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Featured Guest:
Angela Page Award-Winning Screenplay Writer, Novelist, Entrepreneur, Activist Published: June 27, 2026 In this episode of Wisdom for Wannabes, Jackie Morreale sits down with award-winning author, screenwriter, producer, and former Microsoft and Honeywell executive Angela Page Conti to explore the power of storytelling, creativity, resilience, and second (or third!) acts. Angela shares how family history inspired her novels, why social justice became the focus of many of her films, what corporate life taught her about creativity, and why it's never too late to pursue the dream that's been quietly waiting inside you. You'll also hear practical writing advice, funny behind-the-scenes stories, and why one sentence overheard at a swimming pool can become an entire novel. If you've ever wondered whether it's too late to reinvent yourself, this conversation is for you. Listen to/watch the full podcast recording, or read the transcript below: |
Full Interview with Angela Page:
"Wisdom for wannabes is pursuing your dreams. Don't be afraid to reach, at any age. Believe me, I reinvented myself, way past 50, several times already."
- Angela Page Conti (Wisdom for Wannabes episode 61, 14:43)
Great quotes from the interview:
(More great quotes throughout the transcript in purple below.)
- "People need to look at their families first. There are stories within stories."
- "I was born to be a storyteller."
- "Must entertain."
- "The road will take you somewhere, no matter what."
- "Fear shouldn't be part of the equation."
- "Let it go and let it flow."
- "Don't be afraid to reach, at any age."
- "Writing is not a lonely process."
- "One line has a hundred stories."
- "Give yourself permission to write terrible first drafts."
- "Take inspiration from your own life."
- "I already had this burning thing happening."
(More great quotes throughout the transcript in purple below.)
Angela Page Conti
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Key Takeaways:
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Photos from Harij Weds Sajili short film
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Interview Transcript:
Jackie Morreale (00:00)
Hello and welcome to Wisdom for Wannabes, the podcast that seeks wise words in business, beauty, and betterment. I am the host, Jackie Morreale. Today's guest is the incredibly multi-talented Angela Page. Welcome to the show, Angela!
Angela Page (00:17)
Thank you, Jackie. A wisdom wannabe! We're all wisdom wannabes.
Jackie Morreale (00:22)
We are all wisdom wannabes. Exactly! I have so much to learn from you.
Angela Page is an award-winning author, screenwriter, producer, and former corporate executive whose career spans global business, storytelling, film, and advocacy. (My goodness, Angela, you just check every one of those wisdom for wannabes boxes. I really can't wait to learn more from you.)
Angela is a graduate of NYU Stern and the London School of Economics. She has worked with companies like Microsoft and Honeywell, and she has built impressive creative career writing novels, producing films, and telling stories that explore identity, reinvention, family, culture, resilience, and what it truly means to evolve as a person.
Just to drop a couple of names:
Angela Page, one more time, welcome to Wisdom for Wannabes!
Angela Page (01:24)
Thank you, Jackie. This is fabulous. You're fabulous!
Jackie Morreale (01:31)
Thank you. You're fabulous!
Let's get right into the questions: Can you tell us your full name, where you're from, where you live now, and what you do?
Angela Page (01:35)
I was born Angela Page Conti, which is the name I'm using on Enrico G because it's Italian. To get the cred, I used my original birth name on there. Page is a short version of my grandmother's maiden name. She was from Barcelona, it's Catalan for Pagès, which means farmer in English. They decided to honor my grandmother's maiden name and give me a weird version of her name.
Jackie Morreale (02:01)
That’s beautiful. I like that you are honoring both sides of your family.
Angela Page (02:06)
I’m kind of halfway to Liz Taylor. I've been married several times. I changed my name once when my son was born, so we wouldn't have issues at school.
I have a Danish last name attached to the Conti, Mølgaard, which is pronounced in Danish Mølgaard, which took me six months of Danish lessons to learn.
Jackie Morreale (02:12)
Worth every moment, by the way.
Angela Page (02:27)
Exactly. I have been, temporarily, other last names. I said halfway to Liz Taylor. So, four of the eight husbands that she had.
Jackie Morreale (02:35)
Your full name then, Angela Page Conti Mølgaard. Beautiful name. Where are you from originally? You said your grandmother is from Barcelona, and your great grandfather is from Italy.
Angela Page (02:38)
Exactly. I'm a Jersey girl. Grew up in New Jersey and then went to NYU for college. I left early in my early twenties with husband number one. We went to Hong Kong for a couple of years. He was a journalist with Institutional Investor, which still exists. We're still friends. He's the only husband still alive. On the first page of Enrico G, he has a review and an endorsement in my book, because he wrote The Calvi Affair, which is about the dead Vatican banker. He's well known in Italian circles because he wrote this book called The Calvi Affair. He speaks fluent Italian. Very good with my book as well, he liked it.
After that, we were then sent to London. I switched husbands in London. I married a Dane, Mr. Mølgaard, who had 10-year-old triplets. We had a son together. There's a 15-year difference between my son and the triplets. I raised millennials and Gen-Xs all at the same time. They live in Copenhagen, the three of them, and they're married with children. They all have two kids apiece, so there are six grandchildren involved in this scenario.
Jackie Morreale (03:50)
Is everybody just as creative and business-oriented as you?
Angela Page (03:53)
Yes, they've got a lot of great talent amongst a bunch of them. 12 of them, between the spouses, the kids, and all this. It's a nice big family.
I went to Copenhagen from London. Then from Copenhagen to Tucson, Arizona, where I switched husbands again. Not by force; Mr. Mølgaard passed away.
I was then recruited by Microsoft and went to Seattle. That's when I married the Italian, in Seattle. He is from near Bologna. We divorced, then he died a couple years later after that.
Jackie Morreale (04:14)
You've kind of covered the whole world and back around again.
Angela Page (04:28)
I did. There are items in my house that have gone around the world one and a half times.
Jackie Morreale (04:32)
You're now in South Florida. You're writing novels and screenplays. I know that you're the president of the WNBA, the Women's National Book Association, because I am an avid member. I love being a member of your chapter here in South Florida.
Angela Page (04:48)
I also spent a lot of time in Los Angeles, obviously in Hollywood, because I'm doing film. It beckons, there's a lot going on there. Luckily, I've got a base there because my son lives there. He's a sound engineer on films, so he's in the business as well. He has done sound on two of my films. He has a cameo in one of them as well.
I have to say, it's not all like, he's into it. The thing you want to hear from your kids is, 'Mom, I'm so happy that I'm involved in your passion project.' But then I get these grunts, because we're professionals together. He'll be complaining, 'I don't like this.' What happened to, 'I'm so honored to be part of it?'
Jackie Morreale (05:18)
Hey, as long as you have good crafty, I'm sure that that sweetens the deal and makes everybody happier on set.
Angela Page (05:22)
This is true. Not only that, but he also gives me a list of the crafty before every shoot. He can partake in the sense. Anyway, I have to be very grateful to him, and I have to be grateful to all my kids. To have millennials and Gen-Xs throughout your life has really kept me on my toes.
Jackie Morreale (05:31)
I'm sure. Have you written a memoir yet? Just about your offspring?
Angela Page (05:46)
My first book is kind of a memoir, Matched in Heaven, which talks about the three dead guys. Three in a row, right? That really hit me as something to write about; the last three partners were all dead. I thought, ‘This is unusual. I think it's worth writing about.’
Jackie Morreale (06:01)
Good for you. I'm sure that if you write about the next gen and then their next gen, it could just give you enough material for a very long time.
Angela Page (06:06)
Exactly. That was starting me off, the family.
People need to look at their families first because there are stories within stories, within stories, and characters.
People will say, 'My family is boring.' I say, 'Absolutely not.' At least one if not a dozen great stories there from the past.
If you're a history buff, you marry it together with time, and you’re going to be so motivated to write about this.
Listening to my grandparents' stories, they're all immigrants, the obstacles they had, and where they came from. It was so colorful.
I had a great photographic memory, and it was visual to me, the way they told their stories. I have a grandfather who was Peruvian, and that was the first one who motivated me. He was a mestizo, half Indian, half Inca, and his stories were fascinating. That's the first one that I said, 'This is amazing.' I recorded him talking a little bit about his childhood in Peru, in the mountains.
Jackie Morreale (06:44)
Does he speak Spanish, or Quechua?
