Ronda Rousey: From Fighter to Screenwriter

An Interview with Ronda Rousey

Interviewed by Natalie Lifson (Executive Assistant & Agent Trainee at Buchwald, Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Hollywood Assistant)

Ronda Rousey was the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in judo, and she is the only woman to win both UFC and WWE titles. In fact, she’s a UFC Hall of Fame inductee. Ronda has also acted in film and television, in projects such as Fast and Furious 7, Entourage, and The Expendables, among others. Ronda is also a burgeoning writer and has multiple shows in development.

Hi Ronda. Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us! You’ve been one of the most iconic and accomplished athletes of our generation for over a decade, and now you’re entering the next phase of your career - screenwriting - with a Netflix deal to adapt your own memoir into a biopic. Congratulations! How does it feel?

Absolutely surreal, and extremely validating. Screenwriting has been a secret obsession of mine for the past five years and I’ve always been very self conscious about it. I mean, I grew up in Los Angeles where it seems like everyone and their brother is an aspiring screenwriter and it seemed too cliche to even admit to - especially as a professional athlete. I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head who’s successfully made that crossover before, so I never thought I could get anyone to take my writing seriously. But the process of writing has become so therapeutic for me I couldn’t help but do it anyway.

Last week, Deadline reported that you made the pivot into screenwriting by doing script coverage at WME. How did this come about, what was the experience like, and what are the most important things you learned?

Actually, I started interning when I felt like I couldn’t take my self-education in the craft any farther. After I was done with WWE this past August, I suddenly had time to pursue other things and knew screenwriting is what I wanted to do. But with a two-year-old and hopefully another on the way soon, I didn’t have time to go to film school or anything like that. But repeatedly in my research, I’d hear that the best way to learn how to be a screenwriter was to work as a reader. I knew my athletic past wouldn’t give me much of a leg up in this new field - but what I DID have was connections at WME, where I’ve been repped the last 12 years.

Usually, readers need to have a degree from UCLA or USC film school or something to get that kind of job. A high school dropout like me would normally never be considered. So I repeatedly bothered my agent, Brad Slater, about it until he realized this was something I wouldn’t stop bugging him about. He then set me up with an internship under Adam Novak, who’s the head of the story department. In him, I finally found the mentor in writing I’d been seeking for years, and we had calls set every Tuesday and Friday for him to give me feedback on my coverage for the scripts he sent me. What he’d send wasn’t random, but a curated list (with cover pages removed) that he thought would teach me the dark art of script coverage as quickly as possible.

The experience was incredible and I plan to keep doing it forever. Every night, I look forward to the new adventure Adam has in store for me to read. My husband calls it my “nerd time,” but when you’re being “mom” all day it’s nice to hoard some time for myself at night (even if it has to cut in on my sleep, which is another passion of mine). Amongst the myriad of Adam’s lessons, possibly the most important thing I learned was that many of the scripts making it into the hands of agents and readers weren’t the work of masters that we normally compare ourselves to. Finding a script that was GREAT was much rarer than having to slog through ones that weren’t - and many of those got made anyway! It made success in the industry seem so much more attainable and I attacked the keyboard with more confidence than ever.

Writing your own biopic is practically unheard of. What was the approval process like?

Like almost everything in my life, it was unconventional. Mark Bomback wrote a first draft of it years ago that was buried in regime changes at Paramount until the book rights expired. Not just that, but the story he wrote was incomplete because I couldn’t be open about my concussion history (or my “secret boogeyman” as Adam Novak puts it) which was a huge part of what I was privately going through at the time.

It seemed Paramount was never going to move forward with it and Brad wanted to take it elsewhere, so he suggested to me “Hey, I think the reason you’ve become obsessed with screenwriting is you were meant to write your own biopic.” I dove in right away, writing notes and pulling together the first half of an outline in my free moments over a week of chasing my baby around the house. It was the first time I was really excited about a story, just writing the outline. Then I had to leave home for my book tour, which was tiring in itself, but it was a solid two weeks where I wouldn’t have a toddler stealing my free time.

From when I was done with media til' 2am for eight days straight, I dove into writing the actual script. Since it all really happened, I didn’t have to spend time world-building or figuring out how characters interconnected or even labor much over dialogue that I remembered hearing/saying, it just flowed out in a continuous stream. Fortunately, me and my sister had just finished my second memoir and we had already broken my life up into scenes of formative events. I just had to take everything I learned about story structure and lay all the pieces of my life into place.

