The way a lot of these Don’t Worry shorts begin with me thinking, “What am I afraid of?” And then I explore it and hopefully also poke fun of that fear in subsequent drafts. I can do it with almost all of these but, just to give you a few examples, BLESSING is my fear of losing control over a lie, ORBIT is my fear of building up my hopes for a crush into unrealistic, oppressive expectations, FAKE is my fear of that “I can fix this on my own” instinct taking over.
I can’t believe it took me this long to explore this specific fear. FLORENCE, as the title implies, is my fear of being Florence Foster Jenkins’d.
A brief summary of FFJ for those who don’t know: Florence Foster Jenkins was an American socialite who was famous for being a terrible singer. She was terrible at the thing she loved and the people around her encouraged her to continue humiliating herself because it was financially advantageous for them.
It just makes me think of all the times I’ve bombed doing standup and people coming up to me afterwards saying, “That was great!” No, it wasn’t! I’m never going to get better if I don’t learn from mistakes. I’m just going to keep making them over and over again until I’m embittered and burnt out. I don’t need you to protect me. It’s not your decision. This fear that I’m being enabled to suck a la FFJ also means I’m suspicious of every compliment I’ve ever received, which is exhausting.
Anyways, I love how exploring this particular fear came out. I think this is the most fully-formed first draft I’ve written thus far.
Here’s what I’m thinking for draft 2:
Do we need a new ending? I want to give Florence a happier ending. Initially I thought it could end at the record store but I do like that the concerned paparazzo comes back.
I have to flesh out the songs. Which might be fun but I was in a hurry to see this take shape so I skipped most of it.
Shoutout to Florence Foster Jenkins, Dogtooth, Sharp Objects and Overboard.
Dream Casting:
Florence: Elle Fanning, Chloë Grace Moretz, Jennifer Jason Leigh,
Colonel Morey: Tommy Lee Jones, Matthew McConaughey (would be required to gain 400 pounds), Powers Booth,
Concerned Paparazzo: Philip Seymour Hoffman,