An Interview with Andrew Rubin

Andrew Rubin is a filmmaker, writer, and cofounder of the mental health education company Symptom Media. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied film production and history, he has spent over a decade in the trenches of Hollywood development as a screenwriter. Andrew co-directed the inspirational documentary Ride with Larry, about Parkinson’s, inspired by his father’s battle against the disease. The film’s segment exploring Parkinson’s and medical marijuana received global attention and helped spark a broader conversation about dignity, treatment, and the role of alternative medicine. He is also the co-founder and president of Symptom Media, an innovative mental health education platform used by over five hundred universities, hospitals, and medical schools worldwide to help train students and clinicians and destigmatize mental illness. Andrew lives in California, where he divides his time between San Diego and Los Angeles.

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Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

There are too many ways to answer this question. I think on a fundamental level, the desire to write originates with my dad. He was always creative and funny, and creative writing was something he dreamed of doing. Growing up, we would always talk about stories and creative projects while taking walks on our local beach. He was incredibly supportive of me going to film school and pursuing my passion. And in many ways, there’s a lot of my dad in this book – his humor, his fun, our walks on those beaches.

On a creative-inspiration level, I grew up devouring fantasy, like The Lord of the Rings, Brian Jacques, reading and re-reading Harry Potter (I got the ARC of The Sorcerer’s Stone from my elementary school librarian and it’s still one of my most prized possessions). But I also love historical nonfiction and fiction, and everything in between, so it spans from Tolkien to Vonnegut to Stephen Ambrose. And of course, I grew up watching movies and have a deep love of cinema, from the classics to the blockbusters and the arthouse. Again, that also goes back to my dad, as we bonded over movies.

But what directly inspired me to write Hell or High Winter was Lev Grossman’s The Magicians. His series was masterful, and having come from such a deep love of Harry Potter, it was an awakening, bringing the elements you love from one world and seeing them through a darker, grittier, edgier lens, which probably dovetailed with my own growing up, going off to college, moving to LA, dealing with life. The Magicians also had this remarkably personal tone that I fell in love with and it unlocked a new creative modality inside me – this idea of voice, which sounds basic, and it is basic, but something clicked hearing that particular voice. I thought, ‘This speaks to me!’ and I immediately began writing Hell or High Winter, which was my first foray into prose/novel writing after years of screenwriting.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I’ve had a few parallel professional lives. On the filmmaking side, I co-directed a feature documentary called Ride with Larry about Parkinson’s, which my dad lived with for fifteen years before he passed. We filmed a segment on medical marijuana and the amazing effects it had on our subject. My dad was a big proponent of it before it became ubiquitous. After my father passed, we posted the clip from the documentary online and it went viral – like, over five hundred million views viral – and there were even websites trying to debunk us. We did loads of press, were featured in a BBC special, and on Joe Rogan recently. That was incredibly rewarding, and Parkinson’s groups still show the film around the world.

In a writing capacity, I’ve been deep in the trenches of Hollywood development for over fifteen years, mostly writing feature screenplays, including two book adaptations – one of which was The Island of Doctor Moreau (yes, the famous cursed project and the curse is very real). I’ve done the television pitching circuit (it’s terrifying, sitting across a table from executives giving you their poker faces); I’ve written for big companies and producers, and I’ve had those near triumphs where a major movie star attaches to your project, you execute her notes, then she drops off and the financing vanishes. So it goes.

I’ve also collaborated with some amazing directors in Europe, many of whom I still work with creatively. It’s a frustrating process, but also rewarding, and a big carrot at the end of a stick. You keep chasing after that prize of a greenlit movie and, in that sense, you deal with a lot of exploitation from the industry. Like, a lot, a lot. And I’m not alone. Not by a long shot.

But that life led me to the WGA, which is an amazing community of writers. I’ve also been a volunteer at The Veterans Writing Program for six years now, which is a fantastic program working with military veterans to write their own screenplays and TV pilots.

Outside of writing, I’ve also spent the last fifteen-plus years building Symptom Media (symptommedia.com) with my brother (our original third co-founder, a brilliant professor of psychiatry and acting, retired recently). Symptom Media is a mental health education platform of video case studies, courses, and activities that are used in over five hundred universities, hospitals, and medical schools like Yale, Johns Hopkins, NYU, and Stanford. I work with mental health experts from across fields, together with professional actors in LA, to empathetically and realistically portray mental health issues. We’ve been expanding to help illuminate new issues, such as a collaboration with the Academy of Forensic Nursing to help train clinicians on approaching sexual assault and domestic violence cases, another on showing the importance of ethics and boundaries in therapeutic relationships, and continuing to film more videos showcasing mental health diagnoses while incorporating important components like cultural awareness. It’s been exceptionally rewarding to know that your work is being used to help better lives.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

I’m the worst at coming up with titles, and character names for that matter. And yet, funnily enough, this one came immediately and stuck. Thankfully, all the character names were also pre-determined, so maybe that’s why.

What part of publishing your book made it feel real for the first time?

This book was a literal odyssey, over ten years to get here… not that I was writing for ten years. I signed with Rare Bird just about ten years to the day that I started writing, yet that wasn’t the part when it felt real – thanks to Hollywood, nothing feels real until it’s real. So, the real moment for me was seeing the book on Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and all the book seller sites. Then I was like, ‘Wow, it’s happening!’

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

I’ll let Hermes jump in on this one. I don’t have much of a brain for playlists.

[Hermes shoves his way to the keyboard. **knuckles crack**]

Okay. Like any good soundtrack, this has to be way too on-the-nose. But also, ironic.

Bon Jovi: Livin’ on a Prayer (also my ringtone)

Madonna: Like a Prayer

Journey: Don’t Stop Believing (irony)

Kesha: Praying (fun fact, I was an extra in the music video)

Everything Bruce Springsteen (because my story involves a road trip through Hell)

Steppenwolf: Born to Be Wild (again, we’re on a road trip … in Hell)

Some Cat Stevens / Yusuf Islam (to mellow out the mood)

Vangelis (he’s Greek AND he did the scores for Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire)

Johnny Cash: Ring of Fire (need I say more?)

What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?

I hope readers want to know what happens next! Hermes’ adventure will continue across two more books, the next one set on Earth, and the final book concluding in Heaven. I also hope they had fun and felt like they went on a wild ride unlike anything else they’d read.

On a deeper level, I hope readers get a sense that while faith is inherently intangible, it isn’t unattainable, nor static or inflexible. The who or what you worship, or even the act of worshipping at all, that isn’t really the thing. Faith is personal; it evolves with and within us, and it’s always there waiting. It can be as simple as putting one foot in front of the other, or as profound as a brush with the sublime. But most importantly for Hermes, and perhaps for us all, faith can be the act of believing in yourself.

What was the most rewarding/meaningful part of publishing your book?

The most meaningful part of publishing this book was knowing that I did it, that I didn’t give up, even after putting it on a shelf for seven years because of imposter syndrome, and knowing that something that started with my dad and I is now going to be on actual book shelves … and for a book nerd that visits book stores in every country he travels to, it’s a big deal.

What creative projects are you currently working on?

I’m smack-dab in the middle of writing book two: Hell or High Spring, which is bigger and more expansive as the mystery blows up, and so many more gods and mythologies are a part of the story.

I’m also still working on screenwriting, two projects in particular with super-talented directors from Finland. I hope those make it through the gauntlet. Of course, I’m also always writing screenplays. And creatively, I’m finding new simulations to create for Symptom Media, working with actors to bring these important situations to life for education.

I keep myself busy!

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