After the first draft was finished, I sent it to Brad for notes. He was floored and shared it with Roger Green, a top literary agent at WME, who thought it was so good I had to have used a ghostwriter (best compliment I ever received, but that’s the bias I’m working with). Before I knew it, some of the top producers at Netflix were visiting the WME office. Roger put over the script, they demanded to read it immediately, and Brad sent it to them without a cover page so they would read it without preconceived notions. They love the script, couldn’t believe I wrote it in a little over a week, and wanted to make me an offer immediately. It literally happened over a few days. I’m honestly still in shock.

Have you ever doubted yourself on your journey to becoming a professional screenwriter? How do you deal with imposter syndrome, and what advice would you give to aspiring screenwriters who might doubt themselves?

Well, I’ve always been insecure about lacking a formal education in the field. I’m a high school dropout that’s better than anyone in the history of mankind at throwing people on the ground and breaking their arms, and that’s all most people will ever see me as. But I know I’m more than JUST that. No, I don't think I could be another Quentin Tarantino, Aaron Sorkin, Mel Brooks or Martin Scorsese, but I DO know I’ve had an entirely unique life experience and perspective that only I could write from. I could never do what others have done better than they’ve done it. But I know there are very specific stories out there that I can write better than anyone else could. I just have to find them. 

What parts of your athletic mindset have been most helpful in succeeding in the entertainment industry?

I have a tendency to fixate on things where it’s impossible for me to think of nothing else. It’s how I can obsess over a certain technique and drill it over and over again for hours on end with 100% focus. It’s how I can obsess over a sport or craft for years on end without deviating until I feel I’ve mastered it. I LOVE the process of mastery, of starting from zero and working to gain a complete understanding. Putting the work in is the fun part - I call it “montage time.”

For every spare moment for five years, I was trying to learn everything I could about screenwriting. I didn’t have to dig deep to do it, I just couldn’t help it. What is the writing equivalent of getting to the gym first and being the last to leave when you already have three jobs (which is what is did to break into MMA)? How can anyone not be intimidated by trying to break into an industry when it’s never been more difficult?

I did what I learned worked before: Instead of being overwhelmed with my disadvantages, I honed in on what I COULD do. Every night I would watch YouTube video after video about screenwriting before bed, every drive I would listen to audio books about it, even while signing thousands of pages for my upcoming memoir I would listen to hours of podcasts about it. Every time I learned something I would apply it to my scripts. Anytime my thoughts would stray somewhere negative, I would force my mind onto whatever screenplay I was working on, writing pages and pages of notes in my phone (all with a key phrase that could be easily searched by project), and anytime I could scavenge uninterrupted time to write I would apply the notes to my projects that would then lead to a free flow of ideas.

And when I felt I hit a wall in my self education, I sought help. I heard over and over again that being a reader is the best way to learn how to write, so I pursued an unpaid internship and thankfully had the connections to find one while grossly under-qualified. And once I did, I’d devote every night from 8pm-2am getting work done after my baby went to sleep for the night. The grind shouldn’t be a chore, it should be the best part of your day. One thing I learned from my athletic career is if the pursuit of something is fulfilling in itself, reaching your goal will never make up the difference.

Can you tell us about some projects you have in the works?

My very first screenplay that started me on this journey is currently getting made into a graphic novel. We receive a new page of art every day and the experience of converting my screenplay into a comic script and watching it come together one page and layer at a time has been incredible.

Once I realized no one would take a chance on me as an unproved screenwriter, I focused on what I COULD do - I could probably get a comic publisher to give me chance. It’s a much “easier” (it’s still hard) space to break into and I figured I could leverage my following to get someone to at least give my script a read. Luckily, AWA Comics loved it and took a chance on me. And if people could connect to the story in that medium, maybe it could pave the way to a film someday. Well, every setback is an opportunity in disguise. The disinterest from studios led me to a new medium I’ve fallen head over heels in love with. There are a few scripts I have that for various reasons I don’t think could ever be made into film but would make great comics, and I hope that this first comic is just the first of many. 