Angela Page (07:01)
He was fluent in Quechua. He was a translator. He got a job translating from Spanish to Quechua. Then he was taught English. His story was amazing; raised by a corrupt priest. I wrote about that in my first book. My great grandfather on that side was exiled from Spain to Cuba because he was domestic terrorist. The first thing I wrote was about how they all met. The Peruvian mestizo… they met in Florida! My great-grandfather from Barcelona was an exiled domestic terrorist. That was the first short story that I got published 15 years ago.
Jackie Morreale (07:32)
It feels like that is Florida, mixing, melting pot, salad bowl. I love that you have stories that span from South America to Europe, Asia, the West Coast, the East Coast, and different languages. So, you're a storyteller!
Angela Page (07:42)
Yes, all over the place.
I think I was born to be a storyteller. I felt the burden of all these people's stories. I thought they have to be told. I started out with that side of the family and eventually moved with Enrico G, which is about my Italian side, from Abruzzo, a central Italian province near the Adriatic Sea. That story was percolating for many, many years. I wrote the script first for the scene of the last third of the book, which won an award. It was a semi-finalist at Austin Film Festival.
Jackie Morreale (08:05)
Good for you! You mentioned that you have a photographic memory. When you hear, see, speak, write... a story, do you first see it visually in pictures?
Angela Page (08:26)
It happens simultaneously.
I'm also very dialogue-driven because I was a playwright before anything else.
My first love was playwriting; I did that first.
The dialogue and the visual and everything else come together at the same time.
Jackie Morreale (08:37)
It just makes sense that you write for plays and write for the big screen. It all comes together. Of everything that we just talked about, that you're a storyteller and so many different mediums of where your words are going to, what, at the end of the day, is your passion?
Angela Page (08:41)
I think it is to get the stories down. Be motivated to tell a story. Sometimes things will come to you from other angles.
There was a script I wrote during COVID. It was in English, it was about dowry murder, and it was based on a real event. I was managing a team in India.
I got a phone call saying that one of my employees was going to get arrested for dowry murder. I had no idea what it was. I'm Googling it while they're telling me the story, and I see it's a thing. It's going on in India and being reported of young brides who are being murdered or forced to suicide by their in-laws or their new husband, because they don't like the dowry. Or there's a dowry dispute.
In the real story, the girl was just discovered dead mysteriously at 26 years old for no reason. The parents came and were going to arrest one of my team, to get the dowry back. In India, they're starting to enforce the law on this. It's happening at all levels of society, from the very rich to the very poor.
Sad, but it was so absurd to me, in this day and age, to be murdered for money, without any reason.
I thought, ‘I'm going to make a comedy out of this.’
The script has a sex worker involved in this, and she and the bride take control. It has a happy ending in my film, but the real story did not have a happy ending. So people enjoy that.
The film is 18 minutes long. It starts out a little dark. You don't know where it's going. The director was fabulous. His name is Prataya Saha. The co-producer is Anshulika Kapoor, who lives in the US, plays a sex worker, and is also our executive producer. They took it from a dark place to a funny place towards the end, hence that scene from When Harry Met Sally. We've gotten a lot of awards for this film, and hopefully, we'll get some distribution.
I'm grateful to them. They took it in hand. They were my collaborators in this, and I owe it to both of them for bringing it to life.
(Continued below)
Hello and welcome to Wisdom for Wannabes, the podcast that seeks wise words in business, beauty, and betterment. I am the host, Jackie Morreale. Today's guest is the incredibly multi-talented Angela Page. Welcome to the show, Angela!
Angela Page (00:17)
Thank you, Jackie. A wisdom wannabe! We're all wisdom wannabes.
Jackie Morreale (00:22)
We are all wisdom wannabes. Exactly! I have so much to learn from you.
Angela Page is an award-winning author, screenwriter, producer, and former corporate executive whose career spans global business, storytelling, film, and advocacy. (My goodness, Angela, you just check every one of those wisdom for wannabes boxes. I really can't wait to learn more from you.)
Angela is a graduate of NYU Stern and the London School of Economics. She has worked with companies like Microsoft and Honeywell, and she has built impressive creative career writing novels, producing films, and telling stories that explore identity, reinvention, family, culture, resilience, and what it truly means to evolve as a person.
Just to drop a couple of names:
- Recent films by Angela Page include: Harij Weds Sajili, which is currently on the film circuit.
- Her most recent novel is Enrico G, which is inspired by her own great grandfather's story.
Angela Page, one more time, welcome to Wisdom for Wannabes!
Angela Page (01:24)
Thank you, Jackie. This is fabulous. You're fabulous!
Jackie Morreale (01:31)
Thank you. You're fabulous!
Let's get right into the questions: Can you tell us your full name, where you're from, where you live now, and what you do?
Angela Page (01:35)
I was born Angela Page Conti, which is the name I'm using on Enrico G because it's Italian. To get the cred, I used my original birth name on there. Page is a short version of my grandmother's maiden name. She was from Barcelona, it's Catalan for Pagès, which means farmer in English. They decided to honor my grandmother's maiden name and give me a weird version of her name.
Jackie Morreale (02:01)
That’s beautiful. I like that you are honoring both sides of your family.
Angela Page (02:06)
I’m kind of halfway to Liz Taylor. I've been married several times. I changed my name once when my son was born, so we wouldn't have issues at school.
I have a Danish last name attached to the Conti, Mølgaard, which is pronounced in Danish Mølgaard, which took me six months of Danish lessons to learn.
Jackie Morreale (02:12)
Worth every moment, by the way.
Angela Page (02:27)
Exactly. I have been, temporarily, other last names. I said halfway to Liz Taylor. So, four of the eight husbands that she had.
Jackie Morreale (02:35)
Your full name then, Angela Page Conti Mølgaard. Beautiful name. Where are you from originally? You said your grandmother is from Barcelona, and your great grandfather is from Italy.
Angela Page (02:38)
Exactly. I'm a Jersey girl. Grew up in New Jersey and then went to NYU for college. I left early in my early twenties with husband number one. We went to Hong Kong for a couple of years. He was a journalist with Institutional Investor, which still exists. We're still friends. He's the only husband still alive. On the first page of Enrico G, he has a review and an endorsement in my book, because he wrote The Calvi Affair, which is about the dead Vatican banker. He's well known in Italian circles because he wrote this book called The Calvi Affair. He speaks fluent Italian. Very good with my book as well, he liked it.
After that, we were then sent to London. I switched husbands in London. I married a Dane, Mr. Mølgaard, who had 10-year-old triplets. We had a son together. There's a 15-year difference between my son and the triplets. I raised millennials and Gen-Xs all at the same time. They live in Copenhagen, the three of them, and they're married with children. They all have two kids apiece, so there are six grandchildren involved in this scenario.
Jackie Morreale (03:50)
Is everybody just as creative and business-oriented as you?
Angela Page (03:53)
Yes, they've got a lot of great talent amongst a bunch of them. 12 of them, between the spouses, the kids, and all this. It's a nice big family.
I went to Copenhagen from London. Then from Copenhagen to Tucson, Arizona, where I switched husbands again. Not by force; Mr. Mølgaard passed away.
I was then recruited by Microsoft and went to Seattle. That's when I married the Italian, in Seattle. He is from near Bologna. We divorced, then he died a couple years later after that.
Jackie Morreale (04:14)
You've kind of covered the whole world and back around again.
Angela Page (04:28)
I did. There are items in my house that have gone around the world one and a half times.
Jackie Morreale (04:32)
You're now in South Florida. You're writing novels and screenplays. I know that you're the president of the WNBA, the Women's National Book Association, because I am an avid member. I love being a member of your chapter here in South Florida.
Angela Page (04:48)
I also spent a lot of time in Los Angeles, obviously in Hollywood, because I'm doing film. It beckons, there's a lot going on there. Luckily, I've got a base there because my son lives there. He's a sound engineer on films, so he's in the business as well. He has done sound on two of my films. He has a cameo in one of them as well.
I have to say, it's not all like, he's into it. The thing you want to hear from your kids is, 'Mom, I'm so happy that I'm involved in your passion project.' But then I get these grunts, because we're professionals together. He'll be complaining, 'I don't like this.' What happened to, 'I'm so honored to be part of it?'
Jackie Morreale (05:18)
Hey, as long as you have good crafty, I'm sure that that sweetens the deal and makes everybody happier on set.
