Ask five top showrunners if, in this moment in history, they feel creative, and the response is a resounding no. At least not in the traditional ways.
“Not on the things I’m being paid to create,” says Power boss Courtney Kemp, who’s joined on this early June afternoon by Watchmen’s Damon Lindelof; The Good Fight’s Michelle King; The Terror: Infamy’s Alexander Woo; and Little Fires Everywhere’s Liz Tigelaar, for The Hollywood Reporter’s (virtual) Drama Showrunner Roundtable. “The stuff that’s under deadline, I’m like, ‘Ugh, how do I squeeze out something to say with these characters?’ It’s almost impossible,” Kemp adds. “But I wrote a poem the other day. I haven’t written a poem since college.”
Tigelaar has had a similar experience while in isolation. Any ounce of creativity she has,…