What advice do you have for others who are considering a major career shift into the entertainment industry?

I don’t feel like I’ve really made it or am in any position to give advice specifically on screenwriting, or even acting for that matter. But if you put a gun to my head, I’d say do it because you love it, not with a result in mind. I know screenplays are just a blueprint for a film and not an actual finished project, but I watched some Quentin Tarantino interview where he said something along the lines of when he writes a screenplay he wants to get it to a point where he’s so proud of it that it could never be made into a movie and just the document itself gives him all the satisfaction he needs. I f*cking love that and always write with that philosophy in mind.

As for acting, I’d say don’t be passive. For a long time I walked the path of “please pick me!,” of auditioning and sending tape after tape and getting rejected over and over. I realized me expecting someone to write a screenplay and get it funded and get a director and crew and all the things it takes to make a film and then pick ME to star in it was pretty damn entitled. I needed to get off my ass and try to make a project happen myself instead of expecting someone else to do all the work and gift the opportunity to me. And since then I honestly learned I enjoy writing much more than acting, the first screenplay I sold is actually for someone else to star in, and I couldn’t be happier.

What inspired you to become a screenwriter, and when did you know you wanted to pursue this career path?

I didn’t consciously pursue it. I kind of accidentally discovered I loved it and couldn’t stop. Long story, but I was about to leave WWE for the first time, and the week before Wrestlemania one of my mentors, Paul Heyman, asked me the question, “What kind of movie do you want to star in?” And it made me think, I know I’ll never be the best actor out there, but what is a very specific role I could play better than anyone else? I wrote in my notes something like “Wanted assassin ends up with unwanted pregnancy, has to fight her way through enemies to an abortion clinic. All the close calls to her baby along the way make her realize by the time she gets there that she wants to keep it.” Basically “Knocked Up meets John Wick.”

I shattered my knuckle in the Wrestlemania main event, went into surgery to get it fixed, went straight from surgery with my hand in a cast onto a plane to NYC, got off the plane, went straight to promote the new Mortal Kombat 11 where I was voicing Sonya Blade on Stephen Colbert, and then went to a hotel where I had 5 hours to sleep in a real bed for the first time since surgery before leaving. I was desperate to get some sleep, but as I laid in bed I had an idea for the scene where the mom in my movie finds out she’s pregnant.

I couldn’t stop repeating the details in my mind over and over so I’d remember them when I woke up. Frustrated with myself, I decided to just write the damn scene down in my notes so I could get some sleep. Five hours later, my car for the airport arrived and I hadn’t stopped writing. I wrote two hours in the car on the way to the airport. I wrote on the plane for hours until somewhere over Nevada I wrote “the end.” I looked at the metrics on my phone - I’d been thumb-typing - in a cast! - for 11 hours straight! (Like I said earlier, I have a tendency to fixate). It was 60 pages of block text. I sent it to my agent Brad asking him if he could hook me up with a writer to help me make it into something. He replied “I hate it when you use the word c*nt.” Apparently, he read the first page or two and was like “what the hell is anyone supposed to do with this?” I didn’t know how to format, didn’t know structure, nothing. It was just a 60 page stream of what-the-f*ck.

I asked a friend of mine, Jason Nawara, who’s also an aspiring writer, what to do. I didn’t even know where to start. He recommended I read “Save the Cat” and Syd Field’s “Screenplay.” It sent me down a black hole of information. I read every book I could find a recommendation for. Everything I learned, I applied to my story. I scoured Masterclass and YouTube, learned everything I could about story, formatting and structure from channels like Every Frame a Painting, Studio Binder, and Behind the Curtain. Eventually, my 60 page chunk of text resembled a real screenplay and I reached a point where I could say it was as good as I could make it - and immediately missed the feeling of working on something. Luckily, an idea for another screenplay soon fell into my lap, then I wrote a sequel to the first one. I was working on my fourth when Brad suggested I write my own biopic, and about a month later here we are. 

Do you have a favorite cinematic fight scene?

Ooh that’s a tough one but I looooove long cut fight scenes where you know the actor themself are doing all the action in one take. The hammer fight in “Old Boy” (both the Japanese and American versions) is so damn impressive, it immediately comes to mind. 

Is there anything else you want to share with our readers?

Focus on what you CAN do. It’s montage time.