Angela Page (05:22)
This is true. Not only that, but he also gives me a list of the crafty before every shoot. He can partake in the sense. Anyway, I have to be very grateful to him, and I have to be grateful to all my kids. To have millennials and Gen-Xs throughout your life has really kept me on my toes.
Jackie Morreale (05:31)
I'm sure. Have you written a memoir yet? Just about your offspring?
Angela Page (05:46)
My first book is kind of a memoir, Matched in Heaven, which talks about the three dead guys. Three in a row, right? That really hit me as something to write about; the last three partners were all dead. I thought, ‘This is unusual. I think it's worth writing about.’
Jackie Morreale (06:01)
Good for you. I'm sure that if you write about the next gen and then their next gen, it could just give you enough material for a very long time.
Angela Page (06:06)
Exactly. That was starting me off, the family.
People need to look at their families first because there are stories within stories, within stories, and characters.
People will say, 'My family is boring.' I say, 'Absolutely not.' At least one if not a dozen great stories there from the past.
If you're a history buff, you marry it together with time, and you’re going to be so motivated to write about this.
Listening to my grandparents' stories, they're all immigrants, the obstacles they had, and where they came from. It was so colorful.
I had a great photographic memory, and it was visual to me, the way they told their stories. I have a grandfather who was Peruvian, and that was the first one who motivated me. He was a mestizo, half Indian, half Inca, and his stories were fascinating. That's the first one that I said, 'This is amazing.' I recorded him talking a little bit about his childhood in Peru, in the mountains.
Jackie Morreale (06:44)
Does he speak Spanish, or Quechua?
Angela Page (07:01)
He was fluent in Quechua. He was a translator. He got a job translating from Spanish to Quechua. Then he was taught English. His story was amazing; raised by a corrupt priest. I wrote about that in my first book. My great grandfather on that side was exiled from Spain to Cuba because he was domestic terrorist. The first thing I wrote was about how they all met. The Peruvian mestizo… they met in Florida! My great-grandfather from Barcelona was an exiled domestic terrorist. That was the first short story that I got published 15 years ago.
Jackie Morreale (07:32)
It feels like that is Florida, mixing, melting pot, salad bowl. I love that you have stories that span from South America to Europe, Asia, the West Coast, the East Coast, and different languages. So, you're a storyteller!
Angela Page (07:42)
Yes, all over the place.
I think I was born to be a storyteller. I felt the burden of all these people's stories. I thought they have to be told. I started out with that side of the family and eventually moved with Enrico G, which is about my Italian side, from Abruzzo, a central Italian province near the Adriatic Sea. That story was percolating for many, many years. I wrote the script first for the scene of the last third of the book, which won an award. It was a semi-finalist at Austin Film Festival.
Jackie Morreale (08:05)
Good for you! You mentioned that you have a photographic memory. When you hear, see, speak, write... a story, do you first see it visually in pictures?
Angela Page (08:26)
It happens simultaneously.
I'm also very dialogue-driven because I was a playwright before anything else.
My first love was playwriting; I did that first.
The dialogue and the visual and everything else come together at the same time.
Jackie Morreale (08:37)
It just makes sense that you write for plays and write for the big screen. It all comes together. Of everything that we just talked about, that you're a storyteller and so many different mediums of where your words are going to, what, at the end of the day, is your passion?
Angela Page (08:41)
I think it is to get the stories down. Be motivated to tell a story. Sometimes things will come to you from other angles.
There was a script I wrote during COVID. It was in English, it was about dowry murder, and it was based on a real event. I was managing a team in India.
I got a phone call saying that one of my employees was going to get arrested for dowry murder. I had no idea what it was. I'm Googling it while they're telling me the story, and I see it's a thing. It's going on in India and being reported of young brides who are being murdered or forced to suicide by their in-laws or their new husband, because they don't like the dowry. Or there's a dowry dispute.
In the real story, the girl was just discovered dead mysteriously at 26 years old for no reason. The parents came and were going to arrest one of my team, to get the dowry back. In India, they're starting to enforce the law on this. It's happening at all levels of society, from the very rich to the very poor.
Sad, but it was so absurd to me, in this day and age, to be murdered for money, without any reason.
I thought, ‘I'm going to make a comedy out of this.’
The script has a sex worker involved in this, and she and the bride take control. It has a happy ending in my film, but the real story did not have a happy ending. So people enjoy that.
The film is 18 minutes long. It starts out a little dark. You don't know where it's going. The director was fabulous. His name is Prataya Saha. The co-producer is Anshulika Kapoor, who lives in the US, plays a sex worker, and is also our executive producer. They took it from a dark place to a funny place towards the end, hence that scene from When Harry Met Sally. We've gotten a lot of awards for this film, and hopefully, we'll get some distribution.
I'm grateful to them. They took it in hand. They were my collaborators in this, and I owe it to both of them for bringing it to life.
(Continued below)
Best-selling books by Angela Page:
Enrico G. By Angela Page Conti (Author)
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There's a Dead Girl in My Yard. By Angela Page (Author), Mia Altieri (Author).
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Suddenly Single Sylvia: Plus Boomer Dating Guide. By Angela Page (Author)
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MATCHED IN HEAVEN. By Angela Page (Author)
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(Continued)
Jackie Morreale (10:39)
Wow, congratulations for bringing something tragic that happened to your team in India and making it funny! Maybe a bit of satire, maybe a bit of advocacy, and just letting the world know that this is a thing.
Angela Page (10:51)
Educating.
Jackie Morreale (11:01)
I can't wait to see it and for its distribution. How many years have you been doing this thing that is storytelling, Angela? I know you have been an executive in business. When did you start putting pen to paper and writing?
Angela Page (11:13)
My realization was when I was in banking some years ago. I moonlighted in amateur theater groups. I finally realized: start doing this a little more, full-time, and taking it seriously, this is something I want to do. I took a break from corporate and went to Lee Strasberg Studio in London to study acting and directing.
Acting was the first thing I wanted. I had to take a detour, but not for too long.
In London, I founded in my own theater group called the Crown Players at a pub. We produced some original material that I wrote. That's my first foray into writing. We also did some established plays, 19th-century Victorian dramas, melodramas, and comedies. It was a lot of fun.
Then, we got married. We had to go back to Copenhagen. But I carried on. I found an English language theater group and just continued writing, performing and directing. I started directing full-time there. We would tour with English language festivals and things like that.
However, I had to face a husband who was very ill, and I had a very young child. I had to go back to work. I had a little bit of a hiatus.
Somebody said to me, 'You're very visual, you should do some screenwriting.' That's when I went back to studying seriously for a year or two. Then started going to LA to pitch projects. It started from there.
Jackie Morreale (12:27)
You've done it all. Entertainment from start to finish. On stage, backstage, everything.
Angela Page (12:31)
That's my thing. I have to entertain.
That's my motto: Must entertain.
Jackie Morreale (12:37)
Before we get too far into the entertainment, let's do some quick-fire questions to hear Angela's favorite things. What's harder: writing a novel or producing a film?
Angela Page (12:46)
Producing a film.
Jackie Morreale (12:47)
Coffee shop writing or quiet home writing?
Angela Page (12:49)
Quiet home writing.
Jackie Morreale (12:50)
You have the discipline. Love that.
City that inspires you the most?
Angela Page (12:53)
That is hard. I've lived in a lot of cities. I say this: cities are distracting. You need to be somewhere quiet.
Jackie Morreale (12:59)
One book every aspiring storyteller should read?
Angela Page (13:02)
There is no one book. You've got to listen to people, take notes when you're outside, and talk to your family. That is your education, more so than reading a book. Take inspiration from your own life, also.
Jackie Morreale (13:13)
Love it. What is one risk that you're glad that you took?
Angela Page (13:16)
Leaving corporate America and doing this full-time.
Jackie Morreale (13:18)
Good for you. The grass is greener where you water it, right? If you're putting all your energy and time into your writing, that's why you've had such a successful experience with it.
By the way, you don't seem very risk-averse. You seem like you take risks head-on.
Angela Page (13:33)
When you get married, nobody says, 'Here's the cliff, jump over it.' And I do it, right?
Jackie Morreale (13:38)
That makes for a good storyteller, too.
Favorite way to reset when you feel creatively stuck? If you've ever felt this way.
Angela Page (13:45)
Yes, I'll tell you it's like having a massage or some treatment where you lay on a thing for an hour and have no other distractions. To me, it solves all of your writing blocks.
