251 | Writing with Your Partner (in Life & Work): Joe Forte on Collaboration, Mentorship, and Creative Retreats

The Screenwriting Life with Meg LeFauve and Lorien McKenna

Meg LeFauve & Lorien McKenna

Tv & Film

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

JOIN TSL WORKSHOPS: https://tslworkshops.circle.so What’s it like to collaborate creatively with your spouse — and still want to have dinner together after? This week, we’re joined by Joe Forte, screenwriter (Firewall) and longtime writing partner (and husband!) of Meg LeFauve. We talk candidly about the unique dynamics of working with your life partner — the communication hurdles, the unexpected benefits, and how to protect both the relationship and the work. Plus, Joe shares the power of writing retreats, how he thinks about mentorship, and what it really means to support another writer’s voice while honoring your own. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Last year, Amazon was the world's largest corporate buyer of renewable energy.
0:07.0	Seeing all and more of our energy comes from wind farms like this one.
0:14.0	Guys, what happened to recording that a solar bomb?
0:18.0	To learn more, visit about amazon.com at UK forward slash sustainability.
0:31.6	Hey everyone, welcome to the screenwriting life.
0:35.6	I'm Meglophone. And I'm Lori McKenna. And today we're
0:39.1	going to be talking about writing retreats and collaboration with our very special guest, Joe Forte.
0:44.5	Joe Forte is a filmmaker with over 30 years of industry experience. He currently partners with
0:49.8	Meglofov at their company Storyhouse, where the two have written projects for studios, including
0:54.1	Sony, MGM, Amazon, and are now developing a slate of original films for Netflix.
0:59.6	A graduate of NYU, Tish School of the Arts, Joe launched his career with his original
1:03.7	screenplay for the film Firewall, starring Harrison Ford. As a director, he helmed the documentary,
1:09.9	The Man Who Saved Ben Hur, which is currently
1:12.0	streaming on Amazon. He is the father of two and also an accomplished collage artist whose work
1:17.3	has been bought by collectors such as Beth Rudin-Dewoodie. Hi, Joe. Welcome to the show.
1:23.5	Well, fun to be here. I've heard so much about you guys.
1:29.9	So weird.
1:31.4	Weird. Weird.
1:33.6	Well, thank you. Yeah, that's right, everybody. I have convinced my writing partner to be on the show with us.
1:40.8	We just came back from Italy and had a wonderful experience at a retreat. We just want to share with you and talk about what people ask us all the time about how do you work together.
1:48.9	But first, we will do what we call Adventures in Screenwriting or How Was Your Week.
1:57.7	Joe, we always let Lauren go first so she can tell you how it's done. As if you haven't
	...

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