Nancy Meyers, writer, director and producer of The Parent Trap, Something’s Gotta Give and It’s Complicated has shared her advice for new writers.

“Write something that’s you, ” she said “so that you are the best person to write it.”

Meyer’s advice came as she gave an inspiring lecture as part of BAFTA’s Screenwriters’ Lecture series. During the talk she discussed everything for, creating characters and producing and directing her own work to her concerns for the film landscape in Hollywood.

Watch Meyer’s talk below:

Nancy Meyers takes part in BAFTA's Screenwriters' Lecture Series

Early success with Private Benjamin

Meyers started out as a story editor, where her talents were quickly recognised and she was encouraged to give writing a go. Her first film was Private Benjamin which she wrote with her then-husband Charles Shyer and friend Harvey Miller: “So I told the two of them the idea, Charles was an actual screenwriter, Harvey had actually been in the army and I was an actual woman so between the three of us we hammered out that script. It was the most fun writing ever.”

Even in the permissive filmmaking climate of the 1970s, Private Benjamin was something of a risk with its frank conversations between a female cast. “It was really hard to get the movie made…every single studio in Hollywood read it and passed on it…one studio called Goldie [Hawn] and said “if you make this movie it’s a career ender,”” Meyers shared. Luckily Hawn wasn’t put off and the film went on to become one of the highest earning films of 1980 and garnered Meyers an Oscar nomination.

Family favourites followed

Meyers’ follow up was an updating of the classic Spencer Tracy film Father of the Bride, which she was invited to write by Steve Martin and crafted with him in mind. “It’s a gift because you know you’re writing for Steve Martin so you can be funny and you can be loose and you can do all these twists and turns in the scene,” she said.

Her second adaptation, The Parent Trap, was based on a personal favourite: “I loved The Parent Trap, loved it, loved it, loved it. It’s a very girl empowering movie because the children, the daughters, the two girls make everything happen, they have totally control of the destiny of their family.”

In the years that have followed, Meyers has taken on the multiple tasks of writing, producing and directing on the majority of her films. Motivated to take control to protect her screenplays, she said: “The writing is really where it all happens. And then the directing I find is just executing the writing. That’s really why I became a director, honestly it really started out of just protecting the screenplay.”

But her writing style hasn’t changed since getting behind the camera too. “I had been very hands on as a producer…I was always there in front of the monitor. So it wasn’t like my first time seeing my words come to life.”

Choosing the right cast

Discussing casting, Meyers’ realised that casting against type is something of a trademark of hers: “In The Intern…Robert De Niro plays the nicest guy, he’s really a very centered, calm, patient, non-threatening person…Mel Gibson in What Woman Want, pretty macho guy, becomes a feminist…[in Something’s Gotta Give] Jack [Nicholson] falls in love with a woman his age, hello? I’d say this is my trademark now that I’m thinking on it!”

Meyers’ admitted that “like all humans I remember the bad [reviews]… I do care, I wish I didn’t care,” but was adamant she won’t let them affect the stories she writes: “People will say to me invariably at the end of every movie “well now if this one’s a success do you want to do…?” and I say no, this is what I want to do. These are the movies I want to write, these are the stories I want to tell. I don’t have a thriller in me.”

Meyers then rounded off by discussing the current landscape in Hollywood and her concerns for new writers, including her daughter: “This is such a different time, because the last 35 years you could make movies about people…I worry will it happen for her because the movie business is not embracing the kind of work she wants to do.” And yet, Meyers mused, “maybe the pendulum is swinging back in the direction of human beings and human stories and comedies about adults…”