Jackie Morreale (13:58)
Will take that advice! I’m not that good of a swimmer, but the massage thing sounds really great.
Angela Page (14:03)
All you need is 45 minutes to an hour. The problem is, you can't be friends with your therapist because then you're just chit-chatting. I have one that's chatty and one that I doesn't talk at all, which is great.
I come out of there with an ending to something, a beginning of something, or some issue resolved.
Jackie Morreale (14:13)
You go in with a problem and you come out with the solution in mind.
Angela Page (14:22)
You'll have to ask your guides or whatever and say, 'What am I going to resolve today in my writing or my next project?'
Jackie Morreale (14:30)
I love that. I'm going to try it. Something people misunderstand about creative careers?
Angela Page (14:35)
It's all about creating.
Jackie Morreale (14:36)
What's one word that describes your younger self?
Angela Page (14:40)
Ambitious.
Jackie Morreale (14:41)
What's one word that describes you now?
Angela Page (14:43)
Ambitious.
Jackie Morreale (14:44)
Ambitious! That's one thing that you just are to your core. I could feel it from the second I met you. Very ambitious.
Finish this sentence, and this is gratuitous for me. Wisdom for wannabes means...
Angela Page (14:43)
Wisdom for wannabes means pursuing your dreams.
Don't be afraid to reach, at any age.
Believe me, I reinvented myself, way past 50, several times already.
Jackie Morreale (15:00)
Love it. Favorite quote for life or mantra, if you have one?
Angela Page (15:09)
'Let it go and let it flow' is what I tell people in a bad situation. I did that once, for my staff and for people who were really stuck and let go.
Jackie Morreale (15:11)
I find it hard to believe, based on that quote, that you've ever had any writer's block. You've figured out a way to be so prolific; you have so many books, short films, plays, and scripts.
Angela Page (15:32)
It does happen. I've got another book based on the play that I wrote, a novelization of a play, and a script. I was stuck on the ending for a week this last week. It came to me while swimming the other day. There was nobody there. I was lucky; there was no chatter. But it took a week.
Jackie Morreale (15:48)
A lot of people think that writing is isolating. You do need to be in a quiet room to get through a tough part, or you do need to be secluded in the countryside or wherever you are to actually write. Yet the storytelling that you're doing is from talking to people, taking notes, being social, understanding, having your own journeys, and traveling.
Is writing isolating, or is the process balanced in some way for you?
Angela Page (16:13)
I think you need to be with a writer's group and have a critique group in your corner, at least one or maybe two, which I do. That is a great support, but don't take all of their opinions alone. You need beta readers for your writing outside your writing groups, because they're going to love you no matter what. They were instrumental in the last couple of books that I wrote.
I read most of the book aloud to a writers' group, and they would critique it. I couldn't do it alone. Writing is not a lonely process at all.
Jackie Morreale (16:42)
More about writing. You've lived so many different lives already: corporate executive, global business leader, novelist, filmmaker, producer, storyteller. Looking back, was there a moment when you realized creativity wasn't just something you loved, but something that you had to pursue?
Angela Page (16:58)
From the get-go. I knew that was there. I wanted to do that first. I was thwarted due to financial reasons to go and get a job. I was good at my corporate job, so I was then torn:
Am I going to keep doing this?
Do I write on the side?
I had a lot of colleagues at the time say to me, 'You are so lucky to have another passion,' because a lot of people will leave the job they've had for years and don't have anything else. I already had this burning thing happening, so when I changed careers, I didn't start from scratch.
Jackie Morreale (17:26)
You started with playwriting, then went into business banking, global team management, and ultimately returned to writing, playwriting, screenwriting. Your background is such an interesting blend of business and art. Did you always feel that these two worlds could coexist?
Angela Page (17:28)
My job was global, I was global. When I first started, you weren't available 24 seven by email and phone. As technology took over, I'm now in my 50s, going, ‘I can't take this anymore.’ The global travel, being on an airplane for 20 hours… It’s exhausting.
If I had had less responsibility, maybe I could have coexisted and done them both at the same time, but I wasn't. I was managing hundreds of people globally.
Nobody was asleep. The entire team was awake and needed things. I never good at establishing boundaries because I love people, and I love my staff. I was always available to them 24 seven. You have a problem? Call me at midnight, two in the morning.
The call I got about the dowry murder thing? That was at seven o'clock in the morning.
Things like that emerged. There was always a drama somewhere in the world.
My body said to me, on one of the last trips to China, 'You can't do this anymore.' Your body is taking a toll with all this global travel; it's not going to happen.
You've got to be able to restore your energy.
(Continued below)
Jackie Morreale (10:39)
Wow, congratulations for bringing something tragic that happened to your team in India and making it funny! Maybe a bit of satire, maybe a bit of advocacy, and just letting the world know that this is a thing.
Angela Page (10:51)
Educating.
Jackie Morreale (11:01)
I can't wait to see it and for its distribution. How many years have you been doing this thing that is storytelling, Angela? I know you have been an executive in business. When did you start putting pen to paper and writing?
Angela Page (11:13)
My realization was when I was in banking some years ago. I moonlighted in amateur theater groups. I finally realized: start doing this a little more, full-time, and taking it seriously, this is something I want to do. I took a break from corporate and went to Lee Strasberg Studio in London to study acting and directing.
Acting was the first thing I wanted. I had to take a detour, but not for too long.
In London, I founded in my own theater group called the Crown Players at a pub. We produced some original material that I wrote. That's my first foray into writing. We also did some established plays, 19th-century Victorian dramas, melodramas, and comedies. It was a lot of fun.
Then, we got married. We had to go back to Copenhagen. But I carried on. I found an English language theater group and just continued writing, performing and directing. I started directing full-time there. We would tour with English language festivals and things like that.
However, I had to face a husband who was very ill, and I had a very young child. I had to go back to work. I had a little bit of a hiatus.
Somebody said to me, 'You're very visual, you should do some screenwriting.' That's when I went back to studying seriously for a year or two. Then started going to LA to pitch projects. It started from there.
Jackie Morreale (12:27)
You've done it all. Entertainment from start to finish. On stage, backstage, everything.
Angela Page (12:31)
That's my thing. I have to entertain.
That's my motto: Must entertain.
Jackie Morreale (12:37)
Before we get too far into the entertainment, let's do some quick-fire questions to hear Angela's favorite things. What's harder: writing a novel or producing a film?
Angela Page (12:46)
Producing a film.
Jackie Morreale (12:47)
Coffee shop writing or quiet home writing?
Angela Page (12:49)
Quiet home writing.
Jackie Morreale (12:50)
You have the discipline. Love that.
City that inspires you the most?
Angela Page (12:53)
That is hard. I've lived in a lot of cities. I say this: cities are distracting. You need to be somewhere quiet.
Jackie Morreale (12:59)
One book every aspiring storyteller should read?
Angela Page (13:02)
There is no one book. You've got to listen to people, take notes when you're outside, and talk to your family. That is your education, more so than reading a book. Take inspiration from your own life, also.
Jackie Morreale (13:13)
Love it. What is one risk that you're glad that you took?
Angela Page (13:16)
Leaving corporate America and doing this full-time.
Jackie Morreale (13:18)
Good for you. The grass is greener where you water it, right? If you're putting all your energy and time into your writing, that's why you've had such a successful experience with it.
By the way, you don't seem very risk-averse. You seem like you take risks head-on.
Angela Page (13:33)
When you get married, nobody says, 'Here's the cliff, jump over it.' And I do it, right?
Jackie Morreale (13:38)
That makes for a good storyteller, too.
Favorite way to reset when you feel creatively stuck? If you've ever felt this way.
Angela Page (13:45)
Yes, I'll tell you it's like having a massage or some treatment where you lay on a thing for an hour and have no other distractions. To me, it solves all of your writing blocks.
Jackie Morreale (13:58)
Will take that advice! I’m not that good of a swimmer, but the massage thing sounds really great.
Angela Page (14:03)
All you need is 45 minutes to an hour. The problem is, you can't be friends with your therapist because then you're just chit-chatting. I have one that's chatty and one that I doesn't talk at all, which is great.
I come out of there with an ending to something, a beginning of something, or some issue resolved.
Jackie Morreale (14:13)
You go in with a problem and you come out with the solution in mind.
Angela Page (14:22)
You'll have to ask your guides or whatever and say, 'What am I going to resolve today in my writing or my next project?'
