Screenwriters come from every background, but Kirsten Foe’s path stands out. 

Before she was developing her own material, she was leaping from motorcycles, tumbling down stairs, and throwing punches as a seasoned stunt performer.

After a decade as an in-demand stunt performer on shows like Twin Peaks, The Affair, and Grimm (doubling for stars like Cobie Smulders, Ruth Wilson, and Heidi Klum), Foe transitioned to writer/director with her work in TV, short films, and now her debut feature, Off the Record. 

Off the Record follows Astor Grey (Rainey Qualley), a young singer-songwriter whose life takes a dark turn when she enters a turbulent romance with older rock star Brandyn Verge (Ryan Hansen). 

Foe’s background in photography and her time working with numerous directors in stunts have given her a unique perspective. On this film, partnering with a team that included female, queer, and BIPOC department heads, Foe focused on moving beyond victim narratives. It’s the story she wanted to tell when she was performing as “underwritten, undeveloped female characters” who “get victimized and don’t have any voice,” as she told us.

We chatted with Foe to learn about her creative process, her transition from stunts to directing, and what screenwriters can learn from her unconventional career path.

Editor’s note: The following conversation has been edited for clarity.

Billy Gibbons and Ryan Hansen in 'Off the Record'

Final Draft: What inspired you to move into writing features? 

Kirsten Foe: As a stunt woman, I was fortunate enough to get to read a lot of scripts. I would always ask. Sometimes they just give you the sides. But I would ask directors, ADs, whatever, if I could read the full script, and often they would let me. 

So I started reading scripts really early on and just fell in love with reading scripts. It’s still something that I absolutely love. After I see a movie I love, it’s my favorite thing to do, to sit down and go and back and read the script. And sometimes that’ll make me want to see the movie again. It’s so inspiring to me. 

So I was reading a lot of scripts and we have a lot of downtime. As a stunt person, there’s a lot of hurry up and wait, sitting around. And so that’s when I started just kind of playing around with writing.

I got Final Draft, and I honestly didn’t know anything. I was fortunate enough to figure out enough about the formatting, and I remember the first couple of things that I wrote, I was just bold. And I give myself a lot of credit for the bravery. I would give these things to directors and be like, “Can you give me notes?” And they would, which is kind of wild. 

I learned early on that the people that have succeeded in this industry, somebody helped them. It’s inevitable. Somebody helped them. Somebody read their first script, somebody gave them notes, whatever it is. 

I found that when I asked people for help and they could see that I genuinely had an interest and a love of writing that they were willing to help me. 

The stories kept growing and getting more layered. I took a couple of really great classes with a guy named Scott Myers. I found him through The Black List, and I would post stuff on The Black List and get feedback from there also. 

It started by just reading all of these scripts. And then I think there was an element of, I was playing a lot of victims and a lot of underwritten, undeveloped female characters. They just come in and they get victimized and they don’t have any voice or autonomy, and then they’re kind of just thrown away. 

And it bothered me. I was like, “Why don’t we develop these characters more? Why don’t these women fight back? Why don’t we?” And I think that was another thing for me is I wanted to have more of a part of the process, creating the characters, not just portraying the characters.

Rainey Qualley in 'Off the Record'

Final Draft: I think all that is really great advice that I’ve heard a lot from different people, that you should read a lot of scripts and then you should network and get that feedback.

Kirsten Foe: It’s really hard I think in the beginning to say, “I’m a writer.” And so what I would say is, “I want to write.” I would just go up to these people and I’d say, “Listen, I really want to write. I wrote this script.” 

I understand still to this day, sometimes it feels hard to say, “I’m a writer,” right? There’s just something about this where it’s like, “Oh, but have you done this? And what are your achievements?” That drives me a little bit crazy. 

If you want to be a writer, it means you write. If you were sitting down and putting words or ideas on a page, you’re a writer. But I think in the beginning, there is that fear of approaching people. And so for me, I just would say, “Listen, I really admire what you do.” And I would make sure that I had read enough of a script that they’d written or knew something about what they’d done. So that they saw there was a serious element there. 

