John sits down with screenwriter Christina Hodson to discuss race, gender, and representation in Hollywood, and how screenwriters can help correct the status quo with the one thing they can control: the words on the page.
We tackle the nuances of designating race for open-ethnicity characters, the assumption of whiteness, the pros and cons of feature writers rooms and the promise of inclusion riders.
We also answer a listener question about why some movies are timeless and some feel dated as soon as they premiere.
Links:
* Thanks for joining us, [Christina Hodson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Hodson). Her upcoming movies include [Bumblebee](http://deadline.com/2016/11/transformers-bumblebee-christina-hodson-script-paramount-pictures-spinoff-script-1201852869/) of the Transformers franchise and [Batgirl](http://deadline.com/2018/04/batgirl-movie-christina-hodson-writing-bumblebee-1202361134/).
* The Pudding’s [Film Dialogue from 2,000 screenplays, Broken Down by Gender and Age](https://pudding.cool/2017/03/film-dialogue/)
* Premium subscribers can listen to the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend bonus episode with Aline Brosh McKenna and Rachel Bloom [here](http://scriptnotes.net/bonus-aline-brosh-mckenna-rachel-bloom-crazy-ex-girlfriend-qa).
* A [pilot announcement](http://deadline.com/2018/03/bright-futures-emily-ratajkowski-shameik-moore-lilly-singh-calum-worthy-jimmy-tatro-cast-lisa-kudrow-narrates-nbc-comedy-pilot-kenya-barris-1202355863/) that includes this character description: “a girl-next-door type but also with a behind-the-ear tattoo. She can just as easily bro out with the guys as she can be the girliest girl.”
* A [guide to WGA dues,](http://johnaugust.com/Assets/DUES_FAQ.pdf) courtesy of Stuart!
* [Mothers of Sparta](http://www.amazon.com/dp/125013370X/?tag=johnaugustcom-20) by Dawn Davies
* Female writer friends, like [Frances Marion](http://time.com/4186886/frances-marion/)
* [The Scriptnotes Listeners’ Guide!](http://johnaugust.com/guide)
* [The USB drives!](https://store.johnaugust.com/collections/frontpage/products/scriptnotes-300-episode-usb-flash-drive)
* [John August](https://twitter.com/johnaugust) on Twitter
* [Craig Mazin](https://twitter.com/clmazin) on Twitter
* [John on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/johnaugust/?hl=en)
* [Find past episodes](http://scriptnotes.net/)
* [Outro](http://johnaugust.com/2013/scriptnotes-the-outros) by Hunter Christensen ([send us yours!](http://johnaugust.com/2014/outros-needed))
Email us at ask@johnaugust.com
You can download the episode [here](http://traffic.libsyn.com/scriptnotes/scriptnotes_ep_346.mp3).
**UPDATE 4-19-18:** The transcript of this episode can be found [here](http://johnaugust.com/2018/scriptnotes-ep-346-changing-the-defaults-transcript).