{"id":66500,"date":"2022-10-20T18:16:16","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T18:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=66500"},"modified":"2022-10-20T18:16:16","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T18:16:16","slug":"lisa-taddeo-game-changer","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/lisa-taddeo-game-changer\/","title":{"rendered":"Best-Selling Author Lisa Taddeo Is Forging a New Path with Screen Adaptations on the Way"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lisa Taddeo attends the Full Frontal with Samantha Bee FYC Event at Hudson Yards on May 17, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord\/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every issue, GRAZIA USA highlights Game Changers, who inspire, educate, and celebrate individuality, beauty, and style. Meet Lisa Taddeo, the author of <\/i>Three Women, <\/i>Animal and <\/i>Ghost Lover<\/a>, whose work is hitting the screen soon.<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was a young girl before I was able to read, I would basically convince myself I knew how to read. I\u2019m a neurotic Capricorn, so I would tell stories to my stuffed animals. When I learned how to write, I wrote lots of poems and short stories and I illustrated them.<\/p>\n

Writing short stories has always been my biggest dream. But I had this non-fiction best seller in Three Women<\/em>, and then I had a novel, and then a short story collection<\/a>. So sometimes I wonder if people are like, \u201cOh, now she\u2019s just trying to do short stories,\u201d when really, I have always been doing short stories. Something I find interesting is that you can have success in one thing as a woman, but if you find success in something else as well, someone is going to think you\u2019re trying to get one over on them. It\u2019s so outdated and judgmental and ridiculous. My short stories are something that I\u2019ve worked on my whole life and something I care about very much.<\/p>\n

Someone once asked me, \u201cDid you just write a bunch of these after the success of Three Women?\u201d It\u2019s weird to me that people don\u2019t do research before they make judgments. It doesn\u2019t make me upset. It just makes me confused, frankly. Another thing I find wild in the writing world, specifically, is when people say, \u201cOh, that was a risk.\u201d A risk is performing brain surgery and deciding to do something a little different one day. Taking a risk with words on a page and how you present an idea is not a risk that someone should be talked about for. I think that art is all about risk, but \u201crisk\u201d shouldn\u2019t be the word. It should be expansion or exploration.<\/p>\n

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Lisa Taddeo photographed by J. Waite<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My favorite thing is to immerse myself in other people\u2019s art, old and new. I used to go to coffee shops or restaurants and order a coffee or a glass of wine and sit there and read. I\u2019d bring lit mags, short story collections, and non-fiction articles. I\u2019d have a varied reading list and things to watch that came from different genres so I could feel inspired on multiple levels. If I don\u2019t have the chance to do that, I start to feel like I\u2019m recycling myself in a way that doesn\u2019t feel fresh.<\/p>\n

My biggest fear is if I don\u2019t have enough time to watch, listen, and read other people\u2019s art. I\u2019m writing a book about grief that I haven\u2019t fully gotten into yet, because Three Women<\/em> is still in post-production. That\u2019s my next big thing, and then I have adaptations. I\u2019m in a great position where if something drops off, there is something else. I feel super fortunate because that\u2019s one of the hardest things about the creative world. You can work on something your whole life and then it can just end. It feels like if something like that happens, there are other forms I can go into.<\/p>\n

Seeing my work transform from the page to the screen has been really cool, but a lot of that joy is edged with a little worrying about the real people seeing themselves, especially with Three Women<\/em>. They\u2019ve already read about themselves in the book. One of them is a consultant on the Showtime show and I\u2019ve flown her out to watch her story being told.<\/p>\n

My favorite time of day is in the evening after I\u2019ve put my kid to bed, and I can go back to writing when there\u2019s fewer emails coming through. I can just write late at night alone. Those are my favorite times to work. That\u2019s how I escape from the grind. Writing is still my biggest catharsis and, honestly, it\u2019s short stories that I turn to when I\u2019m wanting to explore something in my own head.<\/p>\n

If I could wave a magic wand, I would make people not want to control anybody else. Wanting control based around fear is what\u2019s happening on a larger scale with Roe v. Wade. I can\u2019t even wrap my head around why you would want to control a human that has nothing to do with your world \u2014 it\u2019s abhorrent. It is the most offensive thing to me, but it\u2019s a symptom of the larger feeling of wanting to control another person. People are afraid of their lives changing, so they want to control someone else\u2019s life to stop that. People judge. They\u2019re going to judge you, no matter what you do, even if you do everything right. Standing up for what\u2019s right for you and being okay with being judged because you\u2019re going to be judged anyway is probably my best advice.<\/p>\n

-As told to Hannah Militano<\/em><\/p>\n

Check out GRAZIA USA\u2019s Fall issue featuring cover star Nicola Peltz Beckham:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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