Curating The Love List: A Discussion with Creators Lindsay Grossman and Madison Jones

If you want something done right –or a lot of the time just done, period– you have to do it yourself. That’s the mindset Lindsay Grossman and Madison Jones adopted when they set out to create The Love List, an annual collection of the best unproduced romance-centered screenplays and television pilots. Their goal was simple: to revive the quality and quantity of on-screen romance by proving just how many romantic comedies were being written and to highlight the scripts that best captured that toe-curling, foot-popping, behind-the-door dancing giddy-ness we all crave. The inaugural selection, which was announced in and covered by Deadline, contained 14 stories of various lengths and settings, each containing a healthy dose of swoon-worthy moments guaranteed to sweep readers and audiences alike off their feet.

The pair proved to be the perfect duo to take up such a mantle. Not only are they outspoken fans of the genre, but they also have the professional backgrounds needed to make an endeavor such as The Love List a success. Jones is the Director of Development for Olive Bridge Entertainment’s Television division, a production company responsible for stories such as Friends With Benefits, Easy A and most recently, the smash hit Anyone But You. Grossman heads up the other side of the coin as a writer whose scripts have been featured on The Blacklist and placed in numerous competitions. On top of this, Lindsay was a 2020 Women in Film Mentee and is currently drafting her fourth romance novel.

Eager as always to chat about the genre they love, Madison and Lindsay spent some time with The FMC chatting about what it took to put together The Love List. their favorite things about romance, why they believe the genre means so much to the people that adore it and more.

Congratulations on The Love List. I think it is such a lovely idea. To start, tell me about how the idea was born.

MJ: It's so funny to think about this because we've been talking about The Love List for so long. The idea in its purest form came from Lindsay and me just being huge fans of romance. We noticed that, as an industry, we’re just not making as many rom-coms as we used to. I've worked in film and television development for the last six and a half years at a company that's known for their romantic comedies, and we aren’t getting a lot of submissions in that genre anymore on the features side, and the TV shows we’re getting seem to have fewer love interests than they used to. I feel like The Love List started because we were laminating and complaining about that. [laughter]

LG: I'm very involved in the romance novel world, which is filled with women, and everyone who's writing romance is also so into romance - everyone is a romance fan. My experience in the film industry could easily be described as knocking up against a brick wall of older white men who think audiences don’t want rom-coms, which is simply not true. When Madison and I met, we immediately found a kindred spirit in that regard through the avenue of Twilight, funnily enough. We both understood that there is a genre hierarchy within the film industry and that romance, which has been much more female-driven, is undervalued. It’s such a shame because there is so much money to be made here. People want romance.

MJ: Every few years, there's always this surprise hit. A film comes along that is super low budget and usually based on a book that audiences become obsessed with. My brain immediately goes to the first Twilight movie, or even more recently, the first After movie. Those films came out and blew everyone away with how much money they made. Anyone But You was made by the company I work for for around $25 million, and it was obviously done very well. People want and crave romance. Ultimately, The Love List came about because Lindsay and I just kept having those sorts of conversations, and eventually, Lindsay was like, “What if we made a list of the best romance scripts and tried to highlight how they are something people should want to write and something that should be celebrated?” We talked about it for years and years. Then finally, this year, we were just like, “Okay, let's just do it and see what happens.”

LG: Last year was such a dark year for our industry. I think we needed optimism. I just could feel that we needed something to believe in, and romance is so representative of that. Ironically, it was unintentional. It was the right time for us, and we met the moment. Obviously, there was no other day that we could have launched besides Valentine’s Day. Because of that, there was so much excitement for it.

How did your relationship grow to get to that point as partners?

MJ: Lindsay and I met in a work context in 2020. The baseline was always there for us to be work partners in a way because our first meeting was a general meeting. It was just a really nice bonus that we became friends from it. After that first meeting, we decided to start a book club, which I guess could be looked at as a stepping stone to a business venture.

