Summer may have just begun, but FYSEE LA is officially in full swing with the help of some of your favorite storytellers and stars. The two-week, city-wide festival celebrates the most talked-about Netflix series of the season, including the political drama The Diplomat, romantic comedy Nobody Wants This, conspiracy thriller Zero Day, marriage tragicomedy The Four Seasons, poignant docuseries Simone Biles Rising, coming-of-age love story Forever, and Shondaland whodunnit The Residence.

As part of FYSEE LA, a group of actors and creators from those beloved series — including The Residence’s Uzo Aduba, Nobody Wants This star Justine Lupe, and Forever creator and showrunner Mara Brock Akil — came together for an afternoon featuring two wide-ranging discussions about their experiences as women in front of and behind the camera, what drives them as storytellers, and more. “I love telling all kinds of stories. I like exploring human beings and all the complications and warts and beauty,” says Zero Day director Lesli Linka Glatter. Adds Brock Akil: “As rebels and rulebreakers, I think the most rebellious thing is that we’ve taken up the space to own who we are.”  

An edited version of their conversation follows. 

On the power of collaboration

Lesli Linka Glatter, director of Zero Day: I love being a storyteller, and I love it that we do it in this crazy way with hundreds of people, and they are all collaborators. It’s a team sport.

Tracy Wigfield, co-creator and co-showrunner of The Four Seasons: I've created other shows alone, but this was the first time I was collaborating, [plus I was] creating it with Tina Fey and my best friend Lang Fisher. It was so nice to have two other women to be doing this with, because it was almost like how it is in a marriage, where there are days where one person’s like, “Everything sucks,” and the other one’s like, “No, it’s not so bad.” And then you flip those positions. It was really nice to not always have to be the leader of the ship, being like, “Everything’s great,” when a lot of times it’s not.

Karen Pittman, who plays Dawn in Forever: I think what I have learned the most is the importance of the ensemble, of really giving room for other people’s process. How someone comes into a character is as unique as their fingerprint. No one is going to do it the same. And to trust-fall into every scene that you come into. I think your work only expands if you allow yourself to really open up to the other person in the scene with you.

On defying creative expectations

Mara Brock Akil, creator of Forever: I got to chat with Judy Blume about a book that really changed me. I felt like I was heard, seen, understood by someone willing to talk about the truth, about what was potentially my near future. So Forever, to me, is my love letter to all children, but specifically wanting to carve out some space for Black boys and Black girls just like Judy carved out space for me to consider who I could be in the future. 

Katie Walsh, director of Simone Biles Rising: One of the very first things [Simone Biles] said to me was, “I wish people knew me as Simone, not just Simone Biles.” And I kept that as my thesis throughout the process because we all know her as the GOAT, and we see her in these big moments in her career where she was faced with so much adversity and that obviously is what has helped define the person she’s become.

But when you peel that back, she’sa human being first. And trying to be with her and sit with her in some of those more quiet moments and in these moments that are maybe even at times just a little more common and normal, it allows you to understand more about who she is as a person. And then when you layer on all the experiences she’s had in her personal life, it makes what she does on the gymnastics mat that much more impressive. Understanding Simone, the person, first and foremost in the storytelling was really important to me.

Wigfield: Tina [Fey] and Lang  [Fisher] and I made a certain kind of show [30 Rock] — a network-y, fast-paced, comedy show with a very specific tone — for a long time. And I think there was a feeling from all three of us, that was like, “What if we tried something different?” And going into it, we weren’t sure what it was going to be like. And I think we were very nervous about, “Are people going to watch this and be like, ‘Why isn't it 30 Rock?” I’m furious.’ ” And maybe someone is. 

But even our [writers] room that we assembled was a lot of old friends. It was so interesting, these comedy writers that I’ve known, and we just spent hundreds of hours with pitching jokes — I don’t really know what you and your wife fight about, but now I do. And that was where we started, where we were like, “OK, we all want to do this thing differently, so let’s be really honest about what’s going on in our marriages, and what is the funniest, and the darkest, and the weirdest parts of being married, and being friends for a long time.”

Debora Cahn, creator and showrunner of The Diplomat: I think the challenge is, you know it works, but you also know that the one thing that you can’t do, is what you just did. So that formula, whatever it was that you discover only in retrospect, is a good thing that has to be fundamentally changed, to keep the thing alive.

But there is sort of that leap of faith of, something’s got to be completely different, otherwise it’s going to get old. It’s going to get stale. They’re not going to invite us back.

On following your compass

Susan Kelechi Watson, who plays Jasmine Haney in The Residence: I think in your heart, how you come into this, there has to be a bit of a rebellion, a bit of a place that says, “I don’t even know if I see the space for me, but I’m making one.” Don’t worry about trying to be everybody else. Don’t worry about trying to do it a certain way. Really hone in on your own superpower and what makes you you, and then ride it until the wheels fall off. Lean into it.

If I could’ve known off the jump not to have tried to blend in, but to keep exploring this vessel and how it moves through me, I think that would have been the advice that I would’ve given to myself.

Justine Lupe, who plays Morgan in Nobody Wants This: I would say the same. I was reading The Alchemist recently, and there’s this sentiment of just getting back to following your heart, following the thing that got you here. And I think that’s the thing that I turn towards the most when I'm feeling the instability, or the scariness, or the spookiness, or the overwhelm. Going back to, “Why am I here? I’m following my heart.” And that’s the only thing that I can really do. It’s the only thing that I can really trust. And there’s something about using that as an anchor — it just always turns out right. I just think about myself as a kid. I really do turn towards, “You loved this as a kid. You were doing little videos with your brother when you were 5 years old. He was filming and you were … ” There's something reliable about being like, “That's been in me since I was a baby, baby, baby.” And that’s something. 

Uzo Aduba, who plays Cordelia Cupp in The Residence: I think I would say to an up-and-coming actor to listen, but also trust. You’ll find yourself in the most unique moments where somebody can offer you a space of wisdom that you should sit and listen [to], and take that in. Maybe they’ve gone five steps ahead of you, they’re halfway around the block, they’ve done the whole marathon, and they might have something to impart that’s worth listening to. And you take that in. 

And then I think people might tell you something, and you have to know what your heart is, know who you are supremely, and trust that that person is enough, and bet on that person every time — every single time. Somebody might be giving you advice because it was hard for them to go that route, but hard is not the same as impossible. So just because it’s different, you’re different, your seasoning might be different, trust it, because somebody is going to be looking for you. Always bet on that. But you also need to have some level of intellectual humility as well to be able to meet with somebody who has something to offer. Be wise enough to listen, I guess.