Jackie Morreale (14:30)
I love that. I'm going to try it. Something people misunderstand about creative careers?
Angela Page (14:35)
It's all about creating.
Jackie Morreale (14:36)
What's one word that describes your younger self?
Angela Page (14:40)
Ambitious.
Jackie Morreale (14:41)
What's one word that describes you now?
Angela Page (14:43)
Ambitious.
Jackie Morreale (14:44)
Ambitious! That's one thing that you just are to your core. I could feel it from the second I met you. Very ambitious.
Finish this sentence, and this is gratuitous for me. Wisdom for wannabes means...
Angela Page (14:43)
Wisdom for wannabes means pursuing your dreams.
Don't be afraid to reach, at any age.
Believe me, I reinvented myself, way past 50, several times already.
Jackie Morreale (15:00)
Love it. Favorite quote for life or mantra, if you have one?
Angela Page (15:09)
'Let it go and let it flow' is what I tell people in a bad situation. I did that once, for my staff and for people who were really stuck and let go.
Jackie Morreale (15:11)
I find it hard to believe, based on that quote, that you've ever had any writer's block. You've figured out a way to be so prolific; you have so many books, short films, plays, and scripts.
Angela Page (15:32)
It does happen. I've got another book based on the play that I wrote, a novelization of a play, and a script. I was stuck on the ending for a week this last week. It came to me while swimming the other day. There was nobody there. I was lucky; there was no chatter. But it took a week.
Jackie Morreale (15:48)
A lot of people think that writing is isolating. You do need to be in a quiet room to get through a tough part, or you do need to be secluded in the countryside or wherever you are to actually write. Yet the storytelling that you're doing is from talking to people, taking notes, being social, understanding, having your own journeys, and traveling.
Is writing isolating, or is the process balanced in some way for you?
Angela Page (16:13)
I think you need to be with a writer's group and have a critique group in your corner, at least one or maybe two, which I do. That is a great support, but don't take all of their opinions alone. You need beta readers for your writing outside your writing groups, because they're going to love you no matter what. They were instrumental in the last couple of books that I wrote.
I read most of the book aloud to a writers' group, and they would critique it. I couldn't do it alone. Writing is not a lonely process at all.
Jackie Morreale (16:42)
More about writing. You've lived so many different lives already: corporate executive, global business leader, novelist, filmmaker, producer, storyteller. Looking back, was there a moment when you realized creativity wasn't just something you loved, but something that you had to pursue?
Angela Page (16:58)
From the get-go. I knew that was there. I wanted to do that first. I was thwarted due to financial reasons to go and get a job. I was good at my corporate job, so I was then torn:
Am I going to keep doing this?
Do I write on the side?
I had a lot of colleagues at the time say to me, 'You are so lucky to have another passion,' because a lot of people will leave the job they've had for years and don't have anything else. I already had this burning thing happening, so when I changed careers, I didn't start from scratch.
Jackie Morreale (17:26)
You started with playwriting, then went into business banking, global team management, and ultimately returned to writing, playwriting, screenwriting. Your background is such an interesting blend of business and art. Did you always feel that these two worlds could coexist?
Angela Page (17:28)
My job was global, I was global. When I first started, you weren't available 24 seven by email and phone. As technology took over, I'm now in my 50s, going, ‘I can't take this anymore.’ The global travel, being on an airplane for 20 hours… It’s exhausting.
If I had had less responsibility, maybe I could have coexisted and done them both at the same time, but I wasn't. I was managing hundreds of people globally.
Nobody was asleep. The entire team was awake and needed things. I never good at establishing boundaries because I love people, and I love my staff. I was always available to them 24 seven. You have a problem? Call me at midnight, two in the morning.
The call I got about the dowry murder thing? That was at seven o'clock in the morning.
Things like that emerged. There was always a drama somewhere in the world.
My body said to me, on one of the last trips to China, 'You can't do this anymore.' Your body is taking a toll with all this global travel; it's not going to happen.
You've got to be able to restore your energy.
(Continued below)
Films Written and Produced by Angela Page:
Harij Weds Sajili (2025 film)
|
Sylvia (2019 film)
|
Unplugging Aunt Vera (2015 film - producer only)
|
(Continued)
Jackie Morreale (18:45)
I'm glad that you took the cue from your body because sometimes it's just too much. Managing hundreds of people in China, India, Europe and all over the world sounds very exciting.
Angela Page (18:46)
But then you pay the price. I did not have any delusions of Grandeur of raising beyond a certain level. I was quite happy to be at the level that I got to, but I did not aspire to be a CFO. I was in finance, of course, to be anything bigger than that, watching the others, that burden was going to be enormous.
I don't think I was CFO material. I was too married to dialogue and people and stories than I was to becoming a higher level executive.
Jackie Morreale (19:23)
I think you're also very down to earth and it sounds like very left brain, right brain balanced that you could just do it all. The people management thing, the numbers thing, the forecasting thing, writing, storytelling, because storytelling helps a lot in business.
Angela Page (19:28)
It certainly does.
Jackie Morreale (19:40)
So, you've written stories across so many themes: immigration, family dynamics, identity, relationships, aging, and reinvention. What themes keep calling you back as storyteller?
Angela Page (19:51)
It's interesting, it’s a social cause.
Social justice themes.
Immigration, I did a couple. My play Legal Gringa, which was also a script, which is becoming a novel.
I did a film about immigration, called Las Marias, which was really good.
Then it came Harij Weds Sajili, Social Justice.
Then this past year, I've been called on a project called Jane's Dust, which is about the asbestos scandal in makeup, the talc in makeup. This is based on a book by Dr. Ron Gordon from Mount Sinai. I have a co-writer on this who brought me on the project.
We wrote a script and now we're putting the project together on this, a courtroom drama. It's based on all these other cases that have happened, and women who have been affected with mesothelioma from the makeup and the powder together.
Jackie Morreale (20:37)
I was not aware that there were women getting mesothelioma from their makeup.
Angela Page (20:37)
Baby powder has been around for several decades, and there is a link to ovarian cancer with baby powder. What nobody realizes, talc is also in makeup. I have told everybody: Look in your makeup drawer; if you see anything that says ‘talc’ on it, consider throwing it away.
Jackie Morreale (20:53)
Thank you for that heads up. The more you know…
Angela Page (20:57)
Jane's Dust is another passion project of social justice. So it's odd; social justice became a thing.
Jackie Morreale (21:04)
The pen is mighty. I love that you're taking these really important causes and shedding light on them.
It sounds like the transition was from writing for stage, for book, and then to writing scripts? How did that process emerge?
Angela Page (21:19)
I started writing it without any training. I realized early on that I needed to learn it properly. I took a year-long course learning how to write a script, and then went to LA to market it. That was an amazing experience.
In New York, I studied with an Emmy-winning showrunner of TV writing as well. We had a mock writer's room, and I sat there for three months, and we worked on TV sitcoms and drama.
I didn't do it alone. I really studied hard and got to know it.
I would also get my script coverage, as they call it, reviewed and critiqued, to make sure that they were correctly formatted, then start submitting to festivals.
Make sure that you know the craft; you have to learn the craft of writing first.
Jackie Morreale (21:58)
This is after you went to NYU Stern Business School, and London School of Economics, that you were studying under the gurus of writing for film and stage?
Angela Page (22:08)
Yes. It's a collaborative process. I had to find a tribe to work with. For my first couple of films, I found a tribe through schooling and other students. We got together and made my first film in New York.
Then I found a tribe in LA and made two more short films. Through that, I used the same crew. They become your tribe at the moment.
The Indian film collaboration was another tribe. I've been very lucky. Let's hope it continues.
Jackie Morreale (22:28)
Harij Weds Sajili is in Hindi? Did your executive producer help with the translation?
Angela Page (22:33)
That’s Correct. It's Hindi with English subtitles.
Yes, she and the director, Prataya Saha, who has also won several awards, he helped shape this film enormously.
Jackie Morreale (22:44)
In my opinion, this is not your last Hindi film. That's my prediction.
Angela Page (22:49)
There’s a lot of chatter about turning it into a Bollywood-type feature and adding a little music to it; I got some bites on that for dancing workers at the bar. Yeah, it's all there.
Jackie Morreale (22:54)
I could see a whole dance sequence at the end. It just has musical written all over it.
Angela Page (22:56)
Love songs, right?
