Hey, this is John. A standard warning for people who are in the car with their kids. There's some swearing in this episode.

Hello and welcome. My name is John August. Okay. My name is Craig Mason. And you're listening to Episode 712 of Script Notes. It's a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. Today on the show, we welcome back one of our favorite guests and guest hosts.

Yes.

Dana Fox is a writer and showrunner whose credits include.

Taking a breath here.

What happens in Vegas?

Couples retreat, Ben and Kate, How to Be Single, Cruella, Home Before Dark, The Lost City, Wicked, and the upcoming Wicked for Good.

She's also my former assistant and one of my very favorite people.

Welcome back Dana.

Donnie Kregger, my favorite people.

I have to say it right away.

Get it out of my system.

So we're recording this in our office on a very rainy day.

And behind you is the couch, which you would often take naps on.

I assume you were going to have it bronzed, but it's just the same couch. The same couch. So Lambert is now taking a nap on your couch. I saw it and had a Pavlovian response to it the second I saw it, I thought I was going to fall asleep on it. The gravity just takes you in and you just lie down and not work. Hold me towards it and made me disappoint, John, because I wasn't awake to answer his phone. But look at you now.

But it's because he let me nap that I think I did so well in the business. Okay. Well, something has to

explain it. I just needed to sleep a little bit. I was so tired. I needed to prep. And look at you now with those headphones on, as Craig said, you do look like Princess Leia. I mean, exactly. Like Obi-Wan, you're our only hope, Princess Leia. You've got, because you're wearing a Princess Leia. She was a real hero of mine, so thank you for that. I really wanted to be her. Carrie Fisher, of course. Oh, my God. She's incredible. And the most amazing writer. Did you ever meet her?

No, I never did.

I would have lost my mind.

I went to a birthday party for a friend that was at her house, and she was exactly as cool and weird as you would want her to be. A dream. A dream. An absolute dream. Nice. Today with you on the show, I do want to talk about Wicked, obviously.

I also want to talk about character suffering, whether the 90s were really a great movie decade, or whether this is all just our nostalgia. So we'll get into that. Amazing. Am I the character who's suffering or characters that I write? You will be. There's a listener question about characters suffering. Oh, okay. I thought you were talking about me. I was like, I mean, I'm suffering. Well, we'll get into the suffering because in our bonus segment, I want to talk about the

promo circuit because you're on the promo circuit right now and Craig's been through the

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