Q&A with Diablo Cody

A paragraph doesn’t seem like enough space to tell you all that’s happened to Diablo Cody in the two years since we introduced her, let alone to encapsulate the entire life of the twenty-nine-year-old, just-gone-Hollywood screenwriter. But what the hell. Former Catholic schoolgirl Brooke Busey moved from Lamont, Illinois to Robbinsdale, Minnesota (via college in Iowa) after meeting her One True Love, Jon Hunt, a Minneapolis musician she met on the internet. She was a secretary at Fallon when she adopted a stripper’s alias, Diablo Cody, before actually becoming a part-time stripper. She started a raunchy blog, Pussy Ranch, that was simultaneously legitimized by both a gig at City Pages and a new book, Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper, which she promoted on Letterman (she’s still the only member of Dave’s Book Club). Then she wrote a screenplay, Juno, and moved to California (with Jonny), to await Juno’s release (December 14—there’s already Oscar talk) and Showtime’s inevitable production of her first TV series (Toni Collette was just cast in the pilot). Need. Glass. Of. Water. 

So how did this come together so fast?
I wish I could understand. I wish I could find a reason behind it. I think about this a lot, because I’m aware of how improbable this all sounds, and I know it’s definitely an atypical situation for a writer. A lot of the time I feel like a fraud, because my peers went about things the usual way and had to fight to be where they are.

And you don’t think you have?
No. Honestly, I haven’t had a lot of doors shut in my face out here. It’s been a warm reception.

But you were a secretary in Minneapolis.
Oh yeah, before Hollywood, sure, I faced my share of rejection. Absolutely. But as soon as this happened, it happened. I mean, God knows, I never succeeded at anything prior to trying my hand at writing. Never. I’ve been fired from so many jobs. I’ve been told that I’m incompetent, socially retarded, maladjusted. I still know that I couldn’t function in reality. Los Angeles is a good place for me.

Let’s say $100 million gross, little gold man—does that mean, bye, bye Jonny?
WHAT? Are you kidding? That’s a ridiculous question. Like, he’s sitting right here. He’s not going anywhere. Everything we do we do side by side. I’ve got him tattooed on my arm for god’s sakes.

So you’ve done the stripper anthropology book, and the teen pregnancy movie, now if you do something on anorexia you’ll complete the Lifetime holy trinity.
I could do a comedy about anorexia. That would be great. It could be called, like, Wasting Away. That’s not wacky enough though. That’s sounds dramatic. It needs to have a wacky title. [Juno director] Jason Reitman and I have both this fascination with writing about sort of controversial topics and poking fun at them. We both like to do that and we have similar politics the more I get to know him. But the idea for Juno was really a random spontaneous thing. I guess I’m inspired by awkward situations. I love awkward silences, I love forced politeness. To me, there is hilarity to be found in that.