Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum has directed three features, including Aquamarine (2006), starring Emma Roberts; Ramona and Beezus (2010), starring Selena Gomez, Ginnifer Goodwin, John Corbett, and Joey King in the lead role; and Careful What You Wish For (2015), staring Nick Jonas, Dermot Mulroney, and Paul Sorvino. She has directed television episodes of shows such as Gossip Girl, Life Unexpected, The Vampire Diaries, 90210, Dating Rules From My Future Self, and Red Band Society. She has also written screenplays for Paramount Studios, Disney Features, and Fox Searchlight.

Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum

Photo by Izzy Reinhard

Most recently, Allen Rosenbaum directed and produced a pilot for Amazon Studios that was picked up for a full season. The show is called The Kicks and is based on the New York Times–bestselling book of the same name by Olympic gold-medalist soccer player Alex Morgan. She also collaborated with Verizon go90, producing and directing their first homegrown series as an aspiring new network for narrative content. The eleven-episode series was released in the spring of 2016, and will ultimately interweave into a two-hour ensemble romantic comedy feature film.

Allen Rosenbaum received her MFA from the University of Southern California (USC), where she was the recipient of the Jack Nicholson Directing Scholarship for the strongest directing candidate of her class.

Do you remember the first time you thought you might want to be a director?

There was this full-immersion theater arts program that my mom enrolled me in when I was a kid. I don’t really know what clicked, but I loved it. The teachers encouraged me and put me into Equity Theater. You do forty-five runs or so for a show. I never had big roles, because I was a kid, but I remember this little balcony area where you could sit and watch the show from above. I would watch the whole show every day. I’d sneak down and get a soda, and then sit up in the balcony between my scenes and watch it all unfold. From way above, I remember picturing how I’d move everything around—it just seemed almost like toys, and you could play with them.

That’s an interesting perspective for a child. Did you study directing in undergrad?

Yes, in college I had a great mentor, David Feldshuh. He was such an incredible person. He’d been nominated for a Pulitzer and was a medical doctor on the weekends. He was my professor at Cornell, and he just had this incredible way of breaking down directing. When I was in his class, that’s when it clicked for me. I understood that I was actually good at it, that I was in my element.

Were you aware of how few women were directing film and television at the time?

I had no idea. I’d never experienced anything that wasn’t achievable for a woman. In this day and age, you just assume there’s going to be an equal number of women to men in most career paths. I really became aware of the inequality at USC. I’d already worked for a while in the industry, and I was one of only a few women in my class. That starts to become noticeable.

What was the moment when you felt that you’d broken through, that you were on your way?

I worked as an assistant to a producer in LA for several years. That was a fantastic way to understand what producers are looking for in directors and how directors handle themselves. It was interesting to be thinking about things from that perspective. I was strategic all through film school about how to sculpt a short film that would get a lot of attention and that could make people feel confident that I could tell stories with character arcs that felt cinematic. The first priority was to say something that mattered to me, and I was also very careful about how I presented my calling card and myself.

And this calling card was your short film Eyeball Eddie?

Yeah, that short got me attention, so I had several different agents trying to sign me. It got me a bunch of writing assignments and, ultimately, my first feature-directing gig. That was the one thing I’d done really on my own, so it has the strongest voice for me.

What is the film about?

It’s about this kid in high school who has a glass eye. He’s pretty awkward and uncomfortable. He can’t play sports very well without depth perception, but he decides to be on the wrestling team. He’s not very good at that either, but at least it’s about holding on instead of seeing. And in the middle of one of the matches, his eyeball pops out, and it scares his opponent so badly that in that moment he’s able to pin him and win for the first time in his life. It gets him all this attention. People start attending matches and talking about him for a while. It’s kind of a fable about giving up a part of yourself to fit in. The point of no return is when someone on the wrestling team asks to take Eddie’s eyeball to a party, but not Eddie. His eye gets invited, but he doesn’t. That’s when he realizes how badly he’s selling out.

That’s a compelling story!

