The Fox and the Moon: The Origin Story
Hi! Welcome to the Fred & Dan Friday newsletter. This week you’re hearing from me, Fred, and how I came up with the idea of our new script The Fox and The Moon. This is part of our series where we take you behind the scenes as we develop and write a new script!
This might sound weird, but it all started with an itch. Not the scary kind that you need to see a doctor for, don't worry! Have you ever been looking for a book, tv show, or movie that satisfies a specific craving but couldn’t find it? No, just me? Well anyways that’s what happened.
I’ve always loved anything witchy or occult. Add romance and I’m hooked! Horrible plot lines, beloved classics, vapid characters, or stories I cry and pine over - bottom line is whether it’s trash or high quality, it doesn’t matter. Give it all to me.
I am one of those people who grew up on Harry Potter. I've read the damn book in three languages because I have that much of a witch fixation. Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Twilight, Hocus Pocus, or any other vampire/witch/magical romcom in any form I have devoured multiple times. It’s my guilty pleasure - you get the point.
What’s crazy is that all this time, I didn’t see myself in any of these witchy stories. I've loved them since I was a child and still get lost in them as a grown up, even though I'm not necessarily represented in them. As an indigenous Latinx American, and one in an interracial relationship, you rarely see mainstream stories about us, especially in the witchy space (can’t believe I called it that). So when I couldn't find a witchy novel or movie that wasn’t centered around the New England or European witchy experience, I went searching.
The thing about it is that “witchery” has been seen all over the world, throughout history. But rarely does anyone write about the "modern witch" from the perspective of the colonized and how that’s affected things. A story where non white magic isn’t “bad”, a side character, or less than. It has always bothered me, because there are myth’s and lore world wide with just as beautiful history, and culture. Once romance is added in, it is almost always highlighting white couples.
That is not to take away from those stories, which let me reiterate I love, but there’s room for more. The story of an interracial couple is new in media, it’s nuanced, and it’s beautiful, but often times it is still a small percentage of relationships represented on screen. I personally believe it’s because it’s still not as normalized as it should be.
Those I speak to in long term, committed interracial relationships will tell you it isn’t always easy. From constant lessons on each other’s cultural quirks, familial workings, and generational traumas, it can feel exhausting at times but always gives your relationship a richness - one I feel lucky to experience in my own relationship. I can say without a doubt that you get to know your partner, their culture, and their values on such a deeper level because you are forced to have those deep conversations. In that you commit to loving not just who they are but what has made them, them.
So this story, The Fox and the Moon, came out of that. It was that itch to talk about what it’s like to be in an interracial relationship, which both Fred & Dan are in as business partners but also in our personal lives. It’s the fact that in all my years of trash witch novel studies I’ve never seen a story with a bruja that I loved and the masses loved, meant to be beloved and watched over and over.
The conversation of cross-cultural relationships isn’t a micro issue of society, in fact about 20% of newlyweds are interracial couples. We live in a world so polarized it can feel like the divide just keeps growing. The Fox and The Moon is a story about two of the same who are conditioned to be afraid of each other but feel so drawn to each other despite all odds.
It begs the question…when society, the people you love, and an ancient hex keep you apart, will love still conquer all?
The Fox and the Moon mood board.
Janette and I always use visuals aids like mood boards and/or auditory aids like playlists to explain our vision to each other, and to help create the script vibe.