“I’ve always loved reading, so it started more with books than movies,” said screenwriter Ariane Hahusseau. “That’s how I developed a passion for stories. While in college, I watched a lot of BBC shows. Adaptations of my favorite novels. Coming from a literature background, I realized I could adapt my favorite novels, but also write my own stories.”

Ariane, a French expatriate, embarked on her academic journey in the realms of literature, initially in Paris and later in London. She culminated her educational pursuits by obtaining an MFA in screenwriting from the American Film Institute Conservatory. Her love for art and history serves as the guiding force behind her screenplays, which invariably spotlight determined female protagonists battling societal injustices to reclaim their voices.

“It’s the stories that I feel comfortable in,” she said of the novel adaptations on BBC. “Being a big fan of Jane Austen and stories about women, I developed an interest in talking about the female condition. In screenwriting, they tell you to put as many obstacles in front of your character as you can. Putting them in the 18th Century seems like the perfect setting for a maximum of obstacles for women. Women had so much more to overcome.”

This love led to themes in her own work, such as fighting against that which restricts your freedom. “These are themes I love to gravitate around. I’m very interested in what it means to be an artist, like the creation process. How does it spurt out of you? Or is it a genius element of your personality? Or just a lot of work? I love observing the rise and fall of the artist. How they’re rejected or accepted by society.”

Writing female characters, she adds, raises the stakes even more in terms of  acceptance or rejection. Then, of course, the added dilemma of motherhood rises to the surface. “Women are sort of conflicted between two motherhoods: the motherhood of their work as artists and then having children of their own. How do you reconcile those two aspects? That comes back over and over in my writing.”

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