LG: I feel like what you do when you're coming up in this business is when you find your people, the conversations almost immediately turn to, ‘How can we work together?’ Madison and I have such similar tastes, and I think that is what bonded us together. We love all the same things. Weirdly, I feel like we've always planned to work together.

What do you think the catalyst was that took The Love List from ‘we're just talking about this’ to ‘let's actually work on this together?’

MJ: I am such an overthinker, so Lindsay's a perfect partner because she will just do something, which I admire so much about her. Her attitude was the catalyst for this whole thing. I think both of us are typically people who, when we say we're going to do something, we're going to follow through, but Lindsay not letting me think and think about it really pushed it out there. Once we made the idea public and started telling people about it, there was really no choice but to follow through.

What was the process for choosing the scripts on this year's list?

MJ: Submission-wise, we reached out to our network of production companies, studios, and network streaming execs. We wanted to model The Love List after The Blacklist in that they only take executive submissions, not rep submissions or self-submissions. So first, we reached out to our network, and we asked everyone to share it with their network of other executives so we could get a bigger pool of people. Then, we had the deadline article. Of course, we still got self-submissions and rep submissions. We responded to those by apologizing and reminding people that we would be happy to read them if they had an executive send them in. We got over 60 scripts, not counting the ones not from execs. For our first year, that’s wild. I didn't think we would get that many.

People can no longer make the argument that Rom-Coms are not being written because they clearly are.

MJ: They really are being written.

LG: It's wild. We had a group of anonymous readers who were doing the first and second passes on scripts because we are two people who also don't want to be the only word on whether something is good. That was something we had talked about from the beginning. Beyond that, our industry exists very much in this space of connections and status, and all of that serves a purpose, but I do think in the past, some of these lists can feel like a popularity contest. One thing that I knew was a goal for both of us was to genuinely find the best material. It was really cool when certain scripts that we found and that ended up on the list came from unreped writers such as Clark Moore and Yolanda Rodriguez.

MJ: We also did look at which scripts were being submitted multiple times. There were a few scripts on the list that were submitted a bunch of different times, which was awesome. It just proves that it really is a great script and that it resonated with people. But then we also, like Lindsay was saying, we have scripts on the list that were submitted once, and we and our readers really responded to it. We also went into it not having an end number in mind. Moving forward, I like the idea that no script that we like will get cut because we are only choosing an arbitrary number. If the script is good enough, we can wholeheartedly recommend it to make the list.

I totally get that. How does it feel now that The Love List is officially out in the world?

LG: I was thinking about this yesterday. If you could have told Lindsay a year ago that she was doing this now, she would not have believed it. As I said, for me, the strike almost felt like a lockdown in a weird way. There was like a reset that happened. It made everyone look at their priorities again. I really leaned into the idea of following your passions, and good things will come. We're both so passionate about this genre. The response we've gotten is so validating. So many people are into this genre. We're not screaming in a room by ourselves, you know? There is such a want and a need for these stories. If we can be part of bringing those to the people who can actually make them, that would be incredible.

MJ: I don't think either of us could have predicted how well received The Love List was and sort of how many people are in our corner. My inbox yesterday was flooded with messages from friends I've known since my UTA days who I haven't spoken to in a while and who were expressing how excited they were about this. It's so nice to have a new community almost spring up with support. It's been great.

Each of the romance features or TV projects that you chose is different. What types of romantic stories are your favorite?

MJ: I love enemies-to-lovers, but I need to specify the subgenre because it is very important. I love the Anne of Green Gables/Gilbert Blythe enemies-to-lovers where there is a miscommunication, and the characters get off on the wrong foot. There's nothing abusive or weird. They’re not being nasty to each other. I think when the couple is on the same playing field. I like it when they are more rivals than enemies. A good example is Kate and Anthony in the second season of Bridgerton or, When Harry Met Sally or 10 Things I Hate About You. I love the angst. There's just something so beautiful about watching the relationship between two people who have seen the worst parts of each other blossom into love and respect.

