Madelaine Petsch

And they're just, like, seeing if you're good.

So it's, like, a pre-read is, like, you're not even, the door's not even open yet.

Right.

Now the door is fully open and I'm usually doing like a director meeting or a callback or whatever.

So you've got to be really in love with the material.

And for me to do the job, I have to love the character.

I have to be obsessed with the character.

And so I become obsessed and I like understand everything about them and I fall in love.

And then I've got to learn to walk away.

And that's much harder, I think, now.

I think protection also can be like a thief of creativity, though, in a way.

I think like, you know, yes, we're in a weird time in the industry in general where I do find we're not really taking risks like we used to because I get studio mandates, right?

And the studio mandates is like, what's the next Stranger Things?

What's the next this?

And it's like, what if we make something completely original that no one's ever seen before, like Stranger Things was when it came out in 2017 or whatever.

Yeah.

So there's that piece of it, but there's also the piece of like, that's part of the game.

And I think being a producer, you have to understand that.

I have a piece of material that I think is probably one of the strongest things I've ever made or will make that I've pitched 20, 25 times and I've gotten a lot of no's.

And the no's are usually like, I don't understand it.