Paige Sciarrino Puts Herself Front and Center, and Writes From There

MORRIS COUNTY, N.J. - EntSun -- Paige Sciarrino does not wait to be cast in the story she wants to tell. An actor, writer and filmmaker, a SAG-AFTRA member and the founder of Little Fighter Films, which she started in 2016, she writes the scripts, produces them and steps into the lead herself. Her credits include the short "The Blue Light Stays On," winner of Best Female Filmmaker and Best Original Idea and now streaming on Amazon Prime Video; "Where the Light Enters," award-winning short film written, produced, directed, and starring herself; the short "Rolling," which she wrote, produced and starred in; and "Lucy Is a Good Girl" (in post-production), which she wrote, produced and starred in under director Amanda Pinto.

Her path to the page started at ATC Studios in Clifton, New Jersey, the acting school she grew up attending. In 2008 the school made a public access TV series called "The Conservatory," and Sciarrino auditioned to act in it. She was cast, then chosen as one of the show's writers, and ended up writing and directing an episode of her own, while in high school, in high heels, because "that's what serious writer/director/actors did, isn't it?" she cheekily remarks. "Creating the characters and the world through words on the page felt like actual magic," she said. "Continuing to write didn't feel like a choice I had to make. Writing simply became a part of me."

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Every screenplay she has written follows a woman working through something in an imperfect way, often taking a character who seems to fit a trope, splitting her open and putting her back together.

Her debut feature, the mystery thriller "Lucy Is a Good Girl," directed by Amanda Pinto, takes on the horror genre's "final girl." When Pinto pitched removing all on-screen violence against women, Sciarrino says it was absolutely the right call.

"Because I'm also an actor, and a lot of times I write for myself to play the role, it can be challenging to not give in to the desire to make the character behave in a way that I, personally, deem socially acceptable," she said. She carries a line from her first acting teacher, Kathleen Kellaigh, into every draft: the floor is not going to collapse.

Years of getting her own films made have left her unsentimental about rejection: the no's get you closer to the yes's, and a maybe is worse than a no. Her storytelling belief now fits in one line: "A story for everyone is a story for no one."

Follow Along with Paige: Instagram @paigesciarrino(https://www.instagram.com/paigesciarrino/)