“I think you leave your imprint on every screenplay,” Hidden Figures screenwriter Allison Schroeder said. “I like to bring my experience as a woman to all my female characters that hopefully makes them a little more layered and complex.”
Schroeder worked at NASA as did her father and grandmother. “When Hidden Figures came along I thought, ‘Yes. I know this world. I know this world well. I know the smell in the cafeteria of NASA.’
“There’s a sense of comradeship at NASA that I’ve never seen anywhere else. You walk in, and every single person feels like they’re a part of that launch. We really tried to put that in the film.”
“You think NASA is going to be cutting edge, but they’ve got so many buildings that are just left over from the 1960s,” Schroeder said. “It’s old.”
“When I’m writing a script I see it in my head, literally playing out, so when I show up and the camera’s not where I’d thought it would be, or the color of the wall … it’s little things,” Schroeder told the Roundtable.
Writer-director Tom Ford (Nocturnal Animals) then suggested, “You need to direct it.”
“It’s up next,” Schroeder said. “I’m going to give birth, and then I thought I’d go direct a film.”
