mitzvah.” We were one of five films that got selected to go pitch our movie as directors and prove that we can make that movie within one year for $1 million and premiere at the following year’s Tribeca. We had never done anything independent before. Everything we’d done was via the studio system. We were kind of forced, in a very short period of time, to figure out how you can make your movie for very little money in a very short time span. And it blew our minds – not how easy it was, but how much you can get done if you just act like you’re going, and pick up the phone and make calls and talk to people. The spirit of indie filmmaking really lit us up.
Read: We were able to get locations donated for free. You know, talking to the film commission about getting discounts for permits – it’s just so different from the studio system that we’re used to. But we were lucky enough to have that experience working on “Foursome,” which provided us with a community of crew members, which also really made this project possible.
Warren: The people that we had met through that program all were making their own things, and getting other festivals, and those things were leading to the things they wanted to work on – I mean, everything is what they wanted to work on, but you know, it led to bigger opportunities. We finally said, okay – let’s stop waiting. We didn’t win that grant. Actually, another amazing Atlanta filmmaker won that grant for “Color Book.”
Yeah, David Fortune.
Warren: Yeah, David! We actually just texted him and were like, “We’re gonna be in Atlanta!” … So we were like, let’s go, let’s figure out how to make this. We did our first crowdsourcing campaign, and we were really nervous about that, because we had heard just from friends that it’s crazy hard.
Read: And it is. It’s like a full time job. It’s awkward asking your community to fund a project, but we were blown away by the support of our community and how everyone came together, and we ended up raising over $70,000 to film this project. Like I said, we were able to take a lot of our crew and a lot of people that we had met through our show, or referrals from people we had met on our show, to fill in the crew for a two day shoot.
Quick shoot, it sounds like.
Warren: It was technically three days. We had one day of pre-lighting and then two days of shooting.
Read: Yeah, we did set dressing one day, and pre-lighting.
Warren: And fittings!
Read: And then two days of fitting. But that last day, we also had to strip the entire set and get all the equipment out. So it was tight.
Warren: We had to do a switch, because the studio wasn’t big enough to do a true blue multicam. So we had to switch directions – it’s the same exact room. For the dinner scene, the kitchen and the dining room is the same room as the living room.
Read: We just re-dressed it.
Warren: We switched sides.
I’m curious, as co-writers and co-directors, and also you act and everything, what is your creative relationship like, both sort of in the writing process, and then once you get on set and you’re directing?
Read: Like Selyna said, we are one brain. So when we go to write, we’re always writing together. Some writing partners, they write and then rewrite each other’s work. But we are talking out loud as we’re typing. Selyna does the typing, and I do the talking at her [laughs]. We are brainstorming and improv-ing dialogue back and forth out loud, and constantly rereading out loud, acting out the lines as we’re writing. So that’s kind of our writing process, and then when it comes to directing, it’s kind of similar. Selyna, I feel, is so good with directing the actors and improv-ing joke punches. And I am a little more [doing things like] talking to the camera about angles. But really we make sure that we have the same vision before we step food on set, because I think you want to have a clear vision in order to execute it. That’s been something that we make sure we do, is have the same vision before we get on set.
Warren: We also are hyper organized. We have every single shot listed, discussed with our [director of photography] We had like three …
Read: … test shoots, where we use our iPhone to kind of piece it together, see what it’s gonna look like, how it’s gonna work.
Warren: An editor once said that when editing our episodes of “Foursome” compared to other director’s episodes, he was like – some director’s episodes, you can kind of piece it together in a creative way … Your episodes, there’s no other way.
There’s no wiggle room.
Warren: Yeah, right, which I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but [laughs].
I wanted to talk about casting just a little bit. Obviously there’s you two, and then Jillian Bell, and then Jim O’Heir obviously has a sitcom background, but I think the one people know him for is a bit different from the multicam aspect of it. Can you talk a little bit about bringing this cast together?
Read: So with Jim, it was important to us that we found someone that had been on sitcoms before.
Warren: We had an amazing casting director. Gianna Butler came on board to help us cast all of the roles.
Read: She had actually reached out to Jim to see if he was interested. Jim is just such a team player – he does so many shorts, and he truly loves to work, so he was willing to do it. Which was a dream for us, and we were so excited to get to work with him.
Warren: Jillian Bell is one of our closest friends, so we were so lucky to be like – please, come do this! She’s obviously one of the funniest people we know,
Read: And then with Nicolas Nuno – Nico – Gianna had compiled a group of young actors. We wanted the little brother to actually be, like, 12 years old. So she had given us a link with a bunch of self tapes, and he just kind of stood out to us as – this is the little brother. He actually is located in Texas, so he flew in for the shoot. He was great.
Yeah, he was great. I think my favorite – speaking of Jillian – my favorite gag was her sort of controlling the laughter, whether through telling people to stop or just opening and closing her mouth. I thought that was great.
Warren: That’s so funny. We’ve had really different reactions from that. We had a friends and family screening for people that bought tickets as a part of the crowdsourcing. At that screening, everyone was like, “Haha – what?” There was a verbal – “We don’t understand what’s happening.”
Read: That bit where it comes out of her mouth, we completely removed it at one point, because we were like – people aren’t getting it, it’s too weird, and it’s just us. And then eventually, we were like, well, we think it’s funny. So if we think it’s funny, we should leave it in.
Warren: We had shot it as an overhead shot originally, so there was a camera facing down her throat at one point. And that was …
Read: that was too far.
Warren: Too far. And then we also had our premiere at the Los Angeles International Film Festival, and that was all strangers.They really got it immediately. So we were like, you know what? Different strokes for different folks. But it was really important to us to have the multicam element as a character within itself in the show, and Jillian is the only one that’s not a part of the family, so she is supposed to be interacting with it differently than the rest of the family does.
Right, she’s sort of like – this is how you guys live your lives? I thought it worked, I’m glad you kept it in. What is the ultimate goal for “Step-Friend?” This is entering the festival as an episodic pilot – I’m assuming you’re hoping to shop this around and make it a full show?
Read: Yes, ultimately, we would love to continue to make more episodes. We would love to get this to a buyer. Our dream would be that this would be a network show, and that a network would be willing to do a big swing and do something totally different than what they’ve done before. But, we also would love to work with cable or streaming, where this is more something that is in their tone,
Warren: We’re also super pumped about new platforms like Dropout, and … “American High Shorts,” these really cool places that are letting creators be themselves and show what they think is funny, and then finding an audience. I think authenticity always rings true with people who enjoy comedy. So however that looks, however we get to make more episodes, we’ll just be very grateful.