Jackie Morreale (22:57)
Exactly. So, did the corporate world teach you anything that helped your creative career later on? Perhaps unexpectedly.
Angela Page (23:07)
I think focus and discipline, as well as understanding the business side. I dealt with a lot of contracts in the banking world. It's all lending contracts. In the corporate world, you're doing contracts with vendors and other alliances. The legal aspect was really critical. I knew that language and wasn't afraid to do a deal.
Jackie Morreale (23:35)
Your work often explores flawed, complicated people with a lot of empathy. Where does that compassion come from?
Angela Page (23:42)
I'm a flawed, empathetic person.
Jackie Morreale (23:46)
From one to another!
Angela Page (23:47)
I think dysfunctional families are a great boon to people. People want to lament and be absolutely downtrodden about their dysfunctional family, but it's a fodder for writing. Are you kidding? And the characters.
Jackie Morreale (23:53)
I completely agree. There are so many stories there. As somebody who's written children's books about my own kids, it's just endless stories. There's so much there.
Angela Page (24:03)
That's right. It's endless. In everyday life, in a supermarket, on the street, or in an encounter. You've got to write them down because you'll forget.
Jackie Morreale (24:14)
I have found myself in my notes app on my phone a lot this past year. The wheels turn differently once you start writing.
Angela Page (24:18)
After I'm in the pool, and I'm resolving the end of my next novel, a guy comes in; he's jumping into the pool.
He says, 'I'm so glad you're here. I'm on my third pacemaker.'
I just did the math, going, 'He thinks he's going to collapse and I'm the only one to save him.’
Just that one line.
Again: 'I'm so glad you're here. It's my third pacemaker.'
Jackie Morreale (24:35)
Gotta have the accent, too!
Angela Page (24:40)
This is living in Southeast Florida. That's a great line right there.
Jackie Morreale (24:45)
By the way, I hope you didn't have to save this person.
Angela Page (24:53)
No, somebody else came, I said, ‘I'm leaving. They can be in charge of rescuing the guy out of the water.'
Jackie Morreale (24:59)
Going to pass the responsibility onto them... 'The guy with the third pacemaker over there might need you!' What a great line.
Angela Page (25:06)
That's the subtext.
One line has 100 stories.
What happened to him with the other two pacemakers?
What’s his life, what’s his diet?
Why does the guy have so much stress to have to have three pacemakers?!
You just see a lifetime, right? With one guy in the pool with one line, right?
Jackie Morreale (25:27)
You need to get that guy's name, by the way. He probably has a really interesting name. Only in Florida, right?
Angela Page (25:29)
I know, introduced myself. Yeah!
Jackie Morreale (25:33)
So, speaking of a third or fourth pacemaker, reinvention. I think that's what he's doing. He's reinventing himself with each one, right? Reinvention seems to be a major thread in your work. What advice would you give to someone who's trying to reinvent themselves, perhaps later in life?
Angela Page (25:38)
Right? Oh no. You're not too late in life, Jackie. You need the next act, the third act, and the fourth act.
You've just got to follow what's in your heart.
If it was something you thought of when you were very young, just try to do it. You'll find a path. One thing will lead to the other.
I was aware of film, and I love film, but I thought my thing was going to be novel writing. Maybe some plays, but I never imagined I would end up making short films.
The road will take you somewhere, no matter what.
(Continued below)
Jackie Morreale (18:45)
I'm glad that you took the cue from your body because sometimes it's just too much. Managing hundreds of people in China, India, Europe and all over the world sounds very exciting.
Angela Page (18:46)
But then you pay the price. I did not have any delusions of Grandeur of raising beyond a certain level. I was quite happy to be at the level that I got to, but I did not aspire to be a CFO. I was in finance, of course, to be anything bigger than that, watching the others, that burden was going to be enormous.
I don't think I was CFO material. I was too married to dialogue and people and stories than I was to becoming a higher level executive.
Jackie Morreale (19:23)
I think you're also very down to earth and it sounds like very left brain, right brain balanced that you could just do it all. The people management thing, the numbers thing, the forecasting thing, writing, storytelling, because storytelling helps a lot in business.
Angela Page (19:28)
It certainly does.
Jackie Morreale (19:40)
So, you've written stories across so many themes: immigration, family dynamics, identity, relationships, aging, and reinvention. What themes keep calling you back as storyteller?
Angela Page (19:51)
It's interesting, it’s a social cause.
Social justice themes.
Immigration, I did a couple. My play Legal Gringa, which was also a script, which is becoming a novel.
I did a film about immigration, called Las Marias, which was really good.
Then it came Harij Weds Sajili, Social Justice.
Then this past year, I've been called on a project called Jane's Dust, which is about the asbestos scandal in makeup, the talc in makeup. This is based on a book by Dr. Ron Gordon from Mount Sinai. I have a co-writer on this who brought me on the project.
We wrote a script and now we're putting the project together on this, a courtroom drama. It's based on all these other cases that have happened, and women who have been affected with mesothelioma from the makeup and the powder together.
Jackie Morreale (20:37)
I was not aware that there were women getting mesothelioma from their makeup.
Angela Page (20:37)
Baby powder has been around for several decades, and there is a link to ovarian cancer with baby powder. What nobody realizes, talc is also in makeup. I have told everybody: Look in your makeup drawer; if you see anything that says ‘talc’ on it, consider throwing it away.
Jackie Morreale (20:53)
Thank you for that heads up. The more you know…
Angela Page (20:57)
Jane's Dust is another passion project of social justice. So it's odd; social justice became a thing.
Jackie Morreale (21:04)
The pen is mighty. I love that you're taking these really important causes and shedding light on them.
It sounds like the transition was from writing for stage, for book, and then to writing scripts? How did that process emerge?
Angela Page (21:19)
I started writing it without any training. I realized early on that I needed to learn it properly. I took a year-long course learning how to write a script, and then went to LA to market it. That was an amazing experience.
In New York, I studied with an Emmy-winning showrunner of TV writing as well. We had a mock writer's room, and I sat there for three months, and we worked on TV sitcoms and drama.
I didn't do it alone. I really studied hard and got to know it.
I would also get my script coverage, as they call it, reviewed and critiqued, to make sure that they were correctly formatted, then start submitting to festivals.
Make sure that you know the craft; you have to learn the craft of writing first.
Jackie Morreale (21:58)
This is after you went to NYU Stern Business School, and London School of Economics, that you were studying under the gurus of writing for film and stage?
Angela Page (22:08)
Yes. It's a collaborative process. I had to find a tribe to work with. For my first couple of films, I found a tribe through schooling and other students. We got together and made my first film in New York.
Then I found a tribe in LA and made two more short films. Through that, I used the same crew. They become your tribe at the moment.
The Indian film collaboration was another tribe. I've been very lucky. Let's hope it continues.
Jackie Morreale (22:28)
Harij Weds Sajili is in Hindi? Did your executive producer help with the translation?
Angela Page (22:33)
That’s Correct. It's Hindi with English subtitles.
Yes, she and the director, Prataya Saha, who has also won several awards, he helped shape this film enormously.
Jackie Morreale (22:44)
In my opinion, this is not your last Hindi film. That's my prediction.
Angela Page (22:49)
There’s a lot of chatter about turning it into a Bollywood-type feature and adding a little music to it; I got some bites on that for dancing workers at the bar. Yeah, it's all there.
Jackie Morreale (22:54)
I could see a whole dance sequence at the end. It just has musical written all over it.
Angela Page (22:56)
Love songs, right?
Jackie Morreale (22:57)
Exactly. So, did the corporate world teach you anything that helped your creative career later on? Perhaps unexpectedly.
Angela Page (23:07)
I think focus and discipline, as well as understanding the business side. I dealt with a lot of contracts in the banking world. It's all lending contracts. In the corporate world, you're doing contracts with vendors and other alliances. The legal aspect was really critical. I knew that language and wasn't afraid to do a deal.
Jackie Morreale (23:35)
Your work often explores flawed, complicated people with a lot of empathy. Where does that compassion come from?
Angela Page (23:42)
I'm a flawed, empathetic person.
Jackie Morreale (23:46)
From one to another!
Angela Page (23:47)
I think dysfunctional families are a great boon to people. People want to lament and be absolutely downtrodden about their dysfunctional family, but it's a fodder for writing. Are you kidding? And the characters.