But yeah, sometimes you really just have to fake it ‘til you make it too, right? In the beginning, it’s so hard. You just have to tell people, “I’m trying. No, it’s not perfect, but help me.” I don’t have to be perfect.

Final Draft: You mentioned being a stunt performer. Do you feel like being on that side of the camera has influenced how you write?

Kirsten Foe: I try not to have violence for the sake of violence, because I’ve done so much of those scenes. I’m also really put off by rape scenes. I’ve done a few of those as a stunt woman, and I don’t think that they’re really necessary. I think things can be implied. 

So a couple of things that I had to do repeatedly as a stunt woman, definitely that translated into when I was writing, not wanting to show gratuitous sex or violence just for the sake of shock value. I think there needs to be a reason for it to be there. And I think that a lot of people expected like, “Oh, you’re a stunt person, so there’s going to be all of the stunts.” 

I think stunts are really effective. And sex is really effective if it’s not overused. And I think that is something that I learned. There were times where I was doing scenes where I was like, “Who wants to watch this? Just filming it is freaking me out. Who wants to watch a 12-minute long sexual violence scene?” 

It also just feels irresponsible to me as a human to put content out that could damage other people. So I think having to film those honestly sometimes was psychologically damaging enough that I was like, “When I make something I don’t want to use, especially women, I don’t want to use women in this way.” 

I worked on a show, and it was during Game of Thrones, and we had a big production meeting, and they were talking about how they really wanted the network—big network—wanted us to do a “lovely rape scene” because Game of Thrones had been so successful with theirs, and they want makeup and wardrobe and beautiful lighting and all of these things. I never forgot that. We had a female showrunner, and I never forgot the look on her face when that was said. And to be fair, she did not do that, but that was a thing. So I try to avoid that, having lived through it.

Ryan Hansen and Rainey Qualley in 'Off the Record'

Final Draft: In this film, you have a character that seems one thing, but then becomes another. You have an arc where the relationship turns sour. How did you plot that?

Kirsten Foe: I’ve always been fascinated by shapeshifter characters, and I think in our industry, there are just a lot of real-life people that are this way. So I had a lot of inspiration, but I also think that these are complicated characters. 

I would call Brandyn a narcissist for sure. And they’re not going to just come right out with the abuse, the red flags. They don’t kick puppies. So I wanted it to be layered enough that we see these little glimpses. 

I was really fortunate to have Ryan Hansen as my actor, because everyone associates him with being a nice guy. He’s this funny guy. I think there’s something to think about in that the psychology of when people appear to be nice, and of course when we like somebody, it’s harder for us to believe they do bad things.

I wanted to play with that a little bit. I’ve had a couple of people tell me that they didn’t think Brandyn was a bad guy from the script stage. People would read it and be like, “I don’t think he’s such a bad person. What is he doing that’s so wrong?” I was like, “Okay, that’s perfect to hear that, because that is just this reminder to me that there is that mentality.” 

I also felt like that maybe it was subtle enough because I didn’t want to just be beating you over the head, “This guy’s terrible.” But yeah, this guy is a complicated mess and you should steer clear. 

It’s just a slow reveal. I wanted it to come from the people that were pulled back, the people that are watching from a distance, the mom, the best friend, the manager, because I think a lot of times those are the people that can see these things before we do.

Final Draft: What advice would you give to an emerging screenwriter?

Kirsten Foe: Read and write as much as possible. I have to say those are the biggest things for me. 

I know there are days where you’re not inspired to write, but I’ll just jump around. I’ll find scenes that I do want to write. I’ll have conversations with my characters just to keep them fresh. 

I know this is the ultimate rule, but it’s the idea of writing what you know. Writing what is around you. For me, it was a lot easier to tap into these characters because they’re people that I do know. They are people that are all around me, and I’d hear snippets of dialogue places and be like, “Ah, I’m going to use that. That’s inspiring.” So when people would say, “Somebody wouldn’t really say that,” or “Somebody wouldn’t act like that,” well actually, for me, that’s what I like to write. I like the flawed human stories. 

I think just reading scripts. That’s the biggest thing for me. And there are so many available now. I signed up for a service, an app, where I can literally read any script I want now. Read, read, read.

Off the Record is available on digital and on demand.