Diablo Cody's rock 'n' roll show; EDM's drug problem; 'Daily Show,' Iraq-style

My mother-in-law was just the inspiration for the musical component of it, but my own anxieties were what drove me to write the movie. Being a women in an artistic field who is very committed to what she does —I love being a screenwriter and I want to continue doing this, but at the same time I have an obligation to my children. I sometimes wonder where do I find that balance and are they going to forgive me when they're older for the time that I've spent away from them pursuing this.

Absolutely true. I know so many guys who are directors or writers who are on location for months out of the year. They Skype with their kids at night and it is no big deal because they're providers. People take that seriously. In my situation I'm also a provider, but I don't know if people are as willing to forgive that. I think they see that when a women pursues something it is more like a hobby. By the way, when I make a movie my kids come with me. I brought them to New York for "Ricki and the Flash." I know I put a lot of pressure on myself, more so then a man would.

Absolutely. It's one of my favorite aspects of the movie — the fact that she didn't make it. She missed out on some crucial moments in her children's lives and all for naught, which makes it all the more poignant. But at the same time she has this arrogance that I find very amusing. She is on stage comparing herself to Mick Jagger in one scene and wondering why her kids can't look up to her the way Mick Jagger's kids look up to him. It's like, It's because you're not Mick Jagger. She is a little delusional.

I have. I have sort of continued to work over the past four years as I have been reproducing. A pregnant women is definitely regarded as a liability on set. In a way I can't blame the powers that be ... even right now, just sitting here having a low key interview, I'm exhausted and I feel spacey. I'm not saying all pregnant women are exhausted and spacey. But I do look back on that experience that I had directing while pregnant and I think, God how did I do that, and why?

I think it confirmed for me what I already knew, which was that I didn't want to be a director. I had been saying that for a really long time. You know, going all the way back to when "Juno" came out people said, "Oh what are you going to do next, direct?" That always seems like the logical trajectory for a screenwriter. At the time I said, "No. It's just not something that I am longing to do."



Eventually I was just three or four movies in and I [thought], I'm going to try it. It was a really amazing experience. I couldn't have worked with a better group of people. I just think that it made me realize that I'm not good at directing and I'm not particularly passionate about it. I'm happy to be back in my sweatpants with my laptop. 

I had a lot of really amazing conversations with her. In a way I think she understood the character Ricki even more than I did. It's kind of amazing, her process, the way she crafts a character to the degree [where] now I feel that Ricki is her property. She brought so much insight to it. She didn't just show up and read the script. That is why she is Meryl Streep. She is magical.

For instance, she was the one who said, "I think Ricki lost a brother in Vietnam." That wasn't something I put in the script. That was something she had decided about Ricki. It was cool to witness those moments and see what she could bring to it. 

I like that Ricki is a polarizing figure. I want people to be having those conversations: I think it is awesome that she followed her dream and stuck to her guns. There will be some people that say, "Yeah, but did she really have to go all the way to California when her kids were at a crucial point in their development?" I am not interested in writing characters that everybody loves. I'm not interested in writing the heroes. I've always preferred the antiheroes. 

We're heading off to shoot the pilot in a couple of weeks. I wrote the script with Tig, who is the star of the show. It's based on her comedy and her life. What a gift it has been for me as a writer to be able to write for somebody who has such a distinctive voice. I couldn't have dreamed up a character like Tig, so it made my job very easy.

The idea of working in TV was appealing to me because I thought, Oh, I'll be based in L.A. I can be close to my family. Then of course I write a show that is set down South. I'm interested in both. I do think that my true love is writing films, but I'm hoping to do both. 

Before we answer that, we need to talk about the word "overdose." Overdose implies that there is such a thing as a safe dosage. The reality for a lot of these substances is that people are taking things that they're trying to get MDMA from, which gives you that kind of ecstasy high, but they can be cut with anything from sugar to garden fertilizer. It's important for everyone to know that there is no such thing as a safe dose if you don't know what you're taking.

Yes, and to be clear, that girl's name is Sasha Rodriguez. She would be in college now if she was still here. She was there when she was not supposed to be. There was a minimum age set of 18 for that event.

What has happened in the last few years is a lot of these festivals have been bought by larger companies. HARD is owned by Live Nation as is Insomniac, who is behind Electric Daisy Carnival. They have a much better way of regulating these kinds of safety measures and it has improved things on the whole, but risk like this is inherent when you have large groups of people. 

I heard that those two supervisors were saying that they were going to look into it, and particularly if Hilda Solis is listening she should give me a call, because I can't imagine she knows too much about what she is about to investigate.



I think it is really important for people to understand that this might not be something that they personally enjoy or that culturally speaks to them. But this is a part of a larger generational movement and drugs are very small component of it as they have been with every musical movement of the last 50 years. 

I think they're always worried. I think that anytime I've talked to them in the last 10 years it's become increasingly a problem for them to manage. As their crowds have grown so have the risks. They've brought in more and more experts. They've sought the advice of different organizations. There are a lot of controversial methods of how to keep people safe.

There is an organization in the US right now called DanceSafe that provides drug testing kits at festivals, which allows you to essentially test the substance which you are about to ingest. It's very controversial, understandably, because people think it kind of condones drug use. Other people say, "If people are going to do drugs you might as well empower them with some information about what they're taking."

I mean, there can be. Case in point, Insomniac, who puts on Electric Daisy Carnival, has been effectively banned from venues in Los Angeles. You know there are financial implications as well. There are festivals all over North America that have had to close up because they can't afford the consequences of having someone suffer this kind of fatality at their event.

I think that most importantly it really ruins the goal of what these festivals are, which is to be a place for people to come together. I think that truly is what people are most concerned about when something like this happens — not the financial impact, not the bad PR, but losing life at something that is there to celebrate life.