Jackie Morreale (23:53)
I completely agree. There are so many stories there. As somebody who's written children's books about my own kids, it's just endless stories. There's so much there.
Angela Page (24:03)
That's right. It's endless. In everyday life, in a supermarket, on the street, or in an encounter. You've got to write them down because you'll forget.
Jackie Morreale (24:14)
I have found myself in my notes app on my phone a lot this past year. The wheels turn differently once you start writing.
Angela Page (24:18)
After I'm in the pool, and I'm resolving the end of my next novel, a guy comes in; he's jumping into the pool.
He says, 'I'm so glad you're here. I'm on my third pacemaker.'
I just did the math, going, 'He thinks he's going to collapse and I'm the only one to save him.’
Just that one line.
Again: 'I'm so glad you're here. It's my third pacemaker.'
Jackie Morreale (24:35)
Gotta have the accent, too!
Angela Page (24:40)
This is living in Southeast Florida. That's a great line right there.
Jackie Morreale (24:45)
By the way, I hope you didn't have to save this person.
Angela Page (24:53)
No, somebody else came, I said, ‘I'm leaving. They can be in charge of rescuing the guy out of the water.'
Jackie Morreale (24:59)
Going to pass the responsibility onto them... 'The guy with the third pacemaker over there might need you!' What a great line.
Angela Page (25:06)
That's the subtext.
One line has 100 stories.
What happened to him with the other two pacemakers?
What’s his life, what’s his diet?
Why does the guy have so much stress to have to have three pacemakers?!
You just see a lifetime, right? With one guy in the pool with one line, right?
Jackie Morreale (25:27)
You need to get that guy's name, by the way. He probably has a really interesting name. Only in Florida, right?
Angela Page (25:29)
I know, introduced myself. Yeah!
Jackie Morreale (25:33)
So, speaking of a third or fourth pacemaker, reinvention. I think that's what he's doing. He's reinventing himself with each one, right? Reinvention seems to be a major thread in your work. What advice would you give to someone who's trying to reinvent themselves, perhaps later in life?
Angela Page (25:38)
Right? Oh no. You're not too late in life, Jackie. You need the next act, the third act, and the fourth act.
You've just got to follow what's in your heart.
If it was something you thought of when you were very young, just try to do it. You'll find a path. One thing will lead to the other.
I was aware of film, and I love film, but I thought my thing was going to be novel writing. Maybe some plays, but I never imagined I would end up making short films.
The road will take you somewhere, no matter what.
(Continued below)
Immigration Stories by Angela Page:
Las Marias (2018 film)
|
Legal Gringa (play)
|
(Continued)
Jackie Morreale (26:18)
You've accomplished so much already. So many novels, so many film projects, so many awards.
Angela Page (26:24)
Don't I look exhausted?
Jackie Morreale (26:25)
You look amazing! But what, at the end of the day, still excites or scares you?
Angela Page (26:27)
I look at myself in the mirror, lol.
I get scared all the time. That's something I'm going to write and write and nobody's going to publish or shoot my film...
Jackie Morreale (26:37)
Why do we have that as creatives? Why do we have that fear of how our stuff is accepted? Or not?
Angela Page (26:41)
You can't have any fear. It's not good. It shouldn't be part of our vocabulary. That's something to think about.
'Let it go, let it flow.' That's important.
I wrote that on a whiteboard for the team. We were all getting laid off at one point from a big corporate company, and everybody was all freaked out.
I just said, 'Let it go, let it flow.'
Jackie Morreale (26:50)
I love the ‘flow’ word. It's just got a flow.
Angela Page (27:07)
Your mantra. You go up with them. They all got jobs. Everybody landed fine. It was great.
Jackie Morreale (27:14)
You can't worry about it. It's all going to work out.
Angela Page (27:15)
When you're in a crisis, whether it's a death, a layoff, or some financial issue. I believe in the law of attraction: you bring that energy into you.
Fear shouldn't be part of the equation. Which is hard, right?
Jackie Morreale (27:27)
It is very hard. It's very hard to think about abundance when you're feeling lack. If you can increase your own energy, it'll only attract good stuff to you.
Angela Page (27:34)
Yeah, low vibration. I try to do raise mine all the time. Music raises your vibration for sure.
Jackie Morreale (27:41)
Agree. What would you say to someone who's looking to start their own writing journey? Is there a first step that anyone could take to start writing?
Angela Page (27:51)
Can I say a four-letter word here? Give your permission to write s***.
Vomit out on the page. Don't worry about it.
Keep going because somewhere there'll be a kernel in there that you'll be able to use.
People get hindered by the fact that they think they're not going to be good.
Now people can do the voice-activated writing. That's another thing. If people don't like to handwrite, because who handwrites anymore? Just record yourself or record others. Record yourself saying anything. Recalling one story, one anecdote, or something and go from there.
One of my books is called There's a Dead Girl in My Yard.
That was before Enrico G. One of the actresses from Sylvia, the film Sylvia, which was also a book (called Suddenly Single Sylvia), during a film festival where we won an award, she says to us in a Starbucks, 'I'm so upset, there is a dead girl in my yard.'
I turned to her, I didn't even know what she was talking about, and said, ‘That is a something. It's a film, it's a book, it's a TV show.’
I don't know what it is, but it's something.
Jackie Morreale (28:26)
Based on a true story? I hope not.
Angela Page (28:45)
It is. She told me the story that she's living in Topanga Canyon outside of LA, and she sees an urn being buried in her guest house yard. It turned out to be somebody semi-famous in the health arena. She became the mourner manager of people coming to honor this urn under an olive tree.
We used her as the protagonist, a struggling middle-aged neurotic actress, emphasis on the neurotic, right?
Jackie Morreale (29:16)
Best character. Most interesting…
Angela Page (29:29)
I didn't know what that was when we started writing it.
Then I thought, is this a script? Is it a film?
We wrote it as a novel. We finished it during COVID. We recorded it as an audiobook.
Jackie, do you listen to audiobooks? I will send you a link to an audio book of Dead Girl, because I play the dead girl.
Jackie Morreale (29:31)
I do! I would love, with your voice too?
Angela Page (29:33)
With my voice. I play the dead girl, and she plays herself. It's very breezy. It's a great beach thing now to listen to. It's light and airy, and funny. It's a crime comedy.
Jackie Morreale (29:41)
It seems like you almost work backwards. You were on the finance side, but I think marketing is really where you would have shone in business. You have a knack for great headlines and sales.
Angela Page (29:57)
I was a good salesperson. I was good at collecting money because that's also like a sales thing.
Jackie Morreale (30:02)
That's the toughest part. You really have to be tough as nails to do the money collection part.
Angela Page (30:03)
Yeah, I did it. I was really bad at all the new technology. I left when it was getting critical when you really needed to know your stuff. I always had people around me who would do my fancy graphs and reports, as I can't do this.
Jackie Morreale (30:16)
You have the people skills. To hear 'There's a dead girl in my yard!, one line, and make that an entire novel! I can't wait to hear about the guy with the third pacemaker in the pool.
Angela Page (30:17)
Exactly. That's a good one.
Dead Girl is a pilot and a limited series, based on the book. Because of the title alone, people love it.
Jackie Morreale (30:33)
The title could pick up as a series really well…
Shout outs to anyone who's helped you along the way?
Angela Page (30:39)
My son and the triplets have helped me a lot to keep me fresh. This goes back 30 to 40 years with my children. They kept me involved. I was starting to age rapidly – my ways, my dress, and all that. They steered me to feel younger. They were very critical.
Now of course, with their kids, I'm tuned into their world, too. I think that's big.
Of course, my mentors for screenwriting and TV.
My ex-husband, Larry. We weren't a good marriage, but he was a mentor to me in writing, for sure.
My family, my sister, everybody has been very good.
Jackie Morreale (31:13)
It just sounds like you're surrounded by this amazing crew!
Angela Page (31:18)
And the dead ones too!
The husbands, the dead relatives. Everybody is still helping me to produce and create.
Jackie Morreale (31:27)
Sometimes, telling those stories that your great-grandfather or whoever went through back in the day brings you closer to them, whether they're here or not.
Angela Page (31:35)
Even though I never met him, he stuck in my brain. I've been to the village, and I've seen the house, I've seen where all this took place. It was so inspiring what he did as a 70-year-old, defending his home and his village against the occupiers and taking matters into his own hands.
This guy was quite a story.
These people were fierce. He was a fierce guy who took risks.