LG: I have a similar answer. Madison knows this, but I am a very big Anne of Green Gables fan. Gilbert and Anne are my North Star forever. Those movies from the 80s changed my DNA. They're incredible. I love friends-to-lovers or rivals-to-lovers, but I also love Second Chance. A lot of the time, those two tropes are used together. My favorite movie is a movie called Brief Encounter, which is from 1945. I will say it does not have a happy ending. But I think– and Greta Gerwig agrees with me because she said this in an interview recently– it is the most romantic movie ever made.

MJ: I’ve never seen it, and it's the most romantic- Wow, okay. [laughter]

LG: I also really love Crossing Delancy, which was made in 1988. It's written by a woman and directed by a woman, which for that time, unfortunately with romcoms, was extremely rare. It's about a woman in her 30s who's single and has this really great career which is relatable [laughter], but she is very drawn to this guy who's kind of a piece of shit writer, which, again, is relatable. [laughter] It digs into some stuff that's really interesting. I love that movie.

I think this has definitely changed post-pandemic, but why do you think romance as a genre has been undervalued and even looked down upon in recent years?

MJ: The simple answer is just sexism. [laughter] Romance is traditionally seen as very feminine, and for women, it is so stupid because everyone likes romance. No one is a bigger Rom-Com fan than my dad. My dad is a 70-year-old straight man who loves romance. It's not just for women, but culturally, it's very much perceived as such. People will often look down on things that are inherently girly. It's easy to brush them off as not serious. I have a lot of friends who ended up going into politics or finance, and they like to think they have real jobs, and I’m just making television. But television and film reach massive audiences in a way that politics and finance don’t. People in our world can tune out of politics and may not be paying attention to what's going on with banks, but everyone watches TV and movies. That's how you ultimately change the culture. Obviously, we still have so many issues in our country and society with homophobia, but I think seeing gay and lesbian relationships on television has really made the acceptance of those relationships so much more accessible, I think, because of what was happening on television and in movies. We shouldn't look down on things that are superfluous because they do make a difference in the long run.

LG: Number one, I do think it's about gender. I think this genre has been written a lot by women. It's usually centered around a woman or catering to women. As women, we grow up and see movies about men or boys, and we immediately insert ourselves because we're used to doing that. We know how to do that. I don't feel like straight white men have as much practice with that just because the default is their perspective. I think it's hard for them to look at something that's not about them and be like, “How do I relate to this?” I think they can. They just don’t have as much practice as we do. So that's number one. Number two, I went to this great lecture at the WGA years ago. This producer was talking about how every story, no matter what it is, is about relationships. The only difference between romance and every other genre is that romance is not tricking you into thinking it's about something else. Romance is about relationships. But you take a sports movie, she used Rocky as an example; at the end of the movie, he doesn't win, but he gets the girl. What you're investing in when you're reading something or when you're watching something is the emotional story. That may be the love between a parent and a child, the love between friends, or romantic love, but that's what you're investing in. Men have been conditioned to believe that it's not for them.

MJ: It is a marketing thing.

LG: It is 100% a marketing thing.

What do you think takes a rom-com or romance from bad to good to great?

LG: In the best romance, you have to give each character their own story and their own thing they have to overcome. Otherwise, the audience won’t care. To me, a great example is American President, which was made in the late 90s. It's an Aaron Sorkin movie about the president and a lobbyist, and they fall in love. There's a whole thing that happens with their careers as a part of it, and I feel like it makes you so much more invested in the story. You have to give me a reason to care about them as individuals before I can want them to be together. And that's why I think TV does work so well as an avenue for romance because, over a long period of time, you can build such a relationship with each individual character, and then an audience is like, “Oh, my God, they have to get together.”

MJ: That’s a really good answer. I would definitely agree with that as well. I also think that it is important to trust your audience. Looking at it from the development side of things, you can tell when something's been so over noted and is trying to hit these specific points emotionally or within the plot. A lot of that comes from wanting the audience to understand exactly what's happening and ultimately not trusting that the audience will be able to pick up on things. I think that's a big thing that separates a bad from a good from a great romance. You have to trust your audience to pick up on subtleties because romance is the subtleties. If what's going to happen and how the relationship is going to change is very plainly spelled out, the fun is taken away from it.

