Filmmaker, writer, and actor Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman, Killing Eve) connects with novelist Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, Sharp Objects) to ask: Why do women have to be good? And what happens when they aren’t? In this episode, moderated by Diane Solway, Head of Arts and Culture Programmes at Chanel, they talk about the comedy in tragedy, new kinds of -anti-heroines, the female characters they long to write, and how they “keep the crazy” of their work from colouring their own lives.

This week on On Story we’ll hear from Gone Girl author and screenwriter Gillian Flynn.

Gillian Flynn is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Gone Girl, for which she wrote the Golden Globe-nominated screenplay. She is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers Dark Places and Sharp Objects. Flynn later adapted and executive produced the Emmy-nominated SHARP OBJECTS for HBO in 2018, which starred Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson. Also in 2018, Flynn co-wrote, with director Steve McQueen, the screenplay for the heist thriller WIDOWS, starring Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, and Cynthia Erivo. Most recently, Flynn wrote and executive produced UTOPIA for Amazon. I spoke with Gillian Flynn at the 2020 Austin Film Festival about her creative process of writing across mediums and adapting her own work. 

Clips of Gone Girl & Widows courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation & Regency Entertainment

Clips of Sharp Objects courtesy of Warner Brothers Television & HBO

Clips of Dark Places courtesy of A24 & Denver & Delilah Films