The risks that these people took in those years, in the middle of famines, wars, and depressions… it was amazing how they got through it.
I'm in awe of how they managed to get where they did.
This is the way for me to honor them and their journey.
Jackie Morreale (32:13)
Such a beautiful way to honor the real life Enrico G.
Angela Page (32:15)
And thank you to Spring Cedars Press, who've been amazing. They're based in Colorado. Shout out to them. Without them, this book wouldn't have happened.
Jackie Morreale (32:15)
Shout out.
Angela Page (32:22)
The Women’s National Book Association. I've made so many contacts and learned so much in the last eight years that I've been involved.
Jackie Morreale (32:29)
We've learned so much from you as members of the WNBA and thank you for all that you have done.
Angela, thank you so much for your time! Thank you for your wise words, your inspiration. For sharing all these film and novel projects. Your writing is incredible. I hope that everybody goes out there and listens to There's a Dead Girl in My Yard, and buys Enrico G, and watches Harij Weds Sajili.
Angela Page (32:53)
Thank you so much.
Jackie Morreale (32:54)
Have a great day!
To learn more about Angela Page, visit: angelapage.net
Jackie Morreale (26:18)
You've accomplished so much already. So many novels, so many film projects, so many awards.
Angela Page (26:24)
Don't I look exhausted?
Jackie Morreale (26:25)
You look amazing! But what, at the end of the day, still excites or scares you?
Angela Page (26:27)
I look at myself in the mirror, lol.
I get scared all the time. That's something I'm going to write and write and nobody's going to publish or shoot my film...
Jackie Morreale (26:37)
Why do we have that as creatives? Why do we have that fear of how our stuff is accepted? Or not?
Angela Page (26:41)
You can't have any fear. It's not good. It shouldn't be part of our vocabulary. That's something to think about.
'Let it go, let it flow.' That's important.
I wrote that on a whiteboard for the team. We were all getting laid off at one point from a big corporate company, and everybody was all freaked out.
I just said, 'Let it go, let it flow.'
Jackie Morreale (26:50)
I love the ‘flow’ word. It's just got a flow.
Angela Page (27:07)
Your mantra. You go up with them. They all got jobs. Everybody landed fine. It was great.
Jackie Morreale (27:14)
You can't worry about it. It's all going to work out.
Angela Page (27:15)
When you're in a crisis, whether it's a death, a layoff, or some financial issue. I believe in the law of attraction: you bring that energy into you.
Fear shouldn't be part of the equation. Which is hard, right?
Jackie Morreale (27:27)
It is very hard. It's very hard to think about abundance when you're feeling lack. If you can increase your own energy, it'll only attract good stuff to you.
Angela Page (27:34)
Yeah, low vibration. I try to do raise mine all the time. Music raises your vibration for sure.
Jackie Morreale (27:41)
Agree. What would you say to someone who's looking to start their own writing journey? Is there a first step that anyone could take to start writing?
Angela Page (27:51)
Can I say a four-letter word here? Give your permission to write s***.
Vomit out on the page. Don't worry about it.
Keep going because somewhere there'll be a kernel in there that you'll be able to use.
People get hindered by the fact that they think they're not going to be good.
Now people can do the voice-activated writing. That's another thing. If people don't like to handwrite, because who handwrites anymore? Just record yourself or record others. Record yourself saying anything. Recalling one story, one anecdote, or something and go from there.
One of my books is called There's a Dead Girl in My Yard.
That was before Enrico G. One of the actresses from Sylvia, the film Sylvia, which was also a book (called Suddenly Single Sylvia), during a film festival where we won an award, she says to us in a Starbucks, 'I'm so upset, there is a dead girl in my yard.'
I turned to her, I didn't even know what she was talking about, and said, ‘That is a something. It's a film, it's a book, it's a TV show.’
I don't know what it is, but it's something.
Jackie Morreale (28:26)
Based on a true story? I hope not.
Angela Page (28:45)
It is. She told me the story that she's living in Topanga Canyon outside of LA, and she sees an urn being buried in her guest house yard. It turned out to be somebody semi-famous in the health arena. She became the mourner manager of people coming to honor this urn under an olive tree.
We used her as the protagonist, a struggling middle-aged neurotic actress, emphasis on the neurotic, right?
Jackie Morreale (29:16)
Best character. Most interesting…
Angela Page (29:29)
I didn't know what that was when we started writing it.
Then I thought, is this a script? Is it a film?
We wrote it as a novel. We finished it during COVID. We recorded it as an audiobook.
Jackie, do you listen to audiobooks? I will send you a link to an audio book of Dead Girl, because I play the dead girl.
Jackie Morreale (29:31)
I do! I would love, with your voice too?
Angela Page (29:33)
With my voice. I play the dead girl, and she plays herself. It's very breezy. It's a great beach thing now to listen to. It's light and airy, and funny. It's a crime comedy.
Jackie Morreale (29:41)
It seems like you almost work backwards. You were on the finance side, but I think marketing is really where you would have shone in business. You have a knack for great headlines and sales.
Angela Page (29:57)
I was a good salesperson. I was good at collecting money because that's also like a sales thing.
Jackie Morreale (30:02)
That's the toughest part. You really have to be tough as nails to do the money collection part.
Angela Page (30:03)
Yeah, I did it. I was really bad at all the new technology. I left when it was getting critical when you really needed to know your stuff. I always had people around me who would do my fancy graphs and reports, as I can't do this.
Jackie Morreale (30:16)
You have the people skills. To hear 'There's a dead girl in my yard!, one line, and make that an entire novel! I can't wait to hear about the guy with the third pacemaker in the pool.
Angela Page (30:17)
Exactly. That's a good one.
Dead Girl is a pilot and a limited series, based on the book. Because of the title alone, people love it.
Jackie Morreale (30:33)
The title could pick up as a series really well…
Shout outs to anyone who's helped you along the way?
Angela Page (30:39)
My son and the triplets have helped me a lot to keep me fresh. This goes back 30 to 40 years with my children. They kept me involved. I was starting to age rapidly – my ways, my dress, and all that. They steered me to feel younger. They were very critical.
Now of course, with their kids, I'm tuned into their world, too. I think that's big.
Of course, my mentors for screenwriting and TV.
My ex-husband, Larry. We weren't a good marriage, but he was a mentor to me in writing, for sure.
My family, my sister, everybody has been very good.
Jackie Morreale (31:13)
It just sounds like you're surrounded by this amazing crew!
Angela Page (31:18)
And the dead ones too!
The husbands, the dead relatives. Everybody is still helping me to produce and create.
Jackie Morreale (31:27)
Sometimes, telling those stories that your great-grandfather or whoever went through back in the day brings you closer to them, whether they're here or not.
Angela Page (31:35)
Even though I never met him, he stuck in my brain. I've been to the village, and I've seen the house, I've seen where all this took place. It was so inspiring what he did as a 70-year-old, defending his home and his village against the occupiers and taking matters into his own hands.
This guy was quite a story.
These people were fierce. He was a fierce guy who took risks.
The risks that these people took in those years, in the middle of famines, wars, and depressions… it was amazing how they got through it.
I'm in awe of how they managed to get where they did.
This is the way for me to honor them and their journey.
Jackie Morreale (32:13)
Such a beautiful way to honor the real life Enrico G.
Angela Page (32:15)
And thank you to Spring Cedars Press, who've been amazing. They're based in Colorado. Shout out to them. Without them, this book wouldn't have happened.
Jackie Morreale (32:15)
Shout out.
Angela Page (32:22)
The Women’s National Book Association. I've made so many contacts and learned so much in the last eight years that I've been involved.
Jackie Morreale (32:29)
We've learned so much from you as members of the WNBA and thank you for all that you have done.
Angela, thank you so much for your time! Thank you for your wise words, your inspiration. For sharing all these film and novel projects. Your writing is incredible. I hope that everybody goes out there and listens to There's a Dead Girl in My Yard, and buys Enrico G, and watches Harij Weds Sajili.
Angela Page (32:53)
Thank you so much.
Jackie Morreale (32:54)
Have a great day!
To learn more about Angela Page, visit: angelapage.net
Continued Reading, Recommended by Angela Page:
Jane's Dust: A Tale of Talc, Deceit, and Death: A Tale, Talc and Death. By Ronald Gordon (Author)
|
Calvi Affair: Death of a Banker. By Larry Gurwin (Author)
|
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