LG: I think the best example of this is Pride and Prejudice from 2005, which is so universally loved. The fact that Mr. Darcy clenches his hand for two seconds of that film, and everyone is like, “This is the moment.” Romance is about those small moments. It’s those few seconds that will be the most GIFed and that audiences find so swoony. A lot of times, especially with movies now, those moments are cut because they seem not to have a purpose, but in romance, that is where the meat is.

MJ: Bridgerton does a great job of having these moments. They emphasize the subtle moments.

I'm obsessed with Bridgerton, so you don’t have to sing its praises to me. What romantic media do you find yourself going back to time and time again?

MJ: I go back to Love, Rosie, starring Lily Collins and Sam Claflin. Anytime I'm on a plane, I watch Love, Rosie. Anytime I see it on a streamer, I rewatch it, which is funny because I am not a huge fan of the accidental pregnancy trope. But, for some reason, that movie is so comforting. I love miscommunications and Love, Rosie is just a masterclass.

LG: How you know you love something is that you want to rewatch it over. My mom is a big romance lover as well. Her favorites have become favorites of mine. Working Girl is a film I've seen a million times, and it is just so comforting to me. I rewatch American President, Pride and Prejudice, and honestly, anything Jane Austen-related – the BBC adaptations. I rewatch them every year. There's something so comforting about watching in the wintertime.

MJ: Lovesick is a rom-com show that is a comfort rewatch. I rewatch it at least once a year. It is so good. It is so perfect. I have zero notes. It has three seasons, which is amazing.

LG: Lovesick is one I need to rewatch more. I also love a miniseries called North & South, which takes place during the Industrial Revolution. Oh my god, the amount of time they spend just looking at each other is so good.

Looking to the future, how do you hope The Love List grows?

MJ: We would love it if at least one of these scripts ends up getting produced and made. That would be so huge. We think all of them should be made, quite frankly. But if one could get made, that would be incredible. The Love List is an annual list, so every year, we're going to be adding more scripts to that family, which is really exciting. It's just the two of us right now. We have so many ideas for what we want to do. We'd love to do a staged reading of some of the scripts. We're just trying to figure out the logistics for that.

LG: Personally, we would love, branding-wise, to just be known as the definitive romance girls where if people have questions about romance, they can come to us, and we can curate that idea of what romance is. That’s the dream. But, in terms of what The Love List actually does, if we can give a push to any of these projects into the hands of someone who can make them, that's the purpose for sure. Even beyond that, though, there are so many great writers who don’t have reps and deserve to be highlighted. I would love to see them get jobs and get opportunities because of this. I think our ultimate goal is to see romance flourish and to see the people who love it flourish with it.

I love that. Lastly, as this is The Female Main character, what FMC archetype do you relate to the most?

MJ: I think I'm The Nerd. I would love to be The Femme Fatale. I would love to be The Girl Next Door, but I’m probably The Nerd. I think to some people, maybe I’m The Bitch, but I'm definitely The Nerd.

LG: What's so funny, and I think about this all the time, is how we look at ourselves versus the way people perceive us. When I met Madison, I was like, “Oh, she's the cool girl.” It's a confidence thing. People who have confidence in who they are and what they love are so cool. Those are the best people. I would say that we would both identify ourselves as The Nerd. As somebody who grew up watching the WB shows, I so desperately wanted to be The Girl Next Door. I just don't think I actually am. I'm a nerd. There's just no question.

MJ: When I meet people, if I see The Nerd in them, I'm like, “There’s a kindred spirit.” That's what bonds me to other people, seeing that in other people.

LG: You didn’t meet me and go, “What a cool girl?”

MJ: I saw you and said, “Kindred spirit. Nerd." [laughter]

LG: I'll take it. It's true.