Yeah, it has a good cast, and it’s sort of subversive and has a lot of athleticism, stunt sequences, and visual effects. It has a bit of everything. It reflects my slightly off-kilter sense of humor, and the wrestling seemed like the perfect way to visualize conflict on screen. And it did a lot for me. Plus, it was very fun and very empowering. It was the first time I’d done something as a director, and it was quite ambitious. I got an amazing amount of favors. All the directors and producers I worked with when I was an assistant helped me make it. Panavision gave us three cameras and cranes, because I would write passionate letters and send them my publicity packet. They understood that I was giving it my all, so they helped me out.

What was the budget on that film?

The budget was $30,000, and it was 35mm surround sound. It was pretty high-end, with a big cast and maybe forty locations. When we assessed how much it really would have cost, if you count everyone’s time and the resources we had gotten donated, it was well over $1,000,000. I think most of my classmates thought I was slightly insane. I was aiming to use higher-level equipment and resources than USC had at the time, so I just went off and did it.

From what you’re saying, it sounds like you had a pretty impressive combination of talent and drive while you were in school—drive to go above and beyond.

I think that’s a big part of it. Ambition is absolutely essential—that and energy. I didn’t sleep for six months. There’s the snowball effect where you start to get people to come onboard every day. It took an enormous amount of energy, and it was sort of scary. I was paying for it on my credit card. I definitely got some donations, and people were really helpful within the community, but I already had $100,000 worth of debt in student loans, so I couldn’t get extra loans. So I did it on the credit card, and I had to keep calling and raising my limit. You have no guarantee that you’ll be able to pay it back and actually get a foothold in the industry. So that was terrifying, but it also kept me going, because I didn’t have a choice.

Were your parents supportive of your decision?

My parents have always been unconditionally supportive, and they know I’m responsible and don’t do anything willy-nilly. My producer and I came up with this idea—it was just at the advent of the Internet, and we created our own website. People couldn’t believe we had a website. That felt incredibly professional at the time. Every night we’d send out a little production report, and our families and friends would get this little report about what we accomplished that day. Every day for six months people were getting these reports, so there was never a question about how hard we were working.

Did your parents help pay off any of the debt?

Actually, I ran out of money on my credit cards halfway through production, because everything was going a little more over-budget than anticipated, so I had to call my parents and ask them for money. They pulled it out of my brother’s college fund. I was so upset about having to ask them, but they didn’t hesitate at all. They were like, “Oh, no, no. We know you’re going to make it and you’ll pay us back.” And at the time, I thought, I can’t believe they think it’s that easy. The odds are like one in five hundred or a thousand, and they actually think that I’m going to make it. But then I finally paid them back. I would pay them $50 a month or so, and then when I flew to Australia to do my first movie, I was able to downgrade my ticket in exchange for also getting them coach tickets to come to Australia, and when I sent them their tickets, I also included a check for the rest of the money I owed them.

That must have been an amazing feeling.

It was!

Would you say you had positive role models in your parents in terms of aiming to be the best version of yourself?

Definitely. We moved around every other year, because my dad was a physicist. We’d need to go to different countries and states so that he could work in different laboratories. My parents were so supportive and always made us feel like we were going to succeed and be okay no matter where we were. And my mom would immediately know all the extracurriculars and classes and events to join. We were instantly infused into the culture. Being able to do that as a little kid, and growing up and going to junior high where you don’t speak the language—being able to survive that and know you can, nothing else seems daunting. It expanded my horizons. I think that made me feel confident to just go after what I wanted to try as a career.

There must be something about having to put yourself out there as a child to make friends—about starting over all the time and fighting through the rejection. Sounds like that would be good preparation for the film business in a way.

Every day I get rejection in some form or another in this business, and it can be disheartening. But you have to put yourself out there so often and reach so high—and that inherently means that you’re going to fail a lot. It’s bound to happen every day. If I had to analyze why certain people don’t get a foothold, it might be because that becomes a little overwhelming. But right, I learned as a kid from my parents not to worry about that. And I was really very shy as a child, too, so I had a lot to push through.

Would you still consider yourself shy now, or do you feel like you outgrew that?

