The 'Schmootz on Susan Miller

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THE ‘SCHMOOTZ

ON

SUSAN MILLER

D e c e m b e r 2 9 , 2 0 0 9

Susan Miller, writer and producer for web series, Anyone But Me

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Someone said to me, look, twoplanes just attacked, justcrashed, into the World TradeCenter and I said, no, that can’tbe. Then I said, o.k., if it did,then they were little planes. Ilook up and see a little smoke inthe distance, and suddenly, thefeeling of everything changed. Itwas very quiet.I left the park and I tried to callLida, my girlfriend, my partner. Icouldn’t get through. So I wenthome and it started to sink in.From my vantage point I sawpeople walking all through theday. Walking, walking, walking,up Central Park West.Of coursethe first thing I didwhen I got home was to call mysonwho lives in LA, because thereports started to come in and I justwanted him to stay put andknowwhat was going on. Of course, Iwoke him right out of sleep.I didsome very strange thingsthatday and one of which wasto clean the windows. Do youbelieve that? I guess it wasritualistic or that I just didn’tknow what to do with myself.

W W W . M I N D S C H M O O T Z . N E T D e c e m b e r 2 9 , 2 0 0 9

SCHMOOTZ:

You were quoted inTubefilter News in the article, “Confessions of Indie Web SeriesCreators: Things They Wish TheyKnew” saying, “You have to getyour schmooze on and walk intorooms and hand out cards and beable to describe your show in onesexy, killer sentence.” For

AnyoneBut Me

(

ABM

), what was thatsentence?

SUSAN:

Well the one I liked alot was, “Introducing a newgeneration, coming of age in thepost 9/11 world, struggling withidentity and modernrelationships.”

SCHMOOTZ:

ABM

is set in post9/11 NYC, as a New Yorker, Iwonder if you could share yourown 9/11 experience and thechanges you see in thegenerations separated by thebefore and the after?

SUSAN:

First, let me just say, interms of the series, we wanted itto be a part of it, but subtle. Sowe’re not emphasizing that somuch in the second season, but it’salways there.My experience was kind of thelayers of everyone’s experiencethathavebecome part of mine. Itreally united everyone in the city.It also separated us because foreachperson it was very private,verypersonal.Thiswasone of those mornings inwhich it was so gorgeous out and Iwok e upearly. At that time, for meto be in the park at 8:30 in themorning was pretty unusual. I waswalking my dog and it was almostpainfully beautiful. Hardly anyonewas out it seemed.Eventually, I remember, we wereat a friend’s home celebrating aJewish holiday. And she (the host)invited everyone to get up to telltheir story, and I found myself getting very angry, very tense.This isn’t each person’s story, it’sall of our stories and it’s the storyof those who lost people. I justclosed down. I couldn’t really beattentive.But I think in terms of youngpeople, I don’t know how thatregistered - depending on wherethey lived, depending on - Youknow in our show, Vivian’sfather was a firefighter. Iparticularly think that part isimportant, even if we never godeeply into it again, althoughwe definitely touch on itthroughout.I think for young people now,it’s global. There’s an awareness.There’s no escaping the fact thatother people live in the world. Thebest result of all this is that youngpeople have to see that - that theworld is a bit larger.Of coursetheir focus isthemselves, but they also are intouch with the fact, I think, thatthings that happen elsewhereaffect us.This runs through mywork andcertainly through this(show) now - which is whathappens to other people, happensto you.Thethingthat did happen, iseveryone,certainly here, I think alot of places, but certainly in NY,at least for a while, we were allvery much aware of each other,and not in the sense of, ohbeware, but aware. That we’retaking into account ourhumanness.

“

The best result of all this(9/11) is that young people have to see that - that theworld is a bit larger. Of course their focus isthemselves, but they also are in touch with the fact, I think,that things that happenelsewhere affect us. ” - Susan Miller

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I have a son, he’s a grown mannow, (I write about this in My LeftBreast) but one day it all hit methat I’ve known a thousand, amillion Jeremys because every age,every stage, he’s a different personand of course when he was veryyoung that was very marked. So Ithink many people are drawn toseeing these stages presented in afictional way.Will we leave it all behind? Well,sure, but at the same time, theheart is large, the mind is expansiveand I think there’s room in one’sown past to learn about thepresent.

SUSAN (cont’d):

We were allwounded, so therefore respected,and caring for one another for atime.

SCHMOOTZ:

I have publiclyrecommended

ABM

to my readers.I have left little room for doubtthat I love the writing of thisseries. It is what drew me in. A reader contacted me and said onmy recommendationthey tried the seriesand found that thehigh school dynamicwas something theyleft behind 20 yearsago. What do you sayto those who say acoming of age dramalike Anyone But Me hasnothing to offer them?

SUSAN:

I’m stunnedby that because wehave a wide age rangewho watch and olderpeople who say they wish therewas something like this when theywere young (particularly gaypeople who have theseexperiences to tap into). But youcan’thaveeveryone like the samething,or beaffected by the samething.Look,we carry around in ourselveseveryage that we’ve gonethrough. A nd I think we still learnsomethingby looking at youngpeople andtheir struggles,because it informs us, even whenwe are older, and because we’veall been there. And coming of age happens manytimes in our lives. If you reallylook at it, some of the samethings that happen when we were16 or 17, that dynamic occursagain - you’re at the precipice,you’re unsure of yourself, you gothrough a divorce, you wonder atthis stage of your life, what am Igoing to do now? I think those aremuch larger themes that we alsoembrace.Listen, we’re going tolose some people andwe’re going toabsolutely engagemore and more people.I don’t think the showis just about teenage-hood. It’s about seeingwhat we’re free to do,or not free to do, orhold ourselves back doing. It’s what doesthe world think of us?I want Anyone But Me to be partof the conversation, I think that’sone of my goals with the show.The other thing for me, in all mywriting andfor the show, is toblowup and dismantlegeneralizations and stereotypes.