No, I’m definitely slightly reserved, a little bit shy. I like storytelling, but being in front of a hundred people directing everyone—it occurred to me halfway through my first feature that this job is really designed for people who like the sound of their own voice. You have to make so many snap-second decisions and be in charge of so many people and really guide every one of them to your point of view. I find that I’m sometimes a bit out of my element with that. But you have to conquer it. It’s not like you can survive without being able to handle yourself in stressful situations in front of a lot of people. There’s just no other way, whether it’s pitches or being on set or whatever.

Did you have mentors in the beginning who supported you, gave you a shoulder, or advice?

I’ve had some incredibly generous mentors who have been supportive over the years. I’m very lucky that way. There’s no guidebook to know how to handle yourself when you walk into a studio meeting, or when you’re meeting with agencies or whatever, so you need to go to the generation ahead to guide you. There’s no way to find out otherwise. That’s absolutely essential, and it’s an incredibly generous business in that way. I try to do it now for the generation coming up as much as I can, because I’ve just been so lucky with all the people who have helped me.

The woman who’s probably been the most supportive is Elizabeth Gabler, who runs Fox 2000. She gave me my first movie and my second movie, and I have one in development with her now. She would probably be the person who’s been the most like a fairy godmother to me. And then the head of postproduction at DreamWorks, Marty Cohen. He would get me into the American Beauty edit after they’d wrap for the night, and I’d edit through the night on their Avid. And I was also the producer’s assistant on Gary Felder’s first movie. He was the director, but I would sit as close to him as I could every day on set. He saw how curious I was about learning, and I think it makes him feel good to be able to impart the things he knows to me. And he also saved me on Aquamarine at the end.

How so?

Handing in the first director’s cut of a movie is a big moment, and if it doesn’t go well, you can lose the movie. I had to hand in my first director’s cut to the studio, and he flew out to Australia and sat with me for three days and went through the cut with me. I’d also call him, distraught, in what was the middle of the night in the US—I’d be on the set like, “What do I do with this problem?” To this day he does it, still helps me. And even back with my short film, he was instrumental in every way. I definitely credit him with getting me an agent and knowing how to handle all of that.

It can be hard for some people to accept help. Did you experience that with Gary offering to help you?

I always felt a little guilty, but he kept saying, “It’s okay. You just have to pass it on,” so I try to.

You mentor young filmmakers?

I try to. You have to find the right people. It has to be a young whippersnapper who’s going to really want to be hard on themselves. I also teach at USC when I can, because it’s a good way to give back. And I take on interns every summer, and the ones that you can tell have got it and are working really hard, they’re the people I keep in touch with and check in on to see how they’re doing and what I can do to help. I have probably twenty-five people who will email me from time to time, either I taught them or they interned for me. These are people I would help and have helped to get entry-level jobs.

What advice would you give aspiring directors about finding a distinct voice and vision in their storytelling?

That’s something I still struggle with. I would say to start small and let it grow, carefully. It’s appealing and motivational to have paid jobs as a director, but I think you start to lose a bit of your voice if you don’t have a strong sensibility already. If you rush into things too quickly, or if you’re a people pleaser, it becomes more difficult.

Directing for television versus film? Any preference?

I’ve been lucky to do a ton of television. It’s really quick, so I get to explore a showrunner’s headspace for a couple of weeks. You study all of the previous episodes, prep for two weeks, shoot for two weeks, do a little post, and you’re done. That’s fun, because your job is to emulate the showrunner’s tone and style.

What does your typical day look like?

It’s really erratic. Some days I get three hours of sleep for a month, and then I suddenly don’t have anything for a few weeks so I sleep in. Then, just as I’m feeling really lazy, I start working again. You don’t know when things are going to come up and when a production’s going to happen. I don’t have a typical day at all, but I like that it doesn’t get boring.

So is three hours of sleep pretty normal if you’re on a feature shoot?

For me, it’s pretty typical. I tend to get there early and do a lot of prep work, and I do homework. Anyone who’s responsible would. You’re also commuting to and from the location that day. You’re lucky if you’re getting three or four hours. You also have to be prepared to stand and run around for fifteen hours a day. But I like working in spurts, as long as I have a vacation at the end of it.

Any final advice? Characteristics you think are essential for directors?

Tenacity and being willing to hear no a lot without letting it deter you—those would be the biggest ones. Actually, you should let hearing no motivate you. And